The funny story behind styling a blue summer maxi dress

I know some fashion bloggers are happy with a few snaps in the car park; standing by their house, or in front of the nearest garage door to get their fashion blog photos. Not me, oh no! I take my blog outfits to the other side of the world to get mine!…

Twice! Haha! Seriously, as Chris and I love photography, we do get into it a little more than most, and whenever we are off somewhere interesting, we like to make the most of it. So I try to pack outfits that have yet to be seen on the blog, and Chris lugs his huge heavy camera everywhere we go! I actually wasn’t sure whether this blue summer boho maxi dress would ever see the light of day on this blog because neither photo-shoots ended up quite right.

If you’ve been following me a while, you’ll know that in January 2018 we stayed in America for the month for his work. At the weekends we had the opportunity to go exploring, and we both took our cameras and had several outfits in the back of the car for me to change in and out of while we had the chance to have different surroundings for my outfit photos. The problem was, when we reached Burr Pond State Park, I realised I had forgotten to bring a skin-coloured bra, and even though I think I’m doing a pretty good job at pretending it wasn’t minus fifteen degrees, the nips don’t lie!
(Yes, that is ice in the background, and if you’d like to see the frozen lake I walked on just the other side of this waterfall, take a look at the Youtube video I made of that day exploring Connecticut.)

I began by crossing my arms over my chest, but there really wasn’t a lot of point in trying to photograph the dress like that, so I thought sod it, #freethenips and all that! All I had to do then was reach in the top every so often and hoik up my boobs so they weren’t pointing as south as they usually do when I’m braless. When your hands are freezing cold, this isn’t as much fun as it might sound.

So, apologies for the mildly pornographic photos we took in America! We decided to try again in the summer, and this time we had a family holiday in Italy (not quite the other side of the world) so I wore this bohemian style maxi dress whilst sight-seeing around Rome.

So this is more the usual thing for a fashion blog post – rather than being artily barefoot with no accessories, I have at least worn the blue dress with other items to give an idea about how it could be worn. However, the outfit is not really ‘styled’ for a fashion blog; it is put together for practical purposes.

I only had hand luggage for a whole week’s holiday, and therefore only one bag – the Primark blush pink rucksack – and only two pairs of shoes – the Blowfish canvas Roman-style shoes I wore for visiting the Colosseum and cycling the Appian Way – and these Red Clarks sandals. They are super-comfy for a day on your feet sight-seeing and are stylish enough; but admittedly, don’t really go with a pale blue dress. White sandals would have looked so much nicer. Likewise, a pretty shoulder bag or a fashionable straw bag would have pulled the outfit together far better.

I wore the white scarf over my shoulders for a couple of reasons – I burn really easily and this saves worrying about missing a spot with the suncream. And it was also the day we visited The Sistine Chapel where you are required to have your shoulders and knees covered. It was a gift from my sister (from Sainsburys) and has proven very useful in the summer.

We weren’t particularly happy with our second efforts at photographing this dress either. Outside it was the hot sunlight of the middle of the day, and not easy to avoid harsh unflattering shadows. The first three photos in Rome were at the Vatican museum and the next two were at the Spanish steps. You can imagine how crowded those places were with tourists in July! So avoiding people was also difficult and meant we didn’t feel comfortable taking up space to get the detail shots we normally do.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my fashion photoshoot fails anyway! It’s a pretty dress and I wanted to show it to you. It was unbranded from Amazon and was also available in white (now that one really is pornographic, so I won’t be sharing photos of that dress until I’ve worked out a way to layer it!) but doesn’t seem to be for sale any more.

Shop the look for similar:

(Link-ups below)