Summer dresses round up

I’ve never really been one for wearing summer dresses. When I was younger I always felt uncomfortable in skirts and dresses because they seemed to come up so short on me (I’m 5”8 and most of that seems to be upper leg!) so it made me feel a bit paranoid that people might think I was tarty (is that still a word? it was then!) As I got older, I did embrace the old inner-tart a bit more, but I still wouldn’t pick a dress as something to wear casually in the day time, only if I was going out.

Now I’m even older (sigh) and somewhat more porky (sigh) I’ve realised that dresses are actually super flattering on, especially looser more flowing ones. My legs are still slim, so dresses make me look thinner all round – winning! Also I have got some cute little cotton shorts I wear underneath, so no dreaded chub-rub or worse, knicker flashing. Dresses all round!

With my new fashion focus in mind, I thought why not do a round up of some of the dresses I have my eye on for this summer? I’ll start with this one that I actually bought to go to New York from FatFace (funny story – a Mum at school asked me where I’d got it and I accidentally told her it was from Fart Face, which is actually what I have my sister in my phone book as. Such. A. Loser) ANYWAY….dress!

It’s so comfy and soft, and it’s well fitted to let air circulate – no sweaty bits here! I love FatFace, it’s one of my very favourite shops. It’s quite expensive – this dress was £45 – but the materials and print is excellent and will last for years and years. Oh, and it has pockets!! Their new range with bird prints are amazing, currently wearing their budgie top in fact! Well, they’ve called it a parakeet top but they need to get their feathers right because they are quite clearly budgies.

I’m loving the shapless and flowing dresses coming out of H&M at the moment. This pale blue shirt dress is a delight, but not something I could currently wear as I have a 7 year old dirt magnet running round with an equally dirt magnet-y hound, so it would not be a lovely swishy pale delight for long! This one is £24.99 – I’d always try on H&M dresses first as their sizes are mad wrong most of the time.

I’d like to add a denim dress to my wardrobe this year – I really like very thin denim as it’s comfy and I love denim blue. I quite like the frills on this one from Oasis – you could probably wear it into the evening as well and not feel like a scruff.

Another one of my go to shops for dresses is Dorothy Perkins. I don’t buy anything else there because the fit is weird, but for some reason the dresses work! I love the almost Bardot neckline on this £22 skater dress – it’s my favourite kind because I have broad shoulders and they look slimmer with a wide neckline (plus I can’t wear anything against my neck, I hate it. Rollnecks are what satan will be tormenting me with)

This last one is one I’d wear if I was just a little bit braver. Another shirt dress, but the colours and clashing stripes are just *heart-shaped-eyes* Love it. Again Zara has bizarre ideas about sizing – I’m not sure I can forgive them for the shame of trying on some ‘large’ trousers and not being able to get them past my knees – I’m only a size 14! How is that large?! Anyway, I like this one for £29.99 so I might give them another chance…

Are you a dress person? Where else might I find nice summer dresses?