29 Banger Long-Sleeve Dresses to Get You Through Work, Dinners, and Events

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(Image credit: Zara; Pictured: Zara Short Ribbed Dress ($40))

It's not so often you'll catch me wearing dresses or skirts. I just love low-key trousers—I really do. But I have this highly specific thing for long-sleeve dresses, which occupy an entirely different (and much more stylistically chill) space in my brain.

At the risk of being weirdly precise, my long-sleeve-dress crush started in September 2019 when I visited the showroom of designer Maggie Marilyn to do a little shoot around New Zealand Fashion Week, and I impulsively bought this dress. I fell in love with the satin-twill fabric that felt like it was poured on, the weight of the ultra-long sleeves, and how it hung when I raised my wrist as if to hold a drink.

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(Image credit: Natalie Cantell)

After this dress spent far too long hanging in my closet, I finally wore her to low-key get married (just on paper ahead of my proper wedding) over some famously not-so-low-key martinis at Bemelmans on the Upper West Side. As I admired how effortlessly the sleeves of my dress peeped out from below the cuffs of my blazer, I wondered why I didn't have this dress on heavier rotation.

Here I am, making sure you're not also missing out on a chic, easy outfit that's essentially a one-and-done brain holiday when it comes to getting dressed for work, dinners, events, or weddings (your own or someone else's). I suppose I should follow up with a story sharing blazer-and-dress combos. In the meantime, enjoy this curation of excellent long-sleeve dresses to shop this season—I guarantee you already own the blazer that will pair with them perfectly.

Natalie Cantell
Executive Director, Brand Studio

Natalie leads the style direction for the all content we create in partnership with our friends at various brands plus the legendary team of editors who work on those shoots and stories. She loves collaborating and storytelling, so it's a really fun role for her. It's also the first full-time job she's ever had⁠! She started out in her career as a very mediocre model who agreed to her first styling job to impress a photographer she had a crush on, which led her down a happy path of contributing to Vogue Australia and working as a stylist, fashion writer, and creative director for all sorts of brands and titles. She has a bachelor of communications, but most of her career opportunities came up thanks to some fleeting and accidental street style moments. She's been at Who What Wear for three and a half years and still loves to work as a freelance consultant with brands and designers to shoot their campaigns in NYC. She's originally from New Zealand, and Bondi Beach is her second home, but like just about every other 20-something, she fell in love with New York at some point. She lives in Williamsburg with her fiancé and their weird little dog, Ruby. If you ever need reccies for feel-good fashion, legit coffee spots, politics podcasts, or non-intimidating yoga studios, she's very much your girl.