Style Features

Can't remember the brand, but I keep hearing that car commercial that jump-cuts between moments. Good moments, sad moments, glad moments… Dresses are like that, or they should be–not stuck in one particular mood but as flexible as separates. The best dresses are, but you have to pick judiciously in a season when, for once, there are scads of them: tunics, retro '50s cuts, shirtwaist styles stolen from Wilma the waitress. Not to mention it's the third season running for the Diane von Furstenberg–inspired classic wrap, a style that converted many first-timers last summer when they discovered that a dress could feel as casual as jeans and find itself at home in way more situations.

Strangely, for a store whose racks usually burst with dresses from Montreal-born designer April Cornell, La Cache (2956 Granville Street) has fewer this year. But, to rephrase Spencer Tracy's opinion of Katharine Hepburn, there may not be much but what there is is choice, beginning with a longish linen dress ($129) that's the essence of lazy afternoons and strawberries and cream. Scoop-necked, sleeveless, and cut on the bias, it has a swingy-skirted vintage feel enhanced by self-colour embroidery (which shows up more if you choose the style in white or mint green, less if you go for black) that's accentuated, very lightly, with beads. Me, I'd pick the black. Also bias-cut, this time in airy chiffon-look rayon, another style is created from two complementary fabrics seamed together so you can flip the dress inside-out for a totally different look. One side is dress-up Shaughnessy garden party; the other, strolling around the market on Salt Spring Island. Coral-coloured flowers on a sea-foam background reverse to smaller flowers in the same hues. Deep lavender–coloured flowers on paler lavender have lavender paisley on white as their flip side.

Bias cuts don't suit all women, or any woman if it's a pudgy time in her calendar, so Cornell also stitches the same prints in a straight-cut reversible style ($129). A tie-back shapes the dress to your body, and the short sleeves and V-neck have a delicate picot trim. Talk about easy. The longer length means these styles need minimal accessorizing beyond sandals or flip-flops, simple jewellery, and maybe a hat.

Once you start looking at higher hems, a dress morphs into more of a separate in terms of versatility. At Plum Clothing (various locations), salesperson Jenna Roze at the 12th and Granville store was quick to point out the many lives of one puff-sleeved mid-thigh style with a deep-cut neckline front and back. On its own for evening, she said, "tank or tube underneath for day, or over leggings". Not bad for $59, and strong shades of red, purple, or emerald (plus black) to play around with. Just because a dress is bare up top doesn't mean you have to show more skin than you want to. A short-sleeved wrap dress ($95) in scarlet, chocolate, or black can be layered over a tank to raise its neckline to office level, says Roze, while a wide-strapped dress ($69)–colour choices black or royal purple–has a gorgeous draped bodice that "makes everyone look like a goddess". A movie goddess, in the case of one look from Plum's in-house designer, Claudia Agusti, who has you channelling Brigitte Bardot in 1950s Saint-Tropez. Part of the new Simone line, it's in a breezy, soft turquoise or caffe latte, trimmed with black lace, embroidery, and velvet straps to give it grown-up punch ($135).

In less sophisticated design hands, a dress this girlie could plummet you right back to Grade 8. Be careful. Before you buy anything that says baby doll, ask yourself if being thought of as either a baby or a doll rocks your world. If not, either steer clear of ditzy pastels or accessorize them with a strong dose of irony. Fishnet tights or skull earrings, maybe? Plan B is Club Monaco's subversive variation on the classic school gymslip ($149), which has the traditional high waist but with long fabric strips standing in for pleats. Black, beige, and white are the official school colours.

Pale-hued dresses go with high temperatures and long evenings, but snapped into focus with black trim, the quietest neutral takes you through the seasons. Standouts around town include the Zen B label from Zenobia Bawa (available in the Canadian by Design area at the Bay downtown). Using beige cotton that looks like raw silk, she cuts a bubble-skirted dress, then edges the hem and creates a bow-tied bandeau effect around the bazooms in inky black ($229). The straps are black too, as they are on a full-skirted dress (also $229) in the same fabric, with a bra-seamed black-trimmed top, black sash, and a row of loonie-sized black buttons marching down the front. Beige ballet flats and straw purse in June, black cardi and tall boots in September­–works either way.