Saturday, December 30, 2023

Dress review: blue floral dress (Albaray)

I received the good news in July of this year that I passed my last actuarial exam, which marked the end of me studying for the actuarial qualification since 2018, as well as the end of me studying for the rest of my life! 

After accruing an undergraduate degree, an MSc, a PhD, and then the actuarial qualification, I feel like I have thoroughly had more than my share of studying, and am very much looking forward to having my evenings free to relax! (and hopefully blog a bit more!)

To celebrate, I treated myself to this pretty blue floral dress from John Lewis, in the hopes of having a not-so-Cruel Summer (obligatory Taylor Swift reference). The dress is from Albaray.

As you may have gauged from my outfits in the past, I really like having flowers on my clothes (exhibits A, B, C and D).




The long length of the skirt part of the dress means it’s appropriate to wear in the office, and indeed, I got my latest professional photo taken in the dress:

Dress: John Lewis
Earrings: Accessorize
Glasses: Red or Dead

The dress boasts one of the elements which I rate very highly in dresses, but is sadly too rare: an elasticated waistband. The material of the dress (viscose) means it drapes over your body shape in a flattering way, so whatever the figure shape, it will highlight your curves in a classy, but not too jarring, way.

Something else that’s important in determining whether or not a dress is office-appropriate, is the neckline, and I was very pleased to see that the neckline of this dress was modest, as well as keeping the shoulders covered.



In terms of the floral design, the design is a straightforward cluster of small flowers of white, yellow, lime, green, and blue, which overall forms a Monet-style impression from far away. Due to the multicolour element of the dress, there’s a range of shoe colours you can pair it with. I like to wear sandals during the summer, and indeed, in the two full body length photos included in this blog, I'm wearing a pair of New Look strappy sandals.

In the office I’d either wear the aforementioned burgundy sandals, a slightly higher pair of lime green heels (which bought out the lime green flowers beautifully, also from New Look), or chunky brown wedges from John Lewis. The latter were the hardest to walk in, but optically, gave the impression of me being 5’9’’, which I very much enjoyed!

If you add a baseball cap into the ensemble, you can still give tomboy, despite wearing a floral dress!


In the end, the Summer of 2023 did indeed end up being a not-so-Cruel Summer for me (which is good, because 2022 was such a Cruel Summer that I'm gonna need Taylor or Olivia Rodrigo to write a song about it), and the ðŸ’« lucky girl era ðŸ’« I felt I was in, coming off the back of that exam success, was sustained with my adventures in London in this lovely dress!

Grade: A

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