my favorite amazon dresses

DISCLAIMER: I won't go into the 'fast fashion bad thrifting unequivocally good' vs. 'thrifting is taking clothes out of thrift stores that serve lower-income communities and reselling them is worse, keep up with trends and enjoy shopping but not Like That' argument here except to say: we're all living under capitalism, friends, we've all got the spend money brain worms. I'm an imperfect person making childcare wages and I make my own boundaries and choices around where I shop. I expect you to do the same. That said, here are some of my favorite Amazon finds for spring and summer, tried and tested by yours truly.

Dress / $35

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of this one! It's fully lined, the skirt slip is soft and comfortable and so opaque that I was able to wear black bike shorts underneath without any show-through. It did shrink a little in the wash and now it can be a little tight under the arms - size up or be more careful with your laundry than I am! I do like to pull the sleeves down and wear it off the shoulder style, so when I do that I just tuck in the ties at the front.

Dress / $40

I am in LOVE with this dress. I have five more in my cart right now. It's an almost perfect dupe for this free people maxi and the amount of fabric in the skirt is ridiculous. It's perfectly swishy and people always ask me if it's FP when I wear it. The back straps don't have a ton of stretch, so size up if you're busty.

Dress / $26

This dress, while adorable, does have more of a Forever 21 vibe than the others. The fabric is a little cheap feeling and very bright white. I love it for a summer date or outdoor drinks though, and the off the shoulder ruffle and lace up details really make it for me.

Accessories:

This corset belt ($24 for a 3 pack) is my holy grail in the fight against the weird granny style (nightmare) nightgown dresses popping up everywhere.

The implications of modesty fashion coming back into vogue are many, pretty much all bad (financial downturn! women's bodies are Sinful! don't like your body? cover that ish up!) but my main issue with the sack dress look is this:

I have wide shoulders, a bust, and wide hips. When you drape fabric over me, I look like a rectangle. Very very few people don't look better with a little waistline definition and also I don't want to dress up as a drowned Victorian ghost child (every day). Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Look at this dress:

SERIOUS Cult Leader Wifey vibes.

Now look with this belt:

Still pretty Little House on the Prairie, but now a) you can see my waist and b) I don't look like I escaped from the compound.

(I also very much want this dress, but Elsie from A Beautiful Mess shared the link in her stories recently, so it'll be sold out until October.)