If there’s one thing the weather lately has been calling for, it’s a maxi dress. I only own a handful because I’m really specific about what cuts I like, but this floral number from Dolly & Dotty? It easily checks off the boxes on my list.
If you’re a regular reader here you must know by now that I love MAK Sweater’s cropped cardigans, since I wear one with practically every outfit. Upper arm coverage, that extra layer to combat the famously tricky English weather, and cropped above the natural waistline so that the silhouette of our 50s dresses can do their very most? Yes please! I own their pinup cropped cardigan in every colour that works for my wardrobe, but I’m always hoping for more–more colours, more prints, more MAK. So today I’m very excited to try out 3 new styles!
One of the thing’s I feel like the vintage style realm gets right that the wider fashion world doesn’t is the appropriate level of love for mustard yellow–which is to say, a lot of it. Sure, you can go out and buy a mustard handbag, shoes, cardigan even, but a dress? That just doesn’t happen a lot, even in the vintage-inspired world. So there’s almost no point in telling you how happy I was when I saw this Collectif dress for the first time, is there? No, exactly, you get it.
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One of the best things about summer, to me, is being able to wear floaty summer dresses. Give me a strappy sundress on a hot day and I will be relieved and happy. In England, of course, you often have to have a cardigan to hand in case the sun comes with a breeze, or just disappears later in the day entirely. But even considering that, a sundress day is a happy day, and this Chiara dress is ready to please.
If there’s one item of clothing that works as a perfect wardrobe staple for vintage-style lovers, it’s a gathered skirt. They’re easy to dress both up and down, you can use them to create a great 1950s inspired outfit but you can also just rock them in a dozen ways to look entirely modern. They’re easy to wear, offer variety, and, if you’re super lucky, they have pockets, like this awesome Victorine 50s skirt by Hell Bunny.
Folks who aren’t a fan of heels are often still lovers of wedges, and for good reason. For many, heels are too painful or too hard to walk in, but wedges are very forgiving on both of those issues. And these Martinique wedges look good while forgiving our feet!
There are many ways it’s hard to be a small business. Having limited resources, the financial pressure of making it work so you can meet your bills or pay for your kid’s after school clubs, the gamble of stocking a new product you believe in that customers might not ‘get’ at first, trying to build up your return customer base as well as your brand recognition so you can reach new potential customers. And if you’re a small business owner who has bigger dreams, who wants not just to stock and sell but to design, to manufacture, to create, it’s harder still to build up and spend out the cost of fulfilling that dream. To create something that is yours and yours alone to offer your customers, something you made with love and passion and great hope. I’m not sure that kind of vision and bravery is something I would ever find in myself, but the beautiful thing about having my own tiny corner of the internet is that I can share the lovely things made by braver, more imaginative people than I, and today I do just that. Today we’re looking at the first dress made for Cerys’ Closet’s own brand, and it’s a made in UK beauty!
Last spring Collectif released their Jemima dress, an instant favourite that sold out in both then-available colours. It came in cream and navy, both sporting multi-coloured polka dots, making it ever so cute and sweet and fun. This season? Oh, this season Jemima is back in a big way, not just in new colours but also in new prints. And me? I’m a little bit obsessed with this palm print.
There are two colours that are woefully under-represented in my wardrobe, brown and grey. Happy days, then, that this Baran-Blue dress by Miss Candyfloss features a delightful abstract graphic print on a background shade that is a perfect mix of the two.
I’m a pretty equal opportunity colour-wearer. It’s only really pink that I consciously avoid wearing as a block colour, but despite that there are several colours that don’t make it into my wardrobe often, with coral and brown among them. Seeing me in this dress, therefore, has probably come as a bit of a surprise, for you and I both.
Miss Amy May 