Lemaire Dress with Detachable Sleeves

Detachable sleeves are usually a gimmick and occasionally a genuinely good idea, and the difference is whether the garment still looks finished without them. This one does, which is why the silhouette underneath is kept so clean: there is no seaming, no draping, and no detail competing for attention, so when the sleeves come off what remains is a plain sleeveless dress rather than a dress with something missing. The attachment has to be resolved at the shoulder for that to be true, and a clean silhouette is what makes the resolution possible. The practical consequence is a garment with two seasons in it rather than one, which is more than most dresses are built to do. The cloth is 45% acrylic, 40% alpaca, and 15% wool, and it is worth being straightforward about that: acrylic is the largest single component. In a blend like this it is doing specific work, adding resilience and shape memory and keeping the weight down, both of which pure alpaca is poor at, since alpaca is a hollow, low-crimp fibre that insulates beautifully and drapes heavily but has almost no spring of its own. The 40% alpaca is where the warmth, the softness, and the slight halo come from, and the wool adds the memory that holds a shoulder line. Dark espresso is a deep warm brown that shows alpaca’s surface better than a black would.

Why we selected it

Detachable sleeves only work if the dress underneath still looks finished without them, and this one does. The alpaca content is what makes it warm without weight.

Lemaire’s clothes tend to be built so a single garment does more than one job, and detachable sleeves are the most literal version of that instinct.

Materials and construction

45% acrylic, 40% alpaca, and 15% wool. Detachable sleeves and a clean silhouette. Made in Italy, in dark espresso.

Fit notes

The silhouette is clean and unstructured, so it falls from the shoulder rather than being shaped through the body, and the sleeves attach and detach at the shoulder line. A blend with this much alpaca in it has more drape and less spring than a wool knit of the same weight, so it hangs rather than holding itself out. We do not hold measurements, and there is no Lemaire size chart on this site.

Styling

With the sleeves on it is a winter dress and takes a boot; with them off it takes a shirt or a fine knit underneath and moves into spring. Dark espresso is the more interesting brown against cream, camel, and black alike.

Care

Alpaca and wool want airing and brushing rather than frequent cleaning, and the acrylic in the blend makes the cloth more resilient than a pure hair fibre but much less tolerant of heat, so keep it away from hot water and hot drying. Fold rather than hang it, since a soft blend at this weight will stretch at the shoulder on a hanger, and keep the sleeves stored with the dress so they do not become separated from it. Our fabric care guide has a section on garments that are more than one material and one on mohair, alpaca, and other hair fibres.

Related pieces

In alpaca, the Raglan Jacket Liner. The Relaxed Twisted Cardigan is the knit to put over it, and the Soft SB Jacket is the jacket. Everything we carry from Lemaire is listed together.