It's a new year and not too far away from the start of a new season. As newness filters through in the shops and into our email inboxes, it can be terrifyingly easy to slip into and get swept up in wanting - and buying - too much rather than taking the time to assess what truly is going to be useful to bring into our lives - what we'll buy and wear rather than buying things to lie in our wardrobes untouched and unloved.
I've taken a lot of steps over the past few years - undertaking low buy and no buy projects - to change my consumer habits. And I've made significant progress. But the truth is, although I buy nowhere near as much as I used to, I still love clothes and accessories. I don't think of myself as someone who follows fashion exactly - I couldn't tell you the last time I was on trend - but I still get that increased heart rate when I spot a beautiful piece across a shop floor (or on a phone screen as is often the case in this day and age!) and I don't think that will ever go away.
To try and combat that, I decided to collate an old fashioned wishlist post - sharing the things that are on my radar at the moment, taking you (and by extension, myself) on the journey of my reasoning for wanting them and publishing this post so I have it to refer back to - by which I mean giving myself the resource of being able to open this on my phone and focus on what I really want when I'm next standing in a store being tempted by something I've never seen before and which is giving me that increased heart rate and the promise of new.
Originally I was going to share everything I'm looking at in one post, but after writing out my thoughts on these dresses I decided that was enough for one post - so today we're concentrating simply on dresses, which feels appropriate really as I wear dresses 90% of the time. Separates can be mixed and matched and theoretically offer more versatility, but something about the all in one nature of the outfit and not needing to find pieces to match other pieces means I've just made my peace with it that I'll have to be an outfit repeater - and if I have Lizzie McGuire for company in that camp then I'm happy with my choice!
The next dress is the Peggy Wrap Dress in the Navy Mayflower Print. Again this is a dress I already own (in the Wine and Ivory colour way) and I've worn it so much. It's comfortable and it's versatile - it can be worn super casually with trainers, casually with a flat or dressed up with a heel. One of the nice things about the Seamstress of Bloomsbury is that they send you free gifts with almost every purchase - I've received two lovely broaches and a headband, which happens to be in the navy mayflower print. I've definitely got visions this spring summer of wearing the headband and the dress together, hence this particular pattern being added to the wishlist. (It was a close call between the Navy and the Green Mayflower Print - but having the matching headband meant the navy just took it!)
The last dress I've featured from The Seamstress of Bloomsbury is the Mabel Waterfall Dress in Mustard. This isn't a dress shape I've tried before - but the skirt shape looks close to the Shelly Dress and the v neck suggests the top would work for me. I love the colour - particularly for going into the Spring it's a brighter, cheerier colour but I know come Autumn I could pair it as the model on the site has done with a rusty coloured cardigan and handbag and my favourite gingerbread lip.
Although the dresses from The Seamstress of Bloomsbury aren't cheap retailing at £80-£90, they are far more affordable than this next set of dresses.
The first of this next set is this year's Linen Wrap Dress from Zimmermann. I've bought the wrap dress from them each Spring/Summer in 2022 and 2023, so it feels almost like tradition that I should get this one. The classic shape and print makes this the sort of thing I don't mind investing in as I know it's not going to date and the wrap cut means it can adapt to a certain amount of fluctuation in size. Having said all that though, I'm swithering on this year's offering. It's very pretty - but I don't know that the print seems the most unique...
If I'm honest, I actually prefer the print on the second dress, which is also from Zimmermann but is the short wrap offering for this year. Again I'm not completely convinced - the light background makes me nervous of spilling something on it, and in my experience short Zimmermann dresses tend to be very short (and with me being 5'1 I'm not sure who they wouldn't feel indecently short on!) but I'd definitely like to see this in person and try it on before making a decision.
The third dress in this edit is by Self Portrait. The shape and neckline look very flattering and I'm getting major classic Dolce & Gabbana vibes from it (and although at £400 it's not cheap, it's significantly cheaper than a D&G would be!) I'd originally seen it in navy and liked it, but the red was released as part of a Lunar New Year drop and is only being sold directly from the Self Portrait website rather than through any of their retail partners from what I can see, so I'm imagining there have been less made in the red and that I should prioritise securing it first.
The last dress would be another colourway in a dress I already own (do we see a pattern emerging?) I already own the Falconetti in Green, but to misquote Moana - the red one, it calls me. They're an insane amount of money but they make one feel incredibly special, there's something magical about them, the shape is flattering and elegant without feeling stuffy and I'm keen to add the red into my wardrobe. (I'm also keen to add the gold whenever it gets reissued - the colours seem to come and go, most likely to create scarcity and make you itchy to grab one whilst it's available - which the gold currently isn't!)
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