Convertible Dress Styles: How to Tie a Convertible Dress

This post shares nine convertible dress styles and ways to tie it. A convertible dress is a perfect option for an formal event, whether it’s a wedding, military ball, charity event, school formal, and more. This is also a wonderful bridal party option. Scroll to read more and draw inspiration about how to tie a convertible dress.

It’s no secret that we’ve been rockin’ and rollin’ from one event to the next this summer, so the planner in me started thinking months ago about what I’d wear to each of these weddings, showers, parties, etc. I wanted to map out my attire “needs” early so that I could have max time to find great deals on pieces that I would truly love wearing (and wear again!)

How to Tie a Convertible Dress

When I realized that we had a formal wedding and a formal military ball within six days of each other, I wasn’t sure what to do. I only had one formal gown hanging in my closet (the one I wore to the ball last November and loved!), and that dress would be too fancy for the wedding. I also didn’t want to wear it to a second military ball in a row, but I really wasn’t excited about spending at least $75 per gown (plus likely alterations!) on two different dresses that I would likely never wear again.

Hmph.

I then read about an online boutique called Lulu’s after seeing Audrey from Putting Me Together rocking one of their dresses, and I got totally sucked into their website. I couldn’t get over how beautiful, unique, and inexpensive their clothing is.

And theeeeeen, I saw it.

The $58 convertible maxi dress in a beautiful blush pink, and I knew this was my solution. I would wear it two different ways (since there are so many convertible dress styles to choose from) to the events since they were in different states with different crowds. Boom!

It arrived during my mom’s May visit, and she confirmed that she loved it. We played with different ways to tie it for hours. It could be washed and dried at home and the length was adjustable (based on how high you pull it up), so I didn’t need a single alteration! So happy.

Convertible Dress Styles

For the wedding in Savannah I knotted each strip of fabric, pulled them over my shoulder, underneath my armpits, criss-crossed across my stomach, and then tied in the back. I love an open back!

For the military ball, I had our babysitter tell me which way she honestly liked best since Jamie “loved” everything, of course. 😉 (I told her that she will miss having her girly roommates one day for their honest fashion advice. Ha!) I pulled both strips of fabric over one shoulder, twisted them across my back, tied them around my waist in the front, and then finally knotted them in the back.

The dress was folded in my suitcase and never wrinkled. After each time I wore the dress, I tossed it in the our washing machine by itself and put it on the hand wash cycle. I laid it out to air dry, which it did beautifully. For a bra, I wore this one from Amazon which worked really well and stayed perfectly in place. A backless bra is a necessity for this dress.

Here are eight additional fun ways to tie this dress for your next event.

The convertible dress comes in four colors in sizes XS – XL (I’m wearing a small for reference), and you can shop it here. There’s also this dress that is essentially the exact same but a little less shiny, and it comes in 10 colors. So beautiful!