Trixie, You Cutie [Collectif]

Posted on December 14, 2015 by missamymay

It always surprises me how few repro clothing companies offer a variety of sleeved dresses for their AW lines each year. For people in warmer climates I know a sleeved dress has limited or no wear value for them, but personally I get a bit sick of having to layer a cardigan over most of my dresses in autumn and winter, even if the dress itself is very AW in print but simply lacks sleeves. And it’s not that I have a problem with cardigans, just that sometimes I want a dress that comes wearable this time of year as is, complete and polished and seasonally appropriate in wear. Collectif have come through on that with their Trixie doll dress.

Made of bengaline, it’s a super comfortable stretchy swing dress with half sleeves, a cross over style bust and a full skirt, with a gathered detail on the front of the shoulders.

Trixie teal doll dress Collectif Continue reading →

Vendula London Funky Bags

Posted on October 21, 2015 by missamymay

Typically I’m not one for statement accessories beyond a big crystal necklace. I tend to play it safe and classic with my style choices, even though that sometimes means I fall in love with a lemon wedge shaped clutch bag or a handbag shaped like a house and talk myself out of buying it because I’m not sure how to wear it. Every once in a while I realise how silly that is, since my motto in general is to wear whatever you want because life is too short not to indulge in even the smallest of things that make you happy. Which is why today I’m writing about Vendula London.

Vendula London is, in case you couldn’t guess, a UK based brand, who are 100% animal friendly. They offer a range of unique, funky and quirky bags, from clutch bags to handbags, totes to cosmetic bags, luggage tags, tablet cases, you name it. They’re stocked globally, and when I saw some of their book style clutch bags and quaint traditional English building inspired bags I fell in love.

Seriously?? Adorbs! Continue reading →

Cover Up In Style [Wingz]

Posted on October 16, 2015 by missamymay

I have a lot of dresses. I love them all, perhaps not equally, but a lot. More than most women love their clothes. So it frustrates me and saddens me somewhat when autumn, winter, even parts of spring (and summer here in the UK, to be honest) come around and require me to either trade in my sleeveless and strappy dresses or else layer them beneath a cardigan. And don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with a cardigan. These days they’re a fashion staple, a downright given. I’m sure you, like I, own approximately 20 in different lengths and colours, necklines and sleeve lengths. They’re useful and warm, but there’s no escaping the fact that cardigans cover not only your arms but at least some of your dress too. And on some dresses, that is nothing more than a shame.

I own plenty of dresses with beautiful feature bustlines, gorgeous prints, even embroidered patterns. I recently bought a v-neck sleeveless dress with exquisite embroidery that winds all the way down from the shoulder straps over the bust and waist towards my hips. It makes me think of Christmas and feels especially appropriate to wear this time of year, but the lack of sleeves means that if I layer a cardigan atop it I cover up some of the beautiful embroidery that makes it so special.

Which is why I’m maybe a little too excited that I found Wingz. I stumbled across them on Facebook just a couple weeks ago and was immediately drawn in. Wingz is a line of sleeves that you can layer under almost any neckline dress or top because they’re designed as an under-top with a super low bustline that layers over your bra, creating sleeves you can layer under tops and dresses to keep warm without effecting the lay, cut or style of your clothes.

Wingz Fashion black half sleeve Continue reading →

Dear Dolores [Collectif]

Posted on October 5, 2015 by missamymay

The Dolores Doll dress by Collectif has been around for years, as well as the top of the same name and style. Both have been available in a multitude of colours and prints, new colourways available every season as a staple that some pinups collect almost religiously.

I’ve owned two Dolores tops in the past, a polka dot and the feral leopard print, but as someone who opts for dresses 90% of the time over an outfit made up of paired separates, my Dolores’ were constantly overlooked and eventually passed on to people who would get more use out of them. I love peasant style tops, finding the display of the collarbone and shoulders really feminine, sexy and classy all at once. The only thing that gives me pause with peasants, though, is that sometimes I think the ruched sleeves can hit my arm in the wrong way and can highlight my chubby uppers, as we shall now call them. There’s nothing wrong with having a little arm squish going on–for all but maybe 10% of the population, I think, some degree of upper arm softness is a lifelong constant. But I don’t always want to showcase it. For that reason I stayed away from the Dolores dresses, thinking perhaps that ruched cuff sleeve would do me a disservice.

Buuuut. Then Collectif had a super, super killer sale lately to clear out summer stock ready for their AW pieces. Dolores dresses went from £50 a piece down to £12-14 each. I mean. Come on. What was I gonna do? I’m sure my arms can’t be that bad to pass up a bargain like that.

I bought the blue gingham Dolores thinking that the dress looked like it would be super comfortable, easy to wear and a great option for throwing on for optimal cuteness either when I was in a rush or when I needed something for the times comfort takes absolutely top priority, like for travelling or really long days out. I was absolutely right about that as the Dolores is all of those things I expected it might be. After a stressful day at work last week I put it on one evening for a bit of chill time in the garden, picking some of our apples and watching the sun start to set–and trying to avoid our cat popping into every picture, because she trailed me the entire time.

Collectif navy gingham Dolores dress Continue reading →

Viva La Rosa [Chi Chi Clothing]

Posted on September 10, 2015 by missamymay

It’s not often I find a new non-pinup clothing brand these days that I actually like, you know, on account of them being non-pinup. Finding Chi Chi London recently, therefore, was awesome.

A UK clothing brand, they produce clothing with lots of feminine design details: lace, floral prints, embroidery, off the shoulder necklines, sheer overlays, satin finishes, and cinched waists. Most of their dresses are midi length or at least knee length, passably retro to my delight, and they also offer petite and plus size ranges, another bonus. There’s a lot of very pretty dresses on their site currently that I like, but when I saw the Rosa dress I fell in love. A day after discovering Chi Chi, Rosa was on her way to me thanks to the help of a 20% off discount code, one of the many discount codes and sales I’ve seen Chi Chi offer just over the past month alone that I’ve been aware of them.

rosasite Continue reading →

August Outfits Round Up

Posted on September 3, 2015 by missamymay

As far as Augusts go, this one has kind of failed at the one thing I expect of it: to at least try to be decently warm and sunny. We had so much rain there were floods locally, and if I’m totally honest with you I had a bit of a stressed, low energy month personally that made it hard for me sometimes to summon the motivation to make anything more than a base-level attempt at taming my appearance or styling my outfits. I used that low energy as an excuse to both avoid setting my hair so often and to embrace wearing my hair up more. Thanks to #JennyJuly, July passed without me wearing a wiggle at all, failing my once a month self-imposed Wiggle Dress challenge as part of #LovingMeIn2015, so this month I made up for that multiple times with several body hugging outfits.

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.

Black Going Steady dress by Unique Vintage, eBay necklace, bracelets and lace bolero, bedazzled by me (tutorial) clutch and heels. Olive is wearing the Glamour Bunny Marilyn Dress

Continue reading →

July Outfits Round Up

Posted on August 3, 2015 by missamymay

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.

Discontinued Pinup Girl Clothing Spanish Fan Print Jenny dress, PUG cropped cardigan in mint, PUG red sateen grommet belt, and New Look mint flats

Continue reading →

Sweet, Fair Isabella [Lady V London]

Posted on June 3, 2015 by missamymay

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.

isabella rose cream lady v london

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 →

April Outfits Round Up

Posted on May 4, 2015 by missamymay

Another month passed, time for another outfit wrap up post! I was definitely feeling the arrival of spring and the sun this month, with brighter colours and plenty of florals.

Pinup Girl Clothing Commuter Jenny skirt, Primark scoop neck top, old Primark heels

Continue reading →

Nifty Novelties

Posted on March 31, 2015 by missamymay

While I appreciate cute things, normally they’re not really my style to actually wear. I often see and love novelty brooches…but know I probably won’t find a place for them on my outfits. I admire cute kitsch prints on circle skirts but I know I likely wouldn’t wear one. I am merely a from-afar appreciator of all things adorable and cutesy and darling. But recently New Look have been cranking out one adorable novelty clutch bag after another, and I’ve got to say, I’m sorely tempted to break my usual style rules to partake in the novelty.

Voodoo Vixen Chelsea dress

I have one milkshake clutch bag I got from New Look on sale at the end of last year. It was reduced to only £4 at the time, so even though I wasn’t sure I would ever wear it I knew it was too sweet and cheap to pass up. As it happens, I did find a way to wear it, pairing it recently with my Chelsea Voodoo Vixen dress. Doing so I couldn’t help but feel like I was ready to stroll along a beach or soak up the sun in the very cutest fashion. Continue reading →

Miss Amy May

Vintage style fashion and beauty, without the repressive vintage values

Tag Archives: style blogger

Trixie, You Cutie [Collectif]

Vendula London Funky Bags

Cover Up In Style [Wingz]

Dear Dolores [Collectif]

Viva La Rosa [Chi Chi Clothing]

August Outfits Round Up

July Outfits Round Up

Sweet, Fair Isabella [Lady V London]

April Outfits Round Up

Nifty Novelties