My Ideal Summer Night Is Dining Alfresco in These Pretty Dresses—See Them All

Everything feels better when you do it in a dress. That feeling is increased twofold when it comes to sitting down for a delicious meal outside. From the comfortable breeze to the orange sunset glow, nothing tops dining alfresco in a pretty dress while taking in the summer scenery. In fact, it's pretty much all I want to do right now. My humble balcony has seen more scrappy candlelit dinners than I'd care to admit.

You technically don't have to dress up every time you enjoy a plate of pasta outdoors, but wearing a nice dress surely enhances the experience. Should you, too, have many evenings of alfresco dinners ahead, take time to consider the below dresses. From elegant silk numbers to low-key floral pieces, each is exactly what I envision wearing on a warm night while downing a glass of wine and a delectable cheese plate. Even if you prefer to eat indoors, these dresses are simply so pretty that you're bound to wear them for at least one occasion this season. Scroll on to shop my favorites and see some summer inspiration. 

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(Image credit: @emilisindlev)

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(Image credit: @lefevrediary)

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(Image credit: @sasha.mei)

Next up: How to Shop for a Vacation Without Buying Things You'll Never Wear Again

Fashion Market Editor

Indya Brown is a fashion editor, stylist, and writer living in Los Angeles. While going to school at Columbia University in New York City, she got her feet wet in the fashion industry interning at Elle magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and New York magazine's The Cut. After graduating in 2016, she joined The Cut as a fashion assistant, eventually working her way up to fashion editor. There, she worked on a multitude of projects, including styling inbook feature stories for New York magazine's print issue, writing and pitching market stories for The Cut, and serving as fashion lead for The Cut's branded content. While New York has been her home for over 10 years, she moved to Los Angeles in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 for a new chapter. Now she is a fashion market editor forBest Knockoff Luxury Clothing , focusing on emerging designers, rising trends on and off the internet, interior design, and BIPOC creatives and brands. Aside from her duties as a fashion market editor, Brown is also a freelance stylist and writer, working on national print and video commercial campaigns for Sephora, The Independent, and Cadillac. Her bylines also include Harper's Bazaar, Vox, and The New York Times. But once the computer goes down and the emails turn off, she's likely eating her way through Koreatown, hunting down vintage furniture, scoping out new outrageous nail designs to try, or taking a hot cycling class.