Oh boy. I saw the new prints this year and almost leapt out of my skin with excitement. They were so vivacious - exactly what I'd been hoping for as a tiny, personal reaction to This Bleeping Year. I held my breath - the Passport Dress and the Passport Racerback Tank are two of my favorite items of clothing I've ever worn. The dress, in particular, is the primary determinant of when I do laundry. Worn it enough that it's starting to get ripe? Welp. Time to run a load! It's light, it's cool, it magically doesn't get dragged out of shape when I put things (my phone, even!) in the pockets. A genuine glory. There were complaints about it being baggy, but I always felt that it was a dress designed for a body in motion, and that it was perfect for that. Would these wonderful designs come back in these amazing prints? I waited. And waited.
And... Hmmm... I was excited to see this dress but very apprehensive about the heavy zipper down the front. On such light fabric and such a loose design, wouldn't it pull things in all the wrong ways? Wouldn't it make unsightly lumps and dimples instead of gentle undulating waves? I am sorry to say that, yes, it does. And it makes what was a deliciously structureless summer design feel heavy.
The zipper and piping aren't the only changes, though. The dress is *huge*. I wear an 8 in the Passport Dress. The 8 in the Aviary Dress is about an inch longer. It's also an inch wider around the chest. The hips, however, are the same size. So the 8 fits me in the hips but has billowy excess around my midriff. It makes me look and feel like I'm wearing a frumpy 1960s house dress. The 6 is much better in every respect except, of course, it's tight around the hips.
Because the hips are now tight, things in the pockets are much more apparent - pressed into the shape of the front of the dress rather than almost invisibly floating behind it. Bummer.
The only other major change is that the straps are a little wider. You can get a little more air if you unzip the zipper a bit, but because of the heavy zipper they then stick out under your chin like the pointy collar on a Disney villain's costume. Maybe they'll lie flatter with time?
I was apprehensive about the light background of the lemon tree print - would it show Everything? But there's something quietly brilliant going on here. Because the background isn't white but the palest mint green (to allow the flowers to stand out as a crisp white), it allows dark underthings to kind of... disappear into shadow. It's not perfect - you can see the outline of the pockets (which are light-colored) and I'm trying it on over the yellow version of the scorset bra and you can absolutely see the contrasting stitching loud and clear, but I suspect that if I were to wear this over a dark bra it wouldn't show much, and I'm not really seeing my dark grey biker shorts or, if I remove them, my black underwear through the fabric. This isn't my biggest worry - others may be more put off by whatever does show through - but it's a pleasant surprise.
So... what to do? I... both hate this dress and think I'm keeping the size 6? Mostly to give my passport dress a few days off as we head towards weeks on end of mid 90s and huuumid. I am so sad that the passport dress is no more. And the passport tank. They were incredible less-is-more items and I would live in just them if I could. And they'd be adorable in these prints. This could have been so much better. The zipper and piping really don't add anything.
