Strawberry Dress

Submission 13,342

Part of a series on Cottagecore. [View Related Entries]

About

The Strawberry Dress is a popular fashion item designed Lirika Matoshi, which went viral on social media in summer 2020. The deep v-neck dress is pink, made of tulle, and features ruffles on the hem and sequin strawberries embedded into the design.

History

On July 27th, 2019, fashion designer Lirika Matoshi posted the dress on Instagram. ^[1] They captioned the post, "Strawberry season is here! 🍓🍓 Link in bio to shop our strawberry pieces!" Within 13 months, the post received more than 57,000 likes (shown below).

At the 2020 Grammy Awards, on January 26th, 2020, model Tess Holiday wore the dress. The following day, she posted an image of herself wearing the dress on Instagram. The post received more than 74,000 likes in less than one year (shown below).

According to Vogue,^[2] the dress grew in popularity in conjunction with the rise of the lifestyle aesthetic cottagecore, which romanticizes nature and whimsy. They write, "The dress also falls neatly in line with the rise of 'cottagecore,' an aesthetic defined by rural bliss--picture a world in which you make your own jam and read Jane Austen on repeat. There’s a popular song on cottagecore TikTok called 'Look at you strawberry blonde,' which pairs nicely with the dress."

They continue to explain that the designer "gifted the dress to influencers and celebs," as well their selling of a "coordinating mask" (shown below).

Reception

Online Reaction

In summer 2020, the Strawberry Dress became a popular topic of conversation online. The dress spread on Twitter on August 5th, 2020, when Twitter^[3] user @TENC0RE tweeted an image Chuu, a Korean pop singer known for her work in the Kpop group Loona. The post received more than 19,000 likes and 3,500 retweets in less than 10 days (shown below, left).

The following day, Twitter^[4] user @seokthestallion tweeted, "here's a hijabi IG influencer Noor w her strawberry dress, she wanted it ro be lil edgier hence the dark base." The tweet received more than 99,000 likes and 12,000 retweets in one week (shown below, center).

On August 6th, Twitter^[5] user @lefleurchalamet tweeted, "you’ve probably saw the strawberry dress on your tl,, the independent designer of the dress lirika matoshi also has lots of other beautiful clothing." Within one week, the post received more than 200,000 likes and 50,000 retweets (shown below, right).

The strawberry dress is also a popular hashtag on TikTok,^[6] where the hashtag #strawberrydress has more than 5.3 million views (examples below).

Image Edit Memes / In The Strawberry Dress

The popularity of the dress in August 2020 led to the creation of image edits and fan art that place various pop culture figures in the dress. Many of these images are labeled "in the strawberry dress." However, Twitter^[7] user @ShyTentacle tweeted the earliest available variation of the meme on January 5th, 2020 (shown below, left). Months later, Twitter user @weloveconangray tweeted an image of singer Conan Gray wearing the dress (shown below, center).

This continued into August 2020. On August 9th, for example, Twitter user @Pippinbxtch tweeted, "Girls don't want boys, girls want gollum in strawberry dress." The tweet received more than 1,200 likes and 250 retweets in less than one week (shown below, right).