Desert Blossom

Dress casual, look formal: it’s a trick that never fails to charm, especially if you can keep the charm from turning to comedy. The Desert Blossom dress gets full marks for managing the trick. Its long, flowing lines and earthy brown tone carry a hint of the desert that is almost poetic, but the bodice keeps the look on course with a deep V-neckline. The sleeves are long and billowy, giving a feminine look without resorting to the flourishes that can suddenly turn a woman into a little girl, but there are textured details near the shoulders to remind us that design is in play. The button-down front could have come from a man’s work shirt, but the gathered hem at the bottom of the dress announces that this is the outfit for a woman who is going places. The cowboy boots might have been created by the same woman, since they pick up the theme and run with it: they are elegant enough to suggest a ballroom but solid enough to stride across a paddock. Just the thing for the woman who needs to do both.