Much like “a hot dog is a sandwich” or “not liking Taylor Swift means you hate women” (no and no), “sundress season” is one of those things that sparks perennial Internet debate. The term entered the popular imagination in 2010, when an episode of How I Met Your Mother Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) extolled the virtues of the costume. “Sundress, Ted! I don’t think I can go another eight months without a sundress,” He said, then posed a riddle: “Which part of a woman’s clothing most arouses a man’s desire?” “Does a lightweight dress, pink or white, make the front of my slacks look unusually tight?”
The answer, of course, is the sundress, which has since claimed cult status among horny straight men and still, more than a decade later, manages to drive online debate. “When you realize it’s almost sundress season,” reads the caption A viral TikTok A man laughs in the grass and listens to “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. “If you’re a woman looking at this, do your man a favor and buy them all” said another.
But like, what? is A sundress? In mid-April, 24-year-old Jacqueline Ryan of Baltimore posed His TikTok question Following “I see all these videos of men talking about how much they love sundresses,” she said, “What’s a sundress? I own every dress. Which one is the sun? The video ended up with over 9 million views, but after thousands of comments, no one could Provide a specific answer.
Randy Trembacki, a 30-year-old video producer from Austin at the time, Answer with a long The video, complete with visual aids, shows what she believes men think of when they excitedly talk about sundress season: a mini-dress, with a fitted top and flowy bottom, usually in bright colors or floral prints. “I’m not a psychiatrist, but I think it’s a mix [fact that] It’s beautiful and sexy at the same time, but without being trashy,” she says over the phone when I ask why men talk about them. “It emphasizes the female form, but in a conservative way.”
This, to some, was not telling the whole story. black woman And the men clarified that when they talk about “sundress season,” they’re referring to dresses that aren’t just tight on the body but fit all the way through the skirt. “It’s the dress that men break their necks to see,” A TikToker explained While wearing a stretchy, form-fitting maxi length dress. account of thirst @sundressesjen Examples of women wearing this type of clothing have been posted since 2010
Nicky Martin, a fit expert who has worked in the fashion industry for two decades, says she understands the confusion between people of different backgrounds or generations. “There’s a difference between your grandma saying ‘sundress’ and a kid from Harlem or Brooklyn saying ‘sundress season,'” she explains. “It took on a new meaning in African American culture for a certain generation.”
“I call it the schemes takeover,” she adds, referring to Kim Kardashian’s brand of skin-tight clothing and sets. “You have the younger generation where now everything is skim, bodycon and tight, and so people don’t necessarily adhere to the correct terminology. They think everything is a sundress now.”
His TikTok video Explains that the word “sundress” actually has a specific meaning and a clear history. A sundress is sleeveless, lightweight and casual, usually with a more fitted bodice and a skirt that flows outward. There’s a specific reason for this: The sundress as we know it today was born in postwar America, when designers began targeting an active consumer base with more leisure time than ever before. Resultant category – Sportswear — would provide the foundation of American fashion for the next century and remains what most people wear today. Designers such as Claire McCardell and Caroline Schnurer were specifically responsible for the silhouette and feel of the sundress, designed to be “relaxed, require minimal foundation clothing and can be worn for a variety of occasions”. According to The Met.
“There’s a difference between your grandma saying ‘sundress’ and a kid from Harlem or Brooklyn saying ‘sundress season'”
In the 60s, Florida socialite Lily Pulitzer Re-imagine the sundress To be looser and more casual, which meant wearing without the girdles, slips or long-lined bras that were popular in the decade (Pulitzer herself made sure they were double-lined so she could go without underwear). Unlike the stiff cotton poplin Pulitzer dresses, modern dresses are stretchier and more fitted, made of polyester, viscose and other fabrics that are cheap to produce but terrible for the environment. That’s the thing about fashion: it changes and yesterday’s sundress won’t necessarily be tomorrow’s.
The reason we are talking about sundresses is not because of the evolution of women’s fashion but because of the male perspective. Sundress discourse, especially when men are driving it, is reminiscent of a bygone era, where women’s magazines regularly featured features about “what people think about your clothes” and advice on how to dress “for your man.” That will not happen again; Social media ushered in an era of widespread understanding of feminism and body positivity, which the media and entertainment industries reflected and sold to us. Since then, the viral “horny” clothing items have typically been worn by men that can be admired by women and gay men, from gray pants to thigh-high shorts. ordinary peopleIts chain necklace.
We’re currently in a strange age of online gender dynamics, though As some research shows Young women tend to lean more progressive while young men tend to the right. This has created a new appetite for gender essentialist rhetoric from both men and women (see one of the most viral “dating advice” topics, the “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” perspective, for a nihilistic example of this type). The result is a gender war, fueled in part by the backlash against Me Too, with influencers exerting influence through their controversial take on sexuality and gender norms.
“I think men are becoming more vocal about their opinions online,” Ryan says when I ask why the “sundress season” rhetoric seems stronger this year. For example, take the man Who went viral for the complaint About “those fucking wrestling singlets” he saw women wearing (by which he meant athletes and sets). “It’s sundress season, honey, come on! Our people are waiting, bring them out! she said.
That guy was rightly roasted in the comments section, but the popularity of his video shows that when we talk about sundresses, what we’re really talking about is women getting to decide what they put on their bodies and for what purpose. How I Met Your MotherThe resident sleaze of discussing sexy sundresses played as a standard sitcom joke in 2010, but in 2024, women are probably asking, “Why on earth should I care what a man thinks about my clothes?” It’s a common refrain for men that they prefer sundresses because they provide “easy access” to sex. It’s just as easy to imagine why a woman might be no Want to wear one, so as to avoid sex. These days, a man on the internet complaining that women don’t dress like that reads as reactionary, trad or antifeminist, not that he admires women.
It wasn’t really about sundresses, then. Martin speculates that men are involved in the sundress debate, if you can call it that, but don’t really care about the precise definition anyway. “People are saying, ‘Look, ladies, we don’t give a damn about a sundress. We just want to see you walk.'” “At the end of the day, I think everyone has whatever they think is a sundress this summer, and we Everyone will be happy,” echoed Trembacki. This year, though, it’s a more loaded decision than ever.
