Serra Ladies Light Spun Dress

I don’t know why I keep buying Aldi clothing. Aside from a few specific pieces, I haven’t had very good luck with most of the discount grocer’s clothing. A lot of items don’t seem to be proportioned to fit actual normal-sized human beings, or they’re just plain unflattering. Dresses are a big problem. So are swimsuits. I’ve expressed my disappointment with Aldi clothing in our annual Aldi wish list. Yet, I keep trying Aldi clothing, hoping maybe someday it will be better.

A recent weekly Aldi ad featured some casual dresses that looked intriguing. They hit above the knee and feature short sleeves or 3/4-length sleeves, depending on the style/color you choose. Some have slight v-necks while another has a button-down front. And, importantly, they all have pockets.

I bought two of the Serra Ladies Light Spun Dresses to review. They cost $12.99 each at my local Aldi at the time of publication.

These are Aldi Finds. That means they’re in stores for just a short time. Each store gets a single shipment, and they’re gone after they sell out. Aldi does not offer online ordering for these if they’re sold out at your local store.

The dresses were available in three different colors: orange (available in sizes M-XL), green (sizes M-XL), or a black print (sizes S-XL). There are some slight style differences among the dresses, but they all hit just above the knee. I purchased the orange and green dresses.

The dresses are all 100% cotton and are OEKO-TEX certified. They were made in Bangladesh.

These are machine washable in cold water on the gentle cycle. They can be tumbled dry on low heat and warm ironed.

Trying on the Dresses:

I normally wear a medium or a size 8, so I bought two of these dresses in medium. I tried on the orange dress first, and my immediate observation was that the body of the dress runs big. It was baggy and not flattering, with no real defined waist. The dress seems to have at least a bit of a defined waist on the model in the photo on the packaging, but that was not my experience in real life.

When I showed the dress to my husband, kids, and fellow writer Elizabeth, I got a deluge of comments. Terms like “potato sack” and “only good for pregnancy” were among them. Someone may have even remarked, “It’s the kind of dress you wear on a first date when you want to make sure you don’t have a second date.”

I might have benefitted from sizing down, maybe. But this particular orange dress is not available in a small. Even if I were able to size down, though, the cuffs on the sleeves were borderline uncomfortably tight on my arms, especially when I moved my arms. The sleeves each have a button that can be undone, and I could roll the sleeves up to make them more comfortable. However, the rest of the dress is so unflattering that I won’t be keeping it.

I tried on the green dress next, and while the color was better for me personally, it still looked no better than wearing an oversized pillowcase. Again, the dress looks better, with a somewhat defined waist, in the model on the package photo. I don’t think the dress in real life looks like that model photo, though.

My teenage daughter has sewing experience, including making her own formal dress. She noted that the waists on both dresses look like they need to be taken in so they offer more shaping. As they are, they just hang loose. Some dresses can pull off that loose fit and still look good. But not these. The green dress would especially benefit from a more defined waist because it’s very plain overall, with no buttons on the front or embellishments on the sleeves.

And again, this blue dress does not come in a size small, so I can’t even experiment with sizing down to see if I get a better fit.

Maybe there are some people who can wear these dresses better than I can. As for me, though, these are a hard no. I’ll add these dresses to my growing list of Aldi clothing items I’ve had to return. At least Aldi seems to be consistent when it comes to selling clothing that just doesn’t work for me.

The Verdict:

The Serra Ladies Light Spun Dress hits above the knee, features pockets, and comes in a couple of varieties with short sleeves or three-quarter-length sleeves. One dress variety has buttons on the front.

I bought two of these dresses in my usual size, medium. These are probably intended to be looser, more airy dresses, but both fit extremely loose. They hung from my shoulders, and neither dress was flattering in any way. These seem to run large, except that the sleeves on one dress were almost too tight. All of these dresses would benefit from some tailoring to define the waists more.

I’ll be returning these dresses to Aldi. These are the latest in a string of disappointing clothing items I’ve bought at Aldi. At this point, I’ve about given up on the hope of finding Aldi clothing that fits well and looks good.