Gary Graham 422 Slip Dress
A black slip dress or THE black slip dress
This review comes to us from from . When I saw that Lynn submitted a review to my form I nearly fainted because her Substack website is the single best designed on the app (it’s just plain fun to look at) and she writes about clothes, skincare, etc. in a way that feels totally unique. So everyone please go check Lynn’s newsletter out because it is capital C cool.
Lynn was looking for a black slip dress and who among us hasn’t be there, but she was hoping to avoid a silk slip dress.
“I’ve been having issues with silkier slip dresses hugging my stomach (an area I have a lot negative history with1) so this dress is a winner because it can be worn “open” or with a cinch at the natural waist (right above the belly button) without any fabric cling!
I was a fan of Gary Graham’s designs on "Making the Cut Season 2"-- an Amazon show, so I wasn't surprised to see him on Amazon. But I was shocked when I saw this dress for only $35 (it's now only $24). It can be worn loose/open or tied up. Also love that I can dress it up/down as a vacation option. It even beat out the J.Crew Gwyenth dress which I bought and returned.
“I bought the dress in an XS which is my TTS and even though the fabric says “Dry Clean Only” I’ve handwashed and laid flat to dry. It did get wrinkled and I didn’t bother ironing it, but the shape held up well.”
Quick aside here, I haven’t watched Making the Cut but as a former watcher of Project Runway I feel like the designers on these shows are serious. I did some research and while Gary did NOT win the season he was on, there was a feeling (on reddit) that he should have.
And when I went to his website, I was thoroughly impressed with his designs. This man makes beautiful clothes.
“My only issue is that it gets my dog hair all over it easily (it's 100% cotton and black, so that's a given) and wrinkles after washing but I kinda like that look. Also, it reminds me of Fiona Apple's "When the Pawn..." album came out. I feel like she may have been wearing a dress like this when she had her infamous "meltdown" in 2000 at Roseland Ballroom -- or maybe it was the make-up concert she had the following year -- I was at both!!! Totally worth the money (I would've paid more) and am thinking of buying another color right now.”
A good, black slip dress is the hallmark of the 90s but is one of those incredibly timeless pieces that show no age.
“I’ve influenced other friends to buy the dress and everyone who bought one after I told them about it also loves it. One friend actually knows the designer and couldn't believe how low the price was -- she said "How is this even possible? I have Gary Graham stuff that I paid tons for and more that he gave me that I could never afford!"“
After publishing this, I found two additional listings for (seemingly) the same dress but with different sizes stocked and different price points (boo). Anyways, there are XXS, S and M of the dress available here for $45. The link throughout the newsletter is for the $20 listing with sizes XS, L and XXL.
I searched through Substack chats for slip dress recommendations and rounded them up, but most recommendations were for silk and, I agree with Lynn, that 95% I end up in shapewear feeling uncomfortable in silk dress. So find me eating pizza without worrying about my tummy in this dress!
same girl, same
Yowzers dynamic pricing IN ACTION. thank you I am super excited for this.
Such a pretty dress and a longtime slightly understated brand. Thank you ☺️