Lady V London Revisited...and I'm in LOVE!

Back in April, you may remember my post about a newly discovered company, specialising in Vintage reproduction dresses called Lady Vintage London. The dress I bought from them is absolutely beautiful, but didn't fit in a size 10 sadly. However, I couldn't bear to return it as I'd fell deeply in love with it, so I asked my mum to tailor it to fit and she did it brilliantly! After much hassling via twitter and Facebook, Lady Vintage finally announced that they would add size 8's to their range! I was delighted at this, but couldn't choose a dress until I finally caved last week and ordered three beautiful dresses. Without further ado, here they are!

Black & White Polka Dot Hepburn Dress. At the moment, it has £10 off, making it £30. Be quick if you want one! This is a size 8 and sadly too big. I mean sadly, because I wanted this dress to wear for work. It's eye-catching without being sexy and I love the high neckline (supposedly a no-no for a big bust) and the huge amount of fabric in the skirt. The dress comes with a thin black patent belt, as seen in the first two photos. It would easily work for a day in the office, night out, wedding or even as a day dress, it's so adaptable! My only other criticism in the length. At 5'2", it's a little bit too long, but when I slipped on my petticoat (details at the bottom of the post), it looked much better. My advice; Size down in this, but it's WELL worth it.

If only this came in a size 6...

My next choice is a fairly new addition to Lady Vintage, in a size 8, the Beautiful Cat Print Shawl Collar 50's Dress, £35. As soon as I tried this on, I knew it was something special! The fabric is so soft and floaty,and the print is adorable! Just look at the little kitty! I love the Peter Pan collar and the matching fabric tie belt too. The bust is just about big enough for me, so if you're reading this because you have big boobs, bear it in mind that I'm a 28GG. Again I tried this with and without a petticoat and with various belts. With the petticoat I felt a little like a lampshade, but with a less full petticoat, I'm sure it would look much better. It's very slightly see through, but this can be tackled by wearing nude underwear. Here, I'm wearing blue and you can see it showing through a little, but not too badly.

Lastly, the dress I was most looking forward to trying after my campaign to get size 8's made; the Vintage Blue Floral Summer Swing Dress, £40. I really didn't want to fall in love with this as I've still not worn my other Lady Vintage swing dress, but boy have I fallen for it! Firstly, the fit is so perfect it's as though it was made for me! I was spoilt for choice at which swing dress to try because admittedly, I wasn't overly keen on any of the patterns, and even when I first slipped this dress on I wasn't so sure. With my nude belt and shoes, it's safe and understated, but a little 'meh'. Then I went and tried it with red. WOW. Who'd have thought that red would be the most complimentary colour for this dress?! I thought I'd be buying the cat dress but this one has me smitten so I'm going to have to make a tough decision...

So as I mentioned at the start of this post, my mum altered the dress I'd previously bought from Lady Vintage, and here it is. I'm sure you'll agree that she did an amazing job! Unfortunately this colour dress is no longer available but you can still get it in black and red, £30 or in black and pink, £30.

...and here's what I was wearing underneath. for the square necklines, it's best to wear a balconette bra like this one; Tease Me in blue by Curvy Kate, £29. My petticoat is from Collectif, and is the Lola Puffy in red, £38.

You might also want to check out Lady Vintage fans and bloggers Miss Kathryn's Misstakes,  Big Girl's Browse and  Fuller Figure Fuller Bust. They all look amazing in their Lady Vintage dresses!

So all that's left to do is decide which dress I'm keeping. Thanks for reading!

Lady Vintage London; ALMOST perfect!

Whilst browsing my favourite curvy girls group, someone posted this little gem of a link: Lady Vintage London. Being a fan of vintage style dresses I immediately jumped on it and fell in love with the White Floral/Blue Tit Print Swing Dress, £30. I adore anything with a bird print, and the Blue Tit is a favourite of mine. Combined with red flowers on a white background, it's perfect for all those garden parties I don't go to!

Looking at their size chart, my bust comes up at a size 12, waist 8-10 and hips 8-10. I usually wear a size 8, and was very disappointed that the dress isn't made in my size. Not wanting to miss out, temptation got the better of me and I ordered it anyway, in a size 10. Shipping costs just £2.95, which isn't bad in my opinion, and I found a discount code on their Facebook page for an extra 10% off.

A day and a half later, the little beauty arrived! The first thing I noticed was the quality of the fabric. It's 100% cotton, is soft and hangs well. If I wasn't suffering from mild vertigo, I would have spun around my kitchen in it like a little girl! The dress has a lightweight lining, making it great for summer, and the bottom half of the lining isn't sewn to the hem, so it's like a built-in petticoat, if that makes sense? If you wanted extra volume, a frilly petticoat in red would be perfect with this dress. The dress has a zip right up the back, which is again, good quality. My only issue regarding the fabric is that it doesn't stretch, which could be a problem for a fellow busty gal.

Onto the fit. Because I'd ordered a size bigger than my usual size, I expected this dress to be too big, and it is, I won't lie. A size 8 would have been perfect, but since I love it so much, I plan on getting it altered to fit me. It also comes with a tie belt made from the same fabric, which I might use as a hairband instead as I like to wear thick belts with dresses like this. Once I tried the dress with my own belt, the fit became much better, but still had a bit of extra fabric here and there, which is nothing a little tweaking on the exsisting darts won't fix. I'd suggest ordering in your usual size with this, as the size chart seems to be an across the board thing as opposed to being style specific.

As you can see on the left picture, there's quite a bit of extra room in the top section. The bottom doesn't matter so much as it's a swing dress. In the picture on the right, I'm wearing my own belt, which came from a Chinese seller on Ebay and was dirt cheap. Yes, I realise I should be wearing a different bra too!

Although I'm disappointed at the lack of a size 8, I would still highly recommend Lady Vintage for their quality and range of beautiful fabrics. It is also worth mentioning that a lot of the dresses are limited, the one I chose is one of just 50, meaning you're less likely to see someone else wearing the same thing, and for the low cost and high quality, Lady Vintage dresses are well worth the risk.

Bye for now beauts x