This weekend I had my friend Lyndsey up from deepest Pembrokeshire, where there are plenty of beautiful Welsh blankets, but fewer stores selling well priced, current fashion. She is always keen to bring herself up to sartorial speed on her London trips, so we went to &Other Stories on the Kings Road. She’d read about my current infatuation with the brand and wanted to see if I was telling the truth.
It also gave me a chance to check out the party dresses in the wonderful The Dinner Party advertising I’d seen and loved, featuring grown up models. I loved the imagery but were the dresses as good as they looked?
Before we got to the dresses, we both fell on this gorgeous, simple back pack in soft black leather, not badly priced at £79, or if you fancied pimping up your party bag, then the leopard print one was excellent, and its chic shape and fine straps meant you could quite easily pop it on your back during any office party or Christmas shin-dig and still look festively well dressed. Coordinate it with a colourful print and it will the most interesting outfit in the room. It’s £65 in Faux Fur.
The party dresses were a mixed bag, I personally wasn’t wild about the stiff green brocades and the draped lurex numbers, but the lace maxi dresses in the red and black were interesting to see up close. The lace on the black version (above) is stiff and has a wax coating on the top, which I really liked, as it adds a structure to the fabric that holds the line of the dress together nicely. Lindsey wasn’t wild about the feel of it, and I suspect the gothic crispness might but people off, but it is a divine shape, so elegant and puts me in mind of the Diane Von Furstenberg lace dresses she’s done so well with over the years.
The red silk embellished dress is softer and a real stunner. If you can carry this dress off -it is slightly more challenging for the curvier figure IMO but go for it if you fancy it -then get it immediately, it’s £195 but you will be the best dressed Christmas grown up. As I’ve said before, red is a having a ‘moment’ as as cool colour.
Due to my hippy leanings, I fell for the rich pre-Raphaelite green velvet maxi dress at £125. It has an easy, draped front and spacious sleeves, with a strategically placed inverted box pleat at the front, which would hide any over-stuffed Christmas lunch tum. Think Biba crossed with Margot Ledbetter here…
Lindsey also bought a lovely cashmere ribbed beanie in black at £39, and we were both enamoured with the suede sneaker selection.
Also, below, party hair ideas. Just saying. How’s your pre Christmas purchasing going?
