Henkaa: One dress, three ways for a vacation

When packing for a trip, I always love clothing that is versatile. One item I brought with me to Mexico this Christmas to test out was Henkaa’s midi dress in a beautiful periwinkle shade. The dress can be worn hundreds of ways, so here is how I styled mine in three ways (but my sister and I both wore it a couple other ways too!)

The dress is wrinkle-free and can literally be rolled up into a ball/sausage and tossed in your luggage. No need to worry about carrying a travel steamer! Once unrolled, you place the dress over your head and the two wide wrap straps go under your bust, around the rib cage. You can then wrap the straps to the back of your neck to form a halter or experiment with one-shouldered or cap-sleeved styles. Their website has hundreds of tutorials and photos for inspiration. You can also make it strapless, however I found this difficult and not as flattering, as I am small-chested (about an A cup). If you are going for a backless style, make sure to bring along an adhesive bra or in my case, nipple covers would be enough.

The first way I styled it was an update on their cap-sleeved style. My sister actually invented the wrapping, and instead of wrapping the straps around the waist after doing the cap sleeve, she wrapped them across my collarbone and to the back to create the sexy criss-cross design.

The second way I styled this dress was by doing the typical elegant cap-sleeve wrapping, but I added a shimmering jewelled belt from Anthropologie. I love that the dress matched the blue tones of this belt. For bridesmaids, this would be a great way to accessorize the dress as well, since waist-cinching jewelled belts are a huge trend in bridal.

I wore this look to Christmas dinner, and loved how elegant it was. The full circle skirt is also pretty when you dance.

For the last look, I decided to take a different approach and layer the dress under another piece of clothing. Henkaa now sells chiffon overlays, but I paired a white lace skirt c/o MINKPINK with matching white Marc by Marc Jacobs mouse flats for a tropical look. This outfit is a great way to get even more mileage out of your dress, and any other clothing items you may have already in your suitcase.

To create this look, simply create a halter design, but this time, you must put the straps right under your bust to make the skirt length shorter. However, if you’re working with Henkaa’s mini dress, you probably won’t need to do this at all.

Henkaa’s dresses are great for travelling because there are so many ways to wear it. I also found that at the beginning of the night, I would wear a halter style, and if it got chillier later on, I would simply re-wrap it. I think with the right accessories, such as pins, belts and jewelry, you can get completely different looks out of one dress. It was a fun challenge, and I look forward to exploring more ways to wear this dress.