A furore erupted on Twitter last week, when a young actress was photographed on the red carpet wearing a very pretty, long-sleeved, high-necked, floor-length floral dress.

The ‘fashion critic’ of some low-rent tabloid ran it with a caption saying something along the lines of: ‘How frumpy, she should choose something a little more fun for someone her age.’

It maddened me for various reasons. One, because the majority of fashion critics has no idea what they’re even looking at, and two, they do not know how to evaluate what a women is wearing if the outfit is not overtly sexy and revealing.

You get ‘strict’ when a woman wears a pantsuit. You get ‘boring’ if she is in jeans and a blazer. And you get ‘frumpy’ if she’s in a pretty dress that doesn’t show her cleavage or her legs.

The current trend for long-length, prairie-style dresses is one of the better trends we’ve seen for a while and I, for one, hope it’s here to stay.

Kate Moss nails the boho, prairie-style look. Photo: Instagram

It’s a fashionable take on modest dressing, which means it’s inclusive for people of faith and a godsend for those of us who don’t want to show off skin and just want to look pretty.

I always remember an interview with the fashion designer Tom Ford when he was banging on about how most of all, when they get dressed, women want to look sexy, they want to look desirable, blah blah blah.

Do we? We dress for brunch with friends, for work, for social events such as weddings, christening and bah mitzvahs, sport, gym, shopping.

Nobody I know thinks, ‘hmmm, best I pop my bosoms out tonight for dinner at my mother-in-law’s’. I have never in my life put on something, looked in the mirror and thought, ‘whoa, sexy’.

I’ve thought, I think I look okay, presentable, smart, and chic – hopefully.

But I’ve never thought micro-minis, or masses of cleavage, or tight pants or those dreadful cropped micro-singlets Kim Kardashian wears with everything are sexy – just obvious.

Kim Kardashian: No. not sexy. Just obvious. Photo: Getty

To call a young woman wearing a beautiful, demure-looking floaty boho dress ‘frumpy” is just spiteful. These new romantic dresses look so good on young women – all women actually – and the idea that there should be pressure on them to wear some lame, skimpy outfit is infuriating.

In my opinion, fashion critics (and I use the term with some irony) don’t understand prints – women who choose to wear them are compared to sofas, shower curtains, circus tents.

I feel it’s time that we turned our backs on seasonal trends and jaded commentators and hold on to styles when we love them. At a wedding recently, I met a very elegant elderly woman who was wearing a striking blue satin suit, a jacket with a matching straight skirt.

Not frumpy. Classy actually. Photo: Instagram

We sipped our champagne and sat together commenting on all the gorgeous dresses the guests were wearing, from long bias-cut satin slips to romantic floral boho versions – classic styles that looked beautifully appropriate at every age.

Tom, no one wanted to look sexy. They just did.