lane bryant | Frocks & Frou Frou

After my success with my first Lindy Bop dress I thought I’d take advantage of their big end-of-season sale and try a few of their other styles on for size.

This one is the Matilda dress – a fifties-style shirt dress with Lindy Bop’s traditional full skirt, and a self-covered belt (that I swapped out for one of brown leather to cut back on the school-uniform vibe).

I sized up, because unlike my first dress (the Adele) Matilda doesn’t have any stretch to the fabric, and I was a bit concerned about how the button-up front would manage with the Rack of Doom.

I ended up sewing the front buttons up anyway so I probably could have stuck with the smaller size, as the larger swims a little on my narrow shoulders. The waist fits comfortably though, and I’m very thankful for the deep side pockets.

The big collar isn’t as flattering as the collar on my home-made Hawthorn dress, but for someone with a smaller bust it would provide a fantastic balance with the full skirt.

The dress is 100% cotton, and wonderfully breezy (39 degrees today in Melbourne. Sweltertown.) and while it’s not perfect, it was a steal at just 17 pounds.

In other news: If you’re in Melbourne this weekend, you might like to drop by the A Plus Market in their exciting new location at the Queen Victoria Markets. On Sunday Ashley Rose and I will be having our very own blogger bonanza stall, where you’ll be able to pick up some great pieces (and lots of favourites from the blog!)

Hope to see you there!

Top: Asos

Skirt: Lane Bryant

Shoes: Chie Mihara

I’ve been looking for the perfect pencil skirt for a long time now, and I think I finally found it at Lane Bryant a few months ago when I went shopping with my little sister in their Harlem store.

The Zipper Slit Skirt is made from a ponte jersey and has a good weight. It travels well (ideal, since I’ll be doing a lot more interstate travelling for work this year) and is comfortable to wear. There’s a bit of stretch in the fabric, but not so much that you feel like you’re wearing a compression bandage. The midi length is elegant, and just a little bit retro. My favourite thing – and what I’ve found lacking in the pencil skirts I’ve tried in the past – is the fact that the silhouette is tapered at the hem.

I’m quite full in the butt, so pencil skirts that fall straight from the hips to the knee tend to look quite boxy. I’ve tried stretch pencil skirts in the past, but for some reason even if it’s tight around the hips and thighs it seems to kick out at the hem again.

It could be the length of this one that gives it that va-va-voom bombshell shape, and I’d be lying if I tried to pretend that it was easy to stride in; having the hem so tight underneath the knees means that even with the generous stretch I still have to take little mincing steps.

Fortunately, if I really had to pick up my heels and run I could unzip the barely discernible slit to the thigh and just leg it across town.

(yes, that’s a peek of my Bandelettes BTW. I love them)

I’ve teamed it today with the aztec print top that I bought last year in the Asos sales. The boxy shape, and dense, tapestry-like fabric needs to be partnered with something that plays up my curvy lower half, and I think the Lane Bryant skirt fits the bill perfectly.

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