Stylish, inexpensive dress takes television newsrooms by storm
A Homeyee dress selling online for $23 is getting a lot of air time these days.
Across the country, dozens of female meteorologists and news anchors have snapped up Homeyee's stretch tunic pencil sheath dress because it's affordable and flatters the figure without being too revealing. The dress's design and vibrant color schemes appear to be made for TV.
The phenomenon has gone viral since a meteorologist in Dallas posted a collage on Facebook that showed more than 40 women appearing on-camera in the dress. Most of the women learned about it from a Facebook group page for women who work as broadcast meteorologists.
“There are some women who might be upset if they walked into a room and saw someone else wearing the same thing. In this case, I embrace it,” said Janelle Hall, a morning and noon anchor at WTAE-TV who has two of the dresses, one blue and black and the other teal and black.
“Everybody's just trying to find something that they feel good wearing, and not spend a fortune doing it,” Hall said.
Hall said she found the dress online about a month ago, not by way of the Facebook group. She shared the find with her WTAE-TV colleague Ashley Dougherty, a meteorologist. Dougherty bought a red and black dress and a pink and black one.
“We're always trying to bargain shop,” Dougherty said.
Like many local TV stations across the nation, WTAE-TV does not provide an allowance to help pay for clothes worn on camera.
Dougherty said she buys one or two dresses a month, on average, and they can easily run more than $100.
Finding more affordable dresses that look nice on camera can be a challenge, the newswomen said.
Among many guidelines, Hall said, “We stay away from patterns or things that would be distracting. You don't want viewers to pay more attention to what you're wearing than the story you're trying to get across.”
Often, viewers do that anyway. Dougherty said “more people message me about my outfits than the weather.”
Hall said her male counterparts tend to have it easier, because they can mix and match dress shirts and ties with a few different suits and blazers.
Last year, Australian TV host Karl Stefanovic made news when he revealed that he had purposely worn the same blue suit every day for a year. Stefanovic said viewers didn't notice the stunt and “judged (me) on my interviews,” while routinely commenting on and criticizing the outfits worn by his female co-host, the Associated Press reported.
Mike Oliveira, news director at Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV, said, “We don't have anyone here who is wearing the dress ... yet. I think the story has at least one of our people interested, though,” referring to meteorologist Valerie Smock.
She might have to wait a while.
Bree Smith, a meteorologist at KSDK-TV in St. Louis, bought her first Homeyee dress from Amazon's website in October. When the story about the dress went viral, Smith said she attempted to order another one and received notification that it would not arrive until January.
Despite the wait for that dress, Smith said she prefers to shop online.
“I'm a weather geek who loves the weather, but I have to look polished and presentable. I don't like spending hours at the mall looking for dresses,” Smith said. “If I can go online, click on a couple of dresses and get them two days later — sweet.”
Tom Fontaine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7847.
