Review: Lindy Bop 'Marlene' in blue gingham

So when I saw this dress on the Lindy Bop website, I literally jumped for joy! I've been looking for a dress in this exact style for ages now and the fact it was by an affordable repro company made me even happier. I don't think there's a feeling quite like the one you get when you find the dress you've been longing after all along and not only can you afford it, there was a 20% off sale at the same time. 

The 'Marlene' is out in 4 different colour-ways and I picked up this one and another one which you will see in another post. This is by far my favourite pattern of them all because I've just really grown to love gingham, especially since I bought the pink gingham cigarette trousers from Collectif. 

Taking blog photos can be a trying process, especially when I was trying to take these right in the middle of my parents setting up their party. but of course, when you buy a dress this beaaaaautiful, you have to instantly snap it right? right. Actually, I took them literally after breaking open the parcel because I really couldn't resist...woops. 

I would say this dress may be a bit of a struggle if you are on the bustier side but there is some slight stretch to the fabric with it being 3% elastane but as I'm on the smaller side, I don't know too much. about how big boobs fit in dresses! However, I will say that the chest area is very snug with the high neckline but as a smaller chested lady, I love this and suits me just nicely. The dress is 97% cotton so it's very light and soft which makes for a very comfortable wear. I'm personally a huge fan of spaghetti straps as well which is strange considering I use to hate having my arms out but I think this feature makes the dress a lovely and ideal one for an afternoon picnic (okay the weather hasn't been too great for that but we can always hope!). 

I do feel very Dorothy-esque in this dress but how I only wish I had a small dog as my companion. Really rubbish shinfo for you here, but in my Year 6 school play, I offered myself up to play Toto the dog in the Wizard of Oz so I could be in every scene, my headteacher bought me gardening shinpads so I wouldn't damage my knees...oh I'm too funny and desperate to be seen, clearly! Anyway, it's always lovely to feel pretty which is what this dress definitely makes me feel. 

The dress features a hidden zip at the back, which I admit I struggled a little bit unzipping because the back is a little high but that doesn't bother me at all. 

I ordered this in a size 14 and it's a perfect fit, I have no qualms with the sizing at all so I'd say it's pretty much true to size. I adore the fit and flare style of the chest to skirt; I find that when the body is fitted and the skirt is flared, it can accentuate your waistline making it appear a bit smaller. 

As you can see, I've paired the dress with one of my favourite pairs of flats from B.A.I.T footwear. You may or may not have noticed that I've worn these shoes in my last few reviews so I've either gotten really lazy with footwear or I just suddenly have a love for blue coloured clothing; maybe it's a bit of both?! These flats are very sturdy and comfortable after all. 

The belt comes as part of a set from Primark whilst the headscarf is from eBay. 

I hope you liked this review and possibly found it helpful. If you have any feedback or questions,please feel free to leave in the comments. 

Follow me on Twitter // Bloglovin // Facebook // Pinterest

xo

This dress was not gifted or sent for review, I've purchased this with my own money :)

Review: The Oblong Box Shop Flamingo Skirt & Criss Cross Sweetheart top.

The Oblongbox Shop is a brand I'd heard of for a while through Instagram but had never gotten around to checking out properly. I always thought "well I can't spend this money so I might as well not bother looking" and so I didn't. For a while. Pay day arrived and I then found myself more curious than ever to check out their beautiful skirts I'd been spying online.

Now what sets The Oblong Box Shop apart is that owner, Denialle Von Fitch, handcrafts all of her skirts which includes down to the actual skirt illustrations. I think people tend appreciate little nuggets of information like this because it normally means that a lot of care and attention has gone into creating the item of clothing. Another thing I noticed was just how easy the website is to navigate; okay that may sound supeeer lame but this kind of thing is important to me. It's really fast, organised and visually SO pretty to look at. I suspect a lot of people wouldn't care but a crappy website bothers me and loses me as a customer faster than you can blink.

Browsing through their website was more tempting than I could have imagined. I had a little look through all of the clothing but what really caught my eye in particular was the collection of skirts. By far, my favourites are the novelty print skirts; since I bought my first Pinup Girl Clothing Jenny skirt, I've absolutely fallen in love with kitsch printed clothing, so to me these were heaven to look at. 

I went with the flamingo design for a couple of reasons; one, the turquoise colour is vivid, stunning and totally eye catching.....which I really like despite actually loathing attention 99% of the time (I know I'm a weird one) and two, you may know that I have mentioned on the blog a few times now that I just adore flamingo prints. When it comes down to it, go with what you know! 

The skirt is made from 100% polyester which is something I've not experienced in a full skirt (or any skirt) before. For me, it's perfect though as I've since carried it around in my suitcase and it just doesn't crease. I'm only used to wearing cotton skirts so it did take a little getting used to but I feel that this will only make the skirt last a lot longer. It really is beautiful to look at; the colours are incredible and so vibrant and worth the $95 for that on it's own; but it also features a hidden side zipper with an adjustable waistline which is also another first for me! However, I could have easily downsized in this. As an inbetweenie, I tend to size up to be safe, especially when ordering from America. I've found it isn't too much of a bother because as you can see here, I've put my trusty ebay belt on to accentuate my waist and break up the colour.

Worn with the skirt, is also a top that is from The Oblong Box Shop. As far as I could tell, these tops aren't made by the brand but are from elsewhere. The selection is fantastic however, and SO CHEAP. When I made my order, I also bought this 'It's A Wrap' crossover top for $20 and the one I'm wearing here which is the 'Criss Cross Sweetheart Pinup Top' in baby blue at $19.50. They are both fantastic quality, especially for their price. I'm so used to pinup style seperates being stupidly expensive most of the time so it is refreshing to see affordable prices. 

What I love about this top though, which also comes in many different colours, is the variation. 

You can wear the neckline as a criss cross or just as normal straps like shown above. I might at some point try and tuck the straps under and wear it like a boob tube style top and see what that looks like, So it is versatile as well as being stretchy and very flattering on the body and bust. I suspect the built in cups are a bit useless for the bustier lady but are perfect for me. The colour also goes perfect with the skirt, they're like a match made in heaven!

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this review. As you can tell, I fully recommend making an order from The Oblong Box Company, especially as you'd be helping out a smaller business. The selection is really to die for so you won't regret it. 

If you aren't already, follow me here:

 Twitter // Bloglovin // Facebook // Pinterest

xo

Oh Gwyneth....

I'm the absolute tool who has been spreading these images around my social media before I even bothered to write the post. The problem is, when I try a dress on and I *feel fantastic* I go to take blog photos, then I love the photos so much I just have to Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr them all before I've even had the chance of writing a blog post. I can imagine I am very annoying to anyone who follows me on any of those formats; particularly Instagram to which I am a self-confessed addict.

So I first wore this to the Pinup Picnic In The Park event back in June but I have not worn it since. It was a second-hand buy from a lady on Facebook and I feel I really lucked out with this one. Now, I'm an owner of other Voodoo Vixen dresses, but I was glad to get this one second-hand as I didn't know how their wiggle dresses would fit me. I mean, I was rather happy when I came across this on Facebook because I couldn't afford it at full price, not knowing what the fit would be like (and yeah, VV dresses are really reasonable) so I thought I'd rather take this opportunity to try the dress at a slightly cheaper price but pre-owned. 

Thankfully, and to my utter delight, the dress arrived in pretty much perfect condition. To me, it looked brand new. Fit wise, it isn't perfect on me but these days, I tend to size up on wiggle dresses; I'm a little self concious of my belly and my weight is constantly fluctuating so I'm scared of wearing my ACTUAL SIZE. Silly, I know. However, I needn't have worried here as it's clear that this dress isn't skin tight and didn't leave me feeling vulnerable. In fact, I would have quite happily have sized down and not feel like all my lumpy bits - which I am constantly trying to love - were on show. I believe the dress is still wearable despite the considerable amount of room on my shoulders (at some points during the picnic, the shoulders kept falling down but I found it rather amusing). 

So the dress does come with it's own belt but personally, I found it wasn't sturdy enough for me so that I could cinch in my waist. In these photos, I'm wearing my What Katie Did - Morticia corset so obviously my waist looks tinier than normal and with ALL this extra room, I turned to my trusty white waist belt from eBay to tie the look together. This isn't a thing with just this particular dress because any dress that I buy that comes with a belt, I usually replace it with another..I'm a bit fussy like that you see. 

I need to talk about how gorgeous the print is though; the nautical theme suits me through and through as you may or may not have seen my anchor tattoo on my forearm. I'm a bit fan of this theme so it's fabulous when I get to incorporate it into my wardrobe. I feel the navy and white colours of this dress make it a really simple yet classy outfit to wear as it doesn't really make a statement as such but can easily be dressed up as it can be dressed down. Also, can we PLEASE notice the POCKETS?! Yes, a dress that has pockets is the Holy Grail.

Made of 97% cotton with 3% elastane, there is a touch of stretch so it is very forgiving on the body, as I mentioned before. The one part of it I do really love is how thick the dress feels; it really doesn't feel flimsy or cheap. Yet I was let down in the buttons department; within a few hours of my second wear, the buttons down the front started withering away and falling off. This isn't the first time this has happened to me with a dress. It happened on my other Voodoo Vixen 'Tilly' dress, a Lindy Bop dress and now this. I'm starting to become wary of buying dresses with sown on buttons because they just fall off so quickly. I mean, it's alright when you have the spare button which comes with most dresses...but when more than one falls off and it's in public and you can't retrieve it, you start looking silly. For me, this aspect ruined (a teeny tiny bit, I will find other buttons to sow on, I refuse to let this get me down) the dress slightly, but not much. 

I'm so impressed with the way this dress makes my body look (even without the corset on underneath) as it gives it a silhouette and perfectly outlines my figure. Moreover, the dress is just rather pleasing to the eye and I'm totally in love with the cut of it. The kick pleat at the back does help, along with the slight stretch in the dress, to walk around and sit down in (like when you're sitting around at picnics!)

Now I know their pencil dresses fit me well enough, I have my eye on the 'Allison' dress, you can see here. This one is going straight to my wishlist and I will be purchasing brand new, because who doesn't love a new parcel in the post anyway?! 

Shoes by B.A.I.T Footwear. 

Until next time my lovelies, thank you for reading <3
Follow me on Twitter // Bloglovin // Facebook // Pinterest

xo