Alma | Elegant Slip Dress

The slip dress problem was never the dress — it was that you had to find something to wear over it.

Three things go wrong with a sleek slip dress on a fuller body, and they go wrong every time. First, two narrow straps carry the entire weight of the bust: on a full bust they press into the top of the shoulder within an hour, and the cowl neckline tips forward and falls open the moment you lean over a table. Second, a shiny finish hides nothing about the cut underneath it. When a slip is graded up from a small block, the panels stay too narrow through the stomach and seat, so instead of hanging in one smooth column the fabric pulls into horizontal ridges across the hip — and the sheen catches the light on every one of them. Third, most slip dresses simply arrive with bare shoulders and bare arms, which is why so many of them stay on the hanger. The layer you would actually wear it with is a separate purchase, in a different colour and a different weight, and it never quite matches.

Alma is sold as both halves at once. The skirt is cut on the bias — diagonally across the weave — which gives the fabric stretch in every direction, so it falls over the stomach and seat rather than stretching across them, and it flares from the knee into a wide trumpet hem with room to take a normal stride. Over it comes a ribbed sweater in the same colourway, cut loose with dropped shoulder seams that sit out on the upper arm instead of at the shoulder point, so nothing pulls when you reach. Its wide V-neck sits low and open, so the cowl and both straps stay visible and the sweater — not two thin straps — carries the weight of the look across your shoulders. The sweater hem lands at the high hip and blouses softly over the skirt, which means there is no waist seam that has to land at one exact point on your torso to look right.

Why it works

• Bias-cut skirt with a soft sheen: cut diagonally to the weave, so the fabric gives in every direction and falls over the stomach and hips instead of pulling into ridges across them.
• Matching sweater included: the sleeve is part of the set in the same colourway, so a slip dress becomes something you can wear straight out without hunting for a second piece.
• Dropped shoulder seams: the seam sits down on the upper arm rather than at the shoulder point, so broad shoulders and full upper arms are not working against a seam all evening.
• Wide, low V-neckline: the sweater takes the weight across the shoulders while the dress's cowl and straps stay on show, so the neckline of the dress survives the layer over it.
• No waist seam: the skirt hangs from the bias rather than from a fixed waistband, so nothing has to sit at one particular height on your torso.
• Trumpet hem from the knee: the skirt widens below full hips and thighs instead of tapering into them, which is also what gives you walking room.

Fit note

The skirt runs close through the seat and hip and the sweater runs generous — that contrast is the look, but it means the skirt is the half to size for. If you are between sizes, take the larger one for the seat; the sweater will still sit loose. The bias-cut skirt relaxes as you wear it and drops slightly over the course of an evening, so a hem that just brushes the floor when you put it on is right. It creases where you sit and the creases fall out again once you are moving. If you want the straps and cowl to read clearly, pull the sweater's neckline off one shoulder the way it is photographed. Sizes M to 4XL.