Friday Frocks - Nine Time

Another week - another round of fabulous Friday frocks.

First some apologies...  I now have Friday frock pictures coming at me from so many sources that I occasionally lose track.  If you want to be really certain of making the roundup, I advise emailing your picture to me at the address to the left of the page.  Otherwise, I will do my best. So, Lesley here is wearing the most gorgeous vintage frock - very 1965 - and looks very cool and summery on that very hot Friday from two weeks ago.  Adore these pleats, especially in contrast to the fitted bodice.

Then I also overlooked Naomi, who teaches food technology, and so made her Friday frocks effort with this striking, graphic-print apron, set off beautifully by stylish, neutral black.  Making an extra effort beyond what you'd normally wear to work is absolutely a Friday frocks thing, and this is so smart and stylish... I wish she worked at my school - the kids would be learning swelegance as well as cookery.

ScifiSam plumped for gorgeously flattering shades of blue and green, which she even picked out in a fabulously fun manicure.  Punky nail colours like this work best on short nails - the same shade and combination on long nails would look a little discordant.  I can't see much of the frock, here - but I do love the way Sam poses - it always raises a smile.

The last of my omissions was beautiful Bonita in a red dress with white polka dots.  I have this dress myself, and don't look anywhere near as stunning.  Notice again (as we saw last week) how good a rounded necklace line looks inside a deep V neck.  Glamour all the way.

First for this week is the delightful Trudi who eschewed a dress in favour of this utterly fabulous shirt and tie combination.  The black and purple work together in a very dramatic way, and I bet she turned heads all day long with this striking look.  I do love a bit of creativity - and this really is thinking outside the frock-box.

It's another doozy from 'wayward bob' this week, and rather than regurgitate her excellent description, I'll post it for you here. 
She says "i wasn't in a frocky mood this morning, so i resorted to my oldest favouritest dress, in a comfy old slipper kind of way. you can't really see the details, but the polka dots are actually tiny hearts, it has pintucks down the front and it's a laura lees dress so it has all that embroidery she does dotted around. but it's in need of a good iron, and that combined with the flipflops doesn't really do the whole friday frock thing of making some kind of effort so i put on a petticoat. i'm glad i did, it always cheers me up to have swishy skirts."And doesn't it look lovely? I love Bob's dresses - they have such a sweet, vintage feel to them. Almost Enid Blyton Chic?

Next lets see what the boys are doing @mikedixson, whose Twitter name I've been spelling wrong for weeks - sorry - was inspired towards these boots because someone at work apparently made a comment about his personal protective clothing not being up to scratch.  Well, maybe... but they're also really cool.  The current trend in menswear to tuck jeans into heavy ankle boots makes the legs look stockier and as such is pretty manly.  Styled with the hip-slung braces and the plaid shirt the look is cohesive and slightly retro - but of course, you know my feelings about having only one button open...

 This sharp dressed fella (the eleven year old son of Twitter's @donnabrookes) is dressed for an occasion - so it isn't quite Friday frocks, but given his age, and the fact that he chose the outfit himself, I'm including him anyway.  He's dressed for a formal dinner and dance to celebrate the end of primary school, and I think he looks absolutely dapper, but not too much like a mini adult.  The hair is styled and he looks surprisingly at ease in his finery.

This week saw another junior frocker - but this one I think qualifies unreservedly. It's Bonita's daughter, and she has taken an interest in what her mum's been doing over the last few weeks and has quite admirably decided that she wants a part of it.  So - for no other reason than the love of Friday, she chose this fabulous outfit to dress up in - and declared she wants to do it every week.  I don't know how many frocks a small girl has, but I look forward to seeing other looks she puts together.  You may notice that she's wearing one of the butterfly hairclips from Now, Voyager I wrote about the other week.

So if that was Mini-Bonita, what was her mum wearing?  Bon says she's not sure about this dress, but I'm sure you'll all agree with me that she looks red hot: sexy but also classy - she's played that up with structured heels and richly-coloured but restrained accessories.  Perhaps it's not very summery, but when you're having fun and looking delicious, who on earth cares?

Also rocking a flower in her hair is @BeBelongy.  The red is echoed in her necklace, and then in the pattern on her skirt.

and I'm so glad she sent me this closeup of the fabric because it's absolutely brilliant and really makes the outfit special.  The colour palette reminds me of prints from the fifties, but the style of the line drawing is freer and more expressively abstract. When you have a pattern like this, obviously it needs to take centre stage - as it does here with a plain, neutral top and the aforementioned red accents to tie in the colours.

Right up to date with Edie's 2 in 1 dress: the slouchy shaping and fabric is very much prevalent in the shops this season.  It's very flattering to Edie's long, lean shape, in the same-but-opposite way that structured shapes and tailoring suit those of us with more 'freeform' bodies.  I love the open neckline here, inviting that sexy flash of bra strap... an example of how you don't need to show too much of anything to excite the imagination.  The flash of firey orange red, too, is fun and enticing. Grey might be 'on trend', but few of us look good in sober neutrals from head to toe.

How fabulous does @hayleyjgreen look? She's had her hair done, but the star here is that fabulous green dress.  See how the empire line defines her fabulous boobs, and that deep V neckline gives balance and proportion of colour. I like the interesting criss-cross of her sandals, too.  I don't like to wear anything between my toes, but if I did I'd like these.

We've already seen how Lesley loves striking vintage and retro looks, and here she's taken the current trend for maxi dresses and ramped it up to it's most glamorous, 1980-style pinnacle.  The silk sheen of the fabric lends an opulence to the rich colour palette of royal purple and old gold, and then the presence of sleeves give it a graceful, excessive, Isadora Duncan feel.

A few weeks ago Maeve said that she didn't normally wear skirts or dresses.  Frankly, looking at these pics I'm beginning to think she might be a bit of a fibber.  It's a wonderfully colour coordinated look, which we've come to expect form Maeve, but the dress itself is really fabulous.  I don't know if it's vintage, but that solid matt fabric has a real retro feel, which helps make the petticoat feel 'right'.  The V neck and ruching over the bust is flattering and allows the hard horizontal line of the belt to create an attractive cinching of the waist without creating a widening illusion.  The tea-length is right for Maeve's frame, and showing some petticoat wouldn't usually work, but where you have the contrasting colour it looks amazing. Va-va-voom!

Queen of Goths this week has accentuated her curves by the use of this full skirt, balanced above the waist with this paler, knotted shrug.  The effect of the shrug is to make the boobs look more generous, so they can hold their own against the width of the skirt, while emphasising the neat little waist. I love the colours here, too.  It's like chocolate cake with cream.

The swelegencia love a retro look, have you noticed?  Miss-Shelf is rocking my favourite polka-dots, which are all over the place again this summer, but which do suggest a fifties aesthetic... however, it's the scarf knotted at the neck that really gives that vintage feel.  Friday frocks is about special touches, and wearing a scarf in this way gives an outfit just that extra something.  But the real pizzazz here is the hair accessory, and I have to tell you, Miss-Shelf made it herself!  How clever is that?

@Girl_In_A_Box has honoured us with another bright floral frock, and I love this one.  The combination of colours here is rich as well as fresh: dark pinks and purples tend to be very flattering to brunettes.  The black belt and cardigan work because they're in a limited area, and close-fitting - which suits the tailored style of the dress.  The cardigan also breaks what would otherwise be a very high neckline for someone as buxom as madam, here.

Much more simple, but 'spark' is wearing a beautiful summer frock that states another case in support of summer black.  In it's favour is the amount of bare limb that is still exposed to the sunshine, but also the lightweight fabric.  The detailing at the neckline (and also the sleeves and hemline) is subtle but makes the design feminine and special.  I love the vertical line created by the buttons too.

I love the shape of this dress, but what strikes me is how perfectly 'temper_tantrum' has teamed it with sexy sheer black stockings.  The rule of thumb with hosiery is to match your legs to your hem - and although all rules can be happily broken, the dark band at the bottom of this frock paves the way for sexy dark legwear.  The shoes are fabulous too: the dark bow works with the stockings, and the white upper refers back to the white body of the dress.

As is traditional, lastly here's me.  This full skirt I hope demonstrates what I said in my last post about full skirts not necessarily being retro.  It's not quite a circle skirt, but it's nearly there: I certainly have to watch it blowing up in the breeze!  I love the colours here - the purple is rich and berry-like, which works well in both summer and winter. I've styled it without emphasising the waist as I normally would, and I think the effect makes my boobs look slightly higher than normal, so I'll try that again...