Dress designs are created in different silhouettes, styles, colors, patterns and lengths. The dress length plays an important role in adding to the overall look. There are different lengths from floor length dresses, knee length dresses to tea length dresses. All these have unique implications like occasion appropriateness, age appropriateness and body type appropriateness.

Floor length dresses

These lovely dresses are mostly chosen for formal occasions. With their elegant styling and cut floor length dresses translate into high fashion statements. These long dresses are generally worn just below the ankle and sometimes come with lovely little trains at the back for added sophistication and attraction. The dress style can be worn with any body type, but there are certain considerations in terms of height. Slinky long body forming dresses looks extra sassy and sultry on slim tall body shapes. However, if you are little on the chubby side you can still select dresses that match your body shape, and you can always add an inch or two of your structure with a pair of high heels.

Tea length dresses

This style was made popular by the New York fashion scene but they originated from Europe and were then called as tea gowns. Tea length dresses were first meant for wearing at evening semi-formal functions like tea parties. During the recession in America women opted for shorter hemlines that ended in the region of mid-calf and they were much similar to the tea gowns created in Europe. These days any dress that fall anywhere between the knee and over the ankle are called tea length dresses and are mostly worn by older women. These dresses are less fancy than elaborate ball gowns however they can project a much more festive outlook than the mini dress. They are ideal formal wear and provide a perfect ladylike look with a touch of sassy glitz.

Knee length dresses

Knee length dresses are shorter than the tea length ones and the hemlines generally just skim the knee. They are very popular choices for summer dresses. The dresses are also fast becoming hot as an alternative to conservative floor length wedding dresses.

So now you have a better idea of the must have lengths for your seasonal and formal wear it is time to start on an adventure. There are many exciting exotic choices to give you any look you have been coveting as long as you know the right place to start looking.

My mother's scrubs are not just practical. They are a way for her to maintain purpose and individuality within a gruelling profession and work week.

I suppose no one thinks of work uniforms as fashionable. Hard hats, lab coats, steel-toe boots, nursing clogs--they're not meant to look good; they're meant to get things done. One assumes they need to convey nothing more than practical, efficient professionalism. And that's because you haven't metmy mother. My mother makes scrub uniforms look fashionable. Her nursing scrubs convey, yes, practicality andefficiency and professionalism, but also a sense of personality that will not be subdued by drab clothing that looks like everyone else's. She is a woman who believes in everyday fashion, not just for special occasions. I'm afraid she can be a little contemptuous of those who consider fashion beyond them or not worth the daily effort.

On weekends, we would find ourselves at stores filled to the rafters with scrubs. She would painstakingly browse through the loud, garish sets of nursing uniforms that virtually assaulted the ill with good cheer. She would find the perfect pastel or shade of pink and match it with a deeper colour. Once she even found an empire-waisted scrub shirt. I was impressed. In the mornings, she would meticulously pair her latest finds with the most understated earring and occasionally a thin necklace. Nothing must ever get in the way of her work because, at its core, this fastidious fashionableness was about her patients as anything else.

The patients love my mother. They can tell the effort she makes and adore her for it. After all, they had never seen dental uniforms as stylish as these. Not even on ER. It brightened their day to see this intelligent, hardworking, well-dressed young person (everyone was young compared to them) fuss about them and ensureall was as it should be. By the end of a 12-hour work day, my mother is exhausted, hungry, and sleep-deprived. But she catches a glimpse of herself in a mirror in the staff bathroom and the person looking back at her is an elegant, dignified professional after a hard day's work, not this lifeless creature who wishes for nothing more than a hot bath, warm meal, and her own bed. And tomorrow, again she will wake at 5 a.m. and put on her perfect combination of scrubs, her earrings, and make her way to the hospital for another 12-hour shift and all will be as it should be.