blue stripes

Image borrowed from the Anthropology website

Followers of my twitter account (top right, if you're reading this on my actual page) may remember me moaning a few weeks ago "where are all the long blue&white stripy maxi dresses hiding". Well, after extensive searching, I have located one. One. Seriously. There is a dearth of maxi dresses which are long enough. And I'm not excessively tall. 5 foot 8, actually. There are plenty of taller girls than me. 

My search took me far and wide, across the high street and across the pond. This one from Anthropology appeared quite early in the search, but, at £118 plus postage, it wasn't exactly cheap. It wasn't the first dress that I ordered. That honour went to one from ASOS. It's sitting here, waiting to go back, because, despite the photo promising floor length on a model they claimed was 5 foot 9, it barely skimmed my ankles. In the end, I took the plunge and ordered the Anthro one. I got a (modest) pay rise at work, so decided to treat myself. 

It arrived, promptly, last Friday and I immediately detached the blue top. It's not that it's bad per se, but I just prefer the dress plain. It's heavy jersey fabric, grey and navy striped, and hangs beautifully. All the way down to the floor. I wore it out on the Saturday last weekend and it was cool in the heat of the day but also warm (with a cardigan on top) when it cooled down in the evening. 

Sadly, it looks terrible on the mannequin on the Anthro website. It was only because, by chance, I noticed Rebecca wearing it in her post of maxi dresses for maternity wear that I realised it actually looked nice on a person. I don't really understand how with styling like they have, they can represent a dress so poorly. The photo is actually doubly misleading - the top is nowhere near that sheer either. It's more like a proper, off shoulder, jersey tshirt. It's not connected to the dress either, save for a little string, so that (if off shoulder draped jersey tops are your thing) you could wear it separately over a vest and jeans. 

Anyway. There you have it. Things are out there, if you're prepared to overlook terrible photography/styling and pay lots for it. £118 is a *lot* for a jersey dress, when all is said and done. Thankfully, I am very pleased with it. I just hope it survives washing...