Zoe Vine is a London-based designer creating quality vintage style dresses in amazing fabrics. Zoe takes her inspiration from Old Hollywood and vintage sewing patterns, so loving that sort of elegance myself I was immediately drawn to her Audrey dress. The Audrey is a take on the classic swing-style dress made popular by Audrey Hepburn. This is a style that’s universally flattering, showcasing a nipped-in waist and a full skirt.

This colourway of the Audrey dress is made up of royal blue roses with mint green leaves and flecks of white on a striking red-orange background. I initially struggled in choosing which accessories to pair it with (white would have worked of course, but that’s far too easy!) and ended up going with the royal blue to highlight the florals. I also think these are colours that could easily be complemented by another colour entirely – next time I might try mine with yellow!

The Audrey is 100% rayon, with the bodice lined in 100% cotton. The rayon means that this is a soft and swishy dress, perfect for twirls! Because the fabric isn’t as stiff as cotton I found that I wanted to wear two petticoats in order to maximise the sweeping quality of the skirt, but that is something entirely up to personal preference. The skirt is on the longer side; despite being vertically challenged I do personally like a longer skirt and this one hits me mid-calf, but if you prefer your hemlines further up by your knees then you may want to hem it a little. Overall though I do feel that the longer length is very in keeping with the classic style of this dress and Zoe’s brand, and I am really happy with it.

The Audrey is currently available in UK sizes 10-16 (which equate to the equivalent size for ladies in New Zealand and Australia), and their full range goes from a UK8-20. I am usually a UK6 but I went with the UK10 as that was the smallest available. Because the Audrey has a side zip this meant I needed to take the dress in at the back; to do this I just followed the two existing large darts at the back and sewed them further in and going further up the back – easy! I would have liked to sew the shoulders up a teensy bit, however this would have made the neck hole too small, and hair protection is very important! The Audrey comes with a matching belt which is stiffened through the middle, so I also sewed this up at the back so that it fit my waist better; so then I was tying the parts of fabric that weren’t stiffened into a bow. Most of these things won’t be an issue for most of you, but as I end up tailoring the majority of things I buy then I always like to run through how I did it! If you have any questions about sizing though do feel free to double check through the website about what’s best for you.

The Audrey dress retails for £80 and can be purchased through the Zoe Vine website. It comes in the print that I have as well as a beautiful green and red parrot print. This is the perfect summery style for you Northern hemisphere gals going into your warmer months, but I’m also looking forward to styling mine for winter – with its high boat neck it’ll be easy to hide a thermal underneath for warmth!

Outfit details:

Hair bow – Cute Bows 4 Girls

Brooch – Alicia’s Oddities

Petticoats – Vivien of Holloway and Malco Modes

Heels – Modcloth

Thank you to @cmjsnz for getting these shots in spite of the mosquito swarm at the Parnell Rose Gardens!

Miss Hero Holliday

xo