Hi guys. Welcome to Jenni4FashionNews - an exciting new feature on Gr7 which may or may not return depending on a lot of factors (mainly it will cost a lot of money to keep this item going and Emily refuses to give me any form of allowance). But that’s not for you to worry about, I bought a dress. Let’s talk about it.

(In the picture I’m the one on the left.)

(Lolz.)

First up, let’s set out the things that I like to wear - I like clothes that make me look like a French poet in the war, a lesbian in the war or a child in the war. This war is the 2nd World War, not any other. And also in the war I’ve got a bit of money, maybe from doing a shadey deal with ration cards, maybe from going out with a rich American soldier. Basically I’m not poor, and can still dress well and afford butter. If you are a clothes shop/international fashion house that sells these sorts of items you can absolutely consider sponsoring me. But I’ll also need money for a house and food and pets. I can’t do this alone.

This dress is from Zara, but it looks vintage which is nice and will get you lots of compliments on the train if you go up to people and tell them your dress is vintage, please don’t come near me and my vintage dress.

In general I find Zara a really difficult shop to navigate - all the beige ‘European’ boat fashions/professional ‘European’ officewear generally get in the way of finding anything, even though I often meet people who’ve bought really nice things from there. Emily has a coat from Zara, don’t you Emily? Emily? Em. EM. EMILY. Never mind.

So in my continual quest for not-shit summer clothes from the high street I recently found myself browsing the Zara website. This is preferable. You don’t get distracted by those weird piles of £70 plain black high heels they just put in the corners and you can escape that weird feeling of being old before your time. Yay! I really liked this dress for many reasons:

1) dotty pattern, fun and youthful, ‘personality fabric’

2) looked like it’d be at least somewhere near my knees (being tall and buying dresses is an incredibly frustrating experience - JUST PUT SOME MORE FABRIC ON THE BOTTOM OR ALLOW ME THE OPTION TO VELCRO A BIT MORE ON)

3) drapey sleeves

4) fun belt feature

Now Zara do offer a free service whereby you can order an item and get it sent to your nearest store, but sometimes a girl needs to order something in the post to give her week some structure (Mon: Think about ordering, Tues: Order, Wed: Know the order is probably not going to come today because you placed it at 17.55 but still consider writing a complaint email, Thurs: Be excited all day, Fri: Package arrives, and you feel resentful at the elation you feel and immediately hate what you’ve ordered. Repeat at advent of new week). Zara’s ordering options aren’t great - £3.95 for 3 - 5 days, or £9.95 for express delivery. It is my PERSONAL opinion that for as long as ASOS offer their Premiere package (free next day delivery, free collection of returns) all other companies should consider doing the same. Other advantages of the ASOS Premiere package include the ability to order 8 items at a time, then return them all and structure your week waiting for the refund email.

I ordered this item on Monday and it arrived on Friday, which wasn’t brilliantly fast, but they sent it in a box and wrapped it up in pink tissue paper and DAMMIT it’s like they knew I couldn’t possibly be angry with them after that. Also the delivery man was cheery, and didn’t mind that I grabbed the package out his hand and yelled  ’SIGN FOR IT HIMSELF IF YOU CARE THAT MUCH’ as I slammed the door in his face due to high spirits. 

The dress itself is a L for LARGE. I ordered two sizes, M and L, and the large fitted much better - the M was much tighter and didn’t have any of the drapey-ness that attracted me to it in the first place. The fabric is really nice and has some good weight to it, so it falls nicely and doesn’t show up any wobbly bits.

I wore it out to my friend’s birthday AT A RESTAURANT on Saturday where it was well-received, and where I took the picture in the toilet. Look how nice the toilet is. It’s got a pebbley floor and ok lighting. I’m still there now.

Overall I am very pleased with this dress. I can wear it with tights and brogues, but it will also look good with summer sandals. Oh and it was £29.99 which I think is good value. Should I have said that at the start? Would you have paid more attention if I had?

Bregards to Emily for making the ‘Jenni4FashionNews’ logo, and for using that Gothic font I specifically requested.