I spent three summers packing a suitcase full of white broderie anglaise for holidays and coming home having worn it twice, because white and sun cream and rosé do not mix, whatever the packing lists tell you. Black got left at home every time on the theory that it was too heavy, too city, too much of a “sorry for your loss” energy for a beach. I was wrong about that for years and I’m addressing it directly now: black, I’m sorry, you were right and I was folding you to the bottom of the case for no reason.
A black A line dress is the one piece that does the thinking for you on holiday. It skims rather than clings, which matters when you’ve eaten your body weight in bread that morning, and the shape means it moves with you rather than fighting you, whether you’re getting up off a sun lounger with zero dignity or walking somewhere slightly too far in sandals that seemed sensible in the shop. The good ones are in something with a bit of give and a bit of drape, cotton or linen or a soft viscose, nothing that needs an iron within a hundred miles of a villa, because nobody is ironing on holiday and if you say you will, you won’t.
Where it earns its space in the case is the range. Barely dressed, straw bag, flat sandals, it does the market and the boat trip. Add gold jewellery you don’t mind getting sandy and a heel and it does dinner on the last night without you having to pack a second “proper” outfit you’ll wear once and resent for the suitcase space.
Thrown over a still damp swimsuit on the walk back from the beach, it’s doing more work than anything else you own, and it dries you off through sheer force of personality.
My colleague Priya watched me pack four black dresses for a five day trip and said “you know it’s an island, not a funeral,” which, fair, but every single one earned its place. That’s the actual case for black on a beach holiday. It’s not sombre, it’s just quietly getting on with looking right at every single hour of the day, which is more than I can say for the white broderie anglaise still sitting in a drawer, slightly stained, entirely unforgiven.
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