The Joni dress is another of the Voodoo Vixen dresses from their Spring/Summer line that I saw at London Edge and immediately knew I had to have. The print on the Joni dress features white anchors and ship wheels on a navy blue background, the perfect nautical print, but this same print is also featured on the Gywenth dress, the cute strapped wiggle counterbalance to Joni’s cap-sleeved flare design. They are lovely pieces and I kind of want to own them both, but for now I have Joni, whom I took to the beach recently to show her off in her natural habitat. Of course it took only a couple of minutes for the delightful British seaside wind to blow my pincurls to bits, as I should have foreseen, requiring a brief retreat to the car for an emergency bobby-bin salvaging session with my hair. (I think I deserve a Brownies badge in Emergency On-The-Spot Hair Salvaging Without Help Of A Mirror Or Brush.) Hair disaster only barely averted, Joni and I went for a bit of a wander around the slightly less windy wish tower and seaside pathways instead.

I love this print. Nautical designs are probably top of my favourite style themes so the print on this dress makes me happy, and while the Joni has a flared skirt rather than a full circle I was still able to fit a slim petticoat for this shoot. Said skirt falls below the knee, the perfect retro length for a sundress. It comes with a matching belt which features the same piping trim as along the skirt and the bustline, trim that makes for a lovely detail. The cap sleeves, rather than being tight as can be the case with some cap sleeves, are pleasantly roomy, which means they’re both more comfortable and more flattering than their less generous sisters found on other dresses. To top it all off, this dress also includes another thing I love: pockets. Thank you, Poseidon! (See what I did there? Rather than saying ‘thank you God,’ I went with the god of the sea, because…you know, because of the print. Because it’s nautical. Funny, right? Man, I’m so glad you got that or else this could have been awwwkward.)

Ahem. Anyway. Let’s address the fit, shall we?

As I’ve said before, Voodoo Vixen don’t size by UK dress sizes and have their own perimeters for what fits their S/M/L/XL letter sizes. I’m a 32 inch waist, nearer 33 when I’ve eaten a buffalo or two and spent approximately eleventy-hundred hours straight watching Netflix in a reclined position, so I decided to size into the XL for this dress to cover my bases, as I tend to with VV. Unlike the Chelsea peach gingham dress I just reviewed from the same Spring/Summer line, which fit snugly and wasn’t a material with much give, this dress is roomier on me and has more stretch in the fabric as well. I don’t mind that because it means it’s a perfect dress for actually doing stuff in–beach trips, running around after my nieces and nephews, eating without feeling like I just did myself a great injury, going for a sunny stroll, playing jump rope and hopscotch, racing random strangers to the mail box, you know, the usual. If you find yourself between sizes on the size chart then I think you could size down in this dress, otherwise simply use the belt provided to cinch yourself in more.

This dress makes for a cute outfit with only a couple simple additions, such as the bangles and rope style wedges I added styled it with. If you have better hair than the windswept mess I ended up with on this shoot then you’ll look damnright adorable in a trice.

You can get Joni for £49.99 from Voodoo Vixen in sizes S-XL, as well as from other stockists, and hopefully they’ll add this dress to their plus size range, as I know a lot of gorgeous Plus pinups are eager to get their hands on it too.