A sleeveless black dress is a perfectly good thing, but a black dress with sleeves is a better one for more occasions and we stand by that firmly. Sleeves change the whole calculation. You can wear these to an office and straight to dinner. You can wear them in autumn without immediately needing a cardigan ruining the line of everything. You are warmer, more covered, and somehow no less elegant for it. The sleeve itself is worth paying attention to, whether that is a fitted long sleeve that keeps things sharp, a floaty three quarter length that softens the look, or a structured puff that adds genuine drama. We have pulled together the black dresses with sleeves that actually do something interesting, that earn their extra layer rather than just adding fabric for the sake of modesty. These are the ones that photograph well, that travel without disaster, that work in October as convincingly as they work in March. A great black dress with sleeves is not a compromise on the sleeveless version. It is the more considered choice.