Karina Dresses was launched in 2007 by Karina Cousineau with the goal of making every body look and feel great, no matter what their shape or size. Today I’m delighted to be featuring their 3/4 sleeve Ruby dress in navy and taupe polka dots.

All Karina Dresses are handmade in New York’s Hudson Valley in the USA. Their styles are a polyester/spandex blend; this includes the Ruby, and meant that I found the fabric very breathable and – most importantly – it doesn’t need ironing! How amazing is that?! This means their dresses are great for busy women everywhere, and perfect for travelling!

The Ruby is a faux wrap dress featuring 3/4 length sleeves, a tie at the waist, and a knee length skirt. I don’t usually opt for V-neck styles (being un-blessed in the cleavage department), but from the pictures on the website it looked like the V didn’t dip down too low so I took a chance – I was glad I did, as it’s really flattering!

The 3/4 sleeves also make this is a great dress for work, particularly if you’re sitting underneath a blast of air conditioning, and its classic style means it will easily transition to a formal evening setting as well. The skirt hits just below my knees and is reasonably full, and so could fit one of my beloved fluffy petticoats which I shortened to 22″. The best part of all is that the Ruby is wonderfully comfy! Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever worn such a comfortable dress, and in fact I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be coming on the plane with me to America this weekend!

I adore polka dots; they are such a classic print, and so easy to pair with a whole host of colours while still being fun. They really drew me to the Ruby dress, especially as they came on a navy background as that is a favourite colour of mine! The polka dots on the Ruby dress are a pale taupe, so combined with navy they go with just about anything. I chose to pair the Ruby with pinky-peach accessories, and I’m itching to try gold or red next time around, but many other colours would work as well.

Karina Dresses products comes in sizes XS to XXL, which covers US sizes 0-24. You can compare your measurements to their size chart, but to really make sure you get the best dress for you they also provide a handy ‘Best Fit Guide‘ – this tells you which of their dresses will best suit you based on your body shape, and gives you a brief summary of each of their styles all on the one page. I would assess myself to be a Triangle (fuller hips, smaller top), for which the Ruby dress is one of the recommended styles, and I am wearing a size XS based on my measurements of 31″-24″. These are at the lower end of the range of an XS, but I felt the Ruby fitted perfectly, especially as it has the tie at the waist to cinch it in if required.

The 3/4 sleeve Ruby dress retails for $108USD and is available to purchase through the Karina Dresses website. They offer international shipping to a wide range of countries for around $20-$25USD, or for $5USD within the States. The Karina Dresses team is happy to help if you have any questions, so do contact them before purchasing if you’re unsure on anything!

Full outfit details:

Necklace – vintage

Petticoat – Banned Apparel

Heels – Chase & Chloe

Thank you so much to Trudy from Karina Dresses for this wonderful collaboration, and to @cmjsnz for these lovely photos taken at Wynyard Quarter!

Miss Hero Holliday

xo