Katie Holmes Confirms the Boho Maxi Is the Easiest Summer Dress Trend
She might have worn it to receive an award, but she looks elegantly at ease.
Touching down in Sardinia, Italy, to accept her award at the 2024 Filming Italy Festival, Katie Holmes was likely more focused on dressing to meet the evening's formal requirements than dressing to co-sign a trend. Still, Holmes's appearance managed to say what insiders have been thinking for a minute: Boho maxi dresses are more than back, and they're summer's easiest dress of the moment.
The actress, working with longtime stylist Brie Welch, appeared onstage in a creamy gown with flowing sleeves and a fluid, airy skirt. Her piece also featured a matching belt cinched at her waist. With a few extra ruffles, the maxi dress could belong in Taylor Swift's Eras Tour outfits for the woodsy Folklore set: The dreamy shape and lightweight chiffon are "august" or "betty" embodied.
Holmes kept the rest of her look understated, pairing her dress with a gold chain necklace and double-strap sandals coated in a snakeskin-like material. She wore her hair in her signature undone waves and kept her beauty to a glowy minimum. The Dawson's Creek star also limited her evening to a single look: Unlike recent sightings at home in New York City, she wasn't seen making an outfit change.
One look at Holmes's woodland fairy styling and visions of a boho revival immediately appeared in my mind's eye. The floor-grazing maxi silhouette and pale neutral palette looked a lot like Chloé's insider-favorite show at Paris Fashion Week last March, where incoming creative director Chemena Kamali dipped back into the house's 1970s archives to show ruffled chiffon dresses, slouchy leather bags, and wedge sandals.
Regardless of whether more runways catch on this fall, Laurel Canyon-coded clothing is resurfacing all over fashion. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce just matched for a London date in crochet; film and TV projects like Daisy Jones and the Six brought bell-bottoms and tiny woven crop tops back into conversation. On the street style front, models, editors, and influencers are styling crochet pieces on top of jeans or flowing white skirts (and not just at Coachella).
It's boho maxi dresses like Holmes's that are both a call-back to a sepia-toned aesthetic and the epitome of relaxed warm-weather dressing. In fact, they may be summer's easiest dress trend. With silhouettes that flow away from the body and light fabrics, they're comfortable enough to wear on a hot afternoon. (Or, if you're Holmes, under the stage lights at an international film festival.)
Holmes has always loved an easy dress, but this week's is even more ethereal than her usual style. Back home in New York City, she's lately tried poplin colorblock dresses (with an affordable bag and fisherman sandals) and grunge '90s slip dresses (with velvet Mary Janes). The through-line between each one is capital-C comfort—a quality anyone can appreciate, no matter what's trending. Shop boho maxi dresses inspired by Katie, at every price point, ahead.
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Shop Boho Maxi Dresses Inspired by Katie Holmes
Halie LeSavage is the senior fashion and beauty news editor at Marie Claire, where she assigns, edits, and writes stories for both sections. Halie is an expert on runway trends, celebrity style, emerging fashion and beauty brands, and shopping (naturally). In over seven years as a professional journalist, Halie’s reporting has ranged from fashion week coverage spanning the Copenhagen, New York, Milan, and Paris markets, to profiles on industry insiders including stylist Alison Bornstein and J.Crew womenswear creative director Olympia Gayot, to breaking news stories on noteworthy brand collaborations and beauty launches. (She can personally confirm that Bella Hadid’s Ôrebella perfume is worth the hype.) She has also written dozens of research-backed shopping guides to finding the best tote bags, ballet flats, and more. Most of all, Halie loves to explore what trends—like the rise of doll-like Mary Janes or TikTok’s 75 Hard Style Challenge—can say about culture writ large. (She justifies almost any purchase by saying it’s “for work.”) Halie has previously held writer and editor roles at Glamour, Morning Brew, and Harper’s Bazaar. Halie has been cited as a fashion and beauty expert in The Cut, CNN Underscored, and Reuters, among other outlets, and appears in newsletters like Selleb and Self-Checkout to provide shopping recommendations. In 2022, she was awarded the Hearst Spotlight Award for excellence and innovation in fashion journalism. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Harvard College. Outside of work, Halie is passionate about books, baking, and her miniature Bernedoodle, Dolly. For a behind-the-scenes look at her reporting, you can follow Halie on Instagram and TikTok.
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