High Socie-tea: A Brief History of Tea Dresses

I never heard of Tea Dresses growing up, which is surprising given how much I loved dresses.  Guess my family traveled in the wrong circles; not a lot of farmer's wives sit around drinking afternoon tea in pretty frocks.  Manure spattered overalls were farm couture for all the women in my mother's circle in the 1980s.  Regardless, the concept of a Tea Dress has been around since the 19th century and originally referred to a sort of dressing gown that one would wear while lounging in style and sipping tea.  

As time progressed, a tea gown became a dress somewhere between the casual style worn-around-the-house and the fancy-style worn for an evening out that was worn when entertaining guests for afternoon tea.  It can be dressy or casual or dress casual, but what really distinguishes a Tea Dress from any other kind is the length. 

According to ClosetCachete.com  a tea dress must have "a skirt hemline that stops below the knee and typically hits halfway between the knee and the middle of the calf muscle," and be "35-39"/90-100cm in length."   Beyond that, a Tea Dress is a timeless style that should be lightweight, playful and pretty.  Something you could wear nearly anywhere and anytime.

For much of my life I've always felt that for me, the perfect length was right at the knee.  I am a little on the tall side and I don't want anything too short (you know those breezy days can reveal too much) or too long that swallows me up.  And I felt that way for all of my 20s and 30s.  In my 40s, something interesting happened, my knees suddenly started sagging and it seems like it happened almost over night. Most of the time, I don't think too much about it, but every now and then I feel a little insecure, and want some coverage.

Back in the mid 20-teens, ModCloth released a series of dresses called High Socie-tea.  There were at least four different prints that I recall from this series and I bought two at the time, the Par Avion and Macaron prints (first two on the left below) and as much as I loved the the rich colors of the floral (far right) these dresses were so long I had to take them all up about six inches to get to my knee and it was an arduous process for a beginner at sewing like me.  

Although I loved the two I bought, I decided not to buy any more.  I also made sure that the alterations I made could be undone should I ever change my mind and want a longer dress...which I now have.  Yes, that's right, I restored these dresses to their former tea-length glory and even managed to snag the floral print on Poshmark in the process.

Since buying the original two dresses, I have had some changes to my complexion.  My hair is very cool on my very cool skintone and now has gone very gray, so I tend to favor warmer colors like this floral version so I don't look like something dredged from the river.

It also occurred to me in all this that I never took any photos of the Macaron print.  It's difficult to capture because the lines in the print create a weird optical effect, but it's one of my all-time faves, so I will see to that directly.

In the meantime, it's high time for tea in this pretty tea dress that is just the perfect, timeless length for all ages, and fits my lifestyle at this age and season to a T.  (Oh my gosh, I totally just worked TWO puns into the last paragraph.  AMAZING!!)

Outfit Info:  High Socie-tea Dress is old from ModCloth/Bea & Dot/Poshmark.  Qupid Heels are old from ModCloth.  Crop Sweater is new from YeMAKCrop Sweater is new from YeMAK