target dress challenge

Prairie dresses have never really gone away. The long, flowing, frilly gowns reemerged in the early '70s as a way for women to assert themselves after a decade of miniskirts designed for the male gaze.

In the '80s the frills popped up again with the giant puffed-up sleeves and ruffled collars that were common in women's fashion. In the '90s, prairie dresses became chic grunge style and were often paired with chokers and Dr. Marten's boots.

Now, the prairie dress has suddenly reemerged at your local Target. Their appearance was rather jarring to Facebook user Lorca Damon who thought they were some type of comment on life during the pandemic.

"Target has decided if we're gonna suffer a pandemic, we might as well look like we just lost the farm after locusts ate our crops," she wrote. Adding: "I swear, if I run into a woman wearing this and she's not in a stage revival of Oklahoma!, I'm going to help hide her from the other sister wives until we can get her a safe house and a divorce."

Rachel Weingarten, brand strategist, and trend analyst doesn't believe that Target intended on making a meme-worthy piece of clothing, rather it was an attempt at mimicking the style of Kate Middleton.

"I don't think Target meant to create a hideous dress," Weingarten told Forbes. "I think they meant to piggyback off the Duchess of Cambridge's ladylike dresses, only an affordable version. It was just bad timing."

Damon's post quickly went viral and became the catalyst for the #TargetDressChallenge where people have been posing for old-timey pictures, many of them with livestock, while wearing the gowns.

The drudgery of life in Iowa in 1847.

Make some chicken noises!

Those hats are so "Little House on the Prairie."

One guy even made a 2022 calendar of dudes wearing the dresses and posing seductively.

Amanda concocted an elaborate backstory for her and her friend Siddhi's Target alter-egos.

She's the queen of a one-room schoolhouse.

Did she just walk out of the fitting room with that dress on?

Not sure how to react to this one.