I bookmarked the Lirika Matoshi website about a year ago after discovering the most beautiful piece of clothing on models Bree Kish’s and Tess Holliday’s Instagram pages.

I stared at the piece in question: a pastel pink midi-length dress with puffy sleeves—completely covered in glittery strawberries. It was the ultimate fairytale dream.

And it was available in my size.

For me, a trip to the mall could either end with an armful of bags or frustration and tears. An inviting Google ad could result in a full cart or a misleading sizing chart. Since my body isn’t the most commercially common, and finding clothes that are both trendy and flattering is extremely rare, I was instantly on the lookout for the ‘Strawberry Dress.’ After months of saving money (as well as the “irresponsible-impulse-shopping-due-to-the-current-global-pandemic” streak I was currently on), I finally felt ready to make my purchase.

As soon as the dress arrived, I rushed to open it, snapping dozens of photographs and frolicking in the garden to watch the skirt flow. The feeling that comes from perfectly fitting into a piece of clothing can change my mood for the entire day, as well as my perspective on my body’s self-worth. Moments like this are few and far between, so I tend to cherish them.

Plus-size model Tess Holliday walked down the red carpet at the Grammys this past January, becoming one of the first celebrities to be documented wearing ‘Strawberry Dress.’ Naturally, the fantastical, almost childlike design drew a lot of attention and opinions from the press. Holliday was promptly added to ‘Worst Dressed’ lists and criticized for wearing something both unappealing and unflattering. She and the dress both were hastily dismissed.

Enter TikTok.

‘Strawberry Dress,’ as it is now lovingly referred to on just about every social media platform, is a creation of New York-based Kosovar fashion designer, Lirika Matoshi. At only 24 years old, Matoshi has gone from running an Etsy page for handmade chokers, to the designer of this year’s “dress of the summer.”

Even at its hefty price tag of $490, ‘Strawberry Dress,’ and the rest of Matoshi’s designs, are still gaining massive popularity, having now been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, and Forbes, to name a few. Matoshi has even expanded the same pattern featured on ‘Strawberry Dress’ into other strawberry pieces, including a black version of the dress, face masks, and a button-up shirt.

From the influence on fandom culture (including a large amount of emerging original fan art, fanfiction, and viral tweets), to various “cottagecore” style TikTok videos of magical dwellings in the woods, this dress seems to provide a form of escape for those who admire it. Especially now, seeing your favorite character in something far out of their canon, or short and sweet videos that depict a calm and detached life, can bring a lot of peace. We all want to be the beautiful fairy princess without a care in the world, so we’ve gotta make sure we look the part, too!

So why did Tess Holliday get the short end of the stick?

The answer is both very simple and highly upsetting: fatphobia.

On Twitter, Holliday expressed that: “...now bc a bunch of skinny ppl wore it on TikTok everyone cares. To sum it up: society hates fat people, especially when we are winning.” And unfortunately, she’s right.

Our current fashion trends gravitate toward applauding those who put minimal effort into their outfits. Biker shorts and oversized T-shirts are praised when seen on skinny bodies, while simultaneously viewed as lazy when on a bigger person. Fat women in fashion are at a huge disadvantage simply because they are fat. They forever find themselves playing catch up. As someone who’s always had to put in twice as much effort into every stage of my appearance, whether that be searching tirelessly for honest sizing or having to be as eccentric as possible to be viewed as stylish, it’s impossible not to notice the hidden double standard.

Matoshi’s entire line of creations breaks the typical “one size fits all” designer clothing. She offers sizes ranging from XS to XXXL (as well as offering customization for specific measurements), which is an enormous break in the pattern.

True to its appearance, ‘Strawberry Dress’ embodies a million different things. Not only could it be pulled directly from a childhood dream, the dress also breaks multiple boundaries, checking every box of craftsmanship, allure, and inclusion.

The Secret of the Strawberry Dress