Summer time means sundresses, in my humble opinion. Put one on, and you’re done! Plus you look really cute with almost no effort. Who doesn’t love that?

Dress, thrifted; shoes, Simple

I have a decent selection of vintage sundresses I’ve thrifted over the years. But here’s a consideration I never bothered with before I turned 40: how do you wear vintage without looking, well, vintage? I feel uncomfortable trying to pull off a head-to-toe retro ensemble (though I highly admire women who do). On an a woman my age, I’ve found that retro can look frumpy. Yikes!

My solution is easy: I try to update my dresses with modern or classic accessories, whether shoes or a purse or even my hair. Of course, I don’t want my accessories to clash too much (again, not something I would have minded in my 20s!), so I avoid overly chunky or sporty. I aim for classic-modern.

I think this wonderful cotton turquoise-and-black dress was homemade. I love the way the pattern makes an inverted V down from the waist–it really flattens the tummy (or gives the illusion, anyway)! Above, I wore it with the self-belt, but below I switched it out for a black belt, which I think modernizes it nicely:

Belt, came with another dress

For this red bandana-print dress, I added a straw fedora and a crazy white safety-pin belt (and both kids!). I really like belts to give a dress a new shape and look.

Dress, thrifted; belt, thrifted; hat, JazzFest; shoes, Simple

Too weird not to own!

Here’s the blue sundress I thrifted in Hawaii (and wore on vacation!). I love to wear these sandals with dresses; I like to think they give my sundresses that classic Audrey in Roman Holiday vibe. At least, in my mind…

Dress, thrifted (in Hawaii!); shoes, Simple

And one more dress with the fedora and sandals. I’m holding a great beach bag from my mother-in-law (I think it came with her Estee Lauder purchase) and have a lovely co-model sporting his thrifted ensemble, too.

Dress, thrifted; hat, JazzFest; shoes, Simple; bag, a gift

I also tend to wear big, chunky earrings with my dresses to toughen them up a bit. In the last photo, you can see my heavy silver hoops; I think in other pix I’m wearing earrings that look like metal studs.

I also usually wear my new crossbody purse, which I like because it’s small enough to be dainty but has a classic-modern summery vibe, too.

Do you love sundresses like I do? What do you do to avoid looking costumey? Or do you go full-on retro with pride?