the blue-white dress & co.

Just to make the story a little bit longer than, hey I got a new dress and it's pretty fabulous, here's the background -

1. Really good dresses are hard to find. So I always have me eyes open for dresses which ticks the boxes good, long lasting quality, comfortable, flattering and pretty.

2. When the summer sales was on last summer I spotted what seemed like a really sweet cotton dress at the Marimekko website, kind of shirtdress in style and seemingly good both for work and play. When I asked in the flagship store in Stockholm I was met with a "really, well that's so last season and we've never had it in blue-white". In the end I found one in the tiny Marimekko store, it wasn't my size but I felt it was good to try it on just to see how it kind of looked.



3. It looked awful. I know it was 2 sizes too small but the fact that it was cotton jersey and not crisp cotton was disappointing. If you're not the really flatt tummy type or it's of a very clever cut jersey is such an unflattering material. So I decided to put the idea out of my mind.

4. Last autumn I spotted a gorgeous 50ies style yellow winter coat on the Marimekko site, I never did try it on in the shop but I was going to one day before the sales. Clearly it's not often you see gorgeous, good quality, colourful coats in flattering models these days and having two fine winter coats would actually be a good idea given how much I've used my happy coat. I had my eyes set on the winter sales.

5. When the winter sales was on I went to the shop to try the coat. Turned out it was sold out - funny that, because you NEVER ( well 99% of the times not) see any people in Sweden walking around in bright, gorgeous coats. Swedes dress like a depressing black, grey, navy mass of indistinguishable people - and on the website the sizes went fast. No yellow coat for me.



6. I happened to notice that the dress I had been oogling last summer was still there though. On sale too. And since the Marimekko jersey dress I got on sale last autumn has been such a fabulous wear (great cut!), maybe I should try this one anyway? I could always send it back if it didn't fit. I contemplated the size and ended up ordering a much larger size than I usually get (shrinkage 6 %).

7. I waited 8 hours for that package yesterday. I really hate waiting for delivery guys because it's a nuisance and a waste of time since they can arrive anytime between 8 am and 6 pm and you can't really focus on other stuff while waiting because what if you don't hear the knock on the door (and they never call beforehand or if one doesn't open the door). So you just end up waiting. I'm glad I can manage my workdays as I want, I only work towards deadlines.

8. Yesterday it didn't really feel like it was time well spent, all that waiting. But when I tried the dress on it seemed like very well spent time. Because it's really lovely. Great, heavy jersey with a flattering cut and side pockets (gotta love pockets!). Tad too large, but given the risk of 6 % shrinkage I believe that's a good thing in this case. It's really comfortable and professional looking with a twist, that's certainly a rare combination.



In the picture it's teamed with an old, faithful cardigan from Bric-a-Brac,
boots from El Naturalista (old blogpost about them) and
beanie from Noa Noa.

Old meets new and having a blast.