Before I do though, I wanted to share an anecdote (observation?) with you all that really is a sign of the times. As I was walking up the street yesterday I saw two teenage girls coming towards me. They were dressed in opaque tights, ballet pumps, denim shorts and checked shirts. That wasn't what struck me though. Although side by side they weren't talking. Instead they were walking along looking down at their phones and texting. It took me back to days of walking along with my best friend when we were often laughing so much that we couldn't walk. The thought of walking together but not being together would have been a totally alien concept to me. I didn't think it wrong or bad - just different and vaguely sad.
So, leaving the philosophical thoughts behind. Sleeves - or the lack of them in clothes in the summer can cause real problems. There are lots of shirts and blouses (both silk and non-silk) around this season so tops don't tend to be too much of a problem. There are always the tunic style tops and kaftans which often have sleeves in them too.
The main difficult I find is the lack of sleeves in every day dresses. One obvious thing to do if you really can't find a dress that you like with sleeves is to find the perfect base layer to use underneath it so that every dress becomes wearable. An alternative is to wear some type of cape, shrug or bolero over the top - available everywhere from Primark to Oasis, Monsoon and Hobbs.
Here are a couple of day dresses that might work for you - both from Monsoon and both figure flattering. Whilst plain, they could easily be dressed up with accessories.
Reiss has a lovely navy lace dress with sleeves and also a two tone blue dress which taps into the colour blocking trend. So, hopefully that will give you a few ideas if you don't want your arms on show.
