tea dress

plural tea dresses · alternative tea-dress · alternative teadress

1. Synonym of tea-gown.

   Miss Hawthorne was here all day to make me a 5 o'clock tea dress.

   2007, Frances Hoffman, Ryan Taylor, Much to Be Done: Private Life in Ontario from Victorian Diaries, page 138

   2 more examples

   'I suppose I'll wear my Victorian tea dress again,' said Grace. 'Maybe I can borrow a pith helmet or something.'

   2010, Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, page 150

   To anger the writer further, the tea dress was seen as extravagant with its only being worn once or twice before a new dress was thought necessary by fashionable ladies.

   2015, Vicky Straker, Afternoon Tea: A History and Guide to the Great Edwardian Tradition

   Synonyms: tea-gown

2. A short, semiformal, dress appropriate for afternoon tea or similar occasions, relaxed enough for dancing, and usually made of light printed fabric.

   The tea dance gave rise to the distinctive 'tea dress' suitable for afternoon wear but allowing movement for dancing, a fashion which thrived through the 1930s and '40s and had a revival in the nostalgic early twenty-first century.

   2017, Twigs Way, Tea Gardens

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   The tea dress conjures up the quintessence of traditional Englishness. Both feminine and formal, it is nonetheless relaxed enough to be worn at all manner of social occasions from a summer wedding or garden party to a drink in the local pub. Because of its attractive versatility, the flowery, floaty tea dress has been immune to generations of catwalk trends.

   2009, Design Museum Enterprise Ltd., Fifty Dresses that Changed the World

   The tea dress can be worn with heels or flats, buttoned up for a prim look or undone for a more sensual, casual vibe. It suits every figure. The Second World War tea dress often had little puffed sleeves with small pads in the shoulders and a sweeheart neckline.

   2014, Kerstin Rodgers, Ms Marmite Lover's Secret Tea Party