Billowing gowns sweep social media

It’s a bird, it’s a plane — it’s a flying dress. 

The train of Adriannea Smith’s canary yellow dress flowing in the wind could be seen for miles as she posed with the backdrop of the Aegean Sea and whitewashed rooftops and blue domes in Oia, the coastal village on the Greek island of Santorini. 

“I’ve had this on my bucket list,” Smith told The Post. “I planned this trip with the shoot in mind,” Smith, of Atlanta, Ga., said of the Greek island cruise she took last month.

Travelers are saying “yes” in massive numbers to the flying dress photo, with gowns soaring in photos from idyllic destinations like the Greek islands, Dubai, Cappadocia in Turkey, and even the Brooklyn Bridge.

The pictures – which typically take just over an hour to shoot – are gaining thousands of likes and popping up all over Instagram and TikTok as the ultimate vacation status symbol. 

The hashtag #FlyingDress has 52.6 million views on TikTok, and photographers in some of the most sought-after vacation destinations are cashing in on the trend.

Smith, a travel agent and travel content creator who runs the account @StandByAdrie, says the shot was meant to give her followers travel envy – helping her promote her business and, in the process, serving as a “treat yourself” moment. The video showing the shoot got 20,000 views on Instagram and 481 likes.

The photos, she says, will last a lifetime.

“I definitely felt like a supermodel,” Smith said of the $605 shoot. She booked it through GoddessSantorini.com, which bills itself as a “premiere flying dress company.” 

The company Flying Dress photo has a package for around $1,680 that includes transportation to and from the shoot, hair and makeup, dress, a two-hour shoot, editing, retouching and ownership of the photo rights and video.

That also includes an assistant to help the achieve the dramatically long look when the subjects pose and waltz in videos.

Smith said that while the photos look like a breeze, it’s a heavy lift behind the scenes. Since the photos are typically taken barefoot, she recalls comically having to hop over hot cobble stones with the heavy dress like it was effortless. 

Meanwhile, in the Dubai desert on a recent all-girls trip, Keisha Nelson and seven of her girlfriends got in Flying Dress formation – for a cool $4,200. That included dresses, makeup, roundtrip transportation from the hotel and camel cameos for the two-hour shoot, which incorporated solo and group shots.

“We wanted to do something glamorous and fun … we were planning this trip for over a year and thought this was one of the activities we could do collectively that fit our personalities and vacation vibe,” Nelson, 43, a managing account supervisor who opted for a green halter dress, told The Post.

While the photos look aesthetically airy, Nelson, of Manhattan, says the mercury rising brought major heat to the shoot. Still, she says it was worth every penny — posing with an actual camel, she said, was priceless.

“I felt beautiful, regal and empowered,” she said.

Her friend, New York City-based publicist Rashidah Timothy — who opted for a blue hued gown in the photo — eagerly posted the group shot on her Instagram to the tune of 272 Likes and 69 comments, Nelson said.

“I am thinking of framing one [photo] for my husband for our anniversary this year,” Nelson said.

In New York City, photographer Leo Cabrera began shooting flying dress photos after seeing an influx of the train shows wafting through Turkey and Santorini on Instagram. He started incorporating the shoots into his biz in the beginning of 2022, averaging he says 100 shoots per year, locally at the Brooklyn Bridge and around Central Park and flying out to Dubai and the Dominican Republic to get the shots.

“I try to do no more than two shoots a day,” Cabrera told The Post, of having to cap the demand because the shoots are labor intensive. His packages include a 1-hour photoshoot, dress rental (dresses, he says, are designed by a stylist in Turkey), 15 photos edited and retouched and location scouting for $400.

“Normally the photoshoots are done very early in the morning to avoid crowds and in places with enough space to work with the dress,” he told The Post.

A little vanity fanfare comes free of charge: Smith recalls feeling like a celebrity, with on-lookers gawking at her shoot.

“Tourists walking by are saying, ‘Oh my god, you look so pretty.’ It was definitely a good moment. I was like, ‘I’m looking good and feeling beautiful — even though I was sweating,” she said.