Lady V London and Collectif sale haul!

If you're a regular reader here you'll be familiar with UK vintage reproduction brands, Lady V London and Collectif . Both online stores had winter sales a few months ago with dresses from as little as £20, so who am I to resist a bargain? 3 from Lady V, 1 from Collectif! All dresses I try in this post are a UK size 8.

I won't link to the individual sales page or prices for each dress because at the time of publishing, only 1 or 2 sale dresses remain so instead I'll link to the shape of the dress where you can see which if any) other fabrics are available.

Tip: sign up to their mailing list for the latest offers and sales.

For quite some time I've had my eye on the Isabella as a less expensive alternative to Pinupgirlclothing's famous Heidi, a swing dress with fitted bodice and sweetheart neckline made to flatter EVERYONE. I ordered Isabella in this gorgeous red wine polka dot, as modelled by the stunning October Divine below.

Pin up model October Divine in the Isabella

Sadly it didn't look as gorgeous on me! As always, my short torso let me down and it was a little on the baggy side too. A size smaller would have been perfect I think but it wasn't produced in a UK size 6. I also feel it doesn't have enough fabric in the skirt. It's more of a circle skirt than a full swing I'd say, and a small circle at that. If you add a petticoat it doesn't swing as nicely as Heidi does, it just sort of...sits kind of stiffly on top of the petticoat without a gathered, swingy effect. Does that even make sense? 

*Check out Georgina's review on FullerFigureFullerBust.*

The verdict; refund please!

Onto another Lady V number I've had my eye on for a while. This one I hold close to my heart as it was designed by none other than the lovely Georgina Horne of FullerFigureFullerBust. Named after a friend, Georgina put her heart and soul into creating a the Estella designed to make every super curvy woman feel like a twirly whirly dream! I chose the pretty pink rose print dress as it reminded me of the Rosetta I reviewed in a previous post.

Georgina modelling her Estella dress

 Unfortunately I'm not quite curvy enough to fill the Estella out properly so the wrap neckline felt quite modest for me. I think it's better suited to those with a larger bust and/or longer torso than myself as the waistline was too long for me too. 

The bad points aside, I liked the loose fit sleeves as it turned the dress from an ordinary 50's swing style to a sort of Japanese-y 1940's tea dress on me, which I quite liked. I then had the bright idea of throwing on my Orchard Corset CS-301 over the dress and adding my usual petticoat and it completely transformed it! What do you think?

The verdict; as much as I like the look with a corset, I probably wouldn't want to ONLY be able to wear the Estella dress with my waspie, so back it goes.

Lastly from Lady V London is an old favourite style of mine, the swing dress, this time in a gorgeous poppy print! I initially had a few fit issues with the swing dress being too big on the waist and/or shoulders so I stopped buying them, so I was reluctant to try again but with the Poppy swing dress in the sale at around £20 I threw caution to the wind. 

I'm so glad I did as this version is made from a slightly stretchy fabric and actually fits without the need for a belt, corset or alterations! Hurrah! It's a tiny bit snug on the but I can live with that. I absolutely love the print and plan to wear it casually, out to dinner and even to work on November 11th! I tried the Poppy swing dress with and without a corset and petticoat and it looks good either way. 

Poppy Swing Dress by Lady V London

With belt and corset, no petticoat

With belt, corset and petticoat

With corset and petticoat, no belt

The verdict; Faith in the Lady V London swing dress restored! It's a keeper!

And from Collectif...

Dolores Doll dress in red gingham from Collectif

And finally, one I've ordered and returned before, the Dolores Doll in red gingham from Collectif. The Dolores Doll is another swing dress, this time with a sweetheart neckline and cute puff sleeves. I have both the Dolores doll dress and Dolores pencil dress in numerous fabrics now and is a strong favourite shape for me year after year. 

The size chart advised to size up if you are in between sizes as the gingham fabric doesn't allow for much stretch, but I often find Collectif Dolores doll dresses are very much hit and miss when it comes to a 'usual' size, so I threw caution to the wind and ordered my usual UK size 8. Thankfully the fit is spot on! Since the bust is ruched, I imagine it will fit most boobs, big and small. 

As I said I'd already ordered and returned this dress before back in the summer because on me it's far too long to look cute. I'm 5'2" and it sits longer than my petticoat so it look a bit odd. I figured that I couldn't live without this dress at the sale price I got it for so I will get it shortened and won't return it! 

*Also check out CurvyWordy's review here*

The verdict; with a few inches taken off the length, it's a definite hit!

Oh, as for what I wore underneath, my Freya Deco, Orchard Corset CS-301 and Lola petticoat from Collectif.

Which dress was your favourite? Have you found any good bargains lately? Share your photos on my Facebook page or comment below. 

Thanks for reading!

A Bittersweet Tale From Lady V London

It was love at first sight...BAM! On browsing Facebook a few weeks I was completely taken aback by the most beautiful sight. Rosetta was her name, she flaunted as many red roses as a sleazy Lothario on Valentine's Day. She flirtily enticed me to take a closer look and I was hooked.

Photo from Lady V London

Rosetta is of course this beautiful dress from Lady V London. Priced at £60 she's at the higher end of what I'd normally pay for a dress on account of me having so many I don't get enough use to justify the cost. Alas I was unable to resist. I knew she'd sell out quickly so I took the plunge. A few days later she arrived and I eagerly slipped her on...

I'd ordered my usual Lady V London size in the Rose Print Rosetta Swing Dress which is a UK 8. The size chart puts me at a 10 bust, 8 waist and 12 hips but I'd recommend working from your waist measurement if your figure is anything like mine. To ease the awkward 'which size do I order?' dilemma of the Rosetta Swing, you only need to take into account your bust and waist measurements since it's free at the hips. The Rosetta Swing Dress size chart below suggests a UK size 8 to be 33" bust and 27" hips. I'm currently sitting at 36" bust and 25.5" waist and the Rosetta fits fine, possibly because of the mock wrap bust line giving a bit more flexibility on size. The Rosetta Swing Dress sits a few inches below my knee. I'm 5'2" for reference. 

Rosetta Swing Size Chart from Lady V London

So let's take a look at Rosetta in full. Here I teamed her up with red accessories as I felt they worked best. My belt is from a random Chinese seller on eBay and my shoes are an old style from Debenhams. The clutch came from my local indoor market. I chose not to wear a petticoat as it doesn't necessarily need one, but you can add one if you like a more voluminous look. The neckline is definitely ideal for showcasing your cleavage and may not be suitable for those less inclined to flaunt 

Now as you may have gathered from the title of this post, this love story does not end well. It's visible on the middle photo above that one of the sleeves is slipping and that's with me posing in an attempt to prevent that happening. As I've discussed a number of times before, I often have issues with the fit of dresses and tops at the shoulders since I'm quite petite, causing straps to slip, gaping collars and a generally awkward fit. Rosetta, my love, this is where it all went wrong.

As you can see in the photo above, I'm not posing to make it look any worse, this is genuinely how much bigger than my shoulders the dress is. Sadly, the sleeves can't be altered easily as they are pleated and it would be quite a difficult job to do neatly so I'm told. This was the deal breaker for me. It's okay to have a bit of extra wiggle room in the waist, not quite enough in the bust, but the shoulders slipping, nope. 

I feel I need to throw in a disclaimer here that the dress itself is absolutely stunning and I would have kept it in a heartbeat,  but my petite shoulders let me down here, not the dress. If you're of a more standard build around the shoulder area then you'll more than likely find it will fit. Damn shoulders!

Rosetta is available from Lady V London for£60 in 7 different colours, sizes 8-20/22.

Photos from Lady V London

As an aside, if you love this dress but prefer a more streamlined silhouette, check out Loretta which has the same top half with a mock wrap tulip skirt.

Alas, I bid farewell to Rosetta. Please join me and my wardrobe in mourning this sad loss.

Lady V's Latest Offfering: The Wiggle Dress

As you may have realised by my previous posts, I LOVE Lady V London's dresses. Recently on their Facebook page they announced the arrival of the new Wiggle dresses, a prospect that filled me with sheer joy!

The Lady V Wiggle dress comes in 7 colours and 3 different prints in sizes 8-20/22. It costs £40, or £30-£40 at the time of writing this since it's on offer. I opted for the Red/White Polka Dot and the White/Black Polka Dot as they popped out to me most. As for the sizes, my measurements are; bust 36", waist 26.5, hips 38" so I ordered sizes 8 and 10 in both colours to ensure I didn't miss out on the introductory offer. Here's the size chart for this particular dress:

Two days later a pink package arrived containing the lovely dresses! My first observation was that the red isn't a bright poppy red but more of a wine red, which isn't what I was expecting, but is really nice nonetheless. The dresses are of a nice quality and don't feel like they'd fall apart or lose their shape easily. 

The fabric of the skirt part is quite a thick, quality stretch cotton/elastane mix and designed to cling to your curves, but does seem to be prone to creasing. The top part (the patterned bit) is made from a non-stretch viscose so I wasn't sure how the fit would work out on a fuller bust. The other design feature I was worried about was the 'apex' between the bust, which creates a kind of cupped dress. I've always steered clear of this sort of feature as all women have differently sized boobs, so I think a lot of women might not look quite right in these dresses as a result. A more preferable design in my opinion would be to have a high waisted design without the bit between the boobs. Something like this. I've added the collar and bow using my amazing MS Paint skills, but you get the idea! The original dress is from Ebay, apologies but I can't find the listing now!

The 'apex'

As I said before, I ordered both size 8s and 10s to try and find the perfect fit. The 8 fitted better in the body, if not a little more snug than I feel comfortable in but the top part of the dress was too small, hence the mega cleavage. The 10 was perfect at the top but too big at the bottom, which you can clearly see in the photos below. This problem could easily have be solved by a minor and relatively simple alteration.  

The one thing I noticed when I laid them flat was how 'hippy' these dresses are, making them ideal for those curvier ladies who don't go straight up and down. If I were to have kept one, it definitely would have been the white/black polka dot dress in a 10 and have it tailored to fit.

White/Black Polka Dot:

Red/White Polka Dot:

Be warned, the plunging neckline is not for the faint of heart and exposes lots of skin (and cleavage if you're busty). You'll need to wear a balcony bra, such as Curvy Kate's Tease Me or Masquerade's Rhea for the bra not to be seen. In my photos I'm wearing a Freya Deco plunge bra that I had to fold to make the cups less visible (you can see them in the red dress) and a shapewear 'Wear Your Own Bra' (WYOB) slip from Primark's Secret Possessions range to smooth out my silhouette.

I love the pin up style of the wiggle dress and the fact that it has a wide collared neckline, polka dot pattern, high waist and a bow really pushes my buttons. The 'apex' I discussed is something I would normally have overlooked for such a nice dress but I can't really afford another at the moment, so I've had to send them all back, sorry Lady V...I'll always accept gifts y'know ;)

So ladies, what do you think?