Affordable Gingham Dress

I got really excited about this dress and had to share. I've been getting targeted ads for this gorgeous yellow gingham dress from Wolf & Badger for WEEKS (and I'll probably get them for weeks more since I clicked on the link again!). And as tempting as it is to buy it because I can clearly imagine myself twirling around in it, it is $357 and I just can't justify that price. For perspective, my wedding dress only cost around $70.

 

I do love that pattern and I love the color and I love the detail at the bottom of the dress using the smaller checkered pattern, but again, $357!

So I did some searching on Amazon by just typing in 'Gingham Dress for Women' which came up with some good results. I liked this dress because the fit looked similar to Wolf & Badger's. It lacks the small detailing and the straps are tie straps, but to try this out for $32.99 instead of over $300 seemed like the better option to me. 

I will say that I chose this one because that blue in the picture seemed so bold, but when I got the dress in the mail, it was more muted and pastel. At first I felt a little disappointed, but I actually think I like the softer blue more than I thought I would and it actually feels a little more in style right now. 

But I do LOVE the fit of this dress. I like the midi length and its twirl factor. The chest fit is a little tighter, but not too bad. I bought this dress in a size large and I'm glad I did. 

I decided to pair it with a rattan belt - also from Amazon. It's a cute belt, but one thing I didn't think about was because it's on the *ahem* cheaper side, you do get what you pay for. This belt's loop was connected together with some kind of rusty staple, which didn't bother me at first because I'm up to date on tetanus shots, but it did create snags on the dress. 

At first, I thought about just shelling out money for a better belt, but this one's already here so I just sewed embroidery thread around it to protect clothing. I also pulled the snags on the dress back into the fabric with a needle and it's as good as new.  

In the future, I would love to consider Wolf & Badger because they do provide ethical and sustainable clothing, and it would be nice for the basics of a wardrobe to be built to last longer than something from Amazon or Forever 21. 

But I'm so happy with this Amazon dress right now. After a year of wearing a hoodie and jeans, it's really nice to have some reasons to get a little more dressed up.