Reformation is one of my brand crushes: they are a California-based clothing company that manufactures and develops their designs right out of their California factory, where every employee received minimum or living wages, health benefits (if full-time), and even a weekly massage—which, having gone through a brief period of physical labour, is more necessity than luxury. Their website also claims they are working to increase their wages from minimum to living for every employee.
To me they represent a vision of what can be possible: indulging our wants for frilly dresses and beautiful fabrics and clothes while treating people well! In addition to treating people well, Reformation is also known to care about the environment. One of their online reports claims that they limit their footprint as much as possible and “offset” what they can’t (by purchasing carbon offset credits, I assume), thus their manufacturing is carbon neutral.
And to add to all this, many of their clothing items are stunning. They’re not quite as feminine and frilly as the Christy Dawn dresses I absolutely love, but there are lots of items in there that I am constantly crushing on, and I window shop from Reformation all the time. They are one of my most frequented procrastination websites, and they roll out new designs frequently. So frequently, in fact, that from the time I wrote this post to today, I can’t find links to three of my picks—pretty ridiculous since it’s only a two-day difference.
Of course, the dresses tab is my most-frequented. And today I wanted to share the five Reformation dresses I am crushing on at the moment, in no particular order.
The Winslow Dress: This is one of their “easier” dresses; it’s relaxed, long, not too tight. You can eat in it! What won me over though is that despite the “ease,” it’s still super elegant. It could be a great dress to wear to a wedding. There are so many colours, and it can be dressed up or down; it’s simple and versatile. And do you agree? You have to love a great wrap dress. (It won’t be the only one of those on my list!)
Celine Dress: If all of these five dresses were sitting in my closet, I can guarantee that this would be the most worn one. How do I know that? Because I have one that looks just the same but it’s short-sleeved, and it’s my most-worn dress of all time. You can find a way to wear a simple black wrap dress like this to almost any occasion. It’s classic enough that it can be dressed up with heels and jewellery and the right hair, or dressed down for a summer night out to get drinks with friends—or whatever. It’s probably also the most boring one of this bunch, but sometimes the boring garments are the ones that are worn best. Not only that, the cut with this is bound to be flattering, accentuating or creating a waistline thanks to the wrap string and the skirt’s cut, which creates the illusion of larger hips, decreasing the waist-to-hip ratio.
Flash Dress: This dress screams “dancing!” Maybe sometimes it’s hard to decide what to wear out to a club or lounge in wintertime, and it’s like this one was just made for winter dancing. It’s so easy and comfortable; it takes some booties and maybe some pantyhose (it gets REALLY cold up here in Canada), and you’d be good to go, no worries about wardrobe malfunctions in sight, completely free to dance the night away. I own several “body-con” dresses in exactly this style, and they are super flattering… This one just reminds me of how badly I need a dancing night out.
Surrey Dress: This is by far my most scandalous choice. I mean, look at it! This dress has a conservative a-line cut, but there are essentially barely-covered by lace stripes that show off your skin throughout. I find something with a little contradiction like this (conservative cut but sexy/revealing material) to be much more scandalously sexy than a dress that outright shows off a lot of skin. It’s somehow a bit more dignified in my opinion… On the other hand, I have no idea where to or whether I would ever wear this. I love hiding in a crowd and finding my comfort zone in busy environments and this is definitively not a dress to do that in.
Jagger Dress: This should have been called the Nancy Drew dress because it’s such a feminine, goody-2-shoes style. And I LOVE it. I can totally see this becoming a go-to summer dress. Again, I definitely considered the comfort factor in picking my “crushes” out of all of the dresses on the Reformation website.