I Ordered the $145 '90s Minidress That's Viral on TikTok, and Now I'm Obsessed

It’s not often that the internet convinces me to buy something, especially when it comes to a viral clothing item on TikTok. Don’t get me wrong, I shop a lot, but my inspiration often stems from runway shows or magazine editorials. If you ask me, things on social media are often just subtle advertisements, so I’m automatically skeptical whenever anyone online sings praises about anything really, but particularly fashion.

In the case of the dress I’m here to tell you about, though, the hype went beyond a few popular videos. Its acclaim seemed to reach me everywhere, from friends to co-workers to strangers on the street. “It is honestly perfection,” my friend Grace Wu, a social editor at Hypebeast who’s based in Hong Kong, wrote me over Instagram DM. “Not only is it insanely comfortable, but it serves as the perfect little black number that you can either dress up or down. 10/10 would recommend,” she continued. And she wasn’t the only one in my DMs talking it up. It sounds like I’m exaggerating, but I literally couldn’t escape this dress, and after giving in and actually listening to what everyone was saying about it, I didn’t want to. The fact that it looks gloriously similar to *that* little gray tank dress that Carrie Bradshaw paired with a Gucci satchel, Manolo Blahnik sandals, and Ray-Ban Aviators in season two of Sex and the City (you know the one) only added to its appeal.

The journalist in me knew that I had to give it a go myself. Dozens more recommendations, one lost package, and a few short weeks later, an orange Shopbop package arrived on my doorstep. In it was Norma Kamali’s beloved Pickleball Dress.