These L.A. Designers Are Nailing the Prairie Dress, aka Your New Cool-Weather Uniform

Christy Dawn’s Venice-based company creates sustainably made flowy dresses based on vintage styles. Here, one of her frocks made with deadstock fabric gets (slightly) toughened up with lace-up booties.

Get the look: Christy Dawn dress ($198) and boots ($358)

A lightweight cotton dress gets some cool-weather heft when you slip on a pair of boots and a sweater. Oh, and a beret. This dress is from Dôen, a Los Angeles–based company whose avid fans scoop up the latest small-batch styles as they are released. Pro tip: Don’t be discouraged if an item you like is listed as sold out; in our experience, signing up for a restock notice will have the item in your hands soon.

Get the look: Dôen dress ($228) and sweater ($498)

Designer Tracy Feith sews his dresses by hand from patterns he makes himself, and he’s got fans as varied as Olivia Wilde and Kelly Ripa, so each one is like a special work of art. (Mandy Moore even wore one of his dresses to her wedding rehearsal dinner.) Here, one of his perfect-for-a-status-luncheon silk dresses is paired with Mary Janes for a look that’s two parts 1950s chic and one part ’90s kinderwhore edgy.

Get the look: Tracy Feith dress ($975); J.Crew shoes ($278)

Ethereal layers of silk or cotton are brought to earth by pairing the dress with basic tennis shoes. Just make sure you don’t snag your hem when you go bounding through the fields, all fairy-like.

Get the look: Dôen dress (similar to shown, $558); Converse sneakers ($50)

When paired with a full-skirted dress, an oversized chunky cardigan feels like a comfy bathrobe you can cuddle into when you have to leave the protected environment of your car or couch. 

Get the look: Christy Dawn dress ($198) and sweater ($398)