Earlier in the week I brought to you the vintage party dress from plus size clothing brand BBW Couture. Today I’m bringing to the vintage dress table this beautiful 40s Style Daisy Print Halter Neck Pencil Dress* form the same brand which is admittedly my favourite piece from their vintage inspired dress collection (they do stock a more contemporary range on the website which I’ll feature more of soon!)

As with the vintage party dress, the sizing on this halter neck vintage dress comes in pretty small, I have the 20 but I’d quite happily wiggle my usual size 18 into the 22 for a little bit more breathing space. It helped that I wore my Miraclesuit* in nude underneath to smooth out my silhouette and give a helping hand to the zip due to my ample derrière. I know shape wear isn’t to everyone’s tastes, especially as they can be a little bit restricting and take a good while to take on and off when you want to visit the ladies room but it’s not uncommon for me to wear a piece of shape wear under such body fitting dresses because I just love what they do to the overall LOOK of the dress and how I FEEL about how I look (and isn’t that what it’s all about, how confident you feel in a garment?)

There was something somewhat instantaneously sexy feeling about pulling this dress over my thighs and getting someone to zip me up the back and tying the halter neck ties (bear with me). Because the dress is so fitting you’re immediately aware of the curves of your body, in the best way possible: your thighs, hips, waist, boobs, even the curve of your shoulders. After slipping my feet into the nude peep toe heels (Barratts) and took my first tentative steps (there is well and truly and art to walking in such a thigh hugging dress/skirt) I couldn’t help but feel like I’d stepped straight out of Mad Men and Christina Hendricks herself had taken over my body. I felt amazing. 

There’s a reason why the pencil dress or “wiggle dress” (so called as its hem is narrower than the hips, forcing the legs together to add a suggestive sashay of the hips to the wearer’s walk) have stayed such a popular cut over the years, largely because they can be extremely flattering and also because of how they make the wearer feel (like a screen siren, mainly).

If you’re looking for vintage style frocks (what a mum word) and are a size 16-28 make sure you head over to the retro and vintage dresses section of the BBW Couture website.