How did an exaggerated and expensive ruffled tulle dress become the most viral fashion item on the net, and who was the model who called it "Lena Del Rey's Baby Love and Strawberry Cake"?

We recommend reading this article with the Ethnix single Strawberries in the background and the thought of how the universe sometimes has a slightly cynical sense of humor.

Let’s face it, most of us today’s lives are pretty far from being strawberries, and it's all the more difficult when you are a fashionista who is dying to go out into the world from the four walls of your home and show off outfits that will make everyone miss a beat.

So while the corona continues to imprison many in the house, one dress arrives and brings it to her in reverse: Did you give me lemons? I'll make strawberries out of them, and that's not what we said but the bible of the fashion world - Vogue magazine (or its online version if you insist on subtleties).

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A post shared by Lirika Matoshi (@ lirika.matoshi) on Jul 21, 2020 at 2:33 pm PDT

The reputed magazine could not ignore one pink and exaggerated dress that has become a mast item in the closet of thousands of women around the world, and decided to dedicate an entire article to it on its website in an attempt to understand what its magic secret is, giving it the coveted title of "2020 Dress".

Her life is strawberries

Seemingly, it is not really clear why this particular dress became a hysterical hit not only in the closet but also online, with hundreds of posts and tags. She is not exceptionally beautiful, not strange at a level that would justify fainting, and she does not even come from some well-known fashion line but from the hands of a successful designer, but quite anonymous to those who are not from the industry.

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A post shared by Lirika Matoshi (@ lirika.matoshi) on Jul 16, 2020 at 5:43 am PDT

For the mind behind the madness, the lyricist Matoshi, this is a kind of victory and maybe even sweet revenge.

The 24-year-old young designer currently lives in New York, but is originally from Kosovo. When she tried to get accepted to the New York Institute of Fashion four years ago she was rejected and decided to open her own brand independently. Today there is no doubt that someone there is tearing his hair out and regretting the huge miss.

So what's in it, in a dress? If you ask Matoshi the secret is in the escapism she allows to those who wear it, she said in an interview with the Vogue website. Precisely in this difficult time, when most of the world is captivated by a depressing black guy and life is far from sweet or pink, this exaggerated dress provides the "costume" needed to at least pretend that everything will be fine.

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A post shared by Lirika Matoshi (@ lirika.matoshi) on May 26, 2020 at 10:16 am PDT

And it's not a cheap pleasure or one that anyone you want can easily purchase (unless of course you buy an imitation, one that can be found for a few dollars on Amazon and other sites against which Etoshi tries to fight copyright infringement), but if you insist on seeing life in pink again, the dress Comes in a very wide range of sizes, from sizes suitable for girls and teenagers to size 50.

The dress has conquered social networks, Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter with thousands of photos of women wearing it, while on Instagram alone you can find no less than 10,000 tags under the hashtag straweberrydress.

The dress is like an exaggerated birthday cake: pink, deep neckline, ruffles and tulle and of course a lot of strawberries, hence its charm probably. She will also suit a pampered girl in her stage of addiction to Disney, who insists on going to kindergarten in an oversized dress and also her mother who would like to show off in a meeting with girlfriends (and maybe even a young grandmother in spirit).

Matoshi first uploaded the dress to her Instagram page in 2019 and almost immediately it became a hysterical success.

Successful plus-size model Tess Holiday wore it to this year’s Grammy Awards, saying the dress is like the baby that singer Lena Del Rey would have had if she had married a strawberry shortcake, and actress Busy Phillips has uploaded a picture of her 12-year-old daughter wearing it as well.

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A post shared by Lirika Matoshi (@ lirika.matoshi) on Jun 19, 2020 at 9:49 am PDT

According to online reports, since July (several months into the Corona plague), Google's search for the phrase "strawberry dress" has seen a significant rise, and is currently the most sought-after item in Matoshi's collection despite its price: $ 490.

When Matoshi saw how much the dress was selling, she decided to add whipped cream to the cake as well and designed a matching strawberry mask (which is also not cheap at all and currently costs $ 50).

The dress also fits in almost perfectly with the aesthetic trend known as Cottegecore, which if you want to define it in a simple way to understand it is basically a return to the origins and romanticization of life: the adoption of rural simplicity (in fashion, agriculture and so on).

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A post shared by shui / em (@shuimilk) on Aug 13, 2020 at 12:00 pm PDT

"The corona brought with it the desire to return to its roots. To the village. To the open spaces of nature," said one of the women who bought the dress about the reason for the dress's success. "It allows the escape to romance and detachment from the harsh reality outside."

Many of the women who purchase the dress document in Tiktok the opening process of the package that arrives to them and themselves are dressed in it in a variety of situations, with in the background they playing the hit Strawberry Blonde by the Japanese-American singer Mitski.

The dress also stars in quite a few memes, paintings and works of art on social media, many of them from the worlds of k-pop and anime, while quite a few fans also uploaded a photoshop of beloved celebs dressed in a dress such as Zendaya and Harry Styles. Today in fact, the phenomenon has become so popular that one can find its parodies in the style of "Lord of the Rings" and "Hannibal Lecter".

Matoshi spends most of her time today in Tribeca, New York, but also travels quite a bit to her homeland in Kosovo, where her factory is located. To meet the insane demand for the dress, she works 24/7, she says, as the demand for the dress has increased since the beginning of August by 738% compared to July.

Completely exaggerated or musty in any closet, there is no doubt that this dress has become the sweetest and pinkest thing on the net today, and no one will probably refuse to give it a bite.