We Need To Talk About That Strawberry Dress

We need to talk about that strawberry dress. Yes, the Lirika Matoshi strawberry dress that has blown up all over social media in the last couple of months because of its dreamy quality and beautiful construction. This one dress has catapulted 24-year-old fashion designer Lirikia Matoshi to stardom, with her sales up 1000 per cent. But it has also opened up a conversation, sparked by Tess Holliday.

Tess Holliday, a plus-size model from America, wore the strawberry dress to the Grammy’s in January. She looked radiant and dazzled, yet she found herself on some of the worst dressed lists from the awards show. Recently, as the dress has found its popularity, Holliday has spoken up about her experience wearing the dress. On twitter she said, “I like how this dress had me on worst dressed lists when I wore it in January to the Grammys, but now bc a bunch of skinny pls wore it on TikTok everyone cares….To sum it up: our society hates people, especially when we are winning.” 

This dress is the perfect conversation opener for talking about how plus-size women are treated in the media. They are often told what they can and cannot wear in a way other women are not, and whenever their fashion sense is talked about, there are always comments about their weight. How come a size 8 women is told she looks incredible and ethereal in the strawberry dress, but plus-size Tess Holliday is told the opposite when both are equally as beautiful? 

So, why and how exactly did the strawberry dress become the strawberry dress? As many things do these days, it starts on TikTok, where people would frolic around in their new $490 strawberry dress, showcasing its sweet pattern and airy, ethereal feel. As more people saw these videos, sales of the dress increased and so began the chain reaction of people falling in love with it. This is a standard procedure of fashion trends, but this isn’t really your average fashion trend. This dress is expensive and it’s not your normal everyday wear dress, this is an occasion piece (although, if you’re me and like to be a little bit over the top, it’s an everyday dress!) Fitting in with the rise in popularity of the cottagecore aesthetic, and emitting a dreamlike feel, this dress may seem out of place in 2020, a year ravaged by complete chaos. But, perhaps it doesn’t. One could posit that, maybe, if the world wasn’t so turbulent right now this dress just wouldn’t have risen to this level of fame. When the world around us is in trouble and we are struggling to cope, we all search for escape, for a distraction and I think this is exactly what this dress is. 

The Strawberry Dress, Lirika Matoshi

People are buying this dress, possibly because it is a signal of hope to some degree. They might buy it because they think it’s pretty and they hope there will be a time when they’ll get to wear it out to a fancy event, after all, we always need things to look forward to in life. 

As with all fashion trends, people have tried to buy cheaper versions of the dress and found themselves being scammed, instead being sent all sorts of knock-off versions that look nothing like the original. So, if you are wanting to join the many who have this dress make sure you are only buying from the official Lirika Matoshi website.