3 Of The Best: Dresses To Slay Summer

It's so easy to love a dress in summer - easy to wear, to layer, to dress up or down. To hit a dance floor or to unhook your bra after a long day without even having to take it off. For bonus points!

As part of my newsie set-up I wanted a landing place for all the lovely labels and new bits – whatever those might be! - that I am constantly ferreting out. And then I promptly didn’t write one for months. Hopefully you’ll be introduced to new labels along the way. It’s an excellent excuse to shine a light on local – I have spent an entire media career sharing this love.

1. The Dress To Sleep In: Saint Vieve

Genevieve Buttery from Saint Vieve in Durbs and I have a running joke about the menopause nightie. It is in fact, Mae – a nightie so deliciously breathable and soft and light and Bronte Sister-esque that you can be as hot flashy as you like and still be as cool and unbothered as Heathcliff on the moors. Not emotionally unbothered obvs. As Genevieve says: “Fabric is everything - we use only 100% natural, breathable fabrics to keep you cool during the warmer evenings and combine this gorgeousness with comfortable classic styles making you feel feminine and beautiful in the bedroom and beyond.”

She’s not wrong – you do feel like a cross between Kate Bush, Madonna circa the 80s and one of the Brontes as you waft off to bed in a trailing swathe of fabric, but her nighties are so damn gorgeous and the older I get, the more I love a nightie over jim-jams for summer…

“The Mae nightie epitomises femininity made from 100% cotton and trims,” but as she is quick to point out, it’s equally good for lounging. I bear testament to this fact! Ditto the Eden – a sweeping, low-backed number that she promises is as good thrown over a cossie after a beach day as it is to sleep in. What are you most looking forward to this summer?

“Lazy mornings with slow starts, being barefoot on the beach and sun-kissed warm summer evenings with friends and family!” - Saint Vieve

2. The Dress To Cocktail Party In: Gold Bottom Africa

Nikki Hutchings from Gold Bottom is a self-confessed dress lover, and why wouldn’t you be when you’ve created a dress collection as capsule and perfect as she has… “For summer, and always really, comfort is key. Airy, loose, light and breathable fabric with understated details that you can wear over and over again. Easily styled differently. The perfect summer dress to me is the one that you can take straight from a swim to your favourite drink or meal.”

In my case, dear readers, that is Nikki’s sensational Quest Dress (although I daresay I live in her Kin Kaftan even more than The Quest). “Our Quest Dress has been a true warrior out there. It might at first come across as this glamorous, show-stopping, event dress… but then when you wear it, you realise how supremely comfortable it is. It just drapes over the body, softly and luxuriously. I love seeing clients get so much wear out of their Quest dresses, for any and all grand adventures.

Anything new we can expect from your summer? “I may have designed a challenger to the Kin Kaftan. You’re hearing it here first! Some designs are great in theory, fashionable in the moment, or only work for certain individuals. I try to steer away from this and completely abandon those ideas, regardless when the expectation is “New! New! New!”.

Screams of joy! - Gold Bottom Africa

2. The Dress To Beach And Pool In: It’s A Tie!   

Hotly contested tie between two favourites… The flimsy, riotously colourful floor-length kaftans created as one-offs by Tamryn Walker at Dollhouse remain an all-time favourite. Despite wearing mine to death, they’re still perfect and I STILL get stopped by women asking where I bought them… They’re showstoppers for all the right reasons and supremely comfortable and light and breezy. And I’m going to say that you can dress them up or down, but I’ve never dressed them up in my life! They are for lazy high summer days and bare feet and suntans and pink drinks. - Dollhouse

The other hot contender is the delightful In Sync Intimates… I have bought her stretchy, slithery bamboo fabric dresses for both those punks of mine and I drag anyone who says they’re looking for a perfect Cape Town summer dress here… Its drama with a capital D, but done with such insouciance that it feels totally unbuttoned and undramatic once you’ve thrown it on… It’s a black, slinky AF, backless, strappy, floor-length dress that is simultaneously drop-dead but also makes it look like you’ve made zero effort. At all. Donna will be the first to tell you that her In Sync dresses are for everyone and they are! But I have been gifting this the way of The Youth rather than trying to slide my own boobs into her stretchy tee-shirt bamboo. That said, they’re a perfect young dress. No notes. - In Sync Intimates

Any favourites to add to the chat?