red dress
I have reached 39 and the realisation that I am no longer wearing clothes that make me happy. I don't want to be trendy or fashionable, or even appear to be two dress sizes smaller, really - I want clothes that enhance my life and make me happy. Like I spent most of the 90's wearing. My summer 'uniform' is: denim skirt (straight), leggings if chilly, plain t-shirt in cringing, don't-look-at-me neutral tones, like navy, dark blue, olive or brown. Sometimes I will crack out a (navy) shirtdress from Fat Face which is nice (but only if worn with Spanx). Sometimes, and against all better instincts, I wear several-seasons-old White Stuff-y tunics or tops or dresses and look like all the other preschool mummies, except two stone heavier.
Something clicked this morning and as I surveyed my mud-coloured wardrobe, I resolved to wear dresses a lot more. I like wearing dresses - they make me feel happy and swishy and I like them. I don't mind wearing Spanx underneath them but I draw the line at anything more punative. I used to wear bright colours and feel happy, and now I wear navy, brown, olive, taupe, dark blue, khaki, and feel sludgy and frumpy. I've decided I don't care if the yummies at the toddler music group make 
faces at me in bloody unison because I'm wearing a DRESS omg!, I just want to wear stuff that enhances my mood, every day.
For starters, I would very very much like a dress like the one Caitlin Moran is wearing here. I don't want to be told it is frumpy (I'm sure it is by someone's MN standards), or mumsy (I am a mum, I don't see a problem with being identified as such, and in any case it ought to be abundantly clear that I'm a mum because of my constant retinue of 4 yo, sticky 19 mo and nappies spilling out of my bag), or that the original dress cost a four-figure sum and was bought for the shoot. I would like a red dress like that. I think I'm quite similar in build to La Moran - we are both quite amply stacked and we're both a bit prone to slight lardiness. We also both seem to like a bit of a 50's vibe in clothing. (See, we could so be besties.) Suggestions for 50's stuff would also be fab, but not Vivien of Holloway. a) I can't afford it and b) she insists on sticking to authentic 50's proportions. Last time I checked, I would need a size 20 to accommodate my waist 
and then need to take in the bust a lot. Sod that, for a £95 frock.
Please help. I just got a tax rebate 
and though most of it will have to go into reducing my overdraft and spending money for our holiday, I would just like a couple of things to wear that didn't come from Sainsbury, a charity shop, or ebay. Thank you. 
(I'm a 16, have largeish boobs (36E/F), getting apple-fatness after DS2, and am a shortarse - 5'2".)