It Takes Two ... Party Dresses

We were searching high and low some great party dresses to create a festive window for our offline shop, The Terrace in Lyme Regis, and found a new, exciting designer who has just launched her first collection this Autumn Winter 2012.

Naomi Tsukishima worked at French Connection as a fashion designer and has now gone solo. Her style is sleek, edgy and stylish and she uses beautiful contemporary shaping and cuts. We fell in love with her collection, so her creations now stars in our Party Dress window.

We chose two totally contrasting dress styles for two different party occasions. One is a sleek dark navy cocktail dress with elaborate beadwork on the cap sleeves and a zip detail up the entire middle of the back. This is an elegant dress which contours the body shape and combined with a pair of slick heels is quite simply stunning.

The other is a cream floaty ruffle dress which is ultra feminine with diaphonous detailing. It is a tiered dress with pleats and beadwork above the bustline. This can either be worn as a short dress or combined as we have with a pair of leggings like the Naomi Tsukishima leather-look stretch leggings.

We hope to be running more of the Naomi Tsukishima range in 2013 to add to our growing range of women's clothing and accessories.

Naomi Tsukishima Navy Beaded Cocktail Dress

Naomi Tsukishima Navy Cocktail Dress Back Zip Detail

Naomi Tsukishima Cream Floaty Ruffle Party Dress

Naomi Tsukishima Cream Floaty Ruffle Party Dress

Pretty vintage floral prints remain very popular and this year loveithaveit.com has two charming collections from Patchouli Fair and the quintessentially English brand, Darling.

The romantically styled Patchouli Fair tea dresses come in a range of colours and prints and are so flattering and versatile. They look great worn with coloured tights and a flower in the hair, or layered with leggings or over trousers.

The charming Darling range also has some vintage floral print clothing styles in its range such as the Trudy Tie Blouse and the Valerie Dress and this year, they have also introduced a range of fashion accessories including scarves, leather and synthetic bags and purses. And we hear that Darling has many celebrity followers including Mylene Klass who was spotted wearing Darling dresses on two of her TV shows this week.

Last Minute Nerves!

It's not just the bride who can suffer last minute nerves before the wedding day. Being a guest and choosing the right outfit is a BIG deal for us women! It's our chance to really enjoy dressing up and going to town on a gorgeous outfit. Planning often starts several months before, but it's not only fun choosing an outfit, it's nerve racking because it HAS to be right!

In our Dorset Lyme Regis shop (The Terrace) we have plenty of experience of this, not least because we're next to the Lyme Regis Guildhall where weddings take place most weeks. So, Saturdays are always enjoyable as we get to see a parade of outfits ... heels, hats, dresses and jackets ... and it always stops other visitors in their tracks as they outfit spot!

But finding that wedding or special occasion outfit can be a trauma, not least because you want to wear something that no-one else will be in (remember Kate and William's wedding and their three guests wearing the same dress).

Go to the high street and your chances of that happening are multiplied. So our advice is to find an individual boutique with designer labels that you can't find on the high street. Contrary to belief, it doesn't have to cost a fortune and could even cost you less than going to a department store for example.

Today, we sold several wedding outfits and it is always so enjoyable to help someone find an outfit in which they will feel confident and not least comfortable.

One combination we sold today, and I have to say our customer looked fantastic in it as it was perfectly suited to her figure, was the Darling Beatrice Dress (a simple short dress with long, full sleeves) with our Taupe jewelled shoes. No last minute nerves for her!