A note: the jacket and dress were gifted. The selection, styling, and opinions are, as always, mine.
One new addition to my spring wardrobe is the Madewell Mini Shift Dress in Ivory Linen: it is 100% linen, comfortable to wear (fully lined), easy to style, and now on sale (full run of sizes still available online in all three colorways).
The style fits true to size, though on 5’2 me it’s more above-the-knee than a true mini. The linen is medium-weight, which provides enough structure to hold the shift silhouette but keeps it breathable enough for warmer weather. But 100% linen means that some amount of creasing is inevitable: I’ve come to appreciate it as part of linen’s character/charm rather than a flaw, but the photos amplify them somewhat; still, this is a piece that needs a good steam before it leaves the house. My favorite detail is the scallop trim, which elevates it from being just an everyday basic, and the pockets.
I’ve been wearing it with the Madewell Field Jacket in Washed Poplin in Fennel Seed (lightweight and perfectly suited for transitional weather) on the weekends and find the pairing to be a natural fit: a utilitarian touch to balance the prim shift shape. But the dress is a true blank canvas, which sounds like faint praise but isn’t: it doesn’t impose a mood on or fight what I put around it.