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.
It’s been an awkward spring this year, what with winter insisting on overstaying its welcome, but the sun has finally started to make a few appearances and I am more than ready for her to begin reclaiming her time. I have several fabulous new summer-loving outfits hanging in my wardrobe ready for the feel of fresh air and warm sunrays, but none more so than this Collectif Joice dress and Luzia heels combo, which absolutely scream SUMMER TIME to me. It might not be quite nice enough yet to hit the beach in this outfit for a boardwalk stroll and, of course, the eating of ice cream, but wearing it even on a slightly dreary day still has me experiencing all the summer feels.
One of the best things about being a style blogger is that you get to see some of your favourite brands’ upcoming lines early, allowing you to plan out your buys and picks for that impending season. It’s also probably one of the worst things, because in the bitter middle of winter you will see and fall in love with a dozen fabulous summer dresses that not only make you fed up of the cold you’re weeks and weeks away from escaping, but you also have to wait months yet for those dresses to be released, knowing they are coming and that you are a terribly impatient person who struggles to wait.
When I say ‘you’ of course, I mean me, the impatient, deeply flawed clothes addict who is both blessed and cursed every 6 months to be able to go to London Edge and see what beautiful things we will all be cooing over for the upcoming season. One such beautiful thing I saw at the last LE in February is this Adelyn dress by Voodoo Vixen, a dress that would immediately have become my favourite pick of the season had Voodoo Vixen not offered such a strong SS17 line that I think my 3 favourites will forever be equally tied and adored. My other two picks, of course, are the Violet and Deliliah dresses, both strappy, flower trimmed little numbers made of lightness and springtime happiness and wonder. Adelyn is similar in the same respects of being a strappy, happy little number, but this baby has some sass and hotness on offer to boot.
Dress: Adelyn dress C/O Voodoo Vixen
Shoes: Old F&F Tesco
This dress is beyond perfect for summer. Apart from the fact that it’s obviously so vibrant and fun, with its stripes and cute ruffly pom-pommed sweetness, it’s probably the most comfortable dress I’ve tried from any brand this season. Like the Deliliah dress, this is because the entire back of the dress’s bodice is made from elasticated smocking, giving the dress tons of stretch and room for movement. The double spaghetti straps aren’t adjustable, something I had got used to from my VV summer dresses, but luckily for me they’re the perfect length as they are. Both the ruffle feature of the neckline and the hem of the skirt are trimmed with black pom pom edging, beyond cute, and the full flared skirt has pockets deep enough to securely hold my phone in its bulky battery case. This dress closes with an invisible side zip, although I was very happy to find that unlike most side zips this one didn’t get stubbornly stuck trying to zip up over the bump of the waistband.
I have this dress in my usual Voodoo Vixen XL and thanks to the smocking it’s generously sized compared to the size chart. VV pieces do tend to run a little larger than their charts state as a rule, but for comparison an XL is listed for 40 inch busts and 33 inch waists, but this dress flat measures at 40-46 in the bust and 32-37 in the waist. Voodoo Vixen had to scale down their Curve line this season due to a stockist change, so sadly there was very little on offer from this line for their plus customers (they do have plans to expand the Curve line again moving forward, thankfully.) The generous stretch in this dress, though, does mean that 1X girls at least might be able to pick up this dress style in this XL and find that it works for them.
This dress arrived on my doorstep on Tuesday last week and since then I’ve already worn it twice; if that doesn’t tell you just how comfortable and lovely this dress is to wear, then I don’t know what will. There’s also the fact that everyone who saw me in it told me how much they loved it, something that, for me, an almost constant wearer of new clothes, is often the mark of a stand-out piece. You know, just in case you had any doubts.
The Adelyn dress comes in sizes S-XL for £55, although discount code vintage20 will get you 20% off your order. Voodoo Vixen ship internationally.
Yes, the title of this post is from a Katy Perry song. No, I’m not sorry. And you know why not? Because I live in the British countryside and, most randomly, a wild peacock has recently started to make frequent visits to our garden.
I know. It sounds like I’m making it up, but I’m not. I’ve named him Albert and he likes to also visit next door, where he helps himself to the bird feeder on our neighbour’s patio. We have no idea where he’s come from, as he comes by every day, morning and night, and while we live close to two farms bearing peacock enclosures, both swear he doesn’t belong to either of them.
So, you know, there was only one thing for it. I had to get a peacock dress and make friends with him. It’s the logical next step in this situation, right? Thanks to Hell Bunny, I could make that happen.
I swear this dress was trying to elude me. I went to London Edge at the beginning of the year and spent a big chunk of my time there at the Collectif booth, pawing through their vast and beautiful line of SS16 releases, as well as a lot of their AW16 pieces (it’s going to be so amazing you guys, omg, just wait.) Aida Zak is one of Collectif’s house brands, like their 60s inspired line Bright & Beautiful, and I can only think I didn’t check that rack as thoroughly because I did not spot this Erina dress while I was there. It was only once I came home and watched some of the London Edge catwalk videos on Retro Daisy’s Instagram (a pinup shop located in Worthing, England) that I saw this dress. It was instant love-lust-gimme.
I wanted it for my birthday celebrations and there was some mild worrying on my part as to whether it would be released in time. I wanted to purchase it from Retro Daisy, since they had been so lovely to me about helping me track down which brand it was, but due to Collectif getting their new releases online before everyone else, including their own stores, let alone stockists, I had to guiltily order it from Collectif directly to get it in time. You’ll see why any second now, because my birthday celebration was a giant picnic fun day, and tell me, isn’t this a perfect picnic dress?
If you’re on social media and you follow your favourite clothing brands then I’m willing to bet this has happened to you: you’re checking your feed, scroll scroll scroll, when you see a picture posted by a brand of their newest release, with which you immediately fall so in love that you rush to their website to place an order, blood pumping, because you’re half terrified it’s going to sell out in those few seconds it takes to load up their page–who even KNOWS how many other ladies just saw that exact same Instagram picture and are scrambling to buy too?! You know, at midnight–and half pumped because you are about to buy yourself a new love of your life.
This happened to me with the Sarah dress by Heart of Haute, only I was slightly delayed by the fact that I wanted to put both the coral and the teal gingham dresses into my cart. The recent bill for the work I’d had done on my car’s brakes said really that wasn’t going to happen, so a choice had to be made between the two. BUT WHICH COLOUR? I wanted both. I’m more drawn to blues and teals as a rule, and I was a bit worried the coral might secretly be a true pink only pretending to be coral–pink and I do not get along. Buuuut if it really is truly coral, I reasoned, that’s an unrepresented colour in my wardrobe compared to my plentiful selection of blues. Oh but wait, they also do full circle skirts in the same ginghams though. Do I buy one skirt and one dress? Why is shopping so hard? Why aren’t I rich?
A few hours later, I was a big girl and bought only one dress, feeling slightly panicked as I did so because an Instagram follower warned me the coral dress was selling out in many sizes. But it was okay, I got her. I got the coral Sarah. And you guys. She’s just lovely.
Unique Vintage really know how to do gingham. At this point I’ve sort of become an accidental collector of the picnic-tastic print, rarely able to resist adding a new gingham piece to my wardrobe, but one of my all time favourite gingham pieces is this UV Manhattan swing dress.
It might even have been my first UV purchase, it was too long ago to remember now. It’s one of those pieces that’s so gorgeous that every time I wear it people ask where they can get it, which makes me feel a bit guilty and sad when I have to admit it’s long gone. Today, thankfully, I won’t be putting you through such heartache, because this San Vicente gingham halter dress is not only a new offering from Unique Vintage in their SS16 line, but it’s also widely in stock in sizes XS-4X and comes in both pink and black gingham. Continue reading
For some reason, I thought for a long time that Lady K Loves only made jeans and tops. Somewhat recently I saw Amanda (Modern June Cleaver) of Junebugs and Georgia Peaches wearing their Say Yeah top and Darling skirt set in seersucker white and blue stripes and fell in love. I hopped on the website immediately but couldn’t find it. It must have sold out after their promotion, I figured. Damnit.
Modern June Cleaver looking goddamn adorable. Image property of Junebugs & Georgia Peaches
Fast forward to the Christmas sales period and an Instagram post from Lady K Loves about their own sale made me decide to check out what they had to offer. I saw the same set I had wanted available in red and clicked through to have a closer look, only to realise: AHA! It’s there, they had it, my beloved blue stripes! All their items that are available in different colourways are listed on one page for that style item, with a drop down menu allowing you to choose what colour fabric you prefer. On mobile this wasn’t immediately obvious to me the first time I checked for the set, hence I missed it. But for £19 for the top and £25 for the skirt I finally ordered the set I so wanted and couldn’t wait for it to arrive. Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
Continuing on with my recent resolution to review some of my dresses that feel most summery to me, today I’m reviewing my Sailor Swing dress by Pinup Girl Clothing. One of my favourite things about this dress is that it was one of those dresses that actually sparked my transition into pinup style.
At the start of 2013 I began to pincurl and wetset my hair to achieve heat-free curls after a bad experience with heat styling that left ruined my natural curls. I had always liked the fashions from the 50s but had never considered it something a modern woman could fully adopt, so as I began to tinker with my makeup to reflect a more 50s look I also began to search online for clothing options that might feel a bit 50s without being over the top. I didn’t feel confident enough then to wear the kind of outfits I do now, and as I was so tentative about the style change I also didn’t want to drop big bucks on clothing. I found this picture of the navy Sailor Swing dress on Tumblr and became obsessed.
Word up Doris Mayday, lookin’ hot! Image: Laura Byrnes Photography
Miss Amy May 