LEXINGTON, Ky. – Although not entirely forgotten, the dress took a back seat in recent years to skirts and pants when it came to day-to-day wear for office and evening.

But after gaining ground the past few seasons, the dress is saturating the spring market in bold prints and an array of styles.

“They’ve just been kind of building in popularity,” said Lori Houlihan, owner of the boutique Isle of You in Lexington, Ky.

“For so many years there, people were doing jeans with stilettos,” she said. “I think everybody kind of got bored with their jeans.”

Back in the heyday of the dress, through the 1950s and much of the ’60s, women filled their wardrobes with dresses for special occasions but also for times as mundane as running errands.

Now women are again searching for that kind of everyday elegance, said Mary Waiwood, a division merchandise manager for dresses, suits and coats at Dillard’s.

“They’re into that Jackie O, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ look, where you look more dressed up,” she said. “The big thing is that there are so many silhouettes – sheaths, trapeze, baby-doll dresses. Something we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Waiwood, based in the St. Louis division, oversees buyers for stores in eight states, including Kentucky, where she has noted “a ladylike influence.”

But far from being prim and fussy, the latest designs seem made for easy summer days, with flowing shapes and easy-to-care-for cottons.

If there is a standout silhouette, it might be the baby doll, but it’s not the only look out there. Hems fall everywhere, from above-the-knee shifts to ankle-dusting maxis.

The collection of billowy designs at Old Navy, for instance, includes short, breezy styles that can be worn with leggings or jeans, as well as hippie-ish long, flowing maxis.

And the dynamic hues and bold prints are not to be ignored.

“Color is huge,” said Elizabeth Shipley, manager and buyer at Worlds Apart, in Lexington, Ky. Her store carries dresses sporting vintage prints from Vera, a “60s staple.

“We typically don’t seem to have much print and we have a lot of print, a lot of color,” she said.

Such bold colors and interesting shapes make this year’s dress its own wearable work of art. So accents in the way of jewelry need not be elaborate; a chunky cuff or simple hoop earrings will do.

“If I was doing a really bold print, I’d go simpler with the jewelry,” said Isle of You’s Houlihan, who suggested maybe a single strand of big beads. “I wouldn’t let there be lot of action with my jewelry.”

Used to mixing it up with combinations of skirts and pants and an assortment of tops, buyers might balk at laying down money for a single garment such as a dress.

But thanks to the incredible range of heel heights this season (ranging from ballet flats to lofty wedges and platform sandals) and belts and other accessories, there are many looks to be mined from the same piece.

“You can belt them with a big, wide belt. You can put leggings on underneath,” Shipley said. “You’re getting more out of your dress than just one look.”

Because it’s been away so long, our relationship with the dress just might take some getting used to.

But dazzled by the amazing colors and variety of styles in comfortable fabrics, customers are willing to give dresses another try, said Waiwood, the Dillard’s buyer.

“I think women are understanding them again,” she said, “and they feel good in them again.”