Fashionable Frocks and Forty...

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Not sure about you, but I find elegant after-five wear really hard to find especially now that I'm on the north side of Forty.  Once upon a time a decade ago, 'short and tight' was perfectly acceptable - nowadays however that term refers mostly to my work deadlines rather than my appropriate choice of fashion, sadly.

It doesn't happen often, but I had to attend a fancy pants Ball recently and felt that I had exhausted all the possible frock options in my outdated wardrobe so off I went in the hope of finding something miraculous with the spare twenty minutes of shopping time I had allowed myself (get the sense I was unsuccessful?). After finding nothing but 'short and tight' yet again, I took the brave step of heading to my trusty and anonymous friend the internet, armed with a credit card and a pipe dream of buying the perfect after five gown online. (GASP!! I know - unthinkable). Admittedly, I'm a big fan of the online purchase for my staple clothing items (thank you Country Road for your size consistency) but after-five wear for me, is an entirely different matter. I never thought I'd do it successfully, what with these hard to hide lumps and bumps which since having kids have made themselves at home on my body like squishy barnacles on the bottom of a boat, but low and behold after some pre-purchase nerves I found surprising success. So, in the spirit of not being especially fashionable but simply knowing what I like, I thought I'd share where I found some real gems. Note, this is not a sponsored post (but I'm NOT against the idea if they want to throw some frocks my way or even supply a nice little number for a reader giveaway?! *whistles and rolls eyes skyward*.).

Check out Will Hope Love. If you poke around on this Australian company website, you may find more than one good option, which in this tricky online fashion category is pretty rare it seems.  To overcome my fear of this high risk purchase, I took out what I'm calling the double size insurance policy - that is, I bought two sizes with an eye to returning one or even both if all my body barnacles were too heavily accentuated.  Thankfully, when the dress I'd totally fallen in love with and had-to-have-at-all-costs arrived, I slipped my way perfectly into the smaller size (woot - no visible barnacles!) and simply popped the other back in the post for a refund. Bob's Your Uncle Mary, so to speak. God I love online shopping.

Here's the final result. Full length, layered in all the right places, stretchy and comfortable (with the exception of the dazzling, way too high heels - thank goodness for the invention of those life saving squishy pads we all know as Party Feet).

Anyway, if you're in the market for a special occasion addition to the wardrobe, have a look here and don't be afraid of the big scary internet for your next purchase.  Just ensure that you can easily return for a refund if it's not especially receptive to the body barnacles.

Or you can just borrow mine - no biggie.

Anyone else got a good online clothing recommendation to share?

www.willhopelove.com.au