Just for that, I made him take my picture. In the course of the photo session on our residential Brooklyn street, a neighbor pronounced the dress "beautiful." I told her about the trend test and asked if she would wear one. She said she was not tall enough at 5 feet. My height was in fact why I got nominated for the test-run. At nearly 5 foot 10, I wouldn't trip on the hem.

Next I headed to breakfast at a diner on Staten Island with a couple of old friends, who made up for my husband's lack of enthusiasm. "Fabulous!" one gushed. "Gorgeous!" declared the other.

But would they wear it? "For sure," said the 5-foot-6 suburban mother of three who works as a style editor. The other, an older woman, demurred, saying she found the neckline problematic. I suddenly felt a draft and tugged the round neckline up a few inches while finishing my eggs and coffee.

From there I took the ferry across New York Harbor to Lower Manhattan, scanning the boat and connecting subway for other maxi dresses. Alas, I was a lonely fashionista. Amid hundreds, only a few had hems as long as mine: Two South Asian women in saris and a plus-size tourist in an unfortunate tight pink sundress down to her ankles.

I bought some snacks and toys to send to my 10-year-old son at sleep-away camp, then headed to a post office near Penn Station, where I spotted an elegant woman in a strapless black floor-length summer dress chatting on a cell phone, matching luggage by her side.