Beautiful dresses to make your shoulders smoulder

Shoulders have always been sexy. Often more so than cleavage. Despite this, strapless, halterneck and off the shoulder dresses can be tricky to get right. When the shoulders get lower, the cleavage tends to follow and it can look a little trashy a goddamn mess. Here are a whole bunch of dresses that will show off your shoulders beautifully.

Slightly off the shoulder dresses like this floral Bardot are a nice way to show a little flesh in the middle of the day. This one is £85 at ASOS so I'm just staring at it and willing the sales gods to do their thing. Perhaps Laura B can put in a good word.

Well now. This pink midi dress is very Carrie Bradshaw circa the time when she wasn't annoying. And it's only £22 (she'd probably have worn it with $400 designer shoes, despite earning roughly $75.60 a week). I can see me wearing this every single day the sun shines this summer. All two of them.

There's a thing that happens with & Other Stories dresses. They can look awful on a hanger. This black off shoulder dress is no exception. It looks awful in the other photos but when it's on a person (one with an incredibly swanlike neck, admittedly) and suddenly it's a totally different story. Take note, online shops. We like seeing your frocks on people.

Vivien of Holloway are the Queens of the retro halterneck dress. They do it better than anyone. You can spot their trademark 50s polka dots a mile off so I'd opt for this red and white cherry print instead. It's £89.99. Get yourself a bra converter if strapless isn't an option, they're excellent little gizmos.

This blue chiffon dress by Mango is just the right side of bridesmaid-y. One shoulder dresses are the happy medium between off the shoulder and strapless but don't wear those horrible clear bra straps. A strapless bra and just one strap should be enough support if you're wearing the right size.

The model in this picture looks just as surprised as me about this pink frill dress from Forever Unique. I kind of love it and I never love anything Forever Unique. It's just bold enough to be brilliant. Only 12s left but it's in the sale so down from a whopping £220 (no, seriously now) to just £44.10 (that's more like it).

If you can pull off this look outside of a tapas bar in Cadiz on your holidays, then for goodness sake please do. This woman looks so foxy. The red belt comes with this black gypsy dress and it's £85 from Tara Starlet.

OK, this evening dress from Bettylicious isn't off the shoulder at all but I bet her shoulders are still cold. Besides, it's too gorgeous to ignore.

It's always with trepidation that I write about Coast. They're very, very expensive and their satin dresses are so popular at weddings that I worry about champagne receptions becoming a fire hazard. But sometimes they knock it out of the park and this strapless gown is £250 worth of sequinned gorgeous. Wear it with better shoes, make sure the wedding photographer doesn't cut off half your face for no good reason.

Hands up if you're leggy and tanned and can wear neon yellow? Then I insist you do, because MY GOD IT'S BEYOND GORGEOUS. Yep, this is Coast showing off (to the tune of £195). If only they were this fabulous all the time.

Bows and pink lace! This is how you look cute while doing off the shoulder. This could actually be a contender for the perfect spring wedding outfit. It's in the ASOS sale so it's down from £75 to £45 but there are only sizes 12 and 14 left so hurry before it's gone and your shoulders are slouched in sadness.