Garden Party Dresses
For years,
I’ve dreamed of the ultimate, enchanted garden party. I imagine a scene where guests mill about the garden, with gowns adorning the lawn like wildflowers in pastel colors-- butter yellow, blush pink, powder blue. I picture garden party tables set with floral cloths or left bare, except for a slip of fabric. A gauzy runner so nonchalantly placed it seems like an afterthought-- a wedding veil left behind by a runaway bride. Floating florals sprawl across each table, a meadow in miniature.
The air is fragrant with just-plucked mint (for garnishes), crushed lemon (for drinks), and thyme, planted in the topiaries that hedge the garden in. A table is set with cakes on vintage stands: orange and cardamom, lemon and lavender, and pure olive oil, all garnished with edible flowers. Sprigs of lavender fill the air with a dusky fragrance, and acacia blossoms are heavenly with notes of bergamot and orange blossom. The gardens are planted, with reverence, in the Italian or French Renaissance style, with fourfold patterns that feel almost musical in their repetition and harmony. The layout of the garden builds to a crescendo: a water feature, grand as it rises from the center of four paths. Guests either drift down the gravel garden walkways, or beneath a classic, white sailcloth tent, which gives the atmosphere a wonderfully festive feeling— very much as if the Chelsea Flower Show (or, on second thought, The Great British Bake Off) has come to town.
In this dream, I can hear the soundtrack of a party: guests chattering, dresses rustling, glasses clinking, a fountain murmuring. I smell honeysuckle, as sweet and indolent as a summer day, and as the moon comes up, night-blooming jasmine-- a more forbidden fragrance. Guests arrive alone or in pairs, but a well-placed patio table inspires gathering, as groups of two become four or six. A porch swing sparks stories that stretch well into the night, while the garden is witness to more hushed conversations. The flowers, the meal, the cakes, the sheer beauty of it all, engage the senses so fully that phones are quite nearly forgotten (admittedly, after an Instagram photo has been taken).
Sometimes, I picture myself in the center of this dream as hostess, up with the dawn to pick flowers and set tables, alive in the action as I pick up the threads of several stories and gently nudge certain likeminded guests together. Other times, in other dreams, I get to be on the periphery of the scene: a true wallflower, taking in the party from afar, and perhaps stealing off at some point to be alone in the garden (with a clandestine slice of cake, or a gentleman caller, or both). At some point, someone suggests a movie, likely Sabrina, possibly Casablanca, and luckily there’s a projector, so guests can cozy up on quilts laid on the garden floor, beneath the stars and a fragrant rose arbor.
“And then, at last, there are the stars of my dream: the dresses.”
And then, at last, there are the stars of my dream: the dresses. So many sweet, frothy pieces that are simply made for a garden party. A peach, silk chiffon cape-- as delicate as a peony petal-- held together with a silk ribbon and worn over an apricot slip dress. A vintage, mint green organdy gown with eyelet detail. A Regency-inspired, garden green toile, with a hand-painted topiary garden. Perhaps a dress from the collection of Grecian designer Flora Sardalos, whose pieces embody the beauty and simplicity of her Mediterranean life. Or, if we’re really dreaming, a silk chiffon Oscar de la Renta gown that paints a garden scene, with clouds that drift across a sweetheart bodice, and flowers that blossom on a full skirt. A garden party, more than any event, allows one to dream, dress, at be at her most ethereal. When imagining garden party fashions, one envisions Catherine, Princess of Wales attending the The Royal Ascot in palest powder blue—or, for more of an evening effect, a 1920s starlet holding court on Gatsby’s lawn, wearing a dropped-waist dress and opera gloves.
My lifelong dream of the ultimate garden party brings me to this list: an exquisite collection of garden-style dresses, handbags, and jewels, with options for both matinée events and formal evenings.
Lovely flowers find their way on every aspect of this list, from exquisitely handcrafted floral earrings to beaded handbags with three dimensional flowers (the closest thing in fashion, perhaps, to carrying a real flower bouquet). Pretty platform heels provide a perfect solution to walking in the grass or garden, and beaded headbands—with three-dimensional flowers in delicate shades of mint and blush-- create a crowning touch.
Once of the most captivating aspects of garden party fashion is color. Pastels are enchanting for both daytime or evening, as they enhance the delicate qualities of a frothy, floating dress. Yet equally arresting are greens in every shade of the garden: mint, sage, grass, and emerald. For garden party dresses need not feel overly precious; one can easily channel the nonchalance of French countryside or the grown up elegance of a Sag Harbor dinner in the garden. There’s a sedate, mature feeling to these subtler gowns, from Parterre’s free-flowing Charlotte Day Gown to the perfect simplicity of an ecru linen shift by Luxe Provence. How naturally these pieces lend themselves to hostessing— the perfect dresses in which to set tables, arrange flowers, and entertain guests, all with deftness, delicacy, and grace. Wearing such a dress, one can easily imagine entertaining guests in a Hamptons garden, with formal box hedges and a lovely iron table overlooking an herb garden. Said herbs will have made their way into the evening meal— a recipe by (naturally) The Barefoot Contessa.
Garden party fashions, while ethereal in nature, are often at their best when they are masterfully simple. Picture wearing a piece by Grecian designer Flora Sardalos, whose dresses embody the beauty of her life on Patmos Island. These are dresses that could be worn just as easily on a Mediterranean day, to walk winding paths up cliffside villages, or to relax on a veranda overlooking an azure sky and sea. Each piece is a veritable work of art, whether adorned with Greek flowers, or made to display a simple, stunning color—an Aegean blue, a Mediterranean olive green. Sardalos surely looks out, every morning, onto an unbroken view of sky and sea; how else to explain the perfect blues of her dress collection, colors so calming yet alive. How captivating it would be to wear something like this in a garden setting—unexpected but at home in a scene full of flowers.
These dresses will have you feeling your most ladylike and ethereal.
Whether you’re attending a simple garden party or a stately garden-style wedding, these dresses will have you feeling your most ladylike and ethereal. Like a girl in a portrait, or a party guest at the Crawley Family’s new villa in the South of France. These fashions provide an elegant solution to the dilemma of what to wear to a garden party or how to dress for an afternoon tea—as ethereal, elusive, and enchanting-- and also as formal as a garden setting demands. Some pieces are ideal for matinée events, while others meet evening’s formalwear requirements—all while retaining the ease of the garden. At once upscale and otherworldly, these dresses seem as though they were designed only and ever to be worn in the garden.
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