The weather’s warming up, so I’ve been looking forward to stepping out in a dress. I’ve had my eye on Everlane’s Cotton Collarless Belted Shirt Dress for a while and actually bought one back in December when my size was restocked, but I haven’t had a chance to wear it until recently. In general, I love shirt dresses for their versatility. They convey a polished vibe when worn with pumps, but you can also wear them casually with a change in footwear. Wear them to the office or to a park.
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The dress retails for $75 and comes in navy or in stripes (navy and white). I opted for the stripes, which felt clean and modern. Here’s how the shirt dress looks on a 5′ 10″ model.
And here’s how it looks on 5′ 4″ me (with the belt wrapped around twice).
That this dress worked for a petite pleasantly surprised me. Some of Everlane’s clothes definitely seem to be made for taller people (ahem, GoWeave Easy Pant) and their prior shirt dress offerings looked awfully long and rather shapeless.
The fabric of the dress is 100% cotton (an Oxford cloth, Everlane says) and made in Japan. The dress itself is sewn together in a 1,500-person factory in Shenzhen, China and looks beautifully made. The stripes on the dress more or less match up from front to back.
I felt that the fit was pretty good, at least on me. I ordered my usual dress size and it was true to size, though a bit on the roomy side. The cut was good in the bust. It didn’t gap in the chest. I’m not actually a fan of the collarless style, so I folded and ironed the area to create a collar.
Since there’s a bit of room, I probably could have sized down. (Elaine from Temporary-House Wifey felt that there wasn’t much difference between the two sizes that she ordered, fit-wise.) However, I worried that one size down would mean a shorter length (something Elaine confirmed was true.) I’m usually a knee-length dress kind of gal, so I didn’t want the dress to be any shorter.
Unbelted the dress is uninspiring. It’s so much cuter with the belt defining your waist.
What I like about this dress: The elbow-length sleeves, which are an elegant way to hide upper arms if you don’t have Michelle Obama biceps. I also liked the medium thickness of the fabric. The weight is perfect and it’s thick enough that you don’t need to wear any special seamless underwear. The fabric hangs nicely off the body and keeps its structure. Super bonus points for the fact that this dress has pockets. (Rejoice!)
What I think they could improve: I wish this shirt dress were at least two inches longer. This is not a dress that you can bend over in to pick something up without inadvertently flashing your undies. The last hidden button on the dress is about 6″ above the hem, creating a front vent. This means you have to be careful when seated, too. If you’re tall, this dress will probably be too short. I’m surprised, frankly, that they didn’t design the dress longer given that most people are taller than me. I also wish the fabric belt was a little longer. With the current length, I can wrap the belt around me twice, but barely.
If you’re curvy on the bottom, this dress might be too tight across the hips for you. The cut is pretty straight and the fabric doesn’t stretch, but perhaps you could go up a size since the belt defines the waist anyway.
This dress has a bit of a uniform vibe going on — not necessarily a bad thing, but something to keep in mind when styling it so you don’t veer too much into a uniform look (unless that’s what you’re going for.)
Everlane Collarless Cotton Belted Shirt Dress // A New Day Anorak [review] [similar] // AGL Oxfords [similar] // Everlane Pocket Tote [review]
After reading some of the reviews on the Everlane site, I worried that the dress would wrinkle a lot, but I found this wasn’t the case. While it does wrinkle a little bit, it’s within the realm of normal wrinkling for a cotton dress. Overall, I think this dress is classy and comfortable. And while it often isn’t warm enough in San Francisco to wear it on the regular, I’m packing it for visits to warmer locales this summer.
UPDATE 7/5/18 – Just noticed that Everlane added two new colors: an Oxford blue and a red and white stripe.
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What size are you wearing?
This is my regular dress size, a 4.