On Thursday, Katie Sturino (803,000 Instagram followers) and Lindsay Silberman (214,000 Instagram followers) posted about the same dress.
The dress, which is called the Tobie and is made by a brand called Exquise, is sold exclusively at URBN-owned Anthropologie. It’s available in multiple lengths and fabrics, and ranges in price from $178-$228. And, although it has been popular since its launch in February 2024, it may just be the dress of summer 2025.
When the Tobie launched, it was an instant success, said Julie Stampone, Anthropologie’s merchandise manager for dresses. Anthropologie’s customer tends to like shirt dresses, she said, and this one, with its looser bust and fitted, cinched waist, flatters everyone. “The special sauce to this is the waist interest and those very flattering pleats,” she said. “Across the board, anything that has waist interest, our customer is obsessed with.”
Additionally, Anthropologie offers the Tobie in sizes XXS-3X, as well as petite sizes, which contributes to its popularity. “At first, we could not keep this thing in stock — and we’re still seeing sellouts as new iterations hit, even though we’ve had it in stock for a year,” Stampone said, noting that the company now invests in larger buys of the style.
Stampone and her team are seeing the dress being coined on social media as “the summer intern dress,” which initially surprised Stampone, who doubted that interns would be wearing shirt dresses. “And then our new merchandise assistant came in on her first day in a black Tobie,” which proved the trend, she said.
Last year, the Tobie saw 3,000 searches on Anthropologie’s website; this year, so far, it has seen 84,000.
The dress’s slightly more conservative silhouette aligns with a broader aesthetic shift that mirrors recent cultural and political currents. Influencers like Nara Smith and Hannah Neeleman (also known as Ballerina Farm), and labels like Princess Polly via recent rebrands, reflect a growing embrace of modest, traditionally feminine styles — which many see as echoing a swing to the right in both fashion and politics.
For her part, Silberman modeled a newer iteration of the dress, a blue and white gingham midi, on her Instagram Stories last week.
“I became aware of the dress about a year ago, and I immediately wrote it off as something that wasn’t really my style,” Silberman said. “At the same time, being a consumer of trending items and sharing my opinion on them is technically my job, so in a way I felt like it was my duty to see what all the fuss was about.”
She said she had noticed on Anthropologie’s website that the dress was consistently the first item listed under best-sellers, signaling that the retailer was doubling down on its popularity. “I decided to order one for myself, and I honestly loved it. It’s just an easy dress to throw on that makes you feel put together and polished. The cut is flattering, and the fact that it has pockets is an added bonus,” she said.
In a poll asking her followers what they thought of it, around 68% said they liked it. Those who didn’t like it shared that they thought it looked “too bulky” and that it made her look like a “tradwife,” Silberman said.
According to Anthropologie, the most popular iterations are the black-and-white stripe dresses in midi and mini lengths, and the solid black dress in midi and mini lengths. The black and white striped midi ($198) has been restocked 20 times, according to a representative for the brand. And, Stampone said, the many iterations have not detracted from the dress’s popularity. Currently, the Tobie is available in 30 colors and patterns. Anthropologie also sells tops ($138) and jumpsuits ($198-$228) in silhouettes based on the dress, and has made tweaks such as adding double-buckled waists and tie-neck details to maintain interest.
To keep up momentum, Stampone said, Anthropologie will continue to release new takes on the dress via new prints and colors. So far, it has introduced Tobie dresses with stripes, color blocks and eyelets, and in plaid and denim fabrics.
On Tuesday, Anthropologie launched a capsule collection with creator Nasreen Shahi (474,000 Instagram followers) that includes a mini Tobie in brown and white stripes. It marks the first Tobie dress collaboration.
On Nuuly, the rental platform also owned by URBN, the Tobie has been just as successful. Nuuly has rented tens of thousands of units of the Tobie dress, said Sky Pollard, head of product at Nuuly. “This spring, we [bought deeply into] this franchise, and it’s driving a significant portion of our dress rentals. Customers also love buying this dress and are buying it at a rate double the average of our dresses.”
Stripes are in highest demand among Nuuly subscribers, though solid styles also remain popular, accounting for half of all Tobie dress rentals, Pollard said. Linen, introduced to the collection this year, is already responsible for a quarter of rentals in the style.
According to Pollard, a maternity version is coming soon, and versions in corduroy, suede and faux leather will be launching in the fall.
“We even have it coming in taffeta for a more elevated take that can be worn for many occasions,” Pollard said.
Recently, actor Natasha Rothwell wore the Tobie in Cultured Magazine, and the style is often featured in office attire fit checks — like this one by user @ashley_engle. It’s garnered over 91,000 likes and comments like, “Everyone in our office has the Tobie dress — it really is the corporate uniform right now 😆,” “The tobie top, the hair spin – immaculate vibes 🤌”, and “I know a tobie top when I see one.”
