We love a banded-bottom dress. The way they show off just-bronzed legs while camouflaging troublesome hips or adding curves to a lanky frame is simply divine. Luckily there are several options this season for your next dress fix -- Bloomingdale's presents a pullover version with a surplice neckline in enchanting lilac and chic black for $58. Over on Amazon you can pick up a XOXO number with bold flower print (pictured) on sale for $40.80. And fuller figures can rejoice in their curves with Lane Bryant's black double-v-neck fierceness for $59.50. Le sigh.

Pair your dress with flip-flops for afternoon window shopping, with a cute cardigan and ballet flats for work, or with anything from sexy booties to strappy sky-high stilettos for evening. With infinite wearability and flawless versatility, the banded-bottom dress can truly do no wrong.

We bought the pale gold Willa strappy sandal at Target ($13.99) on a whim one day and they have proven themselves to be the best sandals we've bought in a long while -- perhaps ever.

Never since our tweenage obsession with Jellies have we ever been so enamored of a pair of shoes, and we shed our flip-flops only for them. We love wearing them with our dark-denim shorts and a white blazer, or with a black dress and a long gold necklace. The soles are deceptively soft and padded, the straps don't slip or cut into your feet, and even an unexpected summer shower could not make our feet slide around inside them. We are urban warriors, and they are our chariots. The Willa sandal is a truly great summer shoe.

We all have The One That Got Away. That one piece that, if only you'd had the cash on hand, if only you'd bugged your mom a little more, if only your Visa wasn't maxed out, would have made your wardrobe -- nay, your life -- complete. Ours was a swimsuit we found at Goody's (!!!) in the 7th grade. That is, until we went to Urban Outfitters one fateful day a couple years ago and stumbled on a tiny watch on a long silver chain, like a miniature stopwatch, with a blue and pink cloisonne top. Suddenly, we were in love.

We love funky necklaces here at Styledash, but the Charming Tiny Clock necklace available on Urban's website for $28 is probably the closest reincarnation to that cloisonne miracle.....at least, that we can afford. (We're looking at you, Marc Jacobs.) Here's hoping this one doesn't get away from us before we can save our poor-kid pennies for it.

We must admit, earlier this season Old Navy came out with a line of swimwear that left us a little puzzled, a little blase. Strangely unsupportive one-pieces, standard-issue boring teeny-bikinis. But they did hit on a great idea- metallics! And lo, their Spotlight Collection was born.

The best part of metallics is that they can be dressed up for evening or incorporated into an otherwise demure outfit for a touch of daytime sparkle. Old Navy does a good job of offering both matte and shiny metallic options-matte sequins can be used in place of a netural- pair this gold tank ($29.50) with a white blazer and capris or this silver and black dress($39.50) with a bright shoe in a red, white or neon.

The collection also includes options in the same tones, minus sequins. Try this colorblock tank dress in misses and womens' sizes for $34.50 and $39.50 respectively.

The Old Navy Spotlight Collection provides fun, flirty ways to integrate sparkle and sheen into your wardobe for summer! Check it out!

From time to time we at Styledash will cover items and topics that seem only tangentially related to fashion -- from a schlumpy anti-fashion celebrity to kitchen supplies, and it might be cause for confusion -- why spend the space on a fashion blog to talk about seemingly non-fashion things?

We understand how this is perplexing because not only is this blog called "Styledash", which implies a commitment to fashion coverage and therefore unsurprising dealings in fashion commentary, but the idea of a "fashion thing" vs. a non-"fashion thing" is peculiar. We're not sure that there's a dichotomy at all, really -- in fact we are pretty certain that every thing, to an extent, is a fashion thing.