Lisa sent me a link to this designer, Rozae Nichols, and, frankly, Ms. Nichols had me at this dress. So pretty, without being too girlish. (Not sure how I feel about the knee socks and platform mary jane shoes, but I have almost perfected my technique of being able to ignore all the accessories sent down the runway, and concentrate solely on The Dress.)
I love the dotted fabric, and the fact that it's lined. Personally, I'd like shorter sleeves, but this is for Fall 2007, so perhaps a more summery version would hit above the elbow. I think a summer version with flutter sleeves would be lovely.
Of course, the only fly in the ointment is that her site is hugely flash-heavy. Why is it that designers feel they have to make their sites into largely unnavigable mini-movies? Is it a control issue? Do they all have family members in the employ of Adobe? Do they just not spend very much time using a computer? What is it?
She also seems to have three other lines: the drapey rnconvertible, the more youthful A Common Thread, and the as-yet linkless Aquarius line, which is supposedly more vintage-inspired. I also liked the Common Thread clothes, although they're a little too Williamsburg for me, if you know what I mean. I can't rock that "long hair and short baggy dress with floppy neck bow" aesthetic, although I think it's lovely on other people … worth checking out, though, because what I saw had gorgeous details.
Thanks, Lisa!
A Dress A Day 
What a cute dress! I agree about the sleeves – just above the elbows would be lovely.
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As a person who’s been dressing myself for years, I don’t get the sheer knee socks thing either.In fact, just a few years ago – this was a “don’t” as those were originally referred to as ‘trouser socks’ and you were supposed to be mortified if the elastic band showed (lots of girls wore them with skirts as a quicky solution to having no hosiery…)But now it’s kneecaps aplenty and all the don’ts are do’s and all the do’s are don’ts. I still refrain from wearing trouser socks, especially with dresses.As as a previous Seller of Hosiery, I would never suggest wearing open toed shoes with any kind of hosiery. Bleah.
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I love swiss dot and the shape is nice. Sadly, I (and most other women*) could never wear this because it appears that you must go braless. (unless someone has invented a bra that can be worn with these necklines that plunge below the breasts.) *I realize that most women aren’t the target market for this dress but I still can rage can’t I?
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I love the dress, too! It is fabulous. I’d never wear it with the knee socks or those shoes, though. I’d wear it with strappy shoes. To me, the look of this dress is light and barely there, while the look of the socks and shoes is heavy.
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Actually, Lydia sent me a link to a bra that does!http://www.herroom.com/Fashion-Forms-U-Plunge-Bra,Fas001-29674,4.htmlThe other thing I just read is that more than 50% of British women wear a D cup or larger. That just gobsmacked me … where are all the clothes for them?
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I don’t much like knee socks, and didn’t think they were attractive on women in the 1970s either. However, I am also one of the uncool people who will weary *very sheer* hose with open toed shoes. I am very pale and most summer shoes have open toes, and I hate the way my white legs look without stockings. And shoes without socks are so sweaty and icky in the summer.Amy
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Try finding clothes for a 38DD!I have to get patterns for 44″ breasts!
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Um, Erin, they are the same place as the clothes for the size D cup or larger American woman.
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And that would be where? 🙂 I don’t see a lot around for women who are large-breasted without being large all over.
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I will admit to wearing knee socks, black ones at that, and even worse, black men’s trouser socks simply because that is the only way I can find therapeautic socks to fit me. The flesh-toned for women don’t fit my size 11 clodhoppers. So when you see a lady with a cane walking around in her black socks with a skirt, It is probably me trying to keep my ankles from swelling up.Personally I love the dress, but isn’t the lining a little long and the top a little short? Questions yet another DD woman.
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My closest friend and I, 36G and 32F respectively, say, “Amen” to the comments made here about there being not a lot around for women with large breasts who aren’t large all over. Since both of us were teens, we’ve always had to buy tops that are way too big in the shoulders and upper chests, or else if they fit there, they won’t do up at the bustline for anything. And we’re 65 and 50 now, and I can tell ya that we’re not sagging much more now than we always already did. It’s even worse for my friend because she also has narrow shoulders and a narrow back and is short (5’1″). Storebought tops that cover her bosom make her look like a football player. And the styles of the last few years that are more fitted? Forget it for either of us! Not a chance!Of course, this is one of the reasons that many of us sew. Needless to say. I’m pretty good at doing FBA’s!Wait — another gripe. Breasts as large as this are very heavy. I mean VERY. Not only are there not really any clothes out there for women like us, but sometimes there seem to be no bras that fit us properly, either. Even the $100 plus ones, and ones that are sold by custom fitting distributors. Believe me, we have tried just about everything. And how tightly and thoroughly strapped on they all have to be, even the better ones, to hold up all that weight to a level that’s considered socially acceptable! It’s a real torment to have to wear such a contraption all day! And so many lovely dresses and tops don’t cover these industrial-strength breast-corsets — if the bra doesn’t show at the plunging neckline, it shows through at the armhole or at the side neck or somewhere. Geesh. I can’t go on here — I could go on all day. (Actually, I’ve written about this quite a bit in various places. Obviously, I still need to.)Most clothes aren’t made to fit breasts; they’re made to fit bras.Thank God my friend and I are 60’s and 70’s people; we can go braless around our old friends and they don’t think it’s weird. Many of them are relieved to be able to do so, too. Hippies and feminists. At least (many of them) made some room in their sub-cultures for what real breasts may look like!I worry that I sometimes may take up too much space in this wonderful blog. I don’t mean to! I sometimes wish I could master expressing an entire tome in two sentences, but I can’t seem to do that very often.
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Erin, I concur…I am a size larger on top than on bottom, often two sizes. It’s not uncommon for larger-breasted women to have slim-to-average waist and hips. Why haven’t designers acknowledged that a size 10 that fits everywhere else may be way too tight in the bust? “Plus-size” clothing is often far too large in the shoulders, waist and hip to even consider wearing to compensate for the C or D cup bust. It’s a dilemma, for sure.
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I LOVE the coat that’s a part of A Common Thread. The band of gathers across the bust and the double collar….gorgeous and vaguely Regency-ish.
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To add to your flash complaint, I ask why would one require a password to view one’s collection? Doesn’t seem like a smart marketing decision to me. And thus I didn’t get to see the collections at A Common Thread.
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I found an awesome idea: refab a dress out of old umbrellas! here is the link: http://fiftyrx3.blogspot.com/2005/12/finally-finished-umbrella-dress.htmlamazing what people can come up with.
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Flash sites just take too long. I wanted to go to the site and see if there was a bigger picture of the dress, but after first having to “click to enter” and then having to wait for the next bit to load, I decided that maybe trying to find the actual pictures of clothes might not be worth it as I wasn’t really THAT interested, so I gave up. There will be endless more “loading” to go through if it is like other flash sites, and then it will have some bizarre method of navigation through the products and I will be annoyed. There are a million web sites I want to look at and many millions more that I don’t, so I don’t have time really. You’re right – what is it about designers and annoying (and probably expensive) websites? Anyways, in the time I took to type this, maybe I could have looked at the dress… 😉
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quoting “Sadly, I (and most other women*) could never wear this because it appears that you must go braless. (unless someone has invented a bra that can be worn with these necklines that plunge below the breasts.) “They have invented such a bra, although it doesn’t go quite that low, but it does go to below the breast line. Maybe a cm or two up from the bottom of the V in this one. Apparently, according to the lady in the underwear shop, it “gives you a really good shape” as well. Although I haven’t tried one. I’d post a link to a picture or something, but I haven’t a clue what my search terms would be to find the pic. I’ll have a look, but how will the original commenter ever know of my reply?
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Back already – the link for the bra for plunging necklines (I searched for ‘plunge bra’) This actually goes WAY lower than the ones I’ve seen here (in Dunedin) and is a bit of a different shape, but you get the idea. This particular style is probably not so good for larger busted ladies as it doesn’t look like it would give sensible support.http://www.laurensilva.com/Fashion_Forms_The_U_Plunge_Bra_p/fash-29674.htm
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I like the knee socks with these dresses – very conservative yet sexy.
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love the V-neck and flow of the dress.
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