You may have noticed by now that I'm quite a fan of Dolly and Dotty clothing. This sunny yellow 'Anna' dress is the latest addition to my collection, and I'm quite smitten with it. It's available in a variety of colours but I really liked the yellow when I saw it, although I wasn't sure how well the colour would suit me. I'm pleased to report I'm really happy with how it looks, and I'm looking forward to bringing this dress out more and more as the weather improves.

I wasn't sure what colours would work best for my cardigan and accessories as yellow isn't a colour that appears very often in my wardrobe. After some consideration I decided on leopard print and I'm so glad I did. I'm not sure what it is about the leopard print that sets the yellow off so well, but I do really like how it looks. I even happen to own a leopard print bow that I decided to put in my hair; it's rare for me to have everything so well matched but I love it when things come together so perfectly.





Again with this dress I went for a UK size 10, as I do struggle with being a bit in between sizes for Dolly and Dotty clothing. As the 10 is just a bit too big for me (but more comfortable to wear than an 8), I've just cinched in the waist a bit with a belt. I'm also wearing the dress with a non-padded What Katie Did bullet bra in these photos, but it's quite possible that the fit would be better if I opted for a modern padded bra instead.

The dress isn't lined, although some of my other dresses from Dolly and Dotty are, so I'm also wearing a cream slip underneath just to help with the way the dress hangs and to combat any possibility the dress being a bit see-through. However, I almost always wear slips under my dresses regardless of whether or not they are lined, and since the material on this dress is not too flimsy anyway, I'm not sure that it necessarily would be see-through even though it's a very light colour.





I definitely don't think this will be the last Dolly and Dotty dress to make it's way into my wardrobe. Although I really enjoy wearing genuine vintage items, my wardrobe at the moment does contain a lot of repro stuff purely because of it being much more practical for my lifestyle. At the moment Dolly and Dotty designs are some of my favourites and their clothing is really affordable, which makes it ideal for me. The website describes this as a party dress; to me it's more of a day dress but I suppose it depends where your threshold for party dresses lies! It's possible I have a somewhat warped judgement of what is considered daywear as I know a lot of people consider girls who dress vintage to be very 'dressed up'. I do think that has more to do with the very casual style of dress that's most popular in society now rather than us actually being overdressed. I've found a skirt and heels for some reason puts the fear of God into some people, which I sort of like. Fear me, for I am Woman. This particular dress is 95% cotton though, so not what I'd consider a fancy fabric or anything like that. It has enough weight to hang really nicely without a petticoat, and although you could put a petticoat under this, I personally probably wouldn't wear a petticoat with this style as it's not the fullest of skirts and I think you'd start to lose the gathered/pleated detail if you tried to give it too much fluff.






Anyway, that's all for now! Let me know in the comments what you think of this dress and whether you own any clothing from Dolly and Dotty, and in the meantime don't forget to swing by and say hi on my social media. See you there!

This is another dress I believe is probably from the 1970s or 80s, but due to the shape and overall style is perfect for recreating 1940s/50s looks. Obviously the way I've styled it here is not a faithful reproduction of a style from any particular decade so much as it is just a general vintage look, but with the right accessories and styling it could look very authentic. In the future I'm planning on changing the buttons as I think a different set could lend an even more authentic mid-century look to the dress.

I'm still wearing these boots with almost everything; they're an absolute joy to wear and a real statement piece to own. In particular I like the texture of the leather over woolly tights - and that has the double benefit of keeping me nice and warm in the winter. Of course the jacket has also been a real favourite ever since I found it, or rather I think it found me in rather the same way that the wand chooses the wizard. I love the colour, the shape, and the texture, and it goes with so much in my wardrobe. The faux fur collar is removable but even though I've owned jackets with similar collars before and I've almost always worn them exclusively without the fur, I've yet to remove the fur from this one as apparently the jacket has the power to make me appreciate features that I didn't used to like. In short, this might actually be the most perfect jacket ever. 

Hi everyone! Here are my photos for the third week of my photo-a-day project. I missed a couple of days for this week as well, but that's life. I'm still shooting in JPG but I've decided I'll try and do a similar project next month and shoot in RAW as I think I'd rather make sure I've properly tried to learn my way round the camera settings before I also try to get to grips with new editing programmes etc.

As usual, please let me know any critiques etc.


15.02.17


16.02.17


17.02.17


18.02.17


19.02.17

Although it kind of looks like it was pretty warm outside when these photos were taken, it's actually just a trick of the light because it was freezing. We're starting to get the odd warmer day now which keeps tempting me to bring out some of my more summery clothes, and I keep having to remind myself that it's still only February and therefore won't be summer for a while yet. It's just those few warmer days are so deceptive, even though the majority of the time it's still really cold. In fact, we've actually had some snow today so I'm quite glad to be sitting inside writing this instead of out on the sea front where I'm sure it will be 'blowing a hoolie', as I heard someone say recently.

Despite the cold it was actually a really lovely day, so we took advantage to go and get some photos, and lo and behold just about managed to catch the much-coveted 'golden hour' just as the sun was starting to drop.





For this outfit I opted to style the May dress from Dolly and Dotty for a pretty glamorous look, which I think would be really great for a special event or maybe a car show. I even have some matching sunglasses which would have been perfect with this outfit and I was so excited about wearing them for the photos but obviously I managed to forget them when we actually went out.

I got this style in a UK size 10 again even though I was really undecided about whether to opt for a size 8 or a size 10. I seem to be pretty well in between sizes in Dolly and Dotty styles, and my other dresses are a mixture of size 8s and size 10s, and I'm never quite sure which I prefer. Definitely for the styles where I like wearing a polo neck underneath (for example the Petal dress) I like to go for a size 10 to make sure it's still comfortable to wear an extra layer underneath. I had originally decided that I might go for a size 8 in styles which I don't want to wear an extra layer underneath and which zip up the side, and a size 10 in ones where I don't want to wear an extra layer with but which zip up the back. I haven't really stuck with that though, and eventually decided to go for a size 10 in this style regardless.

As you might be able to tell, it is a little bit large on me, but I do find the larger size more comfortable to wear than the size 8, even if I do also like the way the size 8 looks like a better fit. Ultimately I think this comes down to individual comfort levels for those of you who might be in between sizes. If you're not sure which size to go for, it might be worth buying both sizes and trying them on to help make a decision.





This dress isn't lined as some of my other Dolly and Dotty dresses are, but the material holds its shape really nicely. I'm not wearing it with a petticoat here as I honestly don't wear petticoats all that often, so I do appreciate a skirt that has a nice amount of volume even without one. I really like the crossover style of the bust as it adds a bit of extra interest to the V neck. I normally avoid polka dots as I do think they can look a bit fancy dress, but I really like the look of the print on this particular dress as I think the cut of it keeps it looking classic and dressy.

Hello everyone! Welcome to my second week of my Photo-a-Day February project. This week I ended up skipping a couple of days as I was too busy/didn't feel like going out in the evening after I got in from work, and on Sunday I left my memory card in my computer when I went out so it's now a not-quite-photo-a-day project. I'm ok with that though, especially as I'm aware it would be much more difficult if if I worked 9-5 in an office every day.

In any case, here are my photographs from 6th-12th February.

6/02/17


8/02/17


9/02/17


11/02/17



Hopefully next week I'll have a full set!

I originally had these photos taken as part of a collaboration I was involved in with Sugar and Cream Vintage, a vintage shop in Thailand. I was hoping to be able to share the pictures with you after the blog post I wrote for the company had been published on their blog, but as I'm not sure what the current situation is with that so I have decided to share the photos with you anyway as it seems a shame not to.

I put this outfit together around Hallowe'en last year, and was inspired by the style of the dress and my newly acquired spider backseam tights to try something a bit gothabilly or psychobilly in nature. I know that my style normally tends towards classic vintage, but as regular readers might know I was briefly a (very substandard) goth in my early teens and still really enjoy that aesthetic. I'm also a casual fan of psychobilly and modern rockabilly music, and I dabbled a little bit in a much more modern rockabilly kind of look when I first started transitioning to a vintage wardrobe.

At the time I really liked the look of giant suicide rolls, acid green hair, sleeve tattoos and plenty of leopard print - and although this didn't end up being the type of "vintage" look that ultimately suited me to actually wear on a daily basis, I'd still really enjoy doing it for a photoshoot or other event. I'd really like to get to Whitby Goth Weekend one year (I was hoping this year as one of my favourite bands, Abney Park, are playing but it's unfortunately a really long way to travel for me), and I'd definitely love to wear a gothabilly or psychobilly look for that.





Anyway, I really enjoyed adding a few spooky touches to this outfit but I think it still retains enough of my usual look that it doesn't look too different to my other outfits. I believe the dress may be from the 1980s, and I quite like the unusual off-centre buttons on the front. I think with a bit of creative makeup it would make a passable female Beetlejuice costume for one Hallowe'en if I needed a costume. The dress isn't really warm enough to wear while we're still in the middle of winter as it's a fairly lightweight chiffon-y type material (although maybe I could get away with it with a polo neck underneath?), but I'm interested to see how else I might be able to style it later in the year. I have a feeling that I'll be tempted to pair it with the spider accessories every time - to me it's just asking to be a little bit spooky.

I'll be using various resources along the way to try and learn the techniques, and I'm also very happy to receive any critique or suggestions.

Without further ado, here are my first set of pictures from 01/02 to 05/02.

01/02/17


02/02/17


03/02/17


04/02/17


05/02/17


So that's everything for the first week. I'm really pleased with my results so far although obviously there's plenty of room for improvement. I'm only shooting with very basic equipment at the moment (entry level camera body and kit lens) but if I can get to the point where I feel like I can get the best possible results out of my existing equipment I will be thinking of upgrading, at least to a better lens. For anyone who knows/cares about these things, I am still shooting in JPEG format at the moment but I do plan on switching to RAW eventually - I just need to do some more practice and also research into things like image editing software before I'm ready to make the switch.

See you next time for more!