Styling an end-of-summer summer dress

I’m slightly worried because I had another of those, ‘Yes I’ll just buy it without trying it on’ moments the other day in Tesco. I loved the mustard yellow colour (something that’s creeping into my wardrobe more and more lately) and the ditsy blue and red floral print over it was so pretty. The ruffles confirmed the purchase in my mind. Because, you know, I just love ruffles….

So I bought the F&F dress and went up a size as I usually do in dresses as I don’t like them to cling; had a quick try-on at home just in case I needed to take it back. No obvious problems, so I then packed it in my bag for our camper van trip to Cornwall. I wore it on the day we explored a route called Rocky Valley near Tintagel – a footpath surrounded by beautiful woodland, and leading to this stunning stream scene. Obviously, I had to get my feet wet for the outfit photos. It would’ve been a waste not to!

The dress is a Viscose crepe material, so not the softest in the world, but fine. I love the cut, and it has a much more vintage feel when you wear it, than it looks like on the hanger. The midi length adds to that, but it also doesn’t feel frumpy, which often is the case for midi styles on me. The ruffles are just the right size so they don’t add a load of bulk I really don’t need to add! I do have a little gripe though: The buttons are too far apart. Even though I sized up to be sure this dress wouldn’t be tight-fitting, I actually wonder if I shouldn’t have. Because although the buttons aren’t stretched to do up, there seems to be excess fabric between them, so it bulges out a bit between buttons to reveal my tummy if you’re looking at me from the side when I’m bending over slightly. And I really don’t want to reveal my tummy to anyone! So to be wearable in public, I need to sew on press studs between all the buttons, and will I ever really be bothered to do that? In the mean-time, I’ll wear it with a jumper over the top or just be very careful and not move much!

Although it may not be obvious, I actually think this dress is perfect for transitioning into autumn. The floral print is quite dark and the mustard tone is warm so the colours work well as we leave summer. And there’s an awful lot of scope for picking out either the blue or the red and adding a cardigan or jumper in either shade to wear over the top. On the day of the photos, I wore it with a red cardigan, and although I ended up barefoot for the pictures; before and after I wore my Timberland calf-length brown boots, and I thought that worked really well. It would also suit the more fashionable cowboy boot style perfectly.

So my conclusion is, I love this Florence and Fred dress, and I think you will love it too. But I would try it on in Tesco and take in a couple of sizes to see which fits best for you. I only bought it a week or so ago so should be in store still, but you know what fast fashion is like.

It was such a lovely photo location, Chris then whipped out his flash and took a few more photos with more of a creative feel:

Tesco no longer sell their clothing on their website, so if you’re an online shopper, here are some other ideas for similar mustard dresses from Asos…

Over on my YouTube channel I made a little video styling this dress to make three different outfits:

Linking with Mummabstylish, Fashion should be fun, #iwillwearwhatilike at Not Dressed As Lamb and #VisibleMonday at Not dead yet style