The Style Files: The Thigh’s the Limit 

Crop tops have long dominated the skin-baring territory of fashion, and it's time for a change. Designers and fashionistas have decided to give abs a break for the immediate future and set their sights on a new region of seduction: the legs, to be exact. A high slit can be tricky territory, because, after all -- that's a lot of leg showing!

However, the fans of this look prove that a high slit dress or skirt is something not too difficult to pull off, especially if you know what you're doing.

Beyoncé (left) and Chrissy Teigen (right)

Modest hemlines seem to be becoming more and more popular these days and a strategically-placed high slit is the perfect way to show a little skin, while keeping that longer, cool hemline. Done right, a split suggests dynamism, movement and modernity: showing a bit of leg in the way a woman in a wrap dress might if she was running late and made a dash to her car.

Karlie Kloss

This season’s longer-length skirts don’t just impede your movement, they can sometimes be very unflattering unless you’re blessed with endless limbs. Cutting in to the frame is a way of trying out a new hemline without being drowned by it.

The key thing to remember about this look is that you need some asymmetry. The wrap dress reference comes in again here. When you wear a wrap dress, there is always a slight overlap of fabric, a visible point where the edge hangs free. The best split skirts echo this by having a slant or a point at the hem. It’s a subtle trick, but it makes it feel as if the split is accidental, a by-product of the skirt having movement.

Emily Ratajkowski (left) and Rita Ora (right)

Keep the colours simple, and the fabrics matt, and choose a shoe with a bit of edge. The one shoe that really won’t work is a safe pointed toe pump,  that takes you into office wear territory, sexed up! Don’t go there.

By Minoli Ratnayake