Sleeves on a silk dress are not a compromise. They are often what makes the dress. A flutter sleeve softens the shoulder in a way that bare styles simply cannot. A long silk sleeve catches the light differently with every movement. And practically speaking, sleeves take a silk dress from occasion wear into genuinely useful territory, covering the arms at work, at dinner, at a wedding where the venue will be freezing regardless of the season.

We have always believed that sleeved silk dresses get overlooked in favour of their strappy counterparts, and we think that is a mistake. The fabric does something particular with sleeves that other materials do not. It drapes. It moves. A silk sleeve never looks stiff or overdressed. It looks considered.

The dresses in this edit range from delicate short sleeves in washed silk to proper long sleeved styles in heavier weights that work well into autumn. We looked for cuts where the sleeve is genuinely part of the design rather than an afterthought. These are the silk dresses where the extra layer is not just useful. It is the whole point.