Frocks & Frou Frou

The dress I found doesn't really look at all like the one I'd invisioned, but now I've spent a day in it, I've decided I actually love it, it's a great curvy shape, and wonderfully comfortable. The inclusion of leggings means that I'm not worried about flashing either my knickers or my dumpy knees, and I don't have to worry about chafing.

Now, if you're on the hunt for a denim dress of your own a little bird whispered to me that Jessica Svoboda of Svoboda Denim will be extending her range to include denim dresses some time soon:

Dress: Dorothy Perkins http://www.dorothyperkins.com/

Shoes: Zensu http://www.zensu.com.au/

Today Melbourne's suffering a strong hot wind - what my Mum used to refer to as "Dragon's Breath".

It's dry and forceful and gusty and exactly the sort of weather you don't want to wear a dress out into, unless you envisage a Marilyn-Monroe-in-The-Seven-Year-Itch moment.

But, damnit, I just received my first ever Dorothy Perkins (http://www.dorothyperkins.com/) order, and come hell or high water I was going to wear something from it.

I'm not sure whether I'm completely sold on Dorothy Perkins. I bought a few things in my first order - an unmemorable striped top, a rather adorable belt, an unwearable blouse that's as comfortable as a shirt made out of tinsel and this cute dress.

It's made of a dense jersey (not the thin clingy kind that you find in most stores) and the cut's great, even if I may have been a bit ambitious with my sizing. The back is a lovely deep vee, which means I can't wear my beloved Unbelievabra, but it does help cool off on nasty hot days like today.

The clothes at Dorothy Perkins are wonderfully stylish, and classic. I'm pretty impressed with the quality, and I'm delighted that there aren't two ranges: one for "normal" girls, and one for the rest of us. Everything comes in sizes from 6 to 22.

Watch out for hem lengths though - I have it on good authority that the models they use online must be midgets, because the hems hit a few inches north of where you expected them to be.

The good news is that their prices are excellent, and their shipping (ten pounds flat rate for international orders) puts US stores like Kiyonna and Torrid to shame. It took exactly seven days to reach me.

Keep your eyes peeled for my new belt and top, too. They're burning a hole in my wardrobe (along with a new pair of Embody's and some red(!) knee-high boots)

Dress: Neeso - Bought from eBay www.ebay.com.au

Boots: Reiker Anti-Stress from Shoebuy www.shoebuy.com

So a few months ago I saw this curvy chick strutting her stuff in a fitted denim dress, and I thought "hmmnnn.... I don't have one of those."

You'll know the exact moment I thought that, because it was the same exact moment that denim dresses vanished, without a trace, from all stores in Australia and on-line.

Of course, having been thwarted, it became imperative that I own a denim dress. My wardrobe was incomplete without a denim dress, therefore my life was incomplete without a denim dress.

I hunted fruitlessly. First, in the stores that did curvier sizes. Then in stores that didn't. Not a whisper. Eventually I turned to eBay.

The weeks passed without The Right One showing up, then finally, on the US eBay I spotted a promising candidate.

It ticked the right boxes: It was short sleeved, it had stretch, it had a waistband and a fly rather than buttoning all the way down. And, joy, it looked to be my size. I placed my bid and sat back to wait.

Well, it's been a while, but it finally arrived today, and after some emergency dress surgery (thank God for my Nana, who insisted I learn how to operate a sewing machine, even if I've forgotten everything but how to sew a seam) it's about ready to wear.

I had to unpick some weird Frankenstein-esque orange stitching from down the sides, and the waistband was closer to a kneesband, so I had to shorten the torso by a couple of inches (which in turn shortened the hem to a daunting length) but all in all I'm pretty happy.