Friday Frock - Dinner Pajamas Edition

I had most incredible paper dolls when I was little - booklets and booklets full of 1930's and 40's couture and the impeccably cataloged movie wardrobes of silver screen starlets.  Vivien Leigh, and Grace Kelly were my favorites - I had Jeanette McDonald for a while, but her head was ripped off in an unfortunate windowsill accident. Twenty years later, I still have them all somewhere in a box, well-worn and frayed and very much loved. Which all brings us, in a roundabout way, to today's frock - which is of course, no such thing. It's a dreaded jumpsuit. Which is neither shirt nor pants, so in my mind must be filed under frocks.  Before you make hasty judgments and horrified faces at the word "onesie", hear me out....

One of those aforementioned paper dolls, contained, I believe, in the "Fashions of the Forties" booklet, was a flowing, midnight blue confection with a candy pink sash. It was titled, simply,  "Dinner Pajamas". I was incredibly taken with this idea as a child - a life so glamorous and hedonistic that you would dress in an opulent form of loungewear for entertaining and cocktails. You can spot the look in some old movies - usually paired with a cigarette holder and plushly carpeted Hollywood bungalows. I dressed Vivien and Grace in the ensemble constantly, and was heartbroken to learn that I was unlikely to find a similar look for an eight year old in an early nineties shopping mall.

And so this was the first thing that sprung to my mind when I saw this stylish getup in the latest Anthropologie catalog - Dinner Pajamas! Finally! To be donned upon arrival home after work - and much more sartorially acceptable than your terry sweats. You can look fabulous while answering the door or having friends over for drinks or desert - my usual evening meal - and yet still safely play the pajama card when asked to do something on your Friday night. "I would love to come out, but I'm already in my pajamas. Sorry." Though you know you're not sorry at all. 

So not a dreaded jumpsuit at all in fact. A new way of life. To be paired with posh platforms,  chunky gold jewelry, and a languorous expression.

Friday Frock

This week's frock is such a charmer. The perfect juicy mango hue, with Grecian details that you know I can't resist.  It's fun, fresh, bright and charming, with an unusual but flattering silhouette - midi in front, maxi (and party) behind. It looks like it would swing becomingly when you walked. What more can you ask? I feel like life would take on more carnival atmosphere every time you wore this Which incidentally, is exactly where I would wear it - a gaudy country carnival, lights strung across flapping tents, an air of mystery in the air and the taste of cotton candy on the lips. 


Do you love this color as much as we do? Have you been to a carnival yet this summer? Tell us all about it below...

Friday Frock

This week's frock isn't the sort of thing I would normally wear - it falls into that rarer category of "wardrobe for the life I wish I led".  Which is a relief, since it's sold out everywhere. I love the heft and detail of the fabric, and the sophisticated, timeless silhouette with its nipped-in waist and slightly longer sleeves. Fresh little details like cheeky pockets and hidden sheer stripes add a little unexpected youthfulness. Very modern day Grace Kelly. Also appropriate for Venetian canal boat chases with James Bond, and/or major art heists. Pair with a posh pair of putty-colored pumps, a classic, structured handbag (Kelly again)  and an expensively disheveled coif.

 

What kind of adventures would you get up to in this fabulous dress? 

 

Friday Frock

Oh those ancient Greeks. Say what you like, they knew how to drape. There's nothing I love more than this goddess-style cut - particularly when it's executed as beautifully as on this week's frock. Why do we bother with shifts and maxis, wraps and sheaths, when there's the option of looking like you've just sprung, resplendent and immortal, from the sea's pale, aqua foam? Also suitable for summer wedding's, rooftop cocktails and other mere mortal events.

Pair with metallic accessories, luminous skin and a messily braided updo, and try to avoid launching a thousand ships while at the bar.

Friday Frock - Coachella Edition

Now that we've got our Coachella beauty must-haves sorted out, let's move onto a festival edition of this week's Friday Frock. Except of course it's not really a frock, is it? You'll definitely need a pair of denim shorts underneath that, unless you're about 5 ft and short waisted, so let's call it a tunic. Moniker aside, I think it's perfect - casual and flowy, but the beautifully intricate beadwork adds a bit of glamour as the day turns into night. I always wholeheartedly suggest always wearing shorts/skorts/massive frilly knickers to any outdoor music event you attend, due to my last, rather memorable encounter with the main stage at Coachella.

In brief, it involved the beginning of The Killers' show, where the close proximity to Brandon Flowers and/or a sudden onset of acute anemia and dehydration caused me to suddenly drop like a stone as the curtain raised. I particularly like to hear about how I was hauled over the stage barricades, limp, unconcious and twitching, by my sister's superhuman sibling survival instincts and crowd-parting death stare. I'm sure she was hoping the divine Mr Flowers would notice her in the crowd that night, but seeing her hike up her miniskirt and launch over the metal fencing, polka dot knickers in full HD glory on the jumbotrons, was probably not what she had in mind. I just thank god I was wearing shorts, and wasn't trampled to death by hipsters.

So wear something underneath, okay? And if you have a good concert story, share it and make me feel a little less ridiculous. Or if you're in Indio this weekend, tell us what you're wearing and how it's going. And for goodness sakes drink plenty of water.

Friday Frock

You're probably thinking this week's frock is pleasant but boring, aren't you? I did too. Until.......

BAM. I go crazy for anything with back cutouts. They're second only to pockets on my frock rating system. And suddenly everything about this dress is just gorgeous. The buttton sides. The cross-over layers. The pleated details. The intricate jaquard fabric with a bit of heft and weight to it. I'm in love. Doesn't it just shout "evening stroll through a sunbaked Italian hill town"? Sashaying down cobbled streets as the setting sun turns everything golden? Perhaps a pale green cone of pistachio gelato in one hand and a pair of vintage 1950s sunglasses dangling in the other?

Yes, I need this dress. You probably do too. And of course now you're craving gelato, so I'm sorry.

Friday Frock

Yes, this week's frock is a shapeless shift dress. I'm nothing if not consistent. But I can't help what I like, and I most definitely like this. In fact, everything about it, from the gorgeous chartreuse shade to the soft, textured tweed, is my idea of spring frock perfection. I even love the handy pockets - perfect for stashing a petal pink lippy and some small, fortifying snacks. I suggest you stick with the spring theme and go with jelly beans.

Friday Frock

Today seemed rather timely to post this adorable kelly green printed Milly sundress, and I do love a twirly skirt - it adds that extra feminine swing and a subtle little spring in your step. What really clinches this for me though is the snug, low waist - it makes it a little more modern than the usual retro sundress, while helping out the particularly long-waisted among us - I've gotten tired of every cute summer frock's waist hitting me somewhere mid-ribcage, and I think this cut may be the perfect cure. My only change would be the belt - I'd prefer something contrasting - I'd probably like a broad, sunny yellow, but then again I think yellow is the answer to everything.

Milly dresses are consistently almost annoyingly adorable - with gorgeous retro prints and ultra-feminine shapes, there's about five from this season alone that I'm in love with. This is my number two - I'm saving my favorite for another Friday - it's even cuter. And it has pockets. Because is there anything lovelier than a full skirted frock with pockets? I really don't think there is.

So how would you wear this - with even more punchily colored accessories, or some simple neutrals and a shiny ponytail?

Friday Frock

First of all, let's just pretend it's Friday - wouldn't that be nice? A whole extra day of weekend, and in fairness that IS when picked out this week's frock - it's the posting it that's been rather tardy.

Onto this week's dress - well, it's probably the cheapest I will ever feature here. It's also, rather alarmingly, sold out online in the time that I've taken to write this - I optimistically assume you can still find it in stores. But it's here today because there was so much love from my readers for this gorgeous Adriatic-hued Rory Beca dress I featured last month - while I don't pretend this is anywhere in the same league, it's also under $20, so it's a cheap and cheerful way to bring a little of that color and easy shape into your summer wardrobe.

I clearly don't quite have my finger on the mainstream fashion pulse, because I had no idea that Rory Beca was doing a budget line for Forever21 - but she clearly draws on her original line for a lot of the shapes and colors, and with quite lovely results. This may not have the gorgeous length, sway and fabric as the original, but it's a brilliant cobalt blue, has cute, multiple strapping at the back and a lovely dropped back hem. I'll wear it with some chunky gold bracelets and nude wrap sandals - from the beach to a casual dinner party, it's going to get a lot of use from me this summer. As soon as I can find one in the shops that is......

How do you feel about cobalt blues? They make me think of a Greek Island, with blindingly white houses along the brilliant blue coastline, so of course I love them. They look fabulous with golds and nudes, and flattering on so many skin tones. Do you have a color that you're dying to wear when the weather warms up? Tell us about it below!

picture via Pinterest

Friday Frock

First of all, I know exactly what those of you that know me well are saying right now. "Oh no. Not ANOTHER caftan-type tunic dress. You are not Verushka you know."

Luckily I don't mind, because I love that style of dress, and I love this. It doesn't show terribly well in the pictures, but having seen it in person, the embroidery is much more beautiful and the overall effect much less nightgown-looking. It's beautiful, and just my style. I would wear it every day this Summer, and probably even into Fall with skinny jeans.

I love this sort of dress because one of my most basic goals is to live the sort of life where I never have to put on any pants. I don't mean pants in the UK sense of the word, that's just disgusting, I mean that I want my legs to be forevermore free of their denim and wool, and to be able to live in nothing but flowy, short dresses and caftans. I want to be somewhere warm and sunny all the time, where I'm barefoot every day and my legs can see the sun and feel the breeze. I want them to be unfettered by stifling fabrics, and to never know the chains of snow boots. Is this really so much to ask? A Greek Island or an Andalusian finca would probably do me quite well for these purposes, surely I can wrangle that one day. Until then I will be wearing this, barefoot, in preparation.

What do you think - do you like the flowy, airy dresses, or are you strictly team form-fitting? Let me know below! I'm signing off now before I say anything too strange - I've had to take a rather large amount of Benadryl for terrible allergies, and I have a feeling I'm going to stop making sense soon. It may have happened already. Happy Friday to you all!

Friday Frock

I'm not going to lie to you. This week's Friday Frock may end up looking a bit puffy when on. It's possible - there are quite a few layers happening here, and one can only hope they all behave.

Though I don't care even if it is a touch too voluminous. Because when I see this dress, I picture sitting at a sidewalk cafe on the French Riviera, sipping limoncello under gaily colored umbrellas. I feel a Vespa ride may follow. We've switched to Italy now, but never mind, just go with it. It makes me think of yacht decks glistening on an azure harbor and pastel colored ice creams on the beach. You just need some cat's eye sunglasses - these, preferably - some leather sandals, and a bouncy ponytail. I can't be responsible for what happens next. It probably involves that Vespa and a yacht deck-hand named Marco, and possibly jewel thievery. It's that kind of dress.



Oh and it's on sale too.

(Good lord I just realized the sublime YSL sunglasses are on sale too. It's a sign. Buy them both and make for the Riviera. Let me know how it goes.)

Friday Frock

Yes, I know this is just a very large, rather nicely draped sweatshirt, and therefore does not, as such, really constitute as a frock. I also know that most of us are snowed in at the moment and therefore going to be spending most of our weekend curled up on the sofa, wearing multiple pairs of socks and consuming vast quantities of hot beverages. If ever there was a frock for just such an occasion, this would be it. You could even throw on some leggings or skinny jeans and run to the store for vital supplies (ie vast quantities of fortifying chocolate) while looking reasonably chic. It beats standing at the checkout in your garden gnome printed pajama bottoms tucked into snowboots.

My only worries? First, that it will be so comfortable and cozy that I'll never take it off, and second, that I've spent too much time in L.A. and am beginning to think loungewear is sartorially acceptable...

Friday Frock

I've given up trying to find perfect dresses for winter - I'm done with winter. As long as you can make it through January, you're into resort wear, and then everything is bright and beautiful again, popping with prints and luscious colors, bringing a little much needed sunshine into our days. So I hereby declare this season open - I'm bringing on the brights.



I first saw this Rory Beca Holiday 2011 dress on the lovely blog Cocogroove, which always has the most gorgeous pictures of new collections - the whole lookbook was just perfection, and I think there wasn't an item I didn't want to own. Oh and I'd take the house as well.

Not only is this the most clear, deep, divine shade of blue, that looks beautiful on so many skintones and was made for long, sunkissed limbs, but it also has that brilliant cut where the maxi skirt swirls and parts to reveal the mini underskirt beneath - just made for striding across the lawn of an outdoor party with a slight breeze. I'm going to start saving up the piggybank for this one - I'm smitten.

Friday Frock

And don't tell me it's Saturday, I don't even want to know. I'm still somewhere back in the middle of Wednesday mentally. As for frocks, we're heading into the throes of a dress wasteland at this time of year - the holidays are over, no one feels like dressing up for no reason any more, and it's too cold to wear anything particularly cute without ruining it with thick, woolen tights. So I'm going to take a little trip to fantasy-land, and pronounce the above my belated Friday Frock.

Don't fall too in love - I haven't a clue where to find it or who made it. I just know that I want to wear it with bare feet and a messy bun, every day for the rest of my life. I won't be able to walk up stairs or bend over if I drop anything, but that's fine, I'm lazy like that anyway.

Do any of my glamorous readers have dressy do's coming up, or is it woolens, jeans and wellies for your February as well? Any ways you like to dress up your winter garb? (Stay out of this Aussie readers - we don't want to hear about how you're wearing sundresses right now, it only makes it worse.)

picture via pinterest

Friday Frock

Let's not ruin this week's Friday Frock with too many words. Let's just bask in the effervescent glow of its artful drapes, and marvel at how incredible it's going to look against sunkissed skin. Picturing it paired with pale turquoise wayfarers and tangerine toenails, it's making me even more ridiculously impatient for summer to arrive. How does yellow suit you? I'm lucky that it really works with my skintone (that's what I like to think anyway) but I know that to some it's a bit scary. Like maroon for me. Shudder. What color really makes you shine?

Friday Frock

I know it's not spring yet, but I wish it were, so this week's Friday Frock is the perfect little shift for a Parisian April - soft mint and pale blush pink in a lightly woven tweedish pattern - it looks like vintage Chanel in macaron hues, effortless and feminine. Pair with this hair and makeup, and you might as well change your name to Francoise and get a little grey poodle. Add a classic trench for April showers and romantic meet-cutes in the rain. Remember this confection? Well this is almost as lovely, and about $500 less, so you can buy the ticket to Paris and the poodle with the leftovers. Maybe save a bit for some macarons, you're probably craving them now too.

Source: etsy.com via The Blossom Shed on Pinterest

Friday Frock

I promised a jazz age inspired weekend, and here it is, weeks later. I'm more into early Thirties territory here, but really that's only a good thing - the fashion was more flattering, and social events were more restful. The Twenties would go a bit frantic on you with all those tooting clarinets and hysterical Charlestoning.

This week's frock looks like it just stepped out of a Savoy cocktail party, with its sublime detailing and beatiful drapes - the cut through the hips looks divine, as does the sheer, open back. The modern twist? Its eco-couture, made in environmentally sustainable fashion out of entirely recycled fabric by Stockholm based designer Camilla Norrback, whose designs (this dress included) are available at the wonderful and oft-mentioned-here Fina Du boutique.

Now all I need is an ivory cigarette holder, glossy hair and maybe a charmingly down-on-his-luck piano player at the bar. So that's my New Year's Eve sorted. What are your plans?

Friday Frock

This dress is just ridiculous - it looks like it's vomiting tulle out the side. And you know what? I LOVE IT. This is the holiday season - the one time of the year we can wear sequins and tulle and outlandishly festive things and not feel at all overdressed. Wear this, and I feel like there'll be towers of champagne glasses and sugared almonds everywhere, and twinkly lights and sofly falling snow. Indoors. This sugary confection is by Ida Sjöstedt, a talented Swedish designer whom they carry at the fantastic Fina Du boutique, and for god's sakes someone buy it before I do.

Do you have any holiday parties/events coming up? What are you wearing? Are tulle or sequins involved? Or champagne towers for that matter?

Friday Frock

I know that this sort of thing can go terribly wrong, and that gingham and ruffles are rarely the stuff of high fashion. Frankly, they're more often seen in a saloon. I don't care. I think every tiny detail of this Luisa Beccaria gingham dress is Bardot-esque perfection. I'm just going to stare at it for hours, and then file it away with all the other Beccaria fairytale confections that I've fallen in love with over the years. One day, dammit. One day.

Do you have a particular item/line that you file in your "when-I'm-filthy-rich-and-living-in-my-french-country-manor" plans?

Friday Frock

For this week's Friday Frock, I have thoughtfully chosen something with a bit of room, in deference to yesterday. It looks quite plain and simple, but the sharp tailoring, the thicker, almost matelasse-looking fabric, and the straight neckline make this such an easy, chic little dress. It must be said that I have a very tenuous relationship with tights and/or leggings at best, but they're definitely a useful addition here - just don't go too retro - no winged liner, please, if only for my sake.

The dress comes in a pale lemon yellow as well, and is so cheap that you can get one in each color should you feel like it - and ASOS.com, which is just incredible for it's sheer volume of budget, high-fashion looks, is having a huge sale this weekend - they have so much stock I can never even browse through it all, but they do have a great array, from cheap, throwaway trendy to really well done, right-off-the-runway looks, as well as some great small, newer labels. The code is HAPPYBLACK FRIDAY for 20% off, and only runs through Monday the 28th, so don't dally. I REALLY love ASOS, as you may have somewhat gathered by now.

What do you think? The navy with a teased ponytail, nude lip and black suede wedges? In all honesty, if I could get away with it I think I'd wear it with beatup Chucks.