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Midi dresses seem to be the new craze these past few years, and it’s not hard to see why. They offer the formal appeal of a maxi skirt while also offering the sexy and casual vibe of a mini skirt. This gives midi skirts a lot of advantages, resulting in skirts and dresses that are fit for both everyday wear and formal occasions.
While strapless dresses are great and all, there’s something about straps that just feels right. So why not go for both with a one-shoulder midi dress? One-shoulder designs may not be the most practical types of dresses, but they sure do look stylish. Give some of the leading dresses for 2024 a try and see how great they look on you.
Comparing the Top One Shoulder Midi Dress of 2024 in Detail
Yissang — Best Overall
Even if you narrow down your dress search to just midi dresses, there’s still a lot to choose from. If you can’t decide what to wear, take a look at this collection from Yissang. It features single straps, double straps, and strapless dresses, all with different colors and designs. There are also skirts at mini, midi, and even almost-maxi length. With so many options to choose from, you may feel overwhelmed, but with the affordable price tag on all of the items, you can get away with buying a couple and seeing which one’s right for you. The flexibility and amount of choices this product gives to customers helped us judge it as the best overall on this list.
Pros
- Over 100 dresses available in the collection
- Made of 95% polyester and 5% spandex
- Very affordable prices
Cons
- Some of the dresses look and feel low-quality
Jasambac — Perfect for Color Options
Ruffles are a classic design choice for skirts, and even for midi skirts, they still look great. While you’ll usually find ruffles in minis, midi skirts can pull off ruffles well too, provided they’re subtler and lower-profile. These cocktail party dresses by Jasambac are great examples of ruffles used in a more elegant manner than what you’d normally expect. They’re great for social events and gatherings, and the comfort of ruffled dress will allow you to party on for the rest of the night without feeling tight and restricted.
Pros
- Ruffled-skirt design
- Over 20 colors to choose from
- Available in 5 different sizes
Cons
- Much closer to a mini than a midi dress
Mokoru — Simplest Design
While this option may be listed as a “ruffle dress” on the store page, it’s actually the cleanest and simplest product on our list. The lack of any eye-catching features may be a dealbreaker for a lot of folks, but this only makes this dress even more impactful. You see, this option is a bodycon dress, which means that it takes the shape of your curves and contours. Since there’s barely anything else to look at, your curves are accentuated, and this is great if you really want to show off that body of yours beneath an elegant and sexy dress.
Pros
- Simple, plain design
- Bodycon design is perfect for showing off curves
- Premium and comfortable polyester fabric
Cons
- Limited color options
Uonbox — Elite Design
If you’re looking for something that really screams “sexy”, this dress by Uonbox fits the bill. It’s a bodycon dress in a bandage-like design, and its most defining feature is the unique shape of its straps. One strap travels from the right shoulder and wraps all the way to the left side of your neck, the other strap rests just below your left shoulder. It’s a very alluring look, especially since you also show off a bit of cleavage in the process, so keep this in mind if you’d rather not draw too much attention to yourself.
Pros
- Unique and extravagant-strap design
- Made out of imported material
- Bodycon shape
Cons
- Can be a bit too eye-catching
Pofash — Great Value
Who says that dresses need to cost a lot of money to look good? Pofash sells great products at very affordable prices, and their options range from small, mini-pencil dresses to much longer midi versions. Most of the options in this collection are bodycon, so you can really show off your curves. The only real downside to this set is that it has limited colors to choose from — most of the colors are a shade of red, orange or pink, or neutral colors like gray or white. If you’re looking for those particular colors, then great, but if you’re not, you may need to do a little more searching.
Pros
- Affordable midi and mini dresses
- Various design options
- Made completely out of polyester
Cons
- Very limited color selection
Finding Your Next One Shoulder Midi Dress: A Buyer’s Guide
A midi dress can look a lot more elegant with one less strap. Here’s some things you need to know about one-shoulder midi dresses.
What Is a Midi Dress?
Before going into detail about one-shoulder dresses, it’s best to first explain what midi means in case you aren’t familiar with the term. In essence, midi is a classification of dresses that are longer than knee-length but shorter than ankle-length. They usually end at the middle part of your lower leg, hence the term “midi”.
Midi is just one of three dress classifications, the other two being mini and maxi. As you may have already figured out, mini means knee-length and shorter, whereas maxi means ankle-length and longer. Midi dresses can vary in length, but they will never cross the ankle or knee points.
What Makes One Shoulder Dresses So Attractive?
They add a bit of allure
One-shoulder dresses are attractive for the same reasons that strapless dresses are attractive — they show off your shoulder area. While traditional dresses may cover up the shoulders, either due to the design or for adding decoration, modern dresses have done away with the concept to show more skin.
The main difference between one-shoulder dresses and strapless dresses is, well, the strap. Strapless dresses don’t stay in place with a strap but use zippers or other mechanisms instead. On the other hand, one-shoulder dresses may or may not rely on a single strap for support. This varies from brand to brand, with some dresses being easily wearable even if you don’t put the strap on properly.
They’re unique
The uniqueness of one-shoulder dresses cannot be understated. Many dresses rely on straps to some degree for support, whereas strapless dresses rely on other things to stay in place. This is one of the reasons why one-shoulder dresses are so special — they can work either way.
Another thing worth considering is asymmetry. Asymmetry refers to the concept of two sides not having matching patterns or shapes, symmetry though, is the exact opposite. Asymmetry used to be seen as unattractive, but over time people have learned to appreciate its beauty. Asymmetry can help accentuate certain parts of an outfit more than others and is generally something that’ll catch the eyes of others.
Types Of One Shoulder Midi Dresses
Bodycon
A bodycon dress shows your body’s contours by being extremely form fitting. These sorts of dresses are usually seen in formal events and parties, though they can feel a little uncomfortable to wear for the first time.
Frilled
Frilled dresses, unlike bodycon dresses, don’t show off the curves of your hips or legs. Rather, these versions add detail with the help of frills that run along the sides of the skirt. Frilled dresses appear more casual than formal, and you’ll often see them in more casual settings than bodycon dresses.
Bandage
Bandage dresses look like they’re made out of multiple strips of fabric, it’s where they get their name. In truth, bandage dresses are usually made out of a single piece of fabric that gives off a bandaged appearance.
One Shoulder Midi Dress Price Range
A one-shoulder midi dress will usually cost you around $50, give or take. There are many dresses that go for less than $40, with some even reaching the $25 mark. As you go down in price though, you will generally find shorter midi dresses of less-than-ideal quality. On the other hand, $100 will get you a nice dress made out of more premium materials, but expect to spend more than that for anything that’s designer-related.