Last summer, I wore a dress most days. I’m Head of Outreach on the No Pants Committee, and dresses are my best friend. They’re one-and-done and always look put-together. Extra points if they’re flowy and long.
So, it was natural that I was pretty drawn to the famed Nap Dress. It’s similar to last year’s idea of the “house dress”: it’s a dress you can wear all day and (literally) all night. Made popular by Hill House Home, these dresses are flowy, breezy, smocked, and always cute. Now that we’re entering spring and yet another season spent mostly at home, it felt like the perfect time to get in on the trend.
The Search for A Dupe
I scoured the Internet for nap dresses, leaving no stone unturned, and it was a little harder than I thought. I put a cap on spending less than $60, and to my surprise, I couldn’t really find much. After two days of searching, I put in a last-ditch effort to check Amazon, and as to be expected, I found one.
About the Amazon Dress
This dress came Prime, so I got it ASAP. I went back and forth for about 30 minutes deciding which color to get (I wanted the pink, which wasn’t Prime, and then the beige and blue both called to me). I ordered the blue because I thought it would look very Bridgerton-inspired, and in person, it is! It’s a muted light periwinkle blue, which as you can tell is very different from the photo (it didn’t look nearly this bright after I bought it, but that’s Amazon for you). So if you’re expecting a bright blue, steer clear. However, I like the muted color as well, and the pink and green flowers brighten it up a bit.
This dress is a super comfortable linen that I’m sure I’ll live in this summer. I love that I can wear the sleeves on my shoulders or off the shoulder (my preferred way—I think this is more comfortable actually). Also, because of the smocking, I can get away with not wearing a bra with this (however, I am pretty brave in that category compared to my other medium-to-large-breasted counterparts), making it even more comfortable and versatile. I worked-from-home in this all day and felt cute without sacrificing comfort one bit.
Now, this dress has one very odd flaw that I must point out: it has a random seam right down the middle. I noticed this sentiment in a lot of the reviews, and yep, mine has it too. I am deeply confused by this design choice, but to be totally honest, I don’t notice it while I’m wearing it and I don’t think anyone else would too.
^Me on the way to absolutely dazzle Anthony Bridgerton with my “personality”
Basically, this is an inexpensive dress, and it looks like an inexpensive dress, but that doesn’t make it any less cute. I give it a solid 7/10.
The Real Hill House Home Nap Dress
I am so annoyed that I tried this on because now I must buy it. Now that I’ve felt the magic that is this dress, I cannot simply spend a spring and summer without it. I wanted to get the full experience of the nap dress trend, which meant I had to test out the original. But to go a little further, I wore this for a full day through work, eating, walking to grab coffee, and yes, napping.
First of all, this is made of the same material as Hill House’s sheets. Sheets. Read it one more time. Sheeeeets. It’s like being enveloped in sheets all day long. I laid on the couch in this, and it made even my couch feel more comfortable. Wearing this during the workday meant I was almost as comfortable sitting at my desk all day as I am in bed. I’m telling myself that it actually makes me more productive because my urge to jump into bed and work like this is significantly lower. On the comfortability scale, this is like a 30 out of 10, and I’m not even exaggerating. I didn’t even want to take this off at the end of the day, but I was having pasta for dinner and couldn’t bear the thought of getting red tomato sauce anywhere near this dress.
However, one con: this isn’t lined, so to really test it I wore it with a pair of bright lavender undies to see if they’d show through… and they did a little bit. When I was walking around, you couldn’t tell at all, but if I pulled the dress taut against my back then my underwear lines were very prevalent. I was able to band-aid this problem by wearing underwear that matched my skin tone, so it wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, but I could see how this would be bothersome or not as easily correct-able for others, especially with a darker skin tone. This does intrigue me to test the other dresses as well since they have colored dresses that may be more opaque.
Is this dress worth the high price tag? It depends. For me, I know I’ll wear this at least 100 times this summer because of the comfort and versatility. If you never wear dresses ever, then yeah, it’s probably not going to be worth it for you. However, I will say, I could see this turning people into dress people because of how comfortable and versatile it is. Plus, we haven’t even discussed how cute and flattering it is yet. I felt so pretty and cute wearing this dress around, and when I wore it to get coffee, no less than three people stopped me to compliment my dress (which is everything in pandemic times when I crave any and all human interaction).
If you’re like me and are now a firm believer in the Nap Dress, here’s a sizing tip: on the site, they say to order a size down. I peeked at the size chart and since my size was considered a size down from what I’d normally order, I figured that’s what they meant and ordered accordingly. However, they meant to order a size down from that because the dress is a little big on me, especially in the bust and the shoulder straps. So, check the size chart and order a size down from what you’d typically wear. I’ll be exchanging this one for my right size, and then it’s comfy dressing all summer 2021.
