A sparkly black mini dress in lurex with a wrap front

The sparkly black mini dress we make is a wrap style in black lurex with long sleeves and a V-neck. There’s just this one, so we’ll tell you exactly how it’s cut and what to wear with it.

Where the shine comes from on this lurex wrap

No sequins here. Lurex is fabric with a metallic thread running through it, which means the sparkle is part of the cloth and covers the whole dress evenly. That’s why we kept the design plain. A wrap front, sleeves to the wrist, a short hem, nothing sewn on top.

The wrap does two jobs. It makes the V-neck, and that V shows your collarbones and gives the neck a longer line. It also lets you pull the waist a little tighter or leave it easier, so the fit isn’t fixed like it would be with a zipper. Long sleeves against a short skirt keep things even, and you can dance or reach across a table without tugging at anything.

For size we need two numbers from you, bust and hips. Check them against the chart on the product page, where XS to XL runs from about US 2 to US 12.

Office party, New Year, then a blazer on a weekday

Most of the time this dress goes out in December. Work parties, New Year’s Eve, a night out with friends. A sparkly black mini dress doesn’t need much jewelry, since the fabric is already doing that work, so we’d stop at earrings.

Tights matter more than you’d guess. Go matte, in black or a skin tone, because shiny legs under a shiny dress is too much. Plain heels are the easy answer for shoes, and tall boots are the warmer one. Over the top we’d put a straight coat, nothing belted or puffy, so the wrap underneath stays flat until you take it off at the door.

Can you wear lurex in daylight? You can. Put an oversized black blazer over it and swap the heels for chunky boots, and the glitter calms right down. If you’d like to see what else we sew in this mood, there’s a page of black shimmer dresses with long sleeves, one of short glitter styles in other colors, and black wrap dresses without the metallic thread.