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Keeping the summer dress code cool when sweltering temps set in is as essential as an afternoon ice cream (hey, we don't make the rules). So if you can't get away with wearing your bikini on the regular, smocked dresses are the next best thing. Last summer's obsession with the nap dress was just the beginning; now the market is flooded with smocked styles that are at once easy and elevated — the answer to one-and-done dressing when it's too hot to even think about putting on clothes.
Here, we zeroed in on our favourite styles — the kinds that come with statement-making prints so you need little else in the way of outfit details, as well as neutrals, and stripes that feel quintessentially summer. Shop our edit of the best, then glean some inspiration to style yours with snaps from influencers who've mastered the look.