As much as I love a wonderfully glam dress, these days I think it excites me more to find a dress that can be worn both truly casually, in all the modern ways that that means to me, right through to a vintage inspired look that can morph with the season and my mood. The Perrie shirtdress by Lindy Bop can do both of those things with ease, and in this navy colourway it’s ready to be rocked year round.
I was thinking the other day about the kinds of prints I love and why, and for some of them it boils down to something surprisingly simple: squares. My winter favourite, plaid, and my summer favourite, gingham, are both prints created by criss-crossing coloured lines to create squares of various sizes. As boring as that sounds, that description can also be applied to picnic blankets, and is there a single person out there who’s willing to say they hate picnics? If there is, there shouldn’t be.
This Lindy Bop Claudine dress makes me think of picnics, and buttercups, and being a bit too excited to be able to bust out one’s sunglasses for the first time this season because the sun, and even some warmth, are finally here. Let’s soak it all in!
Obviously there’s a lot of styles within the mid-century fashion realm that ooze elegance. Once you remove poodle skirts from the line up, it’s basically all of them. One of my favourites, yet also probably the style type I own the least of, is the coat dress. They somehow aren’t reproduced as often as I would expect them to be, given they are practically a superlative in sophistication, but when they are, they win me over every time.
As much as I love the plaids, tartans and rich tones of dressing in winter, normally by the time February rolls around I’m chomping at the bit for springtime, my favourite season. This year is no different. I’m starting to get the itch to dig out my summer wardrobe, with its tropical and fruity prints, its bold colours and bright tones. The weather just isn’t quite there yet though, but on the occasional sunny day I think we’re getting to the point where a light pastel dress isn’t going to look out of place despite the date on the calendar. Enter Matilda, my new daffodil darling.
I am a sucker for mustard. The colour only, not the condiment. If you try to put English mustard on my plate for Sunday roast, I will make sure it doesn’t touch any of my delicious, sacred food. If you put American mustard on my hot dog, as happened to me last summer after an hour’s wait in line at the seaside one summer evening, I will be full of rage. But the colour–that I can’t get enough of.
It’s no great surprise, therefore, that when I saw this mustard yellow Marianne set from Lindy Bop my reaction was ‘Yes please!’ I have mustard cardigans, accessories and shoes so far, but no swing dress, despite my wardrobe being about 90% swing dresses. So, really, it kind of had to happen.
I’m a big fan of simple spaghetti strap vintage style day dresses. Done in my favourite way, they’re boned with gathered skirts and an amazing print or two. I was curious, therefore, when I saw that Lindybop seemed to have released something similar recently, with, obviously, the cheaper Lindy Bop price tag, the Marlene dress.
The Marlene dress is lightweight, inexpensive, and comes in 4 super cute prints. Anyone who’s read my previous reviews of Lindy Bop know that I often have issues with fit–almost always the waist will be too roomy compared to the size chart specifications and yet the sleeves will be tight. This dress obviously doesn’t have sleeves, so I knew it would be safe on that front, but when I ordered the banana leaf print purely on the basis of being so enamored with the print I did so mostly out of curiosity and convinced That I would have to send the dress back.
I was pleasantly surprised…sort of.
Full details of how this dress faired over a few hours of gentle wear follows the results of a quick photo session spent with my 9-year-old niece let excitedly behind my camera.
I’m not a huge wearer of circle skirts because I like my skirts so voluminous that I prefer my skirts to be gathered, amounting to being a full circle skirt double plus in puff factor. That said, for a more casual look or practical situations sometimes a ‘mere’ full circle is preferred or required, so over time I’ve tried out a few here and there. Two I own are the Paula skirt by Hell Bunny and the Peggy skirt by Lindybop. Below I’m wearing both skirts over the Lindybop 26″ petticoat and with my Pinup Girl Clothing Peasant top in white. Continue reading
I’ve been reviewing several more pricey repro pieces lately so it was time to look at a budget-friendly piece. I recently bought the Courtney dress from Lindybop, a short sleeved version of their gorgeous Vivi dress. Both versions of this dress feature a gathered skirt, fabric belt and a collar bust. The Vivi has three quarter length sleeves, while the Courtney has short sleeves, but both feature a gorgeous sleeve detail of turn-up winged cuffs. I loved the Vivi when it first appeared on the scene but only tried it and never bought it, so with the weather warming I secured myself a Courtney in navy, my favourite colour, and was super excited to see what it was like.
Part three of this Pinup in Sleeves series is coming to you as a guest post from my darling friend Sophie, fellow British Belle, blogger at Petticoatsandteacups and Instagrammer @missfififvonfosse.
Hello readers! Fifi von Fosse here from Petticoats and Teacups, invading Miss Amy May’s Pinup in Sleeves series! As a vintage loving gal liking a little bit of upper arm coverage, I jumped at the chance to write a little post for you, telling you all about the gorgeous LindyBop ‘Holly’ dress.
So picture the scene. It’s early November, and you are just starting out your search to find the perfect festive dress. Up pops the Holly and voila- the search is over! Coming in at £29.99, it wasn’t exactly a bank breaker, especially leading up to the Christmas shopping rush, and the gorgeous deep berry colour just screamed festive perfection to me.
Fear not! I haven’t forgotten about this Pinup in Sleeves series. One of the dresses I wanted to add to this list that I’ve been lusting over for a couple months now is the Lindybop Ramona dress, but for a long time it was out of stock in my size. I placed it on my Christmas list a few months back thinking if it happened to come back into stock before Christmas maybe one of my family members could get it for me, but otherwise it would just sit on my list as a reminder to snap it up when it did come back into stock.
Mid-December Ramona reappeared and I not-so-subtly asked my mum whether it would be best for me to buy it then for myself in case no one noticed it being restocked and I missed the buying window. My mumma told me to send her a link to the dress and we both pretended I didn’t know what I would be getting for Christmas. The day came! My present was opened. Hello Ramona, you darling! Which means I’m able to add her to this sleeved dress series for you lovely ladies who are, like me, searching for warmer pieces to add to your pinup wardrobe during winter.
The Ramona dress is the most affordable dress in the series of dresses I’ll be reviewing, though other Lindybop dresses at a similar price point will appear on the final wishlist I’ll be sharing at the end of the series showcasing other dresses I like but don’t own in order to give a full review. As it’s currently out of stock I can’t find the price listed anywhere and because it was a gift I don’t have an invoice I can check, but I know it would have been between £27.99-£34.99. Lindybop ships at a flat shipping rate of £1.99 in the UK, no matter how many dresses you order, which is kind of incredible. It regularly goes out of stock on the Lindybop site as well as many others that carry it, so if you decide it’s a must own for you you might have to sign up to some stock notifications to wait it out.
Miss Amy May 