the skater dress

Ever since my friend Aimee shared with me the London-based brand ASOS, I've been in love with their day dresses and cross-body bag selections.

They currently have a "Leap Year" sale going on with 20% off selected merchandise, so here's what I picked out!



Above: Alphabet print skater dress



As you might notice, "skater dresses" are my favorite style, as they tend to have a conservative high neckline, fitted waistline, and full skirt. I personally think this style of dress looks the best on me, as I am smaller busted with larger hips, but fairly tall (5'8").

After my visits to New York last year, I was delighted to find that U.K.-based TopShop carried quite a few styles of skater dresses and that they tended to be longer and better fitting than most of what I find at the stores I shop at in California.

I frequently shop in Nordstrom, Forever 21, Zara, and H&M, but it's more of a challenge to find these types of dresses, as I've found that U.S. fast fashion currently features a lot of strappy or sleeveless dresses -- not my thing. Plus, many of the dresses that I find in mass retail stores are really shapeless. Either they have waistlines higher than my own or no waistlines at all, requiring a belt to cinch the fabric at the waist. It's obviously cheaper for manufacturers to produce generic Small, Medium, and Large sizes (like Forever 21 does) rather than cater to specific sizes U.S. 0 through 14. Especially moreso when the dresses are tailored with darts and pleats for your unique numeric dress size.

If ASOS and TopShop are representative of young, trendy fashion in the U.K., then there are surely more affordable, "dressy" day dress options than we have here! Thank goodness ASOS has free shipping and returns both ways!


Above: This pink skater dress actually has small hearts printed on the fabric -- but they look like dots here


Above: Casual white skater dress with embroidered cut-outs.


Above: This full-skirted dress with bow detail at the front is my favorite! I would wear this to a casual party for work.


Above: This flowy topaz-colored dress is so promising and the only one with long sleeves! Unfortunately, others probably felt the same way, as I had to order a size larger since it's nearly out of stock!

I had to buy a couple of these dresses in a size too big, as stock tends to move fast on ASOS, so I have my fingers crossed they still work out! (This is one of those times that I hope their dresses fit small, so I can keep my picks!)