A Floral Dress for the Anti-Floral

When I saw this floral dress, I had one of those cloud-parting, breath-catching, love-at-first-sight style moments.  I don’t wear florals, but this particular floral dress appealed to me.  The funky bright colours keep it from veering into overly girly territory, and if you squint, it looks more like confetti than flowers (or so I told myself at Checkout).  In my more-is-more-less-is-a-bore mentality, I firmly believe a dress like this should not be saved only for evenings or special occasions.  Quite the contrary!  When an item of clothing makes you feel gleeful, why save it for ‘best.’   And why can’t ‘best’ be right now, today?  I can almost feel the seratonin leaping around in my brain when I wear something like this.

Can’t stop staring at my new dress, sorry!

We had a sunny day this week after days and days of rain and leaden skies, so I begged my husband to come take photos of this dress before it sells out online.  Unfortunately, the fashion brigade is on it like a bonnet, but there are sizes 6-12 left as of right now.  Like a lot of ASOS dresses, it runs a tad small.

After we shot these photos in Little Venice, we went to Notting Hill to run some errands and have a coffee; on Westbourne Grove, no one bats an eye if you swan around in a dress like this in the morning!  I didn’t have time to change, and after errands it was nearly time to pick up my son early from school, so I did the school run in this dress too. From there, I took him straight to his swim lesson, so… I wore it poolside.  He always goes to the soft play area with the other children after swim lessons, so I sat chatting with all the other mums about chicken pox and house renovations wearing this.  I got a lot of compliments on it after wearing it for a full day, I can tell you that.  It is also a ‘gay fashion men will stop you in the street to gush’ dress, which is a huge plus in my book.

Here are the rational reasons (not the love-at-first-sight ones) I bought this dress.  I think it looks well above its £130 price point; it has a real Gucci and Valentino feel with the extravagant floral embroidery on tulle.  It is very versatile; I can wear it for evening as a showstopper, and wear it daytime as a maxi dress.  The only thing I’d change is the little removable slip dress inside for a slightly longer one, maybe even a full length one (sometimes).  I’d also like to try a brightly coloured slip dress underneath.  I’ll play with it and see.  This dress looks AMAZING with a cheery faux fur stole; my sky blue one is perfect with it for an offbeat czarina vibe.  It even works surprisingly well with that more-is-more sparkly Swarovski necklace I wore a few posts ago.  If I can think of enough different ways to wear an item of clothing, I can justify the purchase.  For today, I wanted to demonstrate its versatility and style it right down, to make my point that even an ‘occasion dress’ can be worn for every day (as I accidentally did the day we shot the pictures).  Here, I added a studded belt worn with the buckle at the back (bought from WalMart about 8 years ago!), some tough multi-buckled Zara flats, and my beloved Balanciaga biker jacket.  Shopping links for whole outfit are below the next photo.

Floral dress: ASOS  Buckled flats: Zara  Belt: old (similar)  Biker jacket: Balenciaga  Earrings: Eternal  Sunglasses: ZeroUV  Clutch: old

Details

My favourite Boucheron sapphire and tsavorite chameleon ring was in his habitat amid all the floral print!

The same shoes and earrings I wore in my Paris post.  What a difference a dress makes, eh?!

Floral fabric close up

While I’m here, I’d like to extol the virtues of the bloggers paradise website, ASOS, where this modestly priced dress came from.  Now, if you just land on the homepage and have a quick snoop around, you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that this is not a website for the 40+ woman.  The styling is not aimed at us, the trends are not aimed at us, and the ‘voice’ of the website is all a bit student-ish.  However, you’d be missing out on some real hidden gems if you click away.   So, how do you shop ASOS  like a grown-up, without wasting lots of time (or the will to live) scrolling through pages and pages of crop tops, wrap-front miniskirts, and novelty print onesies?  Go to the homepage and do a search for the keywords ‘ASOS Salon’ or ‘ASOS Premium’.  This filters out a lot of the uninteresting merchandise and brings up their better pieces.  If you like the Scandi brand COS (I don’t, too boxy and minimalist for me) then use the keywords ‘ASOS White’ for COS-like style.  For a broader search, click on  WOMEN category and then select ‘Designer’ from the drop down menu.  OR, search for specific brands that you like (Ganni, Whistles, Wildfox, BCBG, etc.).  Personally, I do a search for the keywords ‘sequin’, ’embellished’, or ‘faux fur’, and then go from there!  There is still a lot to wade through.  For instance, a search for ‘choker’ turns up 768 results, so if you’re after a specific item or trend, this is a good place to come.  People are always surprised that a piece as good as this dress would be from ASOS, so I thought I’d share my filter trick with you.  I found it by using ‘ASOS Salon!’  Have you found any gems at ASOS before?

P.S.  Some readers have mentioned they can’t find links to the items I post with a photo, so I’m going to start listing them here as well:

Floral dress: ASOS
Buckled flats: Zara
Heels: Lotus
Belt: old (similar)
Biker jacket: Balenciaga
Earrings: Eternal Collection
Sunglasses: ZeroUV
Clutch: old (similar)

linking to: notdressedaslamb, notdeadyetstyle, fashionshouldbefun