The 10 Year Closet 003 | Stüssy tank dress
The thing I always wear during a heatwave.
Welcome back to The 10 Year Closet, a series spotlighting the longest-lasting items in my closet (owned for at least 10 years) and what they’ve taught me about shopping and style. In this installment, I’m raising a toast to a Stüssy dress that is quite simply the easiest thing to throw on in the summer.
The deets: Stüssy tank dress, size S in grey, mostly cotton/polyester, with a CMYK-hued logo on the front and a rounded hem
Circa: 2010
How it became mine:
I was freshly in college with my first credit card and this was probably one of my very first e-commerce purchases, made possible by small earnings from being a student blogger.
It was so long ago that I can hardly remember what exactly influenced me but my best guess is that it was because I got into hip-hop in high school in the late 2000s, and hip-hop artists wore streetwear brands like Stüssy. So it was just a cool brand to me.
I remember going to the website directly to check stuff out. I think this dress was on sale for like $20 and I couldn’t believe a cool brand that famous people wore was also accessible to me.
Since brand recognition was such a draw, obviously I had to get something with their iconic logo, both the wordmark and the interlocking S’s (which I only just found out is a “visual pun on Chanel’s overlapping C’s”).
Why it’s in my 10 Year Closet:
Let me see…
It’s soft, loose, and light, aka everything you want in a casual summer dress1. It’s breezy but not flimsy, hangs nicely instead of clinging to the body in awkward ways.
I find that an easygoing dress like this can be more versatile than shorts or a skirt. I can wear just the dress for the hottest, most casual of days. Or wear a light button-up over it, whether for sun protection, warmth, or a bit more propriety. Or throw on a loose tee (thereby covering the logo) and have the dress serve as a neutral skirt.
The memories!! I began wearing this dress the first summer I started talking a lot to my now-husband, and I’ll always remember it that way. And of course, so many fun summer memories with this one. I’ll never offload it! The material is definitely becoming more worn. But you know, one easy way to prolong the life of a garment is to demote it from outdoor clothes to indoor clothes. Even if this piece becomes much more worn, I know I can keep wearing it for a long time as home clothes exclusively.
While writing this I was also reminded to look beyond the same brands and stores I’ve been circling around probably because I keep seeing them online. Stuff like Quince (which I did finally buy from for the first time recently, more on this later probably), Madewell, Abercrombie, Sezane… I’m encouraged to go more niche, discover smaller brands that especially speak to me, and expand my understanding of what a “basic” could be — this dress is not exactly plain but it’s 100 percent a wardrobe staple for me.
What pieces are you turning to the most this summer? Anything over 10 years old?
Stay cool ☀️
– Jenny
Lovely dress, I enjoyed Stussy when I was in my early 20s and still do in my late 30s.
I love this concept so much! It reminds me a lot of the wardrobe cataloguing project I started on my old blog (https://someusesomewear.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/1-something-new/). It was eventually abandoned, but I'm hoping to relaunch the next iteration on Substack soon. It's so interesting to write and read these deep dives into singular items of clothing -- especially when they're old, cherished items that carry many stories. Most of my wardrobe is on the newer side, but I do have a few summer tops in my rotation that are 10+ years old.
PS: I have a very similar bedroom-crib set up lol!