Some of my favourite items from last year’s AW season by Voodoo Vixen included those from a design collaboration with Rachel Jensen, blonde bombshell blogger and style maven who exudes non-stop glamour and grace. Rachel’s line featured a gorgeous green and navy plaid in 4 stunning pieces, and those pieces are back again this year alongside the same designs in a red toned plaid too (including a new circle skirt, which I reviewed recently.)

Seeing the success of such a lovely line created by a woman who’s as kind and gracious as she is beautiful is wonderful to see, and this season promises a repeat of gorgeous items proffered by another stylish, beautiful and inspiring lady from our community, the adorable Miss Victory Violet.

Ella (her real name) is a true gem in the online vintage-loving community and has always been nothing but lovely when we’ve spoken, so I was very excited to see what her collaboration pieces would look like, especially as I always got the impression she prefers summer style clothing to winter pieces. What would an autumn/winter range created in her tastes look like? As it turns out, it’s all about grey tartan, a true winter love of mine, and it’s delightful.

Dress: Ella Grey Tartan swing dress C/O Voodoo Vixen
Petticoat: Samantha by Malco Modes
Gloves: Farago
Shoes: Old Primark
Fascinator: Amazon

The 5 items in this collab line include this grey tartan featured on a pencil dress, a swing skirt and this flare dress, a plain black top, and a plain grey dress coat with removable black faux fur trim. I love the grey tartan so much that I couldn’t resist owning both the swing dress and the skirt, because they’re lovely and I am poor at practising self-restraint. But come on, can you really blame me? Look at this dress! I love the structure and definition of it, the contrast of the darker grey panel through the centre of the bodice and the fullness of the skirt. It’s simple but interesting, chic but not intimidating. It’s appropriate for workwear as well as social wear. All in all, you can’t deny it’s a winner and I certainly wouldn’t attempt to.

The bodice features a wing bust and matching fabric covered decorative buttons running down the front centre. There’s a slight puff to the sleeves with some central pleating and the full skirt has pockets. I only wish the matching grey notched belt wasn’t a fabric belt, as I get frustrated that fabric belts almost never come with a fastening belt loop, causing them to flop forward if you can’t cinch them so tightly that the end can tuck into the belt loops on the side of the dress. That small detail aside, this dress is a beauty and I hope to see Ella involved in more collaborations in future, as she has such an eye for vintage style.

The great thing about this season is that Voodoo Vixen were able to expand their standard size range to include an extra plus size, expanding to XXL, with a full plus sized expansion coming next spring/summer. So for ladies who were one size short of being able to buy most VV pieces up until now, you’ll be happy to hear they’re now able to accommodate your fabulous selves. I usually wear XL in Voodoo Vixen but I was starting to find that it was touch-and-go as to whether I could get an XL to fit my bust these days, so the new XXL is a god send. I’m wearing the XXL in this dress as the XL definitely wouldn’t have fit me. The waist flat measures 34 inches with just enough stretch to 35 inches, as it’s a fairly non-stretch fabric, and the bust flat measures 41 with stretch to 42 inches, so it’s a very true to the size piece without much give. Petite ladies will most likely need to get this dress hemmed as the skirt measures 31 inches long.

The Ella Tartan Flare Dress (£60) comes in sizes S-XXL but is mostly sold out on Voodoo Vixen’s website for the moment. They’re due a restock this month but if you can’t wait that long then it’s worth checking their various global stockists, like Top Vintage.