la belle dame sans merci

last week i finally bit the bullet & ordered my dress for the leavers' ball! it's a 1960s inspired shift dress from dorothy perkins, and it is a lovely pale/salmony pink which means that i don't have to buy new shoes as i have some in a similar shade (which is awesome as i hate buying new shoes!). here it is in all its loveliness;

part of the reason i loved the look of this dress so much was the amazing pearl beaded peter pan-ish collar (i say ish as it's not quite a peter pan shape). at first i was a little bit worried that the beads wouldn't be totally securely attached to the dress, but in actual fact they are sewn onto netting so, fingers crossed, they should be less likely to fall off. however, it does present a slight problem of what jewellery i can wear with it, as i pretty much feel naked without a necklace, haha.

here is the full length view! i'm a little worried that the cut of the dress will make me look a little shapeless, so i will definitely be wearing heels on the night!

the original price of the dress was £50, which is more than i would normally spend on a dress, but i managed to only pay about £30 as they had a 30% discount offer, and i had a voucher code for free delivery! i'm pretty impressed with that saving, if i do say so myself.

the fabric of the sleeves is wonderfully sheer, in fact the majority of the dress is sheer, so this does raise an issue or two vis-a-vis appropriate underwear.

i am actually in love with sleeves. when i tried the dress on, i felt like i'd just stepped out of the biba changing rooms!

they have the cutest pearl buttons on the cuffs (which admittedly were a total palaver when trying on the dress!), which i couldn't see on the website so they were a nice surprise when it arrived! especially as i was actually contemplating sewing something on the cuffs myself.

love the fluted shoulders. fluted probably isn't the right word, but is the only thing that springs to mind!

the only thing i have to sort out now is what tights to wear, i kind of want to wear some patterned ones as the dress is relatively plain but i think i'll just end up wearing my white ones as that would go with the '60s look. i already have shoes so they aren't a problem, but i do want to change the colour of the ribbon ties on said shoes, at the moment i'm thinking turquoise would be the best choice, what do you think? also, i think i'm going to buy some lilac nail polish for the full pastel experience. (not that i take my clothing inspiration from my art supply cupboard or anything)

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1. i had my english literature exam today, & i think it went alright. all the extracts we were given were really long though, so it took aaages to read & analyse them! i spent way too much time reading the first two extracts, which were prose (urgh), so only left myself about 5 minutes to plan for the second section, nightmare! i only need 78 out of 120 in this exam to get an A overall, so i'm hoping i've done enough to manage that, fingers crossed!

2. i've just bought tickets for my friend jess & me to go see the kooks in november! i was completely & utterly obsessed with this band from the ages of 14 to about 16, so as you can imagine i am beyond excited to see them! we travelled to go & see them in doncaster about two years ago, but it wasn't an entirely brilliant experience as we both passed out & can barely remember anything from the gig, paha. also, it will be amazing to see them locally, especially as they're playing a pretty small venue. the countdown begins now!

3. the planning for my jewellery shop is still going strong! i stilllll cannot decide on a name, which is so annoying but i think that when i find it, i'll just know, you know? yeah, okay then. well, anyway, i'm starting to gather together some vintage-looking props for a photoshoot in the near future, just of the jewellery, no people at the minute!

4. i recently pre-ordered caitlin moran's new book how to be a woman, two copies, one for me & one for my cousin's birthday present. if you follow me on twitter, you're probably sick of me raving on about it, but i am just so excited to read it! i think she's pretty much my idol, it's so refreshing to find a feminist writer who writes about more than feminism! she's also totally hilarious.