Tilda | Abstract Print Relaxed Pocket Midi Dress

The room to walk comes from the splits, not from making the whole dress wider.

A pull-on dress with no buttons and no zip has one hard constraint: the neck opening has to be big enough to get over your head. The neckline is also the piece that grades the least, so on a bigger size it is either tight going on or it has been cut so deep and so wide across the chest that it won't stay where you put it. The side seams cause the second problem. A boxy dress with closed straight seams needs to be wide enough at the hem to take a stride, so the fix is usually to widen the whole garment — which turns it into a tube from the shoulder down, and still pulls tight across the thigh the moment you sit. Fabric decides the third. A crisp woven in a boxy shape holds its own shape, standing away from the body as a rectangle that has nothing to do with the person inside it.

Tilda answers each of those with a different part of the garment. The neckline is a notch — a short V with a split at its base — so the opening gets its length from the split rather than from being cut wide across the chest, and it goes over your head without sitting open afterwards. The hem is curved up at the sides and split, so the stride comes from the openings instead of from extra width everywhere. And the cloth is light and crinkled, which means the boxy cut collapses into soft vertical folds rather than standing out; the shape follows you instead of holding itself. The shoulders are dropped and the sleeves are cut long, wide and open, made to be turned back so the cuff sits wherever you put it.

Why it works

• Notched V neckline: the split at the base gives the opening its length, so it goes on over your head without gaping across the chest afterwards.
• Curved hem with side splits: the room to walk comes from the splits rather than from widening the whole dress.
• Light crinkled fabric in a boxy cut: it falls into soft folds instead of standing away as a rectangle.
• Dropped shoulders, wide open sleeves: nothing lands on your shoulder point, and you set the cuff by turning it back.
• Faded, soft-edged suzani print: no hard lines to distort and no single motif that has to be positioned on the chest.
• Front pockets and no waist seam: somewhere for your hands, and nothing that has to find your natural waist.

Fit note

Deliberately oversized — a lot of fabric, drafted to hang well away from the body, so your usual size gives the shape in the photos rather than a snug one. The weave is fine and open and lets light through, most obviously across the skirt in direct sun. It's made to be worn with the sleeves turned back; the contrast shows on the turn. The back hem sits lower than the front and the sides are split, which is the cut and not a fault. Sizes M to 4XL.