I found myself in Islington the other evening, meeting a friend for dinner before we both went to a gig thingy together. Between the restaurant and the venue we walked past a shop that had some dresses in the window and it somehow sparked a conversation about how sometimes you need to not be scared to wear a dress.
I will happily throw on jeans and a t-shirt in a morning, or even a top and certain skirts, but wearing a dress seems to take things to an extra level strangely. What is it about having your outfit in one piece that somehow makes you feel slightly scared of what people will think? Or even makes you feel that it’s dressing up more than if you were wearing separates? Logically it makes no sense at all. Or maybe it’s just me and D that are a tad strange when it comes to dresses.
I’ll admit that years ago I wouldn’t have chosen to wear a dress. No idea why really, but unless I was going to a wedding it just wasn’t what I would choose to wear. Then I went to a blogging conference where Kirstie Allsopp spoke. Now, if you’ve ever seen Kirstie on the telly then you’ll know that she’s a regular dress wearer. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in a pair of trousers. Dresses came up in the keynote that she was giving (to an audience of mainly women) and she too spoke of how some women are almost afraid of dresses and shouldn’t be. It may be the case that Kirstie (at the time – this may have changed since) just buys the same dress in as many possible fabrics as she can as she knows that style suits her, but actually there are so many different dress styles out there that we shouldn’t be scared to try different styles. You can dress dresses up or down depending on the occasion, and, shock horror, most dresses are actually really comfortable to wear too!
I was asked to take a look at JD William’s dress collection for the year and the problem now is that there are so many that I want to buy! I reviewed a lovely dress from them last year (which by complete fluke I’m sat here wearing as I write this post now!) and I got so many lovely comments from people when out and about it in. One woman even saw a picture of me wearing it on Instagram and went and bought the same one within hours. So here are my favourites from this collection – and it may be that you’ll see me wearing a couple of them very soon.
I’m going to start with this skater dress. The chances of me ever going skating in this are zero, but I just love it’s simple form and it would be perfect in the daytime over leggings or jeggings. Then at night it could be dressed up with tights and heels for going out. There’s also something about the colours that I love too.
Now I have wanted a shirt dress for years. It’s the sort of thing that again you can make look smart if you need to, but dressed down with flats or pumps is a perfect casual daytime look. 
I have only ever worn a maxi-dress before when pregnant, but as soon as I saw how utterly glamorous this one was I fell in love with it. I’m not sure if it’s the colour, or the cut, that make it look like you could get away wearing it to quite a posh party or dinner. Whichever it is I’m pretty sure I’ll be trying it out soon!
And finally, this little tea dress style number. I can already picture myself wearing this on a hot summers day, paired with a nice wide-brimmed straw hat, as I head out on my bicycle to meet friends in town for tea. Absolutely perfect.
Disclaimer: This post was brought to you in conjunction with JD Williams. All opinions remain my own.
Somehow I wear a short, black dress every day. Usually in empire-style. Over Jeans, even over joggers. I wear it like other people wear T-Shirts.
I even wear it for yard work.
I own 6 or 7 short, black dresses that are nearly all the same. I love them.
My abdomen always is warm.
And I have one dress that fit me when I was 30kg lighter. I love how dresses always fit.
I love dresses, they are useful, and as you say, comfortable. However, I have always had problems with my feet, so cannot wear nice shoes and have horrible ankles and legs, so it is usually trousers.
I am saved when the weather is very cold by long (flat) boots, and when the weather is very hot by flip flops, but otherwise it really has to be trousers.
Sad but true.