I'm going to try to get back to this in more detail later, but just wanted now to say thankyou and to answer Dauncens question of "what is the occasion".

I am a small budget and wardrobe person, and my clothing needs to be worn a lot as I'm a high repeater. I would anticipate wearing it once every week, if weather conditions were suitable, for

• work - definitely casual fri, but probably other days too
• church (which is casual)
• MOTG - eg school pickups, going to assembly.
• other smart casual occasions eg out for coffee/lunch

I like 7/8, 6 ( color is great but seems too short) and maybe 10 ( like the fit, but is the pattern limiting? Get only if it has a very high happiness factor for you).

4;5;6 7 knee length or longer with a waist seem to work for you.Finding a good dress is really tricky so good luck!

The red! Gorgeous on you.

I really love #10 on you. The red is also lovely, but for your purposes, is a red dress something you want to wear weekly and casually? It will stand out and probably cause comment - positive comments, but people might not let you forget you are wearing it (again), if you know what I mean. I base this on some red boots and clueless coworkers I once had!

I like the 70ies one and I’m with @Jules on liking #10 as well.

I think many of these need to have the waist hiked up, and if that happens, they would work nicely over pants.

I like 6 and 7 best on you.
I find these prints difficult to wear, especially on a large portion of the body, and especially with long sleeves. You have a lovely figure. The larger flowers are distracting to me.

Hi Anne! What a great job trying on all these dresses! Kudos! My favourite is 7/8 - I really like the shape on you and I think the colour and pattern are good. You look lovely in it. I also like no 6 very much. I like the long sleeves and the shorter skirt - chic. A wonderful cheerful dress, and it suits you very nicely.

Number 7! To me, it's the truly floaty one, maybe because of the open neckline and sheer layers at the lower hem. Very pretty, dressed-up and feminine.

Thanks so much to everyone who replied. I really appreciate it.

A lot of you have said shaping at the waist is good - I tend to agree. The 2 drop waisted ones ( and 5) didn't look good in my opinion.
Angie, not sure if I could blouson

enough.

Some votes for 6 - I liked this too, though I was originally looking for a patterned dress. I take the point seriously Jules made about whether I'd want to wear such a bright colour so often. The waist in that was touching my ribs, it looks ok, but I'm not sure if it would annoy me.

Many of you liked the look of 3 and 4 (which are the same design I think, just different patterns). I do too, but I'm pretty keen to get full length sleeves, not 3/4. I find 3/4 bother me as they are hard to layer over and limit the versatility of the outfit.

Bijou, yes I can definitely see whatever dress I end up with being worn with knee high boots, or black booties going into out winter. I do worry that dark tones aren't the best look for me and it cuts out so much this season as they greyed and autumnal tones that abound are not a good look either. With my olive complexion it is tricky to find the right colours in winter.

Staysfit, I agree that it is hard to assess floaty dresses from static camera shots

Another factor is that dresses 1 to 8 I are from Myer, which I have vouchers for! Buying anywhere else might need to wait for cashflow reasons

What do you all think of the necktie in dress 10 (which I've included a link to now) I feel it is a bit fussy but good for me in that it fills up my neck space. I tied mine lower than the model.

#10 was one of my original picks. I thought it flattered your figure, flowery for spring but not overpowering a print. On the necktie- I had a blouse with that type and I found it not so limiting as one might think. I did options that included several men’s knots for masculine look, simple bow for feminine touch, simple knot and tuck of ends to showcase small brooch on the knot, braid in fake beaded or chain necklace....think of it as a skinny scarf-there are many other ways- just play with it and you will see it is not so limiting as one might think.

Thanks efbgen, useful info re the tie!