The Other Side Of Life: Posh Frocks - An Occasional Series, Part 1

I do love a nice tea or swing dress, worn with a full volume petticoat. It's a style of dressing that I became interested in fairly recently, buying my first dress of this style in 2023.

I had always admired my friends Nikki from Kent, and Pamela from Ireland wearing their beautiful dresses and petticoats. I didn't think that I'd be able to look as good as they do, but I thought I'd give it a try. Both Nikki and Pamela recommended a dress manufacturer called Lady Vintage, sometimes known as Lady V London.

I looked on the Internet for them and found their website, where they introduced themselves thus.

"Lady V specialise in fabulous and feminine dresses, inspired by the silhouettes of the 1950s and in breathtakingly beautiful prints. Available in Sizes 8-30/32 and designed for the modern figure, we are proud to manufacture all our dresses in London, UK"

Well I'm a big girl, size 24, so it was good to see my size was covered. And I liked that the dresses were made in London U.K. I browsed their various different ranges and also looked at the reviews. The reviews were glowing. One important piece of information that I gleaned from the reviews was about sizing. They mentioned that these dresses tended to run small, so it was best to order a size up. The dresses were made to cover two dress sizes, so instead of size 22/24 which I thought would be right for me, it was recommended that I buy a size 26/28.

After getting over the shock of having to order something with size 28 on the label, I looked for dresses in the size I needed in the Sale. Not all of the styles were available above a size 18/20, but a good many were. I particularly liked a style of dress called a Hepburn. I found a few in the sale, but they were mostly with Halloween or Christmas prints. However there was one dress that was just a nice floral prInt I liked, in my size and under £20. Well I simply had to have it.

Or not so simply. My friend Nikki had warned me that the packaging of the dress would make it very clear that there was a dress inside the parcel. Being in the closet, that could have been a bit awkward. So I asked my friend Veronica Page, if I could have it delivered to her address, so I could collect it on my next visit to her. This was fine, so I ordered it and collected from Veronica a few weeks later.

The dress was really beautiful. Well made and it fitted me perfectly. I bought a full layered white petticoat to wear beneath it, because you really need the volume to give the dress it's shape. I absolutely loved it. It gave me a wonderful feminine figure, thanks to the A-line skirt shape and the petticoat. I looked really good wearing it.

I chose to wear it on a visit to my friend Veronica, and we both chose to go with a vintage dressing theme. Here are some photos from that day.

I enjoyed wearing a 50s style vintage dress so much. It made me feel so lovely and feminine. Much more so than anything I had worn before. I was hooked. I had to have more of this.

So I did. I couldn't afford to buy anymore from Lady Vintage, at full price, but I found some in my size for sale on Ebay.

I've always loved polka dots, so I bought a second hand Hepburn dress in black with white polka dots. As expected it fitted well and looked gorgeous. I teamed it with a red cashmere cardigan and I was really pleased with the result.

I decided to add a contemporary twist to wearing a 50s vintage dress, and so i wore the first dress I had bought, with my ochre faux leather biker jacket, which I felt went well with the yellow flowers on the dress. I liked the result and it's definitely a look I'm going to carry forward into the future.

The lure of vintage dresses proved too much and in 2024, I bought another couple of Lady Vintage dresses. Both featuring red roses in the design. One was a black Hepburn with red roses. The other was a different pattern from the Lady Voluptuous range that Lady Vintage used to make exclusively for the plus size woman.

The black and red floral dress was my outfit of choice for another visit to my friend Veronica. We hadn't planned anything other than both wearing a 50s vintage look, so I was delighted to find that we had both chosen red outfits so we looked very coordinated. It was a wonderful day spent in gorgeous vintage dresses.

The other dress I wore at home for a special photo shoot. I wanted to wear a really ultra feminine vintage look. I have seen my friend Pamela Lennon dress in this style and I absolutely adored the look. I bought a white lace cardigan and a pair of white lace gloves. I also got a fuchsia pink scarf and some red flat shoes. I really enjoyed putting this outfit together and I loved the photos that I took during this dressing session.