Black tie tips!

[MrsBigginsPieShop]

Hi
Help please! :)
I have a black tie event to go to. It's work related so legal field. Dilemma is do I do cocktail style black tie or full length black tie. I have an idea of a dress for each. I am 30 and the youngest of six females from my firm going; however none of them intend to go full length. They are doing cocktail with a shrug etc. I am rubbish with pashminas/shrugs so if went cocktail would have bare shoulders.
Cocktail option is black, with embellished neckline and slightly flared skirt just on the knew. Full length is dark navy with long sleeves, scatter of jewels around the neck and a keyhole neckline.
I am 30, a curvy size 10 and about 5'7 in the heels I will probably wear.
Any help much appreciated! Either option? Or scrap them completely?! Thank you x

[AuntieStella]

What exactly is the event, and does it involve sitting down to eat? If it does, and as legal tends to mean at the more trad/formal end, I'd say bare shoulders are a no-no at table.

[MrsBigginsPieShop]

It's a speech, three course meal and dancing. I am leaning toward the full length!

[saintsandpoets]

I always wear full length to black tie. Never been over dressed.

My white tie ball gown is a beauty though. Don't get enough opportunities for that one!

[saintsandpoets]

I'd say bare shoulders are a no-no at table.

Nah, thats not true. Half the room will be wearing strapless.

[dementedma]

Can you be a curvy size 10?
I must be a humungous size 14 if 10 is curvy!

[MrsBigginsPieShop]

I meant by that I have a waist and boobs - not straight up and down :). Have found a cap sleeved full length, so slightly less dramatic than full sleeve. I don't often get a chance to dress up and am slightly desperate to strike the balance between classic, cool, pretty and professional!!
I'm a terrible hoiker at the best of times, so completely strapless is a bit risky.

[SelfLoathing]

I'd say bare shoulders are a no-no at table.

Agree. Strapless is bad for a sit down dinner. People tend to slouch and flower arrangements etc give an effect as if you are naked. The naked/semi-naked effect means strapless looks a bit cheap and is inadvisable at a formal dinner unless you have a shoulder covering for the meal.

Buy a bolero jacket to wear for the dinner then take it off for dancing.

It's work related so legal field. Dilemma is do I do cocktail style black tie or full length black tie.

Generally in the modern world, even "legal field", cocktail dresses will do for a formal work event. Exceptions are if it says "white tie", then full length is advisable or if it is super-formal in the particular field's calendar (eg. the key dinner of that year - often the "noble prize" giving equivalent or the presidential dinner etc).

Basically if you are unsure about long or short, the best advice is to speak to a mid-senior woman who has been a few times before (ie. not the doyenne who is about to fall off the perch and not an ingenue).

If your colleagues are all going cocktail length (and you trust them - ie. this isn't a race for partner and they could be trying to fuck you over because the boss told one of them it is full length or die), then cocktail is fine.

[AggressiveBunting]

I would also say that if it's a work dinner then cocktail would be more usual. However, if the longer dress is relatively plain then I think that would also be fine. Can you link to the cap sleeved full length?

[MrsBigginsPieShop]

Capped sleeve option. The embellishments are diamantes, but not blingy ones.

[MrsBigginsPieShop]

It's a pretty big event in the calendar, speech by senior judge etc. I've google imaged some pictures from previous years and it looks like it's been a real mixture of dresses; some great and terrible examples of long and short. Has made me even more anxious!

[SelfLoathing]

that's a really nice dress - the turquoise capped sleeve one.