The high low hem is one of those cuts that looks considered without requiring you to have thought very hard about it. Shorter at the front, longer at the back, it creates movement and drama in a way that a straight hem simply does not. We think it suits occasions where you want to look like you made a real decision about what to wear. A summer wedding where you are not the bride. An evening out that calls for something memorable. A birthday dinner where you actually want to feel like yourself.

What we love about the high low specifically is that it shows off good shoes and gives you length at the same time. You are not choosing between the two. The silhouette photographs well, moves beautifully, and works across body shapes in a way that feels genuinely democratic rather than flattering in a marketing brochure sort of way.

We have pulled together the ones that justify the occasion. Not just dresses with an interesting hemline but pieces that feel like the right answer to a long moment worth turning up for properly dressed.