The Maxi Dress and Me

In high school I played three sports a year, which means for three seasons a year there was a piece of paper floating around at games with my name and stats on it. What is one thing that everyone looks at in a program? The height of the athlete (they don’t put weight on a program for girls athletics, that would be cruel). So it wasn’t shocking that at one point in my high school career that I tried to talk the athletic director into putting me down as 5’5 on the programs for sporting events. His response was to laugh at me and walk away shaking his head, still laughing. In actuality, I am a very tall 5’3 . . . . with my shoes on. Aside from sports, the only bad thing about being as short as I am is trying to find clothes. I buy pants that are labeled “short” or “ankle” or “petite” and they all still drag on the ground. And as you can imagine, every once in a while a fashion trend comes along that is just not designed for short girls.

Enter, the maxi dress. All the stars are wearing them, my tall friend Lindsay wears them, and I want to wear them too! They just look so comfortable and perfect for those warm sunny days at the beach. Normally I wouldn’t be so obsessed with a fashion trend, except for the fact that I have a lot of beach and/or boating days planned this summer which requires me to be in a swim suit. And since I don’t have the body of Heidi Klum (which lets face it, if you’re going to look like a Heidi, she’s the one you’d want to look like) it would be nice to have a cute, flowing, comfortable dress to toss on over my swim suit.

So I went hunting for the perfect maxi dress. I’ve tried probably a dozen on and have come to a conclusion. If you are short and curvy, there is no such thing as the perfect maxi dress. Every version I have found to try on has left me feeling and looking fat and frumpy, which is so not the look you’re going for while wearing a swim suit. At this point I am assuming that I will never be able to wear a maxi dress, but that doesn’t make it any less irritating.

I’m not super trendy to start with but this was a trend I was ready to hop on board with. I do not have Heidi Klum thighs, so I have jumped on board with summer clothes that cover them up. Capri’s and Bermuda shorts are thick thighed girl’s dreams come true! No, they don’t hit me in the right part of the leg for the most part, but I don’t care. They are comfortable to wear and most importantly, I feel much more comfortable wearing them than the 2” inseam shorts that fashion has tried to force on us in years past. So what could be more perfect than a trendy, comfortable, flowing dress that looks good and covers all those problem areas?

Alas, the maxi dress is not perfect for me. I have vanquished all hopes of finding the perfect maxi dress. Instead, I found a cute, flowing, comfortable skirt to wear over the swimsuit instead. It wasn’t the dream maxi dress, but it still covers what needs to be covered, is comfortable and best of all, it was only $12. So I got two. Take that maxi dress.