Category: Dresses

Stood in the work car park last month hitching up a midi dress at the waist because it had crept round in the wash and the seam was sitting over my hip bone instead of my actual waist, and that’s the thing nobody tells you in the changing room. A dress can fit everywhere else and still be wrong, because the one measurement that matters on me, five foot nothing in bare feet, is where the waist seam lands. Too low and I look like I’m wearing my own dressing gown. Too high and I’m back in primary school uniform. It’s never on the label.

A good one has a waist seam, or at least a visible waist, somewhere near where my actual waist is, not halfway down towards my hip hoping I won’t notice. That’s the whole test for me now before I even check the length. If the shape’s right I’ll deal with the hem. My nan’s taken up more dress hems for me than I’ve had hot dinners, and I’ve stopped apologising for it, it’s a fiver and a cup of tea and a natter about her garden, still cheaper than buying the wrong one twice which I have absolutely done.

I did get one home recently fully expecting to drop it off at hers on the way to work, a navy midi, and it hit me mid calf straight off the rail. NOT ONE INCH off. Rang her just to tell her and she went quiet for a second like I’d cancelled Sunday dinner. That dress owes nobody an apology, it’s perfect, I wear it with flat boots in the week and heeled ones the second it’s an occasion, same dress, completely different outing, that’s the sign you’ve bought well.

Florals I layer under a denim jacket so they don’t look like a wedding guest had an accident on the school run. Satin I only wear somewhere with proper lighting, under office strip lights it looks like a nightie, learned that one the hard way on a Thursday I’d rather forget. Long sleeve ones are brilliant for anything where I’ll be stood about outside, a christening, a cold platform, no cardigan faff.

Where it falls down is anything needing serious movement, a mini on a bike, a maxi on stairs I can’t see over, and anywhere I need pockets and forgot to check. Otherwise a dress is the laziest good decision in my wardrobe. One thing on, done, looks like effort, wasn’t.
Picked by Megan Rees. Start with Midi Dresses, Maxi Dresses, Mini Dresses.