Every year, usually around the first properly warm day of the year, I find myself searching for exactly the same thing.

The best summer dress.

Not a dress for one specific occasion. Not a dress that's trending for five minutes before disappearing off the face of the earth. Not a dress that looks amazing in a perfectly styled Instagram photo but spends the rest of its life hanging unworn in the wardrobe.

I mean the dress. The one you reach for over and over again because it somehow works for almost everything summer throws at you.

The dress that gets packed first into your holiday suitcase. The one you throw on for a BBQ when the weather suddenly decides to cooperate. The one you wear to a wedding, a garden party, a festival or a pub lunch and feel equally comfortable in every situation.

As someone who has spent over a decade working in fashion, you'd think I'd have this figured out by now.

The reality is that finding the best summer dress is surprisingly difficult.

There are thousands of dresses out there. Every retailer launches a huge summer collection. Every magazine tells us which styles are supposedly essential for the season. Yet year after year I found myself ordering dresses, returning dresses and wondering why something that should have been so simple felt so hard to get right.

The problem wasn't that there weren't enough options.

The problem was that none of them seemed to tick all the boxes.

What Actually Makes A Great Summer Dress?

The older I get, the more I realise that the best clothes aren't necessarily the most fashionable ones.

They're the ones that make life easier.

They're the pieces you don't have to think about. The pieces that make getting dressed feel effortless. The pieces that work so hard in your wardrobe that you wonder how you ever managed without them.

For me, the best summer dress needs to be comfortable enough that I can wear it all day without constantly adjusting it. It needs to feel relaxed and easy to wear, but still special enough that I feel good when I put it on. It needs to be versatile enough to work across multiple occasions because, let's be honest, most of us don't have the budget or the wardrobe space for a different dress for every event in our diary.

It also needs personality.

Life is too short for boring dresses.

I want colour. I want beautiful fabrics. I want interesting details. I want something that makes me smile when I open my wardrobe.

And I want pockets.

Because every good dress should have pockets.

Why Finding The Best Summer Dress Is Harder Than It Should Be

I think one of the biggest problems is that so many dresses seem to sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.

They're either incredibly casual and feel a bit forgettable, or they're so occasion-focused that you can only really wear them once or twice a year.

I found myself constantly searching for something in the middle.

A dress that felt special without being fussy.

A dress that felt feminine without being restrictive.

A dress that felt comfortable without looking like I'd completely given up.

I wanted something I could wear on holiday, to a wedding, to a BBQ, to the races, to a picnic or simply out for lunch with friends.

The kind of dress that makes getting dressed easier rather than harder.

The kind of dress that earns its place in your wardrobe.

And surprisingly, that proved much harder to find than I expected.

The Summer Dresses I Was Looking For

The more I searched, the more I realised I had a very clear picture in my head of what I wanted.

Actually, that's not entirely true.

What I realised was that I wasn't looking for one dress.

I was looking for two.

Some days I wanted a floaty floral maxi dress that felt effortless and romantic. The kind of dress that works beautifully for weddings, holidays, garden parties and those occasions where you want to feel a little bit more dressed up without sacrificing comfort.

Other days I wanted something more playful. A dress I could throw on for a pub lunch, a picnic, a festival, a family day out or a spontaneous summer plan without having to think twice about it.

What both dresses had in common was how I wanted them to make me feel.

Comfortable.

Confident.

Like myself.

I wanted beautiful fabrics, practical details, relaxed silhouettes and enough personality that they didn't look like every other dress on the high street.

Most importantly, I wanted dresses I'd still be reaching for years from now.

When I couldn't find them, I decided to create them.

Meet Maisie And Ruby

It took nearly two years to get here.

There were countless samples, fabric sourcing meetings, factory visits, design tweaks and moments where I wondered if the collection would ever actually launch.

But eventually the dresses I'd been imagining for so long became a reality.

Maisie

Maisie is my dream summer maxi dress.

Made from beautiful floral fabrics and designed with a relaxed silhouette and practical pockets, it's the dress I reach for when I want to feel effortlessly put together. It's perfect for weddings, holidays, garden parties, festivals, the races and all those occasions where you want to feel special without feeling overdressed.

It's comfortable, colourful and easy to wear, which is exactly what I wanted from a summer maxi dress.

Ruby

Ruby is Maisie's slightly more playful little sister.

With its oversized collar, relaxed babydoll shape and easy-to-wear mini length, Ruby was designed for the everyday moments that make summer so enjoyable. Think pub gardens, BBQs, picnics, festivals, sunny weekends and all those spontaneous plans that seem to appear the minute the sun comes out.

It's fun, effortless and incredibly easy to wear.

Like Maisie, it has pockets because I refuse to make a dress without them.

And like Maisie, it's made in Britain in small batches using carefully sourced fabrics.

Why British-Made Matters To Me

Just like my knitwear, it was incredibly important to me that these dresses were made in Britain.

Finding the right manufacturing partner wasn't easy and, if I'm honest, it would have been far simpler to take production overseas. But supporting British manufacturing has always been a core part of Cara & The Sky and I wanted the dresses to reflect those same values.

Producing in small batches allows me to work closely with the factory, focus on quality and create limited runs using beautiful fabrics, including genuine deadstock materials that might otherwise go to waste.

It's a slower approach, but it's one I believe in.

Which Summer Dress Is Right For You?

If you're looking for a dress for weddings, holidays, garden parties, the races or summer celebrations, Maisie is probably your girl.

If you're looking for a dress for pub gardens, picnics, BBQs, festivals and everyday summer adventures, Ruby might be the one.

And if you're anything like me, you'll probably find room for both.

Because whilst I set out to find the best summer dress, what I actually discovered was that summer is better when you have a few dresses you genuinely love wearing.

Shop The Summer Dress Collection

After years of searching for the best summer dress, I eventually stopped looking and designed my own.

The collection consists of just two styles, both made in Britain in small batches and both designed to make getting dressed feel easier, more joyful and a little more colourful.

Maisie Maxi Dress

✓ Floral maxi dress

✓ Relaxed fit

✓ Pockets

✓ British made

✓ Perfect for weddings, holidays and garden parties

Ruby Mini Dress

✓ Relaxed babydoll shape

✓ Oversized collar

✓ Pockets

✓ British made

✓ Perfect for BBQs, pub gardens and sunny weekends

Whether you're searching for a floaty floral maxi dress or an easy-to-wear summer mini dress, I hope these dresses bring you as much joy as they've brought me.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best summer dress?

The best summer dress is one that feels comfortable, versatile and makes you feel good every time you wear it. For some people that's a maxi dress, for others it's a mini dress. The most important thing is finding a style you'll genuinely wear again and again.

What dresses are best for summer holidays?

Lightweight dresses in breathable fabrics tend to work best for holidays. Versatile styles that can be dressed up or down are particularly useful when packing.

Are floral dresses still in style?

Absolutely. Floral dresses remain one of the most timeless summer wardrobe staples because they work for so many different occasions and never really go out of fashion.

Are Cara & The Sky dresses made in Britain?

Yes. Both the Maisie Maxi Dress and Ruby Mini Dress are made in Britain in small batches using carefully sourced fabrics.