Knee-Length Dresses for Your Ladylike Side

Showing a little leg? Great. But showing a lot of leg? That's so 2007. This year flaunt what your momma gave you in the must-have knee-length dress. The prim and proper style is turning out to be the It look of the season, and your favorite brands have taken note. Vera Wang offers up an elegantly feminine short-sleeve number with a sexy side slit, while Nanette Lepore took the floral route. Rachel Pally's in on the action with her signature slinky jersey, and DVF does the length (and has been doing it for years) to perfection. So give your mini a rest and give ladylike a try. Find the knee-length dress that suits your fancy, at shopbop.

A Girl Cannes Dream

Many years ago, when I was but a junior in college fresh off a semester abroad in the City of Lights, I foolishly (and accidentally) booked my flight home out of Nice during the very week that neighboring Cannes was hosting its famous festival. Attempting to find a hotel room only a week in advance was my second mistake, and I had to resort to begging a bed off my very kind host mother from the first two weeks of my sojourn.

Sadly, that was my closest brush with the glamorous event, but it’s been enough to arouse a delusional sense of “I’ve been there” at the beginning of the festival every year since. Today kicks off the 2008 run, promising a flock of Hollywood A-listers and their international counterparts, as well as a red carpet that rivals the Oscars and lasts eleven days longer. The always insightful style.com took a look at the festival’s fashions through the years, and it got me thinking (okay, daydreaming) about the dresses I’d wear were I to attend the star-studded event.

First and foremost I’d don the Jovovich-Hawk Paloma Long Dress (pictured above). It’s old Hollywood glamour and incredible comfort (a necessity of luxury, per Ms. Chanel) rolled into one. Day two would find me in Milly’s Coin Beaded Long Halter Dress for a beachy take on elegance, and day three would be reserved for a little sass in the Vera Wang Lavender Label Sequined Sheath. Days four and five would return to glamour with Alice + Olivia’s Beaded Cross Chest Long Dress and Jovovich-Hawk’s Mina Dress. But what about days six through twelve, you ask? That’s when I’d ditch the flash bulbs in favor of the blue waters and picturesque beaches this coast is known for.

It’s a dream perfumed with champagne and sea spray, and I won’t be letting it go anytime soon. Because, let’s face it, everything’s a little more romantic en français.