Best women’s dresses for travel – wrinkle free

Baby Boomer Chicks should look to Old World styles for modern, easy-to-wear fashion. Only a few decades ago, most women in Europe wore dresses instead of pants. For example, in the ’60s, women and girls were turned away from the Savoy Grill Restaurant, in London, if they were not wearing skirts or dresses.

Well, maybe European women were onto something. Unstructured dresses are much more comfortable than pants. And, with great wrinkle free fabrics, dresses are the most versatile item a girl can buy.

Perfect Travel Dress

When shopping online, the easiest dress to fit is a cute, stretchy frock with no zipper. It just takes a bit of common sense to realize that overly structured items will not adjust to a woman’s shape, and will need to be returned more often than fun dresses made from jersey and similar knits.

Stretch jersey knits seldom wrinkle and if they do, the wrinkles will disappear after hanging for a while. (If that doesn’t work, try lightly steaming the dress by hanging it in a bathroom near a hot shower for a few moments.)

Avoid zippers because any zippered item, packed into a suitcase, may snag delicate fabrics.

Most stretchy dresses will be extremely comfortable and will fit whether a woman has gained or lost weight. Pants, because they must fit in the waist, will pull, hurt, or gap if a girl eats too much or too little. So, why would a normal female want to deal with that while on vacation?

The Perfect Dress

When looking online for the perfect dress for travel, try searching these and similar phrases:

Stretch Knit Dress
Wrap Dress or Wrap Waist Dress (which allows some customization)
Over Head Knit Dress (or Pull-on Knit Dress, Slips on Over Head Knit Dress, etc.)
“No Zip” Knit Dress (or “No Zipper” Knit Dress)
“Unlined Jersey Dress”

If putting these phrases into a Google (Yahoo or Bing) search is no help, try adding more phrases like, long-sleeve, long dress, or casual dress. Eventually, the right things will start to show up.

Search Tip: If the phrase “Pull On” brings up mostly pull-on boots, the easiest way to eliminate that is to put the phrase “-boots” (with no space between minus and boots) into the search engine box.

Knit Dresses Online

Here are some cute travel dresses that can be found right now. Once these are gone, or to find similar togs, use the search tips above:

GarnetHill.com: Modern Easy Knit Dress. Above-the-knee length means this can be used as a tunic over leggings or pants. Removable tie belt can be replaced with a cute belt (or just removed).
GarnetHill.com: Long T-Shirt Dress. As casual and comfy as a T-shirt. Scoop neck is easily accessorized with one piece of jewelry or layers of beads. Can wear over a bathing suit, out to dinner, or with sunhat and sandals for cruise excursions.
BostonProper.com: Pleated Empire Dress by Karen Alexander. A maxi dress is good for day or evening, with a quick change of makeup and accessories. Look for other fab maxi dresses by Rachel Palley. Women who wear plus sizes, or who wear larger missy sizes, will love Rachel Palley White Label.
WrapLondon.com: Fluid Jersey Dress. This lightweight summer dress has a great mid-calf length for lots of options.
Nordstrom.com: Diane Von Furstenberg Julian Wrap Dress. Great DVF wrap dresses can be found at Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Neiman’s, and lots of other sites. The Julian style is perfect for many occasions because it has no collar to make it business-like, yet adding a jacket would make it perfect for business meetings. The silk jersey is comfortable and the pattern hides spills. This versatile dress could be worn over leggings, pants, other dresses, camis, bathing suits (in a pinch), and turtlenecks (in winter). MyShape.com: All photos on this page are from My Shape.

Whether looking for one or two expensive travel dresses or a whole closet full of less-expensive options, the easiest way to get the right frock is to shop online. Searching online is just so much more fun than dragging oneself to the mall, or to the big city, and struggling to find the right style.