Frocks 101: If you love wearing dresses, where do they come from? And a couple of follow-up dress questions….

[WaggyTailsWetNoses]

Casual dresses, work dresses, going out dresses. I really love wearing dresses. And look good in them.

But a couple of my once-loved purveyors of frocks are now duds. Boden, Joules etc. I love dresses with sleeves, natural fibres, bold colours, the odd patterns, flared skirts to hide the, erm, baby weight ( youngest is 11!). Where else can I try?

What are the most flattering dress shapes?

Also, I can work dresses with tights and boots in winter, and love summer dresses with sneakers or sandals. What about that tricky spell in Spring when it’s too cold for bare legs, and too warm for tights?

And footwear with dresses. Please share your thoughts, ideas, rules. I’m really not sure I’m getting it right quite a lot of the time.

Finally, short sleeved dresses. Or long sleeved when it’s cold. Does this call for a co-ordinated cardigan? Blazer? Polo neck underneath?

I find Monsoon, Muthahood, Scamp and Dude and Albaray really good for dresses! I usually wear with tights and boots until spring time and then bare legs and white trainers in the warmer months.

Sometimes hush (a bit in and out of love). I always find something in Cos and appreciate their simple colour palettes and coordinated accessories. And Free people for something beachy or boho. I really want to love never fully dressed but it’s so much polyester. I compromise with their Jaspre skirt with a simple T-shirt
Re legs, a tip I got on here for spring is to wear nude microfishnets. I don’t think I have advice on shoes beyond what you have now, I am very stuck in my DM boots over winter but will transition through white plimsoles to sandals in spring.
re tops, I generally prefer layering over rather than under but I have some exceptions, e.g. slip dresses over tops 90s style. The most useful thing I have in my wardrobe is a very unstructured oversized linen mix black (but slightly off black) blazer from cos that I can throw over loads of stuff and feel like I’ve completed my outfit. Cardis I find really hard as they often look twee and I am not a twee person. Reading this back though I might be a pretentious tw*t.

Thank you! There’s a couple of brands mentioned I’ve not tried yet.

I agree re. Cardis being tricky. Sometimes I quite want to look a bit twee, I’ve a couple of floral dresses which look cute with a cardi . Other times not so much. I ended up spending quite a bit of last summer in a lightweight cashmere poncho I found at a market in Sorrento. It wasn’t great owing to the combination of not really being able to use my arms, and also looking like a minor character ( eccentric yoga teacher, sourdough bread shop owner) from a Nancy Myers film.

I wear midi dresses from Live Unlimited, which are quite fitted round the bust and shoulders, and loose from under the bust. Also a few from Gudrun Sjoden. If it's cold I wear a short merino or cashmere cardigan ( current ones from Uniqlo and John Lewis) on top and a slip underneath. If it's winter, then tights or leggings and boots. If it's warmer then shorter leggings ( shorter than the dress) and trainers, and then if it's hot, cycling shorts/chub rub shorts and trainers or sandals. I've also got a furry gilet type thing and denim jackets. I've got longer, boyfriend type cardigans but they don't work so well with dresses on me, I can very easily look too scruffy and grunge-y, which isn't a great look on me any more.

New Look, they have some pretty dresses at good prices in cotton as well as viscose. I am hopeful that M&S collaborate with Ghost again because they did some lovely dresses.The Boden I have some preloved Boden dresses that I like. I think a cheap way to dress up boots and a dress is coloured and patterned tights which don’t have to cost the earth and are just a little different from black opaques. River Island can be quite good too especially in the sales.

I love my dresses, from long sleeved winter weight for work to floaty gossamer fabrics for warm summer’s day that colleagues probably wouldn’t recognise me in!

But l don’t have a “go to” shop. That way, l have a mix of very different styles. Independent sellers on Etsy and Ebay have been great in recent years.