“The Clothes Make the Man,” is an old well worn adage – meaning basically that a man is judged by the quality of his suit, his clothing and his general presentation. Interestingly, The Clothes Make the Man is a short comedic film made in 1915 featuring Oliver Hardy and starring Raymond McKee. You should check it out for a laugh. Guys are easy though – all they need is a shirt and pants, and no offense, but their style doesn’t change from season to season the way that ours do – and honestly, they don’t even really change much from year to year.

Women get a little more leeway – because women are allowed to. That makes life as a well dressed woman a fun and entertaining venture. Us girls can pair a $10 shirt from Marshalls with a $350 Laboutin Sandal (I never pay a lot for shoes but people do…) and a $25 skirt from The Gap, add some jewelry and Voila – we are fabu. Absolutely Fabu.

Every once in a while a piece enters your wardrobe to be revered and possibly to stay in the closet long past its due. That type of people should be worn a lot…don’t be stupid and let it sit in your closet because it’s too special, because it WILL go out of style. It will even will wear out anyway.

Last summer I came upon a dress that falls into this unique category. Then recently I came upon a similar dress and realized – people need to know about this kind of dress. It’s basically a cotton tiered dress that is so comfortable, that no matter how fat, skinny, dumpy or frumpy you feel, you can throw this cotton-tiered number on and crowds literally wane a path for you when you pass by.

The first dress is by TANGO MANGO came to me in Newport, Rhode Island where I was vacationing last summer (we go there every year and stay on a tiny island in the bay which is heaven). I sit at the pool with highly stylish fellow blogger Liz Braca-Vachon (we met there actually about six years ago) and vegetate in the sun with wine, cheese and crackers while the kids swim in the pool. Occasionally we venture over the long bridge to Newport and begrudgingly have to change out of our swimsuits, put on make-up (maybe), minimal jewelry and possibly do our hair.  Last summer we went to our fave row of stores which is right across from the Brick Alley Pub on Thames Street (conveniently).

Somehow I found myself trying on this multi-colored dress that comes just above the knee.  On the rack it looked a but ‘off’ in terms of my own personal style – too way out there, and I could not imagine myself wearing it.  I ended up buying the one that Liz and the store clerk said looked best on me which was a teal green (which I had never worn up until that point). It has a tie-dyed effect.  Skeptically, I tried it on again and then the clerk threw me this incredible sash-y ish white scarf and voila – it was like, I had to have the dress and the scarf.  The dress was $100 – a little over my usual cotton dress budget — but three days later I wore it to Gloucester to the Blue Fin Tuna Blowout with one of my clients. They were filming WICKED TUNA there and I ended up in a shot on camera in the TV series with my FABU- crazy awesome green mermaid dress. In that incredible dress, I appear in minute 44-45 of the WICKED TUNA from Feb 12, 2013 episode if you are ever watching it – I’m the girl with the long blond hair and the mermaid dress standing on the dock in the background after Ralph and Tyler’s on dock brawl.

Last week, I visited my favorite new haunt SASSY in Westwood, Massachusetts on Route 109 – it’s tucked away in a tiny plaza just toward the Dover/Medfield side of town. I have been in there several times and the other day I noticed a very similar dress on the racks by Camelia – again, something I wasn’t planning to try on until I started telling the store owner about my Tango Mango dress. The owner confessed that this striped black and grey long cotton dress looked incredible on everyone who tried it on, and that she was disappointed this year when it only came in a longer style – because she said she had to order it four times last summer in the shorter version. So, of course, I tried it on.

Well, you know what happened after that……the rest is history. I’ll be wearing this constrating ruffling grey and black maxi and the mermaid dress in Newport next week, and everywhere else I go until the summer sun runs into chilly Fall.

And a note to the dress-makers – I highly recommend that these dress styles be brought back again next summer! In the meantime, for all of you ladies who own one of these tiered numbers, wear the heck out of it this summer, and be sure to hang onto it for next summer as well!

Guest post by Julia Tanen

Julia is a writer, blogger, book author

and mom from Boston, Massachusetts