Spring/summer is the season when cute little mini dresses pop up like daisies in the sunshine. If you’re over 35, and following “the rules” made famous on TLC’s “What Not to Wear,” you’ll know that mini-anything and mature women do not go together.

Or do they?

Tory Burch is having a lovely sale right now (see example, left). Many of the dresses are quite short. How can the 35+ woman wear these and still look age appropriate?

One way is to pair this thigh-high summer dress is lightweight leggings and wear it as a tunic instead of a dress. You can see how the addition of white leggings makes this mini dress more wearable, and office appropriate, in fact.

So before discounting some of summer’s best dresses because they’re too short, think about ways to style them to make them more appropriate, yet fashion forward.