First seen in: A dress for the outdoors
From mountains to cities, this Kind Apparel dress has you covered
As women who work and play in wilds but still live in cities, if not only when we must, we need clothes that can keep up with our adventures and dance between those two worlds. The Andraste dress from Kind Apparel does just that.
Handmade in Missoula, Montana, this dress has been the perfect fit for me whether I’m working in a restaurant, prepping for backpack guiding, living river life, going for hikes, or meeting clients. Its empire waistline adds a classy flash to the dress, and its classic a-line skirt which comes down to the knees is functional without losing its swagger.
It’s a great hot weather dress: cool but still modest. But a nice pair of boots and leggings could warm it up well enough for fall.
This dress fits. I have a size medium for my 5’4 curvy self. It’s the first dress I’ve owned that I don’t spill out of the top, but that still manages to hug me and not just look like a tent. You can bend over in this dress without worrying about flashing anyone from the frontside or the backside.
The fabric is made from recycled plastic bottles. It dries quickly after dips in the river and washes easily in sinks or creeks. It stays unwrinkled if shoved into the bottom of a pack. It resists smell over multiple days of wear. And the six hand designed patterns hide stains well in their vibrant colors. The fabric is tough for a good-looking dress to avoid snags on branches and rocks tearing a huge hole in your attire.
It’s a dress I can pack into a corner of my bag wherever I go, from traveling to other countries mountains to my own, that can keep up with my adventures and my lifestyle. And even better, buying it supports an environmentally conscious female run business. It can’t get much better than that: doing good, being good, and looking good. And the cost of the dress is still under $100.
This dress is made for real bodies and real lives, adventures included.
LJ Dawson 