I’ve reviewed a couple of petticoats on the blog before, the Malco Modes Jennifer and Lindy Bop petticoats. There were pros and cons to both, and for that reason I’ve been thinking lately I need to keep an eye out for other brands to review to give you more information on a wider selection of available pettis. In that light, today I’m reviewing the Froo Froo petticoat by Voodoo Vixen.
As we continue through the chillier seasons my search continues for more half or long sleeved vintage-style dresses, which aren’t always easy to find. It can be easier somehow to find them in thicker, restrictive fabrics, dresses that are smarter or more formal, but a comfortable sleeved piece is rarer. So say hello to the Unique Vintage Iconic Delores dress, a dress that can be both formal and casual depending entirely upon styling! Since Christmas is already nipping at our heels I whipped out this Poinsettia-red dress and styled it simply with the season in mind, thinking of Santa and his big black boots.
Everyone should be able to wear whatever they want, without judgement or comment. Saying that, there are certain things I won’t go near personally because I just don’t feel they work for my body and the way I most like to highlight its features. Maxi dresses don’t show off my waist enough with that large expanse of skirt flowing straight down beneath it, and capped sleeves aren’t kind to my chubby upper arms. I store weight on my lower stomach and have wide hips, as well as considerable butt (awww yeaaah,) but those things mean when it comes to trousers and shorts, I just steer clear most of the time for simplicity’s sake, since I can’t be bothered searching for the perfect fit. Playsuits and jumpsuits, therefore, are clothing pieces I rule out, because when trying some on in the past I’ve found they don’t fit my lower body well and make me feel self-conscious about my squidgy tummy. No one really wants that.
However, I’ve been seeing some bodacious babes rocking some amazing retro jumpsuits lately and it made me feel some things. Miss Victory Violet, Simone of Atypical Girl Clothing and Kerry of Audrey Star’s Boutique are all working their jumpsuits like it’s nobody’s business, and it got me wondering.
L to R: Atypical Girl’s Simone. Audrey Star’s Boutique’s Kerry, and Miss Victory Violet
I have a thing for winter appropriate prints, checks, tweeds and weighted fabrics. They never go out of style, which means when you buy a piece in that kind of fabric you know you can wear it year after year regardless of the passing current trends. This holds even more true when the pieces are vintage inspired, so I was pleased to see that Voodoo Vixen made several pieces in their AW15 line that fit this outline.
The Pia pencil skirt is the one that most caught my eye from the VV workwear appropriate new pieces. It’s a lightweight highwaisted grey pencil skirt sporting a tweed inspired print with kick pleats in the back. From the same AW line I picked up the Sophie top, a black three quarter sleeved top with plenty of stretch for comfort and a great button detail staired neckline.
I’ve been aware of The Pretty Dress Company for a while and you recently will have seen me review their gorgeous Femme Fatale Gingham prom dress, but that wasn’t actually my first TPDC piece. Back in August, they offered a Bank Holiday 20% off discount code that I could ill resist. It was a tough call what I wanted to get because there were just so many beautiful pieces, but I followed my heart to the Priscilla dress in lemon gingham.
A classic midi sundress with wide, flat pleats making up the full skirt and spaghetti straps, the shape of this dress is one of those classic, quintessential summer style sundresses that I love so much. It’s lined, closes with a back zipper, and has pockets, my forever favourite. Just as the weather was getting ready to welcome autumn I took this dress with me to my September modelling job for Deadly Is The Female, a long time stockist of The Pretty Dress Company. There, Deadly team members photographer Gayle/Porcelain Photography and hair stylist Lauren/Lolita Noir indulged me in shooting this beauty as we wandered around the gorgeous Somerset town of Frome, Deadly’s home.
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I’ve wanted a tulle skirt for a long time. It’s easy to get a super cheap one on eBay for £10 or less delivered to England from China or Hong Kong, but despite the perfectly puffy volume evident in the seller photos for such pieces, whenever I’ve bought one the real life item has always been decidedly limper and less fluffy in person. They’re two or three layers of soft tulle that can’t hold one another up or out, and they just don’t create the fairy princess ballerina shape of tulle joy that I imagine when I get the urge to track down a skirt that will work for me.
I’ve seen pieces from Space46boutique and other online brands that look promising, but I tend to find they often don’t run into plus sizes, which means not only is it hard for me to track down skirts that will fit me but that also leaves me distrustful of whether the few that do go up to my size will actually be comfortable to wear. I tend to suspect I would end up squeezed in to a skirt whose elastic just barely stretches to encompass my girth and thus punishes me with pinches all day as a result. Continue reading
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.
Another month gone and it’s been a cracker! This month not only did I host Jenny July, which means there’s a whole host of Jenny centric outfits to go over in this post, but I also had the pleasure of meeting Pinup Girl Clothing’s founder, owner and head designer, Laura Byrnes. If any of you have ever noticed just how PUG heavy some of my outfit wrap up posts have been some months and goggled at how much PUG that must mean I own, I can assure you that nothing was more difficult than deciding which pieces to wear to meet the Supreme Overlord of my favourite brand.
That glory aside, July has been a weird month of temperature fluctuations, with some hottest-day-of-the-year highs and some drizzly, autumnal lows, so this wrap up should involve a strange mix for a mid-summer month. It also features me wearing my hair up more times in one month than I have probably done total for the entire rest of the year up until now.
Click on the pictures for a closer look! You can find links in the description to any item that is still available to buy. Anything not linked is from a past season and cannot be found for purchase any longer and/or is not available to buy online.
Discontinued Pinup Girl Clothing Spanish Fan Print Jenny dress, PUG cropped cardigan in mint, PUG red sateen grommet belt, and New Look mint flats
The Isabella dress by Lady V London isn’t a new design for the company, but as it’s rapidly approaching summer they’ve added a lovely selection of new prints to their SS line of the style. When an email announcing as such hit my inbox last week the pink rose on cream floral colourway immediately caught my eye. A few days later, thanks to the generosity of Lady V, I had it in my happy little hands (and on my body) ready to show you why I fell for it.
I love this colourway. I know that will surprise some of you as I am nothing if not outspoken about my almost-all-encompassing hatred of the colour pink, but one of the few ways I can not only stand the shade, but indeed like it, is when included in floral prints, especially when balanced out with touches of green or blue. This print, therefore, is perfect. The cream background keeps this print from being ‘too girly’ for a girl like me whose sentiments typically run somewhere between the bold and the classic, and the latter is certainly a perfect word for this print. Continue reading
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.
Miss Amy May 