No, not the black leather barely-held-together-with-safety-pins dress that Liz Hurley wore to upstage Hugh Grant back in the 90s, I’m talking about the current dress sensation. Nearly every time I go out I see a woman wearing the identical long white dress with black polka dots. Unlike Liz’s black leather number, this one couldn’t be more demure. If you wore it with a bonnet you could almost pass muster as one of Margaret Atwood’s handmaids. It’s ankle-length, loose-fitting, long-sleeved and cut right up to the neck. Whenever I go out I play a form of I Spy, seeing how many times I’ll spot it. (Sorry about that – I’m not a fan of puns, but once I’d written it down, somehow I couldn’t delete it.) This dress is so popular that it even has its own Instagram account – hot 4thespot – and it’s almost become a uniform for women of all ages and sizes. But why?
At one time women were expected to feel embarrassed if they met someone else wearing the same outfit, but now thousands of people are happy to walk around knowingly wearing identical dresses. I’ve seen photos containing rows of smiling women all wearing the dress at the same event. Is it the ingrained British love of a uniform? A nostalgia for our schooldays? The pleasure of not having to make any decisions or take any responsibility for your appearance? Is it a feeling of belonging? Anonymity? People might smile in recognition when they see you in the dress, but you won’t be judged on your appearance because its very ubiquity means that the actual person nearly disappears inside it. It’s like hiding in plain sight. And it’s just so modest. No skin is on display and the loose fit means that no aspect of your body is available for public scrutiny. All in all, pretty liberating.
Zara is so delighted with the success of its dress (which is credited with helping to increase its sales figures worldwide) that it’s launched a red version for the winter. I think I might even have convinced myself – maybe I need to order a red dress with black dots and join the sisterhood. But not yet, of course, not while we’re still in #secondhandseptember.