A Travelling Dress

A friend of mine has been going on cruises since before her kids were born.  And she brings back stories of dining with the captain, eating scrumptious food and just enjoying a relaxing holiday where everything is taken care of for you.

I've never been on a cruise and being prone to motion (think car and sea sick) probably never will.  But, I still like to imagine what type of clothing I'd take on a cruise to a tropical isle.

Ever since I saw one of these versatile dresses on tv when I was small, I thought they would be great for travelling but could never decide on a colour. 

The ones I've seen are called mai tai dresses and they are a stretchy knit material with a giant belt which allows you to loop and wrap the dress in literally hundreds of different ways.

images: maitaidress.com

It's not the height of fashion or anything, but looks like a simple basic dress that travels well.

Here is another one with an uneven hem-line from a different company:

image: fabsugar.com

Just from these 2 pics, you can see how many different ways the dress can be wrapped.  They come in long or short lengths and the short one can be styled like a top.

I still like this dress, but cannot imagine just wearing the same colour over and over again.  People would know it's the same dress. 

The other hindrance factor is the cost - they are quite expensive, around $300! basically for a giant sized piece of knit fabric with super long straps attached. You could probably make one.  Even if you paid $20/metre, how much fabric would you need?  maybe 5 metres at the very most = $100.  And the fabric would probably cost half that or even less.