You guys know I’m a mustard lover, ditto with tartan as well, so it was downright predictable that I fell in love with the Tiffany-Lee skirt when Miss Candyfloss launched their lookbook a while back. As much as I’m happy to collect tartan and plaids in all manner of colours, it’s not often you find one that’s truly unique. The bold colour combinations and large size of this tartan print means it’s the most unusual one I’ve seen in a while, which is delightful.
If this dress looks familiar that’s because it is. The Aberdeen dress was first released for AW15, I remember vividly because the first iteration in the green and navy Dublin tartan so enamoured me I ordered it as soon as I first clapped eyes on it online. It came with me to the USA for my October trip to attend a friend’s wedding in Virginia and visit another friend in Texas, and though I massively overpacked for that trip and ordered at least 6 other dresses to greet my arrival at my friend’s house I wore it twice on that 17 day trip. Because that’s the thing about a good dress, one good wear deserves another. And if you’ve got one good dress in a great print or colour, I’m a firm believer that it deserves to be produced in yet another, just so that crazy dress addicts like me can enjoy the same wonderful dress in a second (or third, or fourth!) colour. A colour for every occasion and for every season!
Hell Bunny have humoured me, and every other Aberdeen lover out there, with a new ice blue tartan for our coming winter, so just in case the green/blue Dublin or the white/red Stewart tartans didn’t grab you, this frozen frock can.
We may be having a late burst of summer here in the UK but I am officially ready for Autumn. Bring me tartans and plaids, bring me windfall apples and slightly cool mornings that allow me to wear one of my many fabulous coats that have hung unworn aback my bedroom door for the last 6 months. And bring me Hell Bunny’s AW17 line, because damn y’all, there are some cute-arse stuff in it that have got me feeling all the fall feels.
I’ve been desperate to buy this Peebles 50s dress for weeks now, after first seeing it previewed in a London Edge promotional email. I may or may not have bugged Hell Bunny’s designer and PR manager Sarah one too many times about its potential release date in my eagerness ever since–sorry Sarah! But finally it’s here, the dress that has literally everything I ask for from my favourite cold weather styles–flattering three quarter length sleeves, a fitted bodice that emphasises the waist, a full swing skirt, a gorgeous green tartan print and, finally, beloved pockets. I can’t think of a single thing I would add to this dress to improve it because it is all my winter dreams come true.
We’ve done 3 dresses that are shimmering and shiny in different ways, so let’s look now at one that is the very epitome of Christmas, in an understated, classy way, of course. We’re chic vintage ladies, after all. No brash white-fur lined red velvets here (she says, blatantly lying, because she loves that kind of thing too.)
The Ella-Gia dress from Miss Candyfloss features three of my favourite colours for this time of year, rich emerald green, moody lush burgundy, and gorgeous burnt mustard. Put all that together with an eye-catching tartan panels feature and you’ve got yourself a winner, especially for this time of year.
The first time I saw the below picture of Idda Van Munster I got that keenly envious, inspired, awed feeling I get when I see an example of vintage perfection.
Idda Van Munster
I presumed the dress Idda is wearing was true vintage, not only because it looked so authentic but because Idda is a diddy little slip of a thing compared to I, and everytime I see a slim woman in an authentically vintage looking item of clothing that I immediately love it’s always vintage–and consequently out of the realm of acquirement and possibility for myself and my 33 inch waist. Hence why the reaction I get to seeing such pictures is a sharp inspired envy, because they are things I cannot have. Continue reading
I love black watch tartan. I’ve wanted a dress or full circle skirt in that colour of tartan for ages, but each time I find one it’s always out of stock. So imagine my delight when I found the Hell Bunny Aberdeen dress in just that print.
If you read my Titilated by Tartan blog post a few weeks ago listing the tartan/plaid options currently available in the retro clothing market then you’ll remember I was smitten with both of the tartan print dresses Voodoo Vixen have in their A/W line, the Lori dress and the Daphne wiggle dress. When I decided I had to own one of them it was a tough choice as to which I should get–I loved Daphne more but I don’t often wear wiggles, yet while the Lori was super cute with the tied pinafore straps, it also lacked the full skirt that I require almost all my non-wiggle dresses to have. What to dooo, what to dooo.
In the end I got the Lori, and though I’d still love the Daphne I’m glad I got this dress of the two. Being a pinafore dress means it can be worn alone but is also perfect for winter because it’s so easy to layer this dress with various tops or shirts you might add beneath it to not only keep warm but change up the look. For this post I went with a clean crisp shirt underneath to show how versatile the dress is in addition to the obvious styling choices of adding roll neck jumpers, cardigans, boat neck tops, bardots…all sorts!
If you read my Titilated by Tartan post last week you’ll know I consider Vivien of Holloway the queen of tartan–so I was thrilled to be sent on one of their tartan circle skirts last week! I literally love every single tartan colourway VoH offers in their circle skirts and have wanted one for an age, but I think it was festive fate that the red tartan print I be joined together in Christmas matrimony. For this post I snatched up my new pretty in my pinup paws and headed to one of our good ol’ British cobbled beaches near sunset to snap the pics for this post.
Somewhere around the time I became a pinup I also developed a serious thing for tartan. And plaid. Check. And all the other ways in which you can describe a cosy feeling criss cross of lines in various colours that I do not know the technical difference between yet all make me think of Christmas and log cabins and chopping wood. Those 3 things are things I’m totally down with.
My dream is to own a circle skirt in my 3 favourite tartan colourways: blackwatch green, navy with red, and red. But there’s plenty of temptation out there in the form of dresses too; in many forms, really, and across a wide price range. So for all you plaid and vintage loving dolls out there I thought I’d lay out all the plaid options I’ve come across recently that have had me drooling.
Vivien of Holloway
Vivien is perhaps queen of the tartan. Their circle skirts come in 5 tartan colourways, but they also offer pinafore pencil skirts in 7 tartans too, 3 plaid swagger jackets, aaaand pencil skirts in 8 tartan colourways. Below is just a taste of all VoH has to offer.
Price range: Mid
Miss Amy May 