Shift Your Aesthetic Loyalties to the Shift Dress

Dress up in the soft, summery vibe of the shift dress. (Photo: The Quint)

There are many types of dresses – dresses that seduce, dresses that flatter, dresses that make you look fat, but my most favourite of all are those that hang like table cloths.

Why, you’d ask?

Because, it’s forty degrees outside, dear. Any attempt at wearing tight clothes will result in self-torture. Also, because their silhouette is breezy, non-fussy, and very gentle.

Dia Mirza in a Payal Khandwala dress and Swara Bhaskar in a white coloured one, teaming it up with a statement necklace. 

Having been inspired by the Japanese aesthetic that focuses more on the material and obsesses little over shape, I realised that a shift dress marks all the boxes in my intellectual dabba (brain) when it comes to summer shopping.

Genelia D’Souza wearing a Bungalow 8 creation (L) and Monica Dogra wearing a Shift by Nimish Shah dress (R). 

Shift and sheath – the two most common type of dresses are philosophically polar opposites. While a sheath dress is engineered to fit as close to the body as possible, a shift dress isn’t so rigid in its silhouette. It shifts – hence the name.

Kurta dress by Bhane (L) and a Nimish Shah shift dress worn with heels (R)

Shift by designer Nimish Shah captures this transitional essence well. His dresses can be worn with Kolhapuri chappals, sneakers, the current favourite, or can be worn to a cocktail in nice kitten heels too. Bhane, the urbane, stylish brand does a good job with them too. And of course, the high street labels are full of them.

If one were to hunt down a single reason as to why this silhouette deserves a chance, I’d say it’s for its controlled feminity. Shop on!