White floral dresses for picnics, gardens and seaside towns

Pick a floral white dress for its print first and the cut second, since the color of the flowers ends up choosing your shoes, your bag and half the outfit. Ours are summer styles in cotton muslin, linen and silky satin, mostly short, with a few midis and maxis.

Bare shoulders or long cuffs, depending on the heat

On a really hot day, go bare. The bandeau mini with blue flowers has no straps or sleeves at all and holds on at the bust, so a strapless bra goes under it. Our muslin minis with open shoulders are printed with cornflowers, tiny pink blooms or a small black pattern. Muslin’s a thin cotton, and it lets the air through even at noon.

Cooler evening ahead? Long sleeves. The baby doll mini with pink flowers falls loose from the bust, so it won’t cling at the tummy or hips, and its puffed sleeves gather into cuffs. That fabric has a silky sheen. The white wrap mini with long sleeves covers you on a chilly morning and against the midday sun, and the tie at the waist is yours to adjust.

In between, short sleeves. The yellow-flower wrap mini has a ruffled collar framing the V.

A christening, a picnic, a week by the sea

Church or a christening means knees covered. The midi with lilac flowers has a round neck, long cuffed sleeves and a flounce at the hem, and a tie belt pulls in the waist. A small lilac bag and low heels go with it. There’s also a satin midi with long sleeves and a ruffled hem, and its fabric is polyester with 2 % elastane. Pearl studs, beige ballet flats.

Picnic. White sneakers, a woven basket, the yellow wrap. That’s it.

For a week at the beach, pack the long floral white dress in muslin, the wrap with short sleeves, along with flat sandals and a big sun hat. The off-shoulder midi is crinkled linen. Those little creases are there on purpose, and it still looks fine when you pull it out of a suitcase. Espadrilles or woven sandals.

Every floral white dress here is a summer style, so in winter you’ll see these with a seasonal note, and they’re back in the catalog each March. Prints on colored grounds are among our other floral styles, and plain ones sit with the white linen and cotton for hot days.