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Last summer, a sacklike white dress mottled with black polka dots selling at Zara for $50 was all the rage on Instagram. But while the discomfiting qualities of 2019 may have called for something shapeless and relaxed, the sheer horror of 2020 demands an incredulous level of mythical escapism. Enter: the strawberry dress that took over TikTok.<\/p>\n
The dress is a cotton candy cloud dotted with sequined strawberry motifs by Lirika Matoshi, 24, a fashion designer in New York. With its pastel pink tulle overlay, plunging neckline, and gently puffed sleeves, it looks like something Marie Antoinette would wear if she were a modern day influencer.<\/p>\n
While the strawberry dress may not have achieved the ubiquity of its Zara counterpart just yet \u2014 it costs 10 times more \u2014 it is huge on the video platform, where users alternately covet, prance around in or throw shade at the flouncy frock. The common refrain is: \u201cThis dress lives rent-free in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside numerous videos of people unboxing the gossamer gown and modeling it to their followers, an entire subgenre has emerged of disappointed customers pointing out the flaws in the imitation strawberry dresses they\u2019ve bought on Amazon or AliExpress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The original has inspired fan art, countless memes of Led Zeppelin<\/a>, Hannibal Lecter<\/a> and Gollum<\/a> Photoshopped into the dress, at least one guitar-accompanied ballad<\/a> and a denunciation from boyfriends in Mel magazine.<\/p>\n \u201cI first saw the dress in early-ish April and noticed it gaining traction over the last few months,\u201d said Avery Mayeur, 20, a content creator and student at Ryerson University in Toronto. \u201cIt has exploded in popularity over the last two weeks.\u201d According to Lyst, the global fashion platform, searches for the strawberry dress spiked by 103 percent since the beginning of August. Celebrities including Tess Holliday and, more recently, Busy Philipps\u2019s 12-year-old daughter, Birdie, have worn it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe second I laid my eyes on it, I immediately fell in love,\u201d said Ms. Mayeur, whose video unpackaging the strawberry dress has amassed five million views on TikTok. \u201cIt reminds me of something you would wear to go to a field with your dog or have a picnic by the lakeshore.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Mayeur coveted the dress so deeply that she drew an image of an anime character she invented, Hina Tskurum (who inhabits the \u201cMy Hero Academia\u201d universe), decked out in Lirika Matoshi duds. Her followers loved the rendering so much that they began donating to her KO-Fi account in droves, and eventually she amassed enough money to buy the dress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt was shocking that my followers cared about me so much and wanted to see me happy that they just gifted this amazing surprise of a dress to me out of the kindness of their own hearts,\u201d Ms. Mayeur said.<\/p>\n Harley Ann Carter, 22, a recent environmental sciences graduate of George Washington University, who lives in Washington, D.C., and uses they\/them pronouns, first saw the strawberry dress when Tess Holliday, a model and actress, wore it on the Grammys red carpet in January.<\/p>\n By May, they had saved up enough money from working at their part-time job at a grocery store on a military base to splurge on the dress as a self-bought birthday present: \u201cIt makes me feel like a princess.\u201d<\/p>\n Serena Pinuelas, 22, a nonbinary ceramist from Portland, Ore., said, \u201cThe dress just really just sparks joy in people during such an unsettling time. It\u2019s kind of like a symbol of hope and empowerment, almost.\u201d Mx. Pinuelas became obsessed with the strawberry dress from the minute they first saw it on the designer\u2019s Instagram.<\/p>\n When it arrived in the mail, \u201cI basically had a little mini heart attack because I was so excited.\u201d The experience of wearing the dress is \u201cprobably the best I\u2019ve felt in a few months,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mx. Pinuelas is planning a fancy picnic with their roommates \u2014 one of whom owns the similarly ethereal Lirika Matoshi star dress \u2014 \u201cwhere we can all feel like we\u2019re in \u2018Pride and Prejudice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Incongruously, a special-occasion gown has taken off during a period in history when events have become verboten. \u201cIt looks like something you\u2019d wear to a ball or something you\u2019d get married in,\u201d Ms. Carter said.<\/p>\n But maybe this is precisely the reason for the dress\u2019s popularity? \u201cIt gives off a vibe of softness and something delicate and unique in a time of trouble,\u201d Ms. Mayeur said. The garment suggests to her \u201cfun times in the future where you can just go out and have fun and not have to worry about getting sick.\u201d<\/p>\n The designer, Lirika Matoshi, said the dress is based on her own recollections of youth. \u201cIt reminds you of better times,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But Ms. Matoshi grew up in Kosovo during the war, and her childhood was hardly a frolic through a sweet-smelling strawberry patch. \u201cI grew up with horror stories of how much damage the war did to our country, how women were raped and innocent people were massacred,\u201d she said. \u201cMy only dream was that one day I will travel and I will represent my country and I will help them as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Matoshi had expected sales of her diaphanous frocks to fall because of the pandemic; instead, she said, sales have increased 1,000 percent since it went on sale in January. \u201cMy whole life is this dress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Not only is the dress the stuff of saccharine dreams, it also looks good on almost every body type. \u201cIt\u2019s such a flattering silhouette. It makes anyone look like a strawberry fairy,\u201d Ms. Mayeur said. \u201cEveryone always looks so happy when they\u2019re wearing it because it\u2019s such a treat to wear.\u201d<\/p>\n For those with the time in quarantine, it\u2019s also readily made at home. \u201cI\u2019m plus size and they don\u2019t carry it in my size \u2014 I\u2019m a 22-24 \u2014 so I could never own it, even if I really wanted to,\u201d said Sarah Hambly, a 26-year-old content creator from Reno, Nev. (Ms. Matoshi stocks up to size 18, with some custom measurements available.)<\/p>\n