J.Crew: Rebecca Long Dress Review

J.Crew's petite Rebecca Long Dress (#91284) has always been a favorite of mine, but there were always 2 roadblocks: the price, and the fact that I had nowhere to wear it. I don't know about you, but I don't have many places to wear ivory-colored floor-length dresses. I really liked this dress as a wedding dress, and figured that whenever the Boyfriend and I got married, I would look for one like it, or pay someone to make one like it. There's always the thought of just buying it now, but at $350, I could not justify the price for something I just didn't need right now.

But that all changed a couple of weekends ago, when I spotted the dress on sale for a measly $79.99, and sort-of in my size to boot! (I say sort-of because J.Crew's petite sizes can be iffy.) I decided to bite the bullet and order the dress. It arrived in the standard J.Crew dress packaging - fabric-y hangar, with 1 piece of tissue. I was surprised that it didn't include a little more tissue, since it is supposed to be such a nice dress, even part of their wedding collection.

J.Crew describes the dress as such:

Midweight silk tricotine. Sleeveless silhouette. Fitted bodice with ruching at center front, full skirt with allover pleats. Removable self-tie. Back zip. Fully lined. Falls to floor; 45" from natural waist. Import. Dry clean. Catalog/jcrew.com only.

This dress is completely gorgeous! I actually own the Rebecca short dress in red, and I love the silk tricotine material. It is so smooth, but I won't lie - it isn't the lightest material (J.Crew describes it as "midweight"), and the long dress has some weight to it if you're just picking it up (not wearing it). The fabric flows very nicely and is just a dream to wear.

The bodice and bow detailing are very nice - very feminine, if that is your thing. The straps are a nice width - not too thick to be prudish or overwhelming, but not too thin to border on lingerie/sleepwear. As for what to wear underneath, the front easily accommodates a regular (strap) bra, but the back is a little low, so may not.

You need to tie the sash into a really nice bow to get the full effect of the sash, otherwise it looks kind of sloppy (like in the IRL picture below, haha). You can also take the sash off, but the dress comes with those strings on the side to hold it in place that are very common to belted/sashed dresses, so I would imagine the dress would look a little goofy without the sash, and those loops hanging off the side.

As for the length, I am, as always, a very bad example. This dress is supposed to be 45" from the natural waist in the petite, and as you can see, it is puddling around my feet. To be fair, I'm not wearing any heels in this picture, but I can assure that this dress is a bit too long, even with heels.

All in all though, I love this dress, and am so glad that I was able to get it!