Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have a plus size formal dress with sleeves?

Yes, mostly in black. A plus size formal dress with sleeves is the rarest thing on any formalwear rail, and here the long sleeve sits on a black maxi with a high slit, sizes to 4XL, a black long sleeve dress for the evening, and a navy satin ruffle mini for the shorter end. A plus size formal gown with sleeves in sequin exists in wine red, navy and silver, and those run to XL. If the gown you want is bare-armed, a fitted wrap in the same color family does the ceremony and comes off at the table, and nobody remembers the wrap.

Is a short dress ever formal?

Yes, when the fabric is doing what the length is not. Plus size formal dresses short enough to show the knee work for a cocktail dress code, a rehearsal dinner and any evening event that is standing rather than seated, and they work best in satin or metallic ruched fabric rather than jersey, because the shine is what reads formal when the hem does not. Ruched minis in black and metallic green, a satin ruffle mini in green and a long sleeve satin mini in navy all sit in the plus range. Floor-length is the safer read for a seated dinner. Short is the better one for a room you are going to move around in.

Does black tie mean I have to wear black?

No. Black tie is an instruction to the men in the room, and for you it means floor-length in any color that holds up under low light. Deep green, wine, navy and gold read richer under a chandelier than black does, and they separate you from the tuxedos in every photograph, where black puts you inside them. Black is never wrong at black tie. It is simply the choice that photographs as part of the furniture. If you want one color that reads formal, expensive and unmistakably yours, take the green.

Can I wear sequins to a formal event?

Yes, and it is the fabric most of this edit is built in. The rule is coverage rather than sparkle: an all-over sequin gown to the floor is formal, a sequin mini is a party, and the difference is the hem, not the beading. Pick a pleated or elastic sequin over a flat one if you will be sitting through a long dinner, because pleats move when you do and flat panels crease across the lap. Under a spotlight, gold and silver give back the most light and black sequin the least, which is the quiet option if you want the texture without the announcement.

How do I keep a strapless gown up all night?

Buy it in the size that fits your bust, not your hips, and let the hip out if it needs it. A strapless bodice stays up on fit, not on tape, and the point where it fails is always the same one: too big across the top by the second hour. The feather strapless maxis here run XS to 2XL and are cut with a fitted bodice for exactly that reason. Wear a longline strapless bra underneath, sit down in it before you decide, and twist to look behind you. If it moves in the mirror, it moves at the table.

Which measurement should I go by if I cannot try it on?

The bust, on anything with a fitted or structured bodice, because that is where a formal gown runs closest and it is the hardest place to alter afterwards. Waist and hip can be let in or out by a seamstress in an afternoon. A bodice cannot. Check the size selector on the dress itself rather than the collection, since the ranges change by style here. Between two sizes, take the larger one. A bodice that is slightly loose can be taken in. One that is slightly tight will not close, and you will find that out at seven o'clock on the night.

Plus Size Formal Dresses

Formal is the invitation that comes with rules, and the rules are the easy part. The hard part is a gown that still looks like the photograph at eleven at night, after the dinner, the speeches and the dancing. Plus size formal dresses here start from a plus pattern, not from a straight size stretched until it stops arguing, and the place you can tell is the bodice. A neckline that stays where it was put is the whole difference between a gown and a dress you keep adjusting.

Start with the length

Start with the length, because the invitation has already decided it for you. Black tie, and anything with the word gala on it, means floor-length, and a plus size formal gown that touches the floor reads correct before anyone has looked at the rest of it. Plus size long formal dresses here run in satin, in all-over sequin, in pleated fishtail and in floral lace. If the card says cocktail or semi-formal, the floor is optional and the knee is the line. Plus size dresses formal enough for the first kind and relaxed enough for the second are two different rails, and this is the first one.

Then the fabric

Then the fabric, which is the part that decides the night. Satin holds one long clean line and photographs like it cost more than it did. Sequin throws the light back at the room, which is why glamorous elegant plus size evening gowns are nearly always beaded or sequined, and why they weigh more, so the bodice underneath has to work harder. Pleated sequin moves with you; flat sequin does not. Lace reads softer and quieter, and it is the one fabric here that runs all the way to 6XL, with the sequin maxis reaching 4XL. Satin for the ballroom, sequin for the dance floor. Lace if the invitation came in an envelope.

What formal actually means

Three words get used on invitations and they are not the same word. Formal is the floor, a proper dress code, and usually a seated dinner. Cocktail is the knee, and it covers most parties, work events and the rehearsal dinner the night before. Evening is the loosest of the three and can mean either, so it is the one to read the venue on. No dress code at all means floor-length at a wedding and knee-length at anything with a lanyard. For a wedding specifically, the guest rules are about the couple rather than about you, and that edit lives on its own page.

See plus size wedding guest dresses, plus size cocktail dresses and prom dresses.

The shoes, and the walk

Last thing. A floor-length gown hides the shoe and shows the walk, so the heel is a height decision and not a color one. Pick the height you can hold for four hours and hem the gown to it, in that order, because a gown hemmed to a heel you abandon at ten o'clock is a gown you are holding up for the rest of the night. The bag is a clutch or it is nobody's business. Nothing with a strap over a gown.

Finish it with high heels. Also in plus size maxi dresses, plus size sexy dresses, plus size mini dresses, sequin dresses and the full plus size clothing edit.