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I first noticed a post about the Target dress challenge in early January. Someone was making fun of some new dresses at Target that looked like they’d fallen right out of a time capsule from 1862. It was good for a laugh, but I was skeptical those dresses were really being sold at Target in 2021. The next thing I knew, people in my online chicken groups were buying the dresses and taking black-and-white photo shoots in them while holding their chickens. It was amazing! The first few times I came across the photos, I thought for a second that the poster must have found an old photo of her grandma when she was younger.
There were trees and old fences and chicken coops in the backgrounds, and the women sat on stools or stood beside stumps with an axe in one hand and a bird in the other. I was fascinated by how the photos seemed to highlight the few, pivotal things that haven’t changed in the past 150+ years. Our great-grandparents survived the hard times, the uncertainty, the division and chaos in this country. They adapted to changing circumstances and worked tirelessly to meet their families’ (and their neighbors’) needs. Life’s gotten a lot more comfortable since then, and society has progressed in so many ways, but the photos were a poignant reminder, for me at least, that that same grit still lies dormant in each of us.
In the course of a week, I’d seen a dozen or more target dress challenges, and I loved each one more than the last. I started to notice little details like the strange way the chickens were looking at their caretakers, puzzled about their sudden change in style, and the way one poster’s goat was chewing on her dress. Women of all ages and sizes got involved in the Target dress challenge, and eventually, a few men dove in to try it too. It’s been so fun to see!
By now, a few naysayers have started to speak out against the Target dress challenge. They argue that the dresses are ugly (which, yes, some of them are), and a waste of money for a photo shoot. But who doesn’t want a comfortable dress (with pockets!) to wear during a pandemic? I know I do! Life is too short and too heavy not to embrace a little whimsy where we can find it. I wanted to support a small business, and I was fortune enough to come across a ready-to-ship dress from Heritage Stitchery on Etsy. Their made-to-order dresses cost a little more than the one at Target, but they come in so many pretty colors and patterns, and the one I have coming was marked down to the exact same price ($35)!
I hope to post an update with my own Target dress challenge photos in week or two. It’s going to be so ridiculous. I can’t wait!
UPDATE: It was freezing outside by the time my dress arrived, but I grabbed Oreo the barred Plymouth Rock and posed for a few photos anyway. The dress was huge. It has no waist (which was clearly mentioned in the Etsy description) so the medium fits like an extra-large. The material was sheer, so I needed a slip. The apron had pockets for eggs, and the bonnet had all my friends laughing at me, but I found it really cute.
Meanwhile, the dresses at Target went on clearance, and I received a couple of them as gifts for my birthday. I like them a lot more than I thought I would. The pockets are deep and great for egg collecting, and the solid maroon one matched my ‘egg-scuse me’ apron perfectly. Oddly enough, these dresses fit true to size in the chest but are a bit loose in the waist. I wish I could take credit and say it’s my pandemic workout routine that caused them to fit me that way, but no. It’s definitely the dress. The sizes run big, to give us a little pick-me-up in these dreary times. Mine is a small.
