Simple white sundresses for the beach, the city and family days

A simple white sundress works best when the cut does the talking and nothing else gets in the way. Ours are plain shapes in linen, cotton muslin, eyelet and satin, with small details like a bare shoulder line, a wrap or a quiet print.

Linen and muslin for the beach

Linen copes well with heat and doesn’t cling. Our short linen dress with bare shoulders goes to the sea with leather sandals and a woven bag, and a linen midi with bare shoulders gives you a calmer look on vacation. If the linen creases in your suitcase, iron it hot while it’s slightly damp.

White muslin is thin cotton, and several of our off-shoulder minis are made from it. Some have a tiny black print or little pink flowers. Need it long? The muslin maxi wrap has short sleeves, so it’s our short sleeve long white dress for a day on the boardwalk.

Under bare shoulders, a strapless bra in a skin tone is the one thing you shouldn’t skip.

White makes a tan look deeper, and that’s half the styling done.

Simple doesn’t mean shapeless, though. Lots of them wrap or tie at the waist, which lets you decide how close they sit, and we cut every one from XS to XL. Measure your bust before ordering an off-shoulder style, because that line has to sit level and not slide down.

A white simple dress for town and family days

For coffee after work or a weekend in the city, we’d reach for the off-shoulder mini in soft, a thin, smooth fabric that barely wrinkles. It survives a car ride or a few hours at a café table and still looks fresh. The eyelet dress ends at the knee and has short sleeves, so it goes to an office with a relaxed dress code too.

Christening, a family lunch, church? Pick a style with long sleeves, like the white satin midi with ruffles at the hem. It covers your arms and knees, and the smooth fabric feels right for a day like that. A thin cream cardigan helps in a cool church.

Nearly every dress here belongs to our summer line, which returns to the site with the heat. One white simple dress stays for winter, a fitted rib knit mini with a high collar and long sleeves. With beige boots and a light coat, it’s the same clean idea in January.

For more ideas, see our white summer dresses, styles with sleeves in white or the relaxed white dresses for every day.