Woman in a black and navy colour-blocked mini dress with a balloon sleeve and cut-outs on a cobbled square

Dark tailoring · Spring · Autumn

Navy and black sculptural cut-out mini dress

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Navy counts as colour. Barely. A fitted black wool mini dress, a navy panel wrapped across the front, one balloon sleeve, slashes at the neckline and the waist. No tights, pointed black heel. The sleeve has more to say than I do. Late dinner. Hair off the shoulder.

A colour-blocked mini dress: fitted black base, a navy panel folded across the body like a wrap, one balloon sleeve, slashes at the neckline and waist.

The dress starts as a fitted black mini with a high round neck, then a heavy navy panel is folded diagonally across the body and left to fall in a stiff drape past the hem on one side. The sleeves do not match: one is a short structured cap, the other a full balloon in the navy cloth, both in a dense wool with a faint sheen. Two slashes are cut into it, one under the collarbone and one at the waist, so the shape stays severe but not sealed.

It is a dress that does not need anything added. No tights, a pointed black heel or a flat black sandal, hair straight and out of the way of the sleeve. Cocktails, an opening, a dinner where the other guests will be in something plainer. Spring and autumn; the wool is too much for a heatwave.

Half of it is a wrap, half of it is a plan.