Real Girl. Real Dress. Real Brave.

It should come as no surprise that I’m a dress kind of girl. But it seems like the older I get (read: hello turning 40 and poof, waistline!) the harder it is to find a dress that is both flattering and, dare I suggest it, “age appropriate”. I know, I know, that’s completely open to interpretation. Trust me, I’m pretty sure the entire world would agree with my choice to not put MY body into a 23″ dress with no sleeves. And even if you’re one of those people who can rock the barely clothed look, if you work in any kind of office or school you’ll still need a sweater. Forget modesty or social convention, air conditioning alone will drive you into the arms of something wooly.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to find a dress that had, let’s say, sleeves? A dress that was long enough  you didn’t broadcast your panty choice to the paparazzi upon getting out of your chauffeured limo? A dress that didn’t look like you shopped in your 13 year old’s closet?

Yeah, me too! So, you can imagine my utter glee when I was contacted by Shabby Apple and decided to take a look. I had a little apoplectic fit. Real Dresses. For Real Girls. Real Smart! My tonality aside, I was deeply impressed. Shabby Apple’s  take on women’s dresses made my heart absolutely melt.These are dresses that a girl like me can wear. More importantly, these are dresses that I can imagine wearing with my very real girl body. So, I went shopping!

Choosing A Dress

Shabby Apple’s website is beautifully designed and easy to navigate. If you do any kind of shopping online, you’ll know why this is important. There is nothing more infuriating than a poorly laid out website! Searching for a style guide or fit chart makes me crabby and I’m likely to just give up and look elsewhere. So I was relieved to discover that every dress comes with a sizing description, a length guide, and a fit chart!  Shabby Apple dresses either “fit generously” or they “fit true to size”. The sizing chart makes it clear in inches  what size to order in both fits.  You can easily see if a dress will be long enough or have enough give in the hips to fit you. It takes all the guess-work out of online shopping.

My Dress Arrives

Shabby Apple has a wide variety of styles in women’s dresses; it’s a distinctive look, but varied enough that I think most women could shop here! It took hours for me to pick a dress, but I finally made my choice and a few weeks later L’Amour arrived in a Priority Bag from the USPS. Now, because my dress was a free sample, I have no idea what the usual packaging and shipping is like. When I order again, I’ll be sure to update this post. Until then I’m relying on their website info; shipping is not exorbitant. They do ship internationally and have expedited shipping if you’re only ordering dresses.

The Fit and Finish:

You know I had that dress on in 2 minutes flat. Hello! I tried it on with every pair of shoes I own. That took awhile. I found the more I wore it, the happier I was with my choice. The dress is made from cotton lawn, which is a lovely weight for a dress. And it’s lined. If I have any complaint, and it’s a sewer’s critique, it is that the  neckline should have had a piece of interfacing put in so that the liner stays in place and doesn’t peek through at the top. It’s such a small thing and hardly noticeable since I tend to wear accessories.

The fit is amazing. I typically buy items in jersey because I’m so broad shouldered. I need “give” otherwise, I start to feel claustrophobic in my clothing. This dress has flutter sleeves, which means there is plenty of give between the back of the dress and the sleeve. I love the effect of the sleeves. My arms are not a favorite feature of mine and the flutter sleeve is flattering—and just long enough I’m not flashing my arm pits at everyone when I raise my arm.

I’m 5’8″ and I ordered an XL, and the dress hits me just at my knee. The flutter bodice is great for those of us who aren’t overly endowed! And the waistline is an encased elastic. That’s right! No scratchy elastic leaving unsightly grooves in your skin and making you itchy. This dress is well constructed, the lining is actually hemmed correctly, and the back zipper is pucker free.

As a girl of some size, I’m impressed! It’s rare to find a dress that I don’t have the immediate impulse to cover up with a sweater or jacket. I don’t find myself “adjusting” the hemline. And the acid test on modesty: Oh yeah, I’d wear it to church! That being said, I don’t feel dowdy in it either. Which I think is the real issue for women my age and size. I want to be fashionable and look like I have a modicum of style, but I’m also a mother of a 13 year old boy, I don’t have a corporate job, and I want wear my clothes, not be worn by them. In this regard, Shabby Apple is an absolute godsend.

The cotton lawn is a wrinkle magnet. All cotton is. So, if you have a thing about wrinkles this particular dress probably isn’t for you. However, Shabby Apple has lots of women’s dresses made in wrinkle proof fabrics like wool, polyester, and even silk.

I’ve not washed this item yet. When I do, I’ll come back and report. It’s made of 100% cotton and should be hand laundered.

Photographing A Real Girl

So, I opted to not wear accessories with this dress for the photographs. That’s a hard decision for me, because I’m a girl who likes her accessories! But, while I think the dress would be better with a belt and the right jewelry, I also think this dress can stand on its own. Sometimes, I get so distracted by the pretty I don’t realize that the dress is wrong, wrong, wrong! And I hope that anyone looking for a review of this dress and Shabby Apple, will get the whole picture—not just a shiny treatment! Besides, I figured if I was going to be brave in these photographs, then the dress was going to be brave too.

I think we both show a lot of courage, don’t you?

Final Thoughts

I’ve left this to the last, but it was the real reason I jumped at the offer to review Shabby Apple. The first thing I noticed on their website was the tab marked “charity.” Shabby Apple supports Unitus,

a worldwide leader at scaling innovative solutions to global poverty. Unitus accelerates access to life-changing financial services for those at the bottom of the economic pyramid – the three billion people who are living on less than $2 a day. They partner with the world’s most promising microfinance institutions and provide them with breakthrough business strategies, technology and access to capital that empower them to serve thousands more hardworking micro-entrepreneurs around the world. Unitus partners are adding new loan recipients eight times faster than the industry average. Their portfolio reaches more than 1.7 million families through 16 partners in Argentina, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines. Their goal is to reach more than 15 million of the world’s working poor by 2015. Unitus has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio, and received Fast Company magazine’s Social Capitalist award in 2005 and 2006. —Via Shabby Apple

My friends, that is reason enough to tell you about Shabby Apple and their amazing dresses. Shabby Apple donates 5% of their net profits to support women working in India, where they source much of their fabric and dresses. As a Shabby Apple customer, you’re given an opportunity with each purchase to donate $5 to Unitus.

And that sings to me! As a woman and a micro-entreprenuer I’m excited to find a company that supports my ideals. Shabby Apple not only offers dresses I can imagine wearing, but they are running a company I can imagine supporting!

So, that’s it. A real dress. A real girl. And, maybe if we all find a dress we like, we can make a real difference.

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The fine print: Yep! That’s right, they gave me a dress to write this review. What they didn’t do, was tell me what to write. And here’s the thing, I kept the dress. Because I loved it. All those words up there are my opinion and I’m standing by them… and I hope they help you make a decision to buy from Shabby Apple, because they’re a great company.