Navy Dresses

Navy gets called the safe choice so often that it stops sounding like a compliment. I think that reputation is fair, but safe is not the same as boring. A good navy dress does something black can't, it still reads as dressed up without going anywhere near severe, and against most skin tones it is simply kinder.
This is the colour that earns its keep from September through to about April, though a lighter cotton navy dress will happily see you through summer too without looking like you raided the funeral rail. It works for the office in a way black sometimes doesn't, because it has a bit more warmth to it, and it is the one you can wear to a christening, a work do and a Sunday lunch with someone's parents without any of them thinking you've made a special effort or not enough of one. Where it struggles is anywhere properly festive, under bright lights it can go a bit flat and serious, so if you want to feel celebratory rather than sensible, this probably isn't the one. Be careful what you put with it too. Black shoes and a black bag can look sharp, but black tights with navy, in daylight especially, reads as a mistake rather than a styling choice, the two blues and blacks sitting slightly wrong against each other. Navy with brown works far better than people expect, and navy with camel is close to foolproof, but navy next to anything with a cool undertone, certain greys, certain purples, can start to look like you got dressed in the dark.
Check the fabric with your hands before you commit, because navy dye is notorious for showing wear in a way black hides. Run a finger over the surface under a shop light and look for any patchiness, a cheap navy will often go slightly purple or greenish after a few washes, especially in polyester blends, while a good cotton or wool mix tends to hold its depth of colour for years. Wash it inside out, on a cool setting, and keep it away from anything shedding red or dark dye in the same load, navy picks up tinting more readily than you'd guess. Hang it rather than fold it over months of wear and it will keep its shape through the shoulders, where cheaper jersey tends to go first. I've had a navy shirt dress go through three winters and still look sharp, and a navy wrap dress from a similar price point lose its colour and its stretch within one season, the only real difference was the fabric content on the label.
It is not the dress for anywhere that wants drama, and if you are after something that announces itself the moment you walk in, this quiet, sensible colour was never going to be the one to do it.
Picked by Ellie Marsh. More in Dresses.