Sainsbury's stunning £26 dress is perfect for all summer events – it comes in 2 elegant prints & flatters every body
SAINSBURY'S is selling the perfect dress for all of your summer events from the races to weddings, and it costs just £26.
The popular supermarket's fashion range, Tu, is constantly wowing shopper s with its stylish yet affordable fashion.
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And its latest range of summer dresses does not disappoint.
With summer now upon us, and the Met Office predicting a scorcher, many of us are likely excitedly making plans for girly brunches and garden parties.
Finding a new outfit for each event can be one of the highlights of going out, however, with the cost of living crisis continuing to bite, forking out for a new frock is not affordable for many.
For those keen to look their best without breaking the bank, Sainsbury's Floral Tea Dress is perfect for every occasion.
The dress comes in two designs, pink floral, and floral printed gingham, both priced at £26.
It comes in a wide range of sizes, from size six to size 24, and is available in store, or on the Sainsbury's website.
Sainsbury's said: "An elegant yet versatile piece for your summer rotation, this tea dress has been designed in a blue gingham patteren with a floral print.
"Cut to a midaxi length, it features flattering puff sleeves and v-neckline."
The short sleeve number is a versatile piece, that would look chic dressed up with heels, and equally great dressed down with boots or trainers.
Whatever the occasion, the loose fitting design is guaranteed to make you feel beautiful, yet comfortable.
Sainsbury's scraps in-store changing rooms leaving shoppers furious
More TU Bargains
Eagle-eyed shoppers have fallen in love with Tu's Yellow Striped Tie Detail Midaxi Tea Dress, which is priced at £28.
Describing it online, the Sainsbury's team say: "Perfect for summer occasions, our yellow tea dress has been designed with puff sleeves, an elasticated waist with shirred detailing, finished with a tie fastening at the neckline for a touch of elegance.
"Cut to a flattering, midaxi length. Wear with suede sandals and golden accessories."
The dress is already sold out online so you'll need to be quick to get your hands on it in store.
Is supermarket fashion the new high street?
DEPUTY Fashion Editor Abby McHale weighs in:
The supermarkets have really upped their game when it comes to their fashion lines. These days, as you head in to do your weekly food shop you can also pick up a selection of purse-friendly, stylish pieces for all the family.
Tesco has just announced a 0.7 per cent increase in the quarter thanks to a 'strong growth in clothing' and M&S has earnt the title of the number one destination for womenswear on the high street.
Asda's clothing line George has made £1.5 million for the supermarket in 2023, 80 per cent of Sainsbury's clothes sold at full price rather than discounted and Nutmeg at Morrisons sales are also up 2 per cent in the past year.
So what is it about supermarket fashion that is becoming so successful?
Apart from the clothing actually being affordable, it's good quality too - with many being part of schemes such as the Better Cotton Initiative.
A lot of the time they keep to classic pieces that they know will last the customer year after year.
Plus because they buy so much stock they can turn around pieces quickly and buy for cheaper because of the volumes.
If you're self-conscious about a mum tum or your upper arms, delighted fashion fans say this is definitely one for you.
One said: "Absolutely beautiful dress... even prettier in person. It's a lovely light fabric to wear in summer and feels very flattering on my plus size body.
"The pockets are an added bonus! Very pleased with this purchase."
A second wrote: "Bought this because I was drawn to the colour for the summer.
"Love the length of the skirt and the fit at the waist - really flattering!"
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Several brands, for example, now do bottoms with 'scrunch' designs at the bum, to accentuate curves, because Kardashian-esque glutes remain idealised. It is a style that unites twentysomething 'TikTok gym girlies' and celebrities such as J-Lo. What you wear to exercise also depends on what exercise you are doing. Reformer pilates – the hyper-expensive and highly engineered full-body workout – makes more sense in cinched styles that won't get stuck in equipment. A jog in the park, less so. Subtle flares are becoming a thing for yoga, but they would be annoying on a treadmill, and a trip hazard on a squash court. There are also other, shall we say, external factors. 'There's a fear of people taking advantage and hypersexualising and dehumanising folks, particularly women, in these spaces,' says Samantha Noelle Sheppard, a Cornell professor who writes about sport. What she often sees is a 'mix of tight and baggy, like really tight shorts' with an oversized shirt, as a way to keep unwanted eyes off bodies not looking to be objectified. Shakaila Forbes-Bell, a fashion psychologist, has been seeing more conversations among gen Z about wearing baggier clothing for the gym tied to 'what is for the male gaze and what is for me'. Again, though, this doesn't have to be generational. Navi Ahluwalia, an editor at fashion and sportswear site Hypebae, is a millennial who typically goes for 'leggings with a baggier top'. While she loves 'the way the tighter gym clothes look', she also hates 'the feeling of people looking at me while I exercise, so I personally don't want to draw any attention to myself – particularly not from creepy men'. I would hazard that most, if not all, women who exercise in public will have had similar thoughts. Burke says: 'A fair few of our clients will stay in activewear all day, for coffee, work and the school run, due to our studio being less on the sweaty side.' That tallies with the continued march of gymwear as everyday wear. At least part of this is about comfort; activewear is forgiving when working from home and, at least in my case, practical, when combined with the hope that a trip to the gym (or a 20-minute Yoga with Adriene) is just moments away. It also, consciously or not, broadcasts status. 'You think it shows fitness and the idea of an athletic body and a healthy mind,' says Sheppard. 'But what it shows is a healthy bank account.' '[It is] meant to be performative in all these different kinds of ways,' she says. 'Not only do you look like you have the time to work out, you have the resources to work out – go do your pilates, go do your Peloton class – in a very expensive set.' Looking like a 'gym person', then, perhaps particularly for a younger gen Z crowd, comes with cultural capital. It is not the first time gym gear has been loaded with meaning. In an article in 2019, New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino posited athleisure as a uniform that represented the principle of 'optimisation': 'the process of making something, as the dictionary puts it, 'as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible''. Athleisure, she said, was designed to optimise your appearance at the same time as your performance. But not on everybody. Lululemon founder Chip Wilson made this explicit. 'The definition of a brand is that you're not everything to everybody … You've got to be clear that you don't want certain customers coming in,' he said in a 2013 interview. As Tolentino wrote: 'Athleisure broadcasts your commitment to controlling your body through working out.' You create – if indeed you can and you want to – a body that fits athleisure rather than the athleisure moulding to fit you. Okafor looks back to her days of trying to make ill-fitting, tight gymwear work. No matter 'how high I pull up the waistband, no matter how much I try to shuffle about with the sports bra, it still doesn't look right to me'. Clothes seemed to have been designed in a way that wasn't 'honouring' her shape. 'It's just like: 'Oh, you're not skinny?' It's the thoughtlessness of how these things are made that reinforces that I wasn't being considered.' A host of brands now make exercise clothes constructed with different bodies in mind. Okafor cites Grrrl as one (tagline: 'We make real clothes for real women who simply don't care'). Forbes-Bell says the brand Curvy Kate has created 'sports bras for larger-chested women at more affordable prices', something that has been a battle for her since she was a teenager. And Gymshark is 'creating a lot of more inclusive clothing: size-inclusive, more modest wear as well. For gym clothing, that was very scarce before.' With all the new and improved tight gym gear out there, if younger women in their 20s are still opting for baggier styles, could it be for other reasons? Okafor sees 'all manners of bodies and ages' at her pole studio and thinks that, in general, younger generations are 'giving themselves more space'. Sheppard sees this as a response to our times. Young people 'are living in a period of global crises that make the focus on themselves seem too indulgent … It's like, just put on clothes. We've got bigger problems.' Ultimately, if there is more room for divergence from a workout uniform, then it might have benefits for all generations. 'How many people would probably want to go to the gym and work out if they could wear clothes that didn't make them feel embarrassed?' asks Okafor. 'It's about questioning the motivations,' says Forbes-Bell. 'And I think that's empowering, whether it's baggy or whether it's tight, that idea of: 'Why am I actually wearing this? What am I trying to achieve?''
