The dress you actually wear on holiday is rarely the one you bought specifically for it. It is the cotton one that folds flat, shakes out crease-free, works for the beach and dinner with just a sandal change, and still looks like you tried. That dress exists and we have found a lot of them. Cotton gets underestimated in fashion because it is not glamorous on paper, but on a warm evening with a slight tan it does something that silk and linen simply do not. It breathes properly. It washes easily. It survives a suitcase without looking destroyed. The styles we have pulled together here cover everything from loose shirt dresses you can throw over a swimsuit to more considered midi lengths that photograph brilliantly in good light. We have been particularly ruthless about fit because a cotton dress that bags in the wrong place is nobody’s friend. These are the ones that earn their place in the case and then get worn repeatedly rather than once and forgotten. Pack fewer things better. That is the entire argument for this edit.