*This dress was gifted to me by Navabi, but all opinions, etc, are my own*

By this point I’m sure that so many of you have seen me frolicking around on my social medias in a green dress. Well, surprise, that’s the dress that this post is all about!

I got the dress from plus size fashion brand Navabi. It’s from the designer Manon Baptiste and is called the “Tie Waist Lace Cocktail Dress” – I think that this is the perfect description for this dress!

So what can I tell you about this dress? It is an emerald green colour (AKA my favourite colour) and on my 5 foot 5ish body it’s about knee length. The lace overlay is beautifully detailed, there’s a ribbon separating the bodice and the skirt and the sleeves are lacy. I guess the shape would be best described as fit and flare? It feels and looks really well made.

So now that we’ve got all of the basics out of the way, let me tell you about my personal experiences with this dress so that we can work together to work out how perfect this dress is. I don’t know exactly what the checklist for dresses, but I can definitely share some of the highs and lows of this dress!

Will I get the lows out of the way first? I can only really think of two, although of course it probably depends on things like your style, skin tone and body shape – no item of clothing is ever going to work for everyone, but I’m pretty sure that goes without saying!

So the first thing that I would say, as a regular wearer of Primark and George at Asda clothing, is that the dress is a little pricier but I’m also happy to report that, as I mentioned already, you can feel the difference. The garment feels well designed and well made, like it feels like a long term investment and something that I will be able to get the good of for a long time before it starts falling apart.

The second problem is that the one day that I wore it out, the zip burst. It didn’t look or feel tight, in no way did it look like I was at risk of a burst zip, but when we were sitting in the taxi I leant forward to take a selfie and I felt that horrible feeling as my back suddenly became exposed to my jacket. Thankfully we were headed out for afternoon tea and I could hide the incident with the back of a sofa, but it did strike the fear in me for wearing it to a party a few weeks later. I’m guessing that it was something to do with how I was sitting and twisted, but nevertheless a bit of an eek!

So now let’s move on to the positives.

The colour is BEAUTIFUL. In case you didn’t know, green is my favourite colour, especially emerald greens or lime greens (which are two very different colours of green, I am aware). So to me, this dress is the perfect colour. As an added bonus, it somehow seems to work with my pale complexion which is an even bigger win.

The shape of the dress is great for my body. I’m a fan of the fit and flare style, as I know are many other plus sized women. I also find the fit to be really good, with no random tight or baggy bits.

It is super comfortable. Ask my parents, and they will confirm that I have spent far more time than necessary just frolicking about in this dress, spinning and dancing and just having a grand old time. There is some give in the material, which probably helps to make it feel so comfortable.

You don’t need a fancy bra. There, I said it. This needs to be considered in clothing reviews much more often.

It makes me feel good. In reality, this is more important that anything else I could say about this dress. I feel really good about myself when I have this dress on.

As a final point, if it’s important to you – it photographs pretty darn well!

So in conclusion is this The Perfect Dress for you? I don’t know, it might be or it might not be. Is this My Perfect Dress? I don’t know, but it’s definitely one of the most perfect dresses that I have ever owned. I may have been gifted this dress, but I would buy it 100 times over and if I thought I could get off with it then I genuinely would wear it all the time.

What would your perfect dress look like? Do you have a fun party outfit this year? Let me know in the comments!

The photographs used in this post (and all the social media posts) were mostly taken by my wonderful dad – check out some of his photography work (it’s his hobby, not his career) at Photography By John Brown on Facebook. The photos were taken at Dunblane Cathedral and Cromlix House.