OMG I LOVE THIS DRESS. Love it. Want it in every colour. (Once we make it in more colours that is!)
*Now available in bottle green here!*
Meet the Fitzroy dress. You can admire it more closely here. It's stolen my heart, so be prepared to lose, ooh, 3 minutes of your life to me gushing about it.
So, you may think that a shirtwaister style dress sounds like a simple enough thing to design... but it really isn't!
We wanted a dress with sleeves, but that didn't feel like there was too much fabric. How long is too long a sleeve? How short can a sleeve be before it's classed as a short sleeve? And once you have the sleeve decided, you'd better believe it took hours to get the arm hole placement right. Why do we care about arm holes? Because they affect whether or not you rip the armpit when you move your arm, that's why!
As with all our designs, we wanted it to have room for an ample bust but also not swamp those less blessed in that area. Bearing in mind there would be buttons, we wanted nice dart detailing but not so busy that it would look much. And we didn't want the side darts to be so long you get that almost nipple-like look, you know? What came out of these musings was 6 beautiful under bust darts, giving a lovely tailored feel to the look but not making the dress feel overly formal.
Rowena picked the buttons and I have to say she made a great choice. They're clear with petal-like facets. A canny choice, because they lighten up the ink blue but without adding another colour. Oh she's a smart cookie, that gal.
Navy and red: a classic combo!
We also wanted it to be a classic knee length, because that's just how we roll here, and we wanted a generous skirt but not a full skirt. If only we had a skirt design with incredible deep pockets and a nice A-line shape..... OH NO WAIT. If you haven't felt the pockets in our Handy Pocket Skirt or Culottes, you need to reassess your priorities in clothing. To put your hand in one is to know instant love. Deep, wide, and able to secret a huge number of things, not just a large smartphone. I couldn talk about these pockets for quite some time, so lets move on.
The fabric is a polyester blend with a *loveliest* soft finish to it. It reminds me a lot of brushed silk, but unlike silk its machine washable.
Yes, you read that right. Machine washable!! It's also the type of fabric that creases just fall out of, so minimal ironing will be required. I recommend hanging it immediately when you get it out of the machine and putting it in a steamy bathroom before wearing. (I'm all about the working smarter and not harder)
Designed by us in Fitzrovia, made in London. I think it's fair to say we're extremely proud of it.