Wedding dress codes, explained

Black tie: a floor-length gown or a dressy midi in a formal fabric, evening shoes, an evening bag. The couple means it. Black tie optional: the same, or a cocktail dress with real polish. You are allowed a midi; you are not allowed a sundress.

Cocktail: a midi or knee-length dress with some drama, or a dressy jumpsuit. Semi-formal or dressy casual: one step down. A dress you could wear to a nice dinner, or tailored trousers with a silk top.

Garden party: daytime, outdoors, often on grass. A printed maxi or midi, flats or a block heel, a hat if you like one. Beach formal: light fabrics, long or midi, sandals that survive sand, nothing that needs a heel. Casual: the couple genuinely means relaxed, but still not what you wear to the supermarket.

No white, ivory or cream unless the invitation asks for it. That rule holds at every level of formality and in every country.

Match the formality of the venue, not the word on the card. A black tie wedding in a barn and a black tie wedding in a hotel ballroom are not the same outfit. When the two disagree, dress for the venue and add one formal element.

Shoes decide the day. Grass, cobblestones, sand and a hotel dance floor each rule out a different pair. Pick the shoe for the ground first and the dress second.

The reason dress codes cause panic is that you are decoding them alone at eleven at night with the wedding on Saturday. You do not have to.

Put the wedding in your Sleqk planner with the venue, the city and the dress code in the brief. The stylist builds looks from your own pieces that fit the code and the weather for that day, and renders each one on your own photo. If the invitation says garden party, you see the printed maxi and the flats on you, on Tuesday, and the question is settled.