Styling a ditsy floral smock dress at Naugatuck State Forest

There’s something about the shape of smock dresses that I love. Probably, just how damn comfortable they are! And I was very happy to find this one at H&M as it fits well, but also has a few design details that means it doesn’t look plain and frumpy…

Ditsy floral print vintage-style dresses

The ditsy floral print reminds me of the 1970’s and also of a dress I had when I was about five. And I’ve really got into vintage style dresses lately, so it’s nice to find a modern one made in lightweight breathable viscose, not vintage sweaty polyester! I like the tassels that dangle from the neckline, and the narrow crochet trim at the empire line and also near the hem. I also like the juxtaposition of the short length of the dress, but with long sleeves.

How to style a smock dress

I’ve gone bare-legged for the photo-shoot, but ordinarily I would wear the smock dress with leggings – when you lift your arms in the air, it rides up just that bit too high for me to be comfortable with! I think the dress would look great with sandals in the summer, but for now I like the calf-length Timberland boots with the outfit. (I think this is something like the fifth time I’ve apologised for constantly showing you these boots! But I really do wear them all the time, so I’m sorry if you’re bored of seeing them!)

Visiting Naugatuck State Forest

Behind the scenes: This photoshoot was at Naugatuck state forest in Connecticut during one of our trips across the pond for Chris’s work, and oh my goodness, it took a long time to find and I’m still not sure we ended up at the correct spot! At first we found a place with an old railway track, a tribute to someone who had died there, and lots of posters stapled to trees about Jesus, guns, and trespassing. We got out of there fast! Drove about twenty minutes in a circle and down a dead-end eventually spotted a small dusty carpark with a pick-up truck and no sign of a person. All our valuables came with us! The walk alongside this river was very pretty, and we didn’t have to go far to find this lovely spot where I could step from rock to rock across the water to pose for the fashion blog post photos. I have to admit, I didn’t relax and enjoy it as much as I could have as I was worried someone would break into our car, or rob us at gunpoint or something. Two other cars parked up the other side of the road to the carpark and there was definitely something iffy going on there! And as we left the area, we passed a shooting range, so maybe I was right to be worried about guns! Anyway, I expect Naugatuck State Forest is a lovely place if you’re familiar with the area and know where to go, but I wouldn’t recommend it for tourists, and I doubt we’ll be returning. If you’d like to see the vlog of our day exploring Connecticut, please take a look at my YouTube channel. The ditsy floral smock dress will also be featuring in my Spring Lookbook coming soon, if you’d like to subscribe to keep an eye out for that!

Here are some smock dresses from New Look you might like:

Here’s my Look-book video that includes this dress: