Aussie Curves- Polka Dots

I was excited to see that Polka Dots was the theme this week, as I am a big fan. I have polka dot pyjamas, polka dot hat, polka dot plates and of course polka dot clothes. I decided to recreate what I wore for my birthday last weekend. This pretty dress was marked down to $20? (can't remember) from City Chic, which is the first thing I've bought from them. Usually their prices are too high for my budget, and they don't seem to have 70% off as often as Autograph, so I don't usually pay them much attention. But the price was right for this dress! I like that the straps are adjustable, as I needed to adjust them a lot (the usual fit around the hips, too big up top problem). The dress is comfy to wear and I love the combo of ruffles and polka dots. It came with a belt made out of the dress material, but I found a more structured belt worked better. 

To offset the chill as I went out for birthday dinner (if you're ever in Newcastle, El Nonno in Hamilton have yummy Italian food and great service for reasonable prices) I wore my Domino Dollhouse jacket. Both the jacket and the dress were having their first outing, by the way. I turned up the cuffs so you could see the adorable polka dot print on the lining. The jacket doesn't photograph well, but the colour is a rich burgundy velvet, so nice to wear. I like the crop length too, especially over dresses.

I wore my awesome op shop find boots. I like how the jacket, boots and studded belt add a bit of edge to the pretty floaty dress.

The bunny brooch and polka dot hair bow were birthday presents given to me on the night, which I promptly wore. The necklace is a dark purple stone from my Grandmother, it's not exactly right with the dress but I couldn't find a better match. 

My bracelet and my sparkly handbag are both op shop finds. The bow on the handbag is the belt from my dress.

I've assembled some other polka dot looks for you, which can be found here, here and here. I still have two more polka dot clothing items I haven't featured on the blog, maybe I'll show them off this week.

Outfit Details
Dress: City Chic
Jacket: Domino Dollhouse
Bike Pants (underneath): Big W
Boots: Thrifted
Bracelet: Thrifted
Necklace: Gifted
Hair Bow: Gifted (Olive Tree Markets)
Bunny Brooch: Gifted (Blackbird's Corner)
Belt: Asos Curve
Handbag: Thrifted

Blue and Green Striped Maxi

I love me some stripes (almost as much as polka dots) so when I found this cheap maxi at Kmart I was excited. It also has one of my favourite colours in it- blue. I wore it with my blue hair flowers, a green sparkly necklace I'd picked up from one of those little pop-up shops in shopping centres and blue and green bead earrings. I added the black elastic belt for a bit more visual interest (it was an op shop find).

The dress fabric is a nice breathy cotton, not as stretchy as my other stripey maxi (seen here). I went for a size 24 initially but it was too loose in the top. The 22 fitted better, and now that I'm cool with dresses hugging my curves the bottom part of the dress was no problem!

Once again I'm pairing a blue dress with my new op shop boots. I think my boots are going to feature often at least until the excitement of the find has worn off!

Stay tuned for another outfit for "blue week" coming out later in the week!

Outfit Details
Dress: Kmart (22)
Bike pants (underneath): Big W (22)
Boots: Thrifted
Necklace: market/pop-up shop
Bracelet: from a friend
Hair flowers: Target
Belt: Thrifted
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Aussie Curves: Celebrity Copycat

This week's Aussie Curves challenge is celebrity copycat, and it took me a while to find the gorgeous Zooey Deschanel. I don't follow celebrities or care what they're wearing usually. General celebrity google searches brought up bland, boring celebrities, doing celebrity style quizzes helped a little, then I thought to try searching for colourful celebrity style. Eventually I came up with the lovely Zooey. She gives off a quirky vintage/retro vibe. She wears a lot of dresses, she likes bows and fun prints and blue. This was something I could work with.

Using the fun print/bow/blue combo, I chose to wear my heart-print dress from Asos Curve, and over the top an Asos Curve blue coat that looks similar to the one Zooey is wearing. This photo shoot is the second try. On Saturday I got all dressed up, went out to take photos and it was raining. I took some under the verandah but when I checked them later I noticed the clothes were all rumpled. So for the first time in 3 years, I had to iron my clothes. Hope you're appreciating this Aussie Curves! Take two, a sunny Sunday, I managed to find a somewhat shady spot and tried again.

I'm wearing the Asos Curve heart print dress backwards. I like the v-neck at the back of the dress better than the round neck. I like the tie belt but it never sits where I want it to. My black Mary-Janes seemed like the best Zooey-type choice to pair with the dress since I don't own heels.

I bought the Asos Curve coat on clearance and it's been a great winter essential. I love the colour and the style. I bought a 26 so it fits over all my layers, and it's a wool blend so I stay toasty. My hands stay warm too in the pockets. Red and blue are one of my favourite combos, I'm glad I was able to show off this dress which I've had a while but not photographed. Thanks Zooey! I'm channeling the out and about celebrity style there with the sunglasses and coat, hee hee.

You may have noticed that my hair is way shorter than it used to be! I had it cut the shortest I'd ever gone and I love it. Not the best style to copy Zooey with, but it's easy to care for! I'm wearing my favourite hair bow (I think Zooey would approve) and some earrings I thrifted from the op shop.

I tried to do some eye make-up but I'm just not good at that stuff. Eyeliner won't even go on- I run it along and nothing happens. You wouldn't know but I'm wearing mascara and my usual red lipstick (which fits in well with Zooey's style).

Ok enough papparazzi, I'm off!

Outfit Details

Dress: Asos Curve (24)
Coat: Asos Curve (26)
Shoes: Big W (10)
Hair bow: Olive Tree Markets
Earrings: Thrifted
Sunglasses: K-mart
Bike Pants (underneath dress): Big W (20)

Polka Dot Peplum

Today's outfit is showing off my new Asos Curve purchase- a polka dot peplum top. It's a thick cotton fabric, hugs my top nicely. The polka dots are a little strange- they seem painted on and are a bit rough to the touch. I would prefer if they were printed on or flocked. This is my first venture into the peplum trend- I like the shape it creates. I'm looking for a pencil skirt to try out with it. 

The weather was cool enough to need a cardigan but I didn't want spoil the line of the top. So thanks to Lilli from Frocks and Frou Frou who shared her tip with me- button the cardigan together at the back. It holds the cardigan on, but bares the line of the top. Great idea Lilli. All I did was button the last button together.

I'm wearing my stripey socks from Sock Dreams. These extraordinary long thigh highs do go over my knee but they don't stay there! To try and combat the rolling down effect I trialed some sock garters.

Unfortunately while they slow the rolling down process they don't stop it, and are pretty uncomfortable to wear. Next I'm going to try a garter belt and see if that helps.

One of my favourite necklaces is this unicorn one- from my local shop Catfight Collections. They have an online shop so go have a look if you're into pin-up/ rockabilly stuff. They have loads of cute hair bows and shoes too.

Once again my Etsy TARDIS earrings make an appearance.

Outfit Details

Peplum Top: Asos Curve (24)
Skirt: Autograph (22)
Cardigan: Thrifted
Socks and garter: Sock Dreams
Necklace: Catfight Collections
Earrings: Etsy
Shoes: Big W (10)