




My favourite designers for the all-out designer evening, party, dinner dress are Alaia, Self Portrait, Dolce & Gabbana and Diane von Furstenberg, all of whom know how to perfectly flatter the female form. These are real investments that you’ll wear over and over again. What’s not to love?
Then again if you don’t want to splash out quite so much consider Ted Baker, Karen Millen, Sandro and Lauren Ralph Lauren, experts again in flattery, and who doesn’t want a bit (or a lot of that) on Valentine’s Day.





I always love the idea of the little red dress for a dressed up dinner and then end up wearing black and inevitably have a wardrobe full of little black dresses. But red is superb as a standout statement so choose the message you want to give and go for it.





Just one note: Most of these models will be 5’8” tall, quite possibly more so read the small print (which usually tells you how tall the model is), before deciding that that thigh high mini dress is not for you.