Recently I was tickled to be contacted by Shabby Apple to see if I’d like to review one of their dresses. Adorable retro dresses? Yes, please!
Shabby Apple has lots of cute dress and skirts in their vintage clothing section. Their styles are influenced by eras gone by, with a myriad of vintage silhouettes to suit different tastes. Just like the lovely dress I was sent!
My dress is called Ever After. It’s a gorgeous deep chocolate brown in a somewhat heavy-weight fabric. Described as an A-line, I found the skirt a bit more full, with pleats front and back. You could easily add a light crinoline underneath to add more volume.
I think this fabric might be the crepe side of a heavy crepe-back satin, or something very similar, as it has a gorgeous smooth feel on the inside which first led me to believe it was underlined with some satiny fabric. I don’t usually sew with many man-made fabrics, but I have no problems wearing polyester or blends on occasions, and the Ever After dress makes for one such occasion. Plenty of vintage bloggers such as one of my favorites, Gemma from Retro Chick have talked about why it’s sometimes great to have easy wear and care polyester pieces in your wardrobe (there’s lots of great 80s-does-40s pieces as well as 50s and 60s nylon blouses out there). I can throw this dress in the washing machine without care and with little (if any) ironing. And sometimes, that’s totally awesome.
It can easily transition from daytime to evening as I did with it by adding a few choice accessories, taking it for a spin to a friend’s birthday dinner.
It was actually really quite chilly out when we took these photos, so I paired it with my Curlicute cardigan and a red bobble stitch beret I knit ages ago. The weight of the dress was just perfect for a brisk autumn day, but with less wool accessories I think it would be equally nice in summer, too. (Like with the Swedish Hasbeens heart sandals I wore with this outfit, but sans stockings.)
It was quite breezy out, too, if you couldn’t tell!
I ordered the XS in the Ever After dress and the fit was just right. It features French darts, short sleeve and a boat neck. I’m quite pleased with the quality, which includes a full neckline facing, something I find rare on modern garments that aren’t reproduction vintage! Too thumbs up for that in my book.
One thing I didn’t know about Shabby Apple until I received my order is their commitment to helping women around the world. They donate a percentage of their net income to help women work their way out of poverty. I think that’s pretty amazing and a great reason to support their business. You can learn more about it here.
Overall, I’m very pleased with this dress. It’s a versatile, flattering style, and a great wardrobe staple that can mix and match with all sorts of things, from a fair isle cardigan in fall to summery sandals when the weather’s warm. It’s definitely worth keeping Shabby Apple on your fashion radar. Right now they have lots of seasonal-appropriate pieces, all gorgeously photographed. Seriously, one look at their skirts page and you’ll want to visit all those locations–I know I did. If you’d like to see more of Shabby Apple, follow them on Facebook or Instagram!
Dare I say it: I think this dress and I will live happily Ever After. (I know, I know, I couldn’t resist.) Thanks, Shabby Apple! I’ll be popping over to look at your Tartans and Tweeds collection now…
outfit details
Ever After dress – courtesy of Shabby Apple
cardigan – knit by me
beret – knit by me
shoes – Swedish Hasbeens
stockings – What Katie Did
bow belt – Juicy Lucy Vintage
vintage patent leather purse – misc
Bakelite earrings – misc
rose gold heart charm bracelet – Made With Love
You are totally rocking that dress, it is beautiful on you. Thanks for sharing this, as I hadn’t heard of Shabby Apple before. Such a good thing too, that some of the profit goes to making the world a better place. I like that 🙂
I LOVE the red accessories with the chocolate brown. You look smashing, as always. Shabby Apple is terrific – the quality is excellent.
I love love love this outfit. Its perfect from head to toe. The cardigan makes me wanna kneel down in front of you knitting skills^^
What an enjoyable review post. It’s almost funny (to me at least), I’ve probably been contacted by various folks over at Shabby Apple a dozen or more times over the years, and each time after the first, I’ve reminded them that I’m in Canada, and that as they don’t partner with non-US folks for product reviews, we can’t work together. Therefore I haven’t been able to test drive their lovely offerings myself yet (granted one could order as a customer, but that hasn’t been in the cards so far for me). I bet I’ll hear from them again still, and when I do, I’ll continue to hold out hope that they’ve changed their policies are now working with Canadian bloggers, too.
Wonderfully lovely outfit styling! I was sporting that same fabulous autumn palette on one of our days in Alberta last month. Red + brown + gold is a perpetual favourite colour trio of mine, especially during the fall. It looks magnificent on you, as does this classic style frock.
♥ Jessica
Love the brown with the red!! Great colors on you.
Your outfit is so cute. I love the red accessories. I don’t think I’ve ever paired brown and red but it looks great. Those shoes are great – heels, but not too high to walk in. But my favorite part is the hat. I so want a beret to wear when it starts getting cooler here. I’m in FL so it’s still kind of hot and not autumn-like at all 🙁
It’s very cute! I love your accessories too! Now, if only I was as petite LOL
Way cute! I love it with the red!
Wow-what a pretty dress! The colors are great-especially I love the red—->wonderful lovely!
Ines
Great dress, perfect styling. Those colors are dynamite on you! I love Shabby Apple and was excited to see this post as you’re the perfect model for this style. You have amazing style and I can’t rave enough about your knits! 🙂
What a great dress! I’ve been stalking the shabby apple website up and down lately! I’ve mostly been using it for sewing inspiration, but I’m saving my pennies for something from that tartans and tweeds collection, too. So glad to see a review on your blog!
That looks great on you!
I’ve worked with Shabby Apple in the past, doing product reviews, and neither of my garments had such a tag regarding their teaming up with Unitus. This must be a new thing! It’s wonderful I must admit!
xoxo
-Janey
Those red accessories really give a whole new life to that chocolate brown dress! You’re my style-spiration to dress up an otherwise calm color with some zazz, on the double!
I like Shabby Apple’s products quite a bit. They’re not too pricey and the quality of their clothing is pretty good. The only bone of contention I have with them is that their products aren’t *really* fuller figure friendly. I’ve had to return items in the past because the cut doens’t work with my figure–they don’t cut dresses low in the front–really around the clavicles–and while I’m not asking for something cut down to my navel or even showing cleavage crack, the higher cut rarely looks good on women with larger bewbs (it makes us look dowdy).
Tina.
I love how you styled this, and agree entirely 🙂 I have the same dress in green and the purple version on the way – it is incredibly flattering, and the fabric not only helps structure it as it makes the dress very easily washed at home which is a plus. I used to be a polyester-phobe but got over it after reading Gemma’s posts about it (though I think she’s ace at thrifting and styling too, which helps) and trying this dress. Such a shame it’s no longer available in brown in a size Small 🙁