It’s official, the leaves are starting to change colours on all the country roads near my house, which means I am in my element. Time to throw on all the plaids, checks and tartans I can find, autumn is truly on its way.
I think one of the things that people regularly struggle with when it comes to clothing is not being certain which colours best suit them. In a way it doesn’t really matter, because if you love something enough to feel good wearing it then that is the only thing that matters. But for the less confident, knowing a cut and a colour brings out their best features makes all the difference. An easy thing to remember, then, is that jewel tones look good on literally every skin colour, as their richness flatters against both pale and dark tones. As such, emerald green is good on everyone, so today’s featured dress is ready to stun for all.
Back in my pre-pinup days I wore short skirts, had a large mane of small natural curls, and hated leopard print. Even for many years after adopting vintage fashion I hated leopard print, actually, which makes it even weirder that my first ever vintage-inspired dress which convinced me I could adopt this style for real was fully red leopard print. It had a sweetheart neckline, black straps, a full circle skirt, and I was madly in love with it. It was a very tight fit at the time and I gained back some weight shortly after I wore it to a friend’s charity event, so I never managed to squeeze into it again, but I kept it for a long time out of love before I finally sold it on so someone else could love it instead.
Over the course of the following few years my opinion on leopard print evolved to a much broader love and now it’s one of my favourite prints (when done right…some of my boundaries remain.) But I still have a special fondness for red leopard print in particular, because it feels so tied to a key turning point in my life. So this Lynette dress, to me, is like wearing a lovely reminiscence…
One of the things I most love in clothing is when designers play with textures. Layering different materials to achieve a multi-textured effect is pretty easy to do with your styling choices, but when a dress already offers something texturally interesting you’re already halfway there. And this Tess dress definitely offers!
There are pretty dresses and gorgeous dresses, and there are even glamorous dresses, but there are also dresses that so entirely capture your love the moment you lay eyes on them that you can’t stop thinking about them. This Cheryl dress was just such a dress for me.
Polka dots is one of the patterns that’s prevalent in the vintage inspired clothing realm. It wasn’t something I ever thought much about until I saw someone comment somewhere on social media that they hated polka dots and how common they were in repro clothing. Personally I quite like a small or medium sized dot, especially when done in black and white, but I share an aversion to very large polka dots which feel more costumey to me, so I can understand their complaint. There are plenty of ways to wear spots without looking too twee nor too rote, though, and today I want to focus on one of my favourite ways–playing with texture and layers.
With July right around the corner, there’s a fair bit of summer left still to play out, but sadly it’s the end of Miss Candyfloss’s SS21 season, with all of their newest pretties fully released to the world. It might have been their most patterned spring-summer line yet, but as always with Miss Candyfloss they released plenty of beautiful solid coloured pieces which make for wonderful staples in your wardrobe. This Korrina-Minty is one such piece, a lovely pale sage swing dress that offers simplicity and style in one lightweight summer serving.
There’s something about red dresses that feels so vintage yet unmistakably modern. Maybe it’s the confidence they exude, the power. Either way, red dresses offer something special, and this Mona-Rose from Miss Candyfloss is even more exceptional than most.
I don’t wear a lot of purple but I associate it with my mum and my best friend Menna, so it’s certainly a special colour. This dress in particular, with its bruised burgundy, lush lilacs and rich aubergine, definitely gives me English country garden vibes, so I figure where better to showcase it than my very own English country garden, in the sunshine.
Florals upon florals is what I’m all about right now, because my favourite part of spring is watching all the flowers take their turn. Seeing the daffodils spring up makes my drive to work much more pleasant, watching as all the blossoms begin to fuzz up the trees and hedgerows in white and soft pinks makes my heart happy, and by the time we get to bluebells season I’m fully content. We’ve got a little time before the latter is here in full force, but my god, wearing a pretty floral dress near some blossoms is one of life’s simplest joys for me these days.
