Let the social season begin. This pretty dress is party-perfect in a beautiful blend of wool, silk and nylon jacquard with metallic threads. Its strapless silhouette features a fitted bodice, with boning and elastic in back along the top edge to hold it up—so you won't have to. Straight skirt. Straight neckline. Empire waist. Back zip. Fully lined. Falls to knee; 24" from natural waist. Part of the J.Crew Collection. Import. Dry clean. Catalog/jcrew.com only. was $225.00 select colors $129.99 item 13239There is a story to how I wound up buying this dress. I was shopping at my local J. Crew and one of the associates I like to work with had this dress on. She was going out with her husband after work that day and decided to with dress to work that day. It caught my eye immediately! I knew I had seen it online, but I did not realize how absolutely gorgeous the fabric was until I saw it in person.
Because it was an online / catalog only item, I rushed home to give the dress a second look online. At the time, the dress was still FP, but a lot of sizes were already sold out, sizes 0 and 2 included! Darn! But there was no way I would have spent FP on the dress anyway (with no real place to wear it!) so I just kind of wrote it off.
Then, it went on sale and I was able to order a size 2 that popped back! {Woot!} But, when the dress arrived, it was way too big at the top!! Not just 'didn't-fit-perfect big', but 'I-can-pull-the-dress-down-to-my-waist big'. I was crushed, and immediately planned to head to the local tailor I use to get the dress taken in.... because, of course, at that point, the dress was completely sold out!
Magically (OK, not magic, I set my alarm for 6 AM and then stalked the sale section update for about 30 minutes on a Saturday morning!!), about 2 days later, I was able to snag the dress in a 0!! {Double Woot!} and it fit perfectly!
The fabric is a perfect light weight for summer, while remaining substantial enough to be very dressy and classy. There is not too much metallic threading, but just enough to make the dress fun! The color is amazing! I wouldn't even call it pink (they do on the JC website) because there is a lot of orange in the background color... I guess kind of like a coral color. I'm never pulling and tugging at the top to get it to stay up because of the silicone strip around the neckline that holds the dress in place perfectly! I've gotten TONS of compliments on this dress ... and it really just makes me happy to look at it ... and especially happy when I wear it! This is an example of when you should definitely purchase a piece of clothing, no matter what it costs, if you feel like a million bucks when wearing it!
I didn't even think I needed this dress when I bought it, but I've already worn it twice to social events! That makes the purchase totally worth it in my book! Unfortunately, both places I wore it were at events with my husbands firm, so we didn't take any pictures! Crap! But I popped the dress back on today to take some shots! I will add shots of us actually out and about the next time I wear this beauty!
**Outfit Suggestions: I have paired this dress with the JC long pearl/ sparkle necklace I reviewed a couple of days ago in shell and JC Paige Chunky Sandals in Metallic Blush. I've also considered wearing the Target heels we all went crazy about a couple months ago in the light pink color! Gold sandals also look fantastic with this dress!
**Bottom Line: Hot summer cocktail dress!! A must-have for weddings and social events this summer! Runs a bit large, I would size down, especially if you are not large on top.
I purchased it in my regular size and it was a bit baggy in some areas. Of course they were sold out so I couldn't size down. Have fun wearing it, you look gorgeous in the pansy dress!
ReplyDelete