Claire's Pick of the Best Black Cami Dresses

For around four years I thought the black cami dress was cheating. That it was the sartorial equivalent of turning up to a dinner party bearing a bottle of wine from the service station. Nothing shedded sweated over or poured your heart into, just black, just slippy, just THERE. I was completely wrong about this and want that to be documented before I continue.

I realised that the cami does what so many dresses simply pretend to do and fail at: it moves with you, as opposed to brushing against you aggressively as you attempt to move. It sits on a real cut bias so it skims instead of clings, it won’t ride up when you sit down at a restaurant for a 3 hour dinner and requires no tweaks to the straps in front of your colleagues or friends.
(I mean that last bit more than it sounds. I wore one to a christening once and spent the entire time doing the one shoulder shuffle because it was cheap. My cousin leaned across at one point and said: “you look like you’re being slowly unwrapped.” Still makes me shudder.)

Fabric is everything here. Cheap satin will pucker like a dressing gown that lost a bet. Proper weighted satin or a silk blend will feel like you know what you’re doing.
If you can catch it in the light before you buy it try this trick: if you can see straight through it, in a way that suggests you need to wear knickers rather than you can wear knickers, then walk away. That said, it will probably be see-through so bear that in mind with the above point.
Style-wise it’s the most versitile item in the black dress wardrobe. And that’s exactly why I was dismissive of it. I thought versitile = boring. It’s not. Throw it under a boxy blazer with the sleeves rolled up and it goes from lazy to “meeting/ dinner!” in seconds. Throw a chunky knit over it with boots and it transforms into something entirely softer and quieter for daytime. Bare shoulders and some nice jewellery and it’s made it to evening all by itself.
Scenario-wise it will go with everything too. It’s your dry drinking friend when it comes to occasions. You never know what you’ll need to peel off depending on where you end up. Got drinks after work that might turn into a full blown evening? Yep, covered. Dinner with someone’s parents where you want to look like you made an effort but not LIKE you made an effort? Black cami dress. It will move with the scenario, rather than throwing it off completely. Something I took way too long and a questionable wine analogy to realise.