Dress lengths just keep getting longer and longer.

[NaturalScone]

I thought about splashing out on a new dress for summer, as only have the one, but I am discouraged by the growing lengths since the past year or so.
I do recall midi used to actually mean midi (looking at you, M&S!), but now they have definitely grown. I wonder why, if the average woman is 5'4?
Why not offer 2 lengths or just opt for the middle ground?
And seeing as every damn ting is 'tiered' it isn't even easy to shorten them.

I am 5'5 and struggle so god knows how people shorter are getting on.
And yes, I know tall people will be thankful, but it is definitely at the exclusion of all others now, which is typical of the high street I know

Here are just 2 samples from Hush. I just picked them at random. If they are that long on a model, I give up! it's bordering on ludicrous..

Anyone else had enough of dresses and their lurid patterns? I was so happy when they first came back, but they bury or defy the lines of my shape and look like giant curtains now.

I hear you. I'm 5' 0" and most dresses trail along the floor. They all seem to be designed for people over 6' and size 8.

I wouldn't mind so much if they weren't such shit colours and patterns either!
And they are very rarely lined in the skirt.....WHYYYYYY?
M&S make some decent dresses sometimes and with pockets, but don't bother to even add a thin lining. ffs.

I agree, it's so hard to get a nice dress now.

But those dresses are maxi dresses surely?

I’m only 5’3 and find this too. Anything maxi is completely out unless I want to use it as a mop.

I am going to a wedding next month and can’t find anything at all to wear. I’m not tall either!

Everything’s the same style and floral and I look like Hyacinth Bouquet in them.

For me it is when I use the search 'midi' in most stores.
Midi length is pretty much maxi in many places.

Yep any skirt below the knee just drowns me. Bring back skater dresses!

YANBU on the awful patterns. YABU on the length. Even if you didn’t ask 😁.

As someone who is 5’7, so not especially tall, I’m personally sick to death of the frumpy just below knee / above calf length dresses that have been in for YEARS now. I’m delighted longer lengths are back. Y’all shorties have had y’alls time, and you still get the petite range anyway. It’s about time the length came back. Long live the longer lives and vive la lentholution!

Oops… long live the longer lengths!!!

Um, I don’t know if it’s just me but I really like the first dress you’ve attached…

I'm 5ft and pregnant, so the high street has nothing for me right now... I still look online and it all looks quite Little House on The Prairie to me.

I'm the same! And I'm going to a thing in a couple of weeks which the dress code is posh wedding. I just wanted a on the knee dress a bit like what Duchess of Cambridge would wear to Trooping of the Colour. It was slim pickings

christ i really wouldn't like to have to find a dress for an 'occasion' right now!

It’s the economy.

Well known that when the economies in the shit, hem lines go down.

Slightly off topic (sorry) but totally agree! I am short 5’2” - bought a jumper that was supposed to be knee length - it reaches my ankles. I highly suspect dresses would look like I had a wedding dress with a train on.

@MinglingFlamingo but everything she wears is tailored, mostly meaning they need to be longer to start with.

I hope it also means we say goodbye to “ankle grazer” trousers which come half way up your shin if you’re 5’6 or more…. Unless you buy a size up which is too baggy.

(Rubs hands in glee and searches for credit card).

I hate fashion tbh.
I'm tall with thick calves and ankles and prefer to wear trousers.
I can just about pull off the long dresses though I do still have the ankle issue and I will only wear on a v special occasion. I am struggling to buy long enough trousers for the other 364 days of the year.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 buy the petite range… why should everyone above 5’2 have to wear badly fitting clothes just so you don’t have to?

See, I just don't get this push-pull of whether things ought to be longer or shorter. I think we can agree that the offerings are always ridiculous in one way or another - unlike men's clothes!

Proclaiming we are happy to exclude everyone else to suit ourselves isn't working. Off the rack sucks I suppose and this IS the race to the bottom.

And just for the record, I am 5'5 so a midi should fit me seeing as i am the average.

@SonicWomb because the petite range assumes you are petite all over. Thanks to cancer treatment, my boobs are most definitely not ‘petite range’. Why can’t there be a two or three lengths as there are in trousers? Or have gems which can easy be altered? - again like with trousers.

Remember when M&S used to make skirts in different lengths and colours

Not anymore

I have to say I’ve had a quick look and have seen loads of shorter dresses so I’m not entirely sure what you think is missing. There were plenty of mini dresses in addition to these random 3 attached.

Sorry you went through that @Alphabet1spaghetti2 but that’s the problem with off the rail as above, every body shape is different. But the petite range IS there for shorter people, even if the proportions aren’t quite right for you. There is rarely an option for anyone over 5’5… and I’m only just over and nothing works. Your point about trousers is a good one… but there are NEVER any in longer lengths available as they sell out so fast because everything is too bloody short these days. I’d love to see more companies make different lengths for dresses as long as they actually made enough of them. Some places do them though don’t they - I think Boden for example? I don’t really recall seeing many hems that couldn’t be raised either