According to last weekend’s Guardian style section, now is the time we should all be putting away our black opaque tights as the good weather is finally here. Sorry guys but you’ll have to prise mine away from my cold, dead, fingers. I have tried the ‘pale is interesting’ bare leg look for a wedding, with a midi-length dress and lashings of porcelain foundation in place of fake tan – my top tip for pale ladies! But otherwise, it’s tights-a-rama for around 50 weeks of the year for me.
Navy pleated dress, Love Label
Anyway, this month we are looking at pleats. I find them to be delightfully prim and ideal for when you are having a ladylike moment. Marie Claire have listed a dizzying array of different varieties of pleats, including box pleats, knife-edge pleats and accordian pleats. If anyone knows the difference between an accordian pleat and a knife-edge pleat (or if anyone cares) please leave me a comment!
My dress is by Love Label (from Very.co.uk) and has quite crisp pleats. Thankfully it is made of the kind of material that keeps its shape perfectly even after washing, which is essential for any pleated purchase I think. You don’t want to have to iron them back in or something! I like the long, sheer sleeves and the pussy bow detail, which is demure in spite of the shorter length. I am also addicted to navy – this dress would look a bit funereal if it was in black, for example. I have added my own belt as it was a little loose on the waist, which is from my local vintage shop. I obviously have on my trusty tights and black ankle boots from Office. Not terribly Spring-like, but did you see the hailstones the other day?!
I was going to include a photo of a dress from the Henry Holland catwalk show for Spring/Summer 2011, but I got so distressed by the extreme thinness of the models I saw when researching that I couldn’t bring myself to include the photo here. Instead I’ve linked to it here, as it is a lovely dress anyway. Instead, here is a rather cheeky looking model wearing a good example of a cool pleated skirt, from the Asos Curve range. It hits two trends at once as it is also midi-length, so that’s a big win in my book. Also check out Elle’s street style feature, for examples of dressing down pleats by teaming longer skirts with Converse trainers or brogues.
