Enter the transformable Wonder Dress dress. The thinking goes that if you buy one dress that you can tie a bunch of different ways, it’s like you have an entire wardrobe in just one piece. The Wonder Dress can, according to the brand’s site, be tied 20 different ways and comes in sizes to fit every body from a size 0 to 22. The dress sounds so amazing that we were immediately suspicious. Is the $80 Wonder Dress as wonderful as social media made it seem? We got five real people to try it out. Though we saw a lot of undisclosed #sponcon claiming that this dress ($50, Nuroco) is “one size fits all,” the site demonstrated that was not quite the case. The dress is available in sizes from small through XL, with the XL able to fit a US size 22 body. Another thing that bears mentioning: The shipping on these dresses is slow and absolutely no-frills. Our order, which took three weeks to arrive, came in a plastic bag with one million customs stamps on it. Nuroco claims to offer returns, but my gut tells me that if these dresses don’t fit, you may have to eat the cost. We ordered the small dress ($50, Nuroco) in the shade turquoise, which led to issue #1 — the colors online versus IRL. Nuroco’s site APPEARS to have pulled images from other brands selling similar dresses, which means you have no real idea of what the colors look like. This could be a problem if you’re trying to outfit a bridal party. This dress was a very light blue when it arrived. There also didn’t seem to be much difference between the size XL ($80, Nuroco) and the size small, in terms of length, stretchiness, or waist measurement. We began to have some doubts. I was low-key dreading putting this dress on my body — I’d been eyeballing it on the wardrobe rack for a couple of weeks as it lay there, DARING me — but it honestly wasn’t a total disaster! The downside to this is, of course, that if you’re petite, you will 100% have to have this dress shortened. You will have no secrets in this dress. Even though I wore no-show underwear, you could see every seam clearly through this dress. You could see my belly button through this dress, and probably also what I had for breakfast. Though the halter-style top is meant to encourage going braless, you could definitely see my nipples through this dress. I wore That Girl silicone nipple covers ($13, Ricky’s), which did the trick. These dresses didn’t come with styling instructions, though there is a blurry photo on the site showing all the ways you can (allegedly) tie it. “This dress ($50, Nuroco) looked slim and kind of slinky on the hanger,” she said. “But it stretched a lot, cinched my waist, and flowed to the floor with lots of room. I was a tad bit impressed.” “I might wear this to the beach, but it’s too sheer for an important event. When the flash hits this dress, you’re going to see EVERYTHING.” “Every time I pulled the thin straps to cover one thing, another thing was exposed. I was afraid my sideboob would pop out, and I don’t even have big boobs! Anyone with a larger bust might have some coverage issues.” “This dress feels cheap and looks cheap. And if I’m going to an event, I want my dress to look EXPENSIVE… even if it isn’t.” “I thought this dress would be an immediate failure,” she said. “As a size 14/16, I was prepared for this dress ($50, Nuroco) to just NOT fit me, because that’s usually how it goes. But the size XL did fit me! I was shocked!” “My issue was that however I tied it, there was NO support for my boobs. I really like the idea of a dress that you can style a lot of different ways, but if you have a bigger bust, you’re more limited in terms of how you can wear it.” “Also, I couldn’t tie this on my own. My editor helped me, and I loved the high neckline and open back style we eventually landed on, but it took a lot of work to finagle this even with a helper.” “I’d definitely needed cups or padding in order to not make it too revealing in the bust,” she said. “I’d probably need to wear a slip in order to walk down the aisle in this dress if I were in a wedding party… and if I have to buy a slip or get the dress lined, it defeats the purpose of it being affordable.” That said, when you’re making clothes for bigger bodies, you can’t just take a straight size dress and make the waist bigger. There should be more support in the ties and more coverage around the bust to make sure plus-size people feel as supported (and, um, uplifted) as their straight size counterparts. We learned that sometimes you really DO get what you pay for. These Nuroco dresses are cheaper than many convertible, transformable dresses — and it shows. Nobody wants to go to a summer wedding with their underwear on full display. For $50, the fabric quality should be higher.
