When you’re a bit of a shopaholic, sometimes you have to tow the line and pass over buying something you really want. If you’re lucky you’ll later be pleased you saved your pennies, because your shopping lust for that dress (or lipstick, or pair of shoes) dissipated faster than your attraction to that cute looking dude you saw on the street last week who turned around only to reveal he was sporting a rat’s tail hairstyle.

Those are the best case near-misses. You get to pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself at your Supreme Adulting.

But there are the other kinds of near misses, the times when you talked yourself out of buying a dress because your car tax was due in a couple weeks, or because your sister’s birthday was coming up, or because you were kind of sick of eating noodles every night for dinner. Those times when you did the sensible adult thing of not pressing Checkout Now…and you came to regret it. That lipstick looked amazing on your co-worker, who snagged it three minutes after release before it quickly sold out nationwide. That pair of shoes popped up in the advertisement spaces of every single website you went on for the next week, even though they had since sold out in your size. That dress began to haunt your social media feeds, purchased and worn by all your very favourite Instagram ladies who all looked so gorgeous and glamorous and happy in it.

We’ve all been there. It sucks. Sure, knowing you dumped an ex-partner who kind of turned out to be a bit of a catch can niggle at you, but is there really anything quite as bad as The One Who Got Away when that One is a dress? No. Agreed. Dresses are more important than your love life. I’m glad we’re on the same page here.

So you’ll likely understand my pain when I tell you that all last winter, the Eva Marie dress by Unique Vintage haunted me. I was a sensible growed-up human person (ha) who looked at her bank balance after her recent pre-Christmas trip to the states (and the coinciding shopping binge) and realised she had to cut back on so passionately and impulsively purchasing all the pretty things. So I missed out. Eva Marie sold out in my size, and I regretted that every winter for the rest of my life would come and go without me being able to pull from the depths of my wardrobe the most perfectly chic black and white sleeved swing dress. You know, not that I was being dramatic about it or anything. Basically, I was kinda sad to have missed out.

But guys, ladies, fellow grown-ups, people who may or may not be The One Who Got Away to their exes–she’s back. Eva Marie is fully stocked at Unique Vintage and she is mine. Oh yes, she is mine.

Dress:  Eva Marie Swing Dress C/O Unique Vintage
Bag: Black vintage inspired purse by Lola Von Rose
Fascinator: Self made
Gloves: Primark
Shoes: Old season Everything5pounds.com
Belt: Thrifted

The Eva Marie dress is a true slice of Old Hollywood sophistication, the kind of simple, classic design you can easily picture on Audrey Hepburn in her prime. It’s the kind of dress that genuinely never goes out of style, which makes it a perfect wardrobe staple.

It’s a black full circle swing dress sporting a white portrait collar and ruched half sleeves. It closes with a side zipper but the ruched bust features a centre panel of workable fabric covered buttons, which together with the stretch in the fabric makes it a breast-feeding friendly dress for pinup mummies. As the skirt is a full circle it fits a full petticoat easily, hitting me below the knee at 26 inches long.

It’s made of a sturdy, supple cotton that has tons of stretch, enough to be reminiscent of bengaline fabric. I wasn’t expecting so much stretch and since sleeved dresses can be too tight on my upper arms and shoulders these days, I decided to size up into the 2X for the safest comfortable fit in those areas. The size chart lists the measurements for the 2X as 43 inches in the bust and 36 inches in the waist, but it does run large in comparison. The waist flat measures 38 inches with enough stretch to hit 44 inches flat stretched and the bust flat measures 40 inches but flat stretches to 46 inches. All that give means you can most likely you size down in this dress. That stretch also means it’s a comfy fit in the sleeves for ladies who have larger upper arms or broad shoulders like I do, which is a welcome discovery.

I’m so pleased with how comfortable and timeless this dress is, as I know that means I’ll be wearing it for years to come for all kinds of occasions. For birthday and holiday parties, wedding receptions and christenings, dinner dates, lunch dates, quick trips to the bank on a Saturday morning…basically any excuse to wear it will work. Eva Marie is faultless and I’m glad she’s now The One I Got After All.

The Eva Marie dress costs $98 and is available in sizes XS-4X from Unique Vintage. Unique Vintage domestically ship flat-rate for just $7 and offer international shipping options at a variety of price points, as well as offering a Customer Loyalty program.