Yes, I think tailoring. It's not bad without, but I think you'd have to get into your space queen vibe. It make me think of Queen Amidala from Star Wars, with its belled shape.

I'm with Angie on this one. I have a linen dress too, and when the temperatures (and humidity) sores, I want to wear it everyday. Like everyday. It's not my best dress, it's not the best fit and it's not the most flattering, but it's a workhorse.

Linen is stiff. When (and if) you take this dress for alteration, Princess darts at the back could make it just 'fitted enough' at the waist for you. I do this to almost all cotton & linen tops & tunics....without it, the top just looks like a tent on me.

I really like the print & color. Also, when it's crazy hot, I just want to wear one simple opaque piece and get on with my day. In fact, the dress looks good with flats too (in case you want to wear at home).

I say KEEP. I see you wearing this to a summer barbecue, for lunch or dinner, and even shopping trips - all with different accessories. This dress will be easy to dress up or down

I say Yes for the dress, and Yes for the waist alterations, too.. But not for the kind of 2 seams on the sides, better some smaller take ins on front and back too. Will give an overall slimmer and better silhouette! Great dress, and nothing wrong with your knees:-)).

Lovely dress, and it would work great for our hot and humid summers. I would keep it and alter the waist area a little.

I love the linen Anthro t-dress that you posted even more, but I think that's a personal bias thing (it's more MY style). Have you tried that too? Will you try it?

I'm on the fence about the print one, but I have to say that I definitely have had a dress or two that are perfect for the hottest days that are also not my absolute favorites. Those are the more difficult days to dress for, and it can be hard to find a 10 for those days -- and this is a year when you are having a hard time with dresses to begin with. I'm not suggesting that you "settle" -- because I think this print dress is better than settling. But for a hottest-days dress, maybe a 10 is too far a reach. By the way, the difference between the dress with the slides (meh) and the laceup sandals (really sexy) is pretty amazing, so styling is key.

I'm on the fence also. It's a cute dress and fits pretty well, but is maybe a little ho hum for you. I also wonder if that hi-lo hem will go out of style quickly. You all would probably know the answer to that better than I but I'm just throwing it out there.

I like the dress on you and it does look perfect for a hot, humid day. I'm glad you showed it to us because I just saw it online this morning and was wondering about it. Nice to see it on a real person.

Janet, I think it's lovely on you, and I like it best where you're pinching the waist in a little bit. It doesn't have the rocker vibe that a lot of your outfits do, but it seems perfectly fitting for you nevertheless. It's the festival side of rocker style, with a touch of elegance added. You can wear it with your Freebird sandals if you're feeling like adding a little bit of ruggedness.

Finally returning to this thread, and I'm still undecided on this dress. I see the Lands End thing Una mentions, and while I agree that there is nothing wrong with LE, I am not sure I want to pay $200 for something that is not a bit more easy-chic-casual that I will enjoy wearing A LOT, or for something that is not quite special-occasion worthy. This dress seems to fall a bit in the middle, for me.

Vivian, I did buy the Anthro linen tee dress -- see dressing room pics. Maybe this is really all I need for now, along with the new skirts I got, and the black WH/BM jersey dress (second set of pics attached). I still have a couple of dresses from summers past that I enjoy wearing.

I'm not ruling it out yet, but I'm being more careful. I don't need an expensive closet orphan. Thank you all for the very helpful feedback!

Hi Janet --

Late the the thread but since you're still undecided WTH, right?

I see the same pros/cons as others have mentioned.

Your comment re feeling the print dress is midway between casual and dressy in the wrong sort of way stands out to me. When I think about your casual about-town style I generally think "higher-end o-this-old-thing? + statement shoes and/or jewelry" with the overall result skewing a little tough and/or sexy.

The two dresses you show above illustrate what I'm rambling about perfectly!

TBH I think the linen dress is a bit too sweet for you. However, I know hot/humid summers all too well and don't begrudge you that dress for 99/99 weather!

I've been really torn about what to say with this one. I know you want honest feedback, so I'm gonna confess my initial instinct was a no. All I see is a lot of printed fabric, beautiful Janet disappears in this dress. I see the point of all those who like it, and I certainly get that you've had a hard time with dresses lately and this could be a great thing for super hot days, but I still think you can do better. Now that you've posted the other two, I KNOW you can do better, because you look amazing in both of them. I see you. They are also more flattering for your shape.

Shrinking away now...

The Anthro dress is definitely you. That's a good illustration of a casual, easy hot-weather dress that is just made for you. The White House Black Market dress is equally well suited for you, for a mid-to-dressy occasion. I can see by comparison that the Nic & Zoe is somewhere in between, and Elizabeth's comment about the print struck me as very astute. You've worn other prints that I think bring out your beauty, and this one does seem a little busy, in comparison.

I really love the Nic and Zoe dress but feel like the Anthro dress is more you.
I have the same WHBM dress (which by the way looks fab on you ) haven't worn mine yet, need some nicer weather.

I haven't worn mine yet, either, Gail! On this date last year I attended an event in a sleeveless top, and we have gotten nowhere near sleeveless top weather yet this year!

I think I'll be able to break out this shirt dress soon. My other dress purchase this spring. Funny that normally I have a very hard time finding solid color casual midi length dresses, and this spring I've found three. Maybe that's enough!

Hi Janet
I'm very late to the party, but I wanted to say that the Anthro linen tee dress looks amazing on you! I would give it a 10.... .no an 11!! (I'm pleased we don't have Anthro here because I would be off to try it on..lol)

I feel that your original dress, while perfectly fine, just doesn't somehow seem you...or at least how I see you...very stylish, fashion forward, and a little bit rock and roll.

I'm sorry, Janet - I hate posting when I'm not enthused, but I think it helps to see what different people see especially when you know some of us so well. "Una doesn't love this" can be given as much or as little weight as you want! I think I have an aversion to this particular type of print (white with one color, medium scale) because it seems rather prosaic (and I feel dreadful for saying that). At the same time, as picky as I am, I could probably design my own ideal print sooner than find it! Does it check every other box for you? Sometimes I ignore one aspect of an item if everything else is perfect. But that one aspect sometimes turns out to be the orphan-making one too.

The only thing I can add is that whenever I've had to work hard to talk myself into something, time did not make me love it more. For me at least, those initial doubts were always telling me something and my mistake was in not listening.

On the other hand, the Anthro and WHBM dresses are fantastic on you, zero doubts there!

I don't think you should talk yourself into the dress if you have doubts. But I do want to offer another perspective on the print. I don't see Land's End at all. To me it's definitely an Indonesian ikat look. The blue and white is also fresh and summery.

There are two huge positives to a printed linen dress in humid summers: First, linen wrinkles like crazy and wrinkles show less on a print (this dress has the added bonus of being sleeveless; linen wrinkles seem worst to me around the armpit area of sleeves). Second, not to be too gross, but dark linen can really pick up sweat and a print will hide any dark marks better than a solid.

I have found that linen softens with washing (and can sometimes shrink), so if you do decide to keep it, I'd wash it before tailoring to see what happens.

It doesn't really ring true to what I know of your style. I like the other styles you posted much better.

Okay, so I also waited and waited and finally am popping in to say I just wasn't wow'd by this dress. The others you've posted look SO great on you, it's very hard to compare for me. Plus I'm so pattern shy myself.

Janet, I saw this dress in person and tried it on yesterday just for fun. It does not photograph well at all and I like it so much more in person. I'm sticking to my original thought that it will be fab with alterations.

If it were a solid color, I'd really love the style on you.

What does your DH say?

Hubs hasn't seen it yet since he's been out of town.

In leaning toward returning. I'm feeling very particular these days, and I've bought a good bit lately, so I'm feeling like if I have doubts, it's a good sign I can do without.

Now that I've had some time to let this percolate in the back of my mind, I think I would be more enthusiastic with the style if the print were different. As it is, it's not a print that makes me swoon, it's just "nice" to me. My other printed items are prints I love. I'm actually a bit more drawn to the white-on-white version, but I don't really want an all-white dress. If this were, say, navy on periwinkle or even teal on white, I'd probably love it more.

Janet....of course the choice is yours alone but I agree with your thought process that if you have doubts after some number of days, a good reason to give it a thumbs down. I'm trying to do a better job of recognizing this pattern in my own shopping behavior...sometimes it just needs to "percolate" in the back of your mind, to use your words.

Also important to be able to tell the difference between like and love....sounds like that is clear to you now as far as dress prints.

I love these last two dresses on you! Hmm, that WHBM could be perfect for a wedding I have in June (it'll be casual, there might even be some jeans there!) I'm off to see if it comes in a petite.