Ode to Autumn

It’s September, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness – thou hast thy Music too,” As Keats would have it in his Ode to Autumn 1819.

This month our inspiration is taken from September - – the portal month between summer, with her skies halcyon blue and pink evening clouds, and approaching Autumn with her calling card of fiery leaves and frosty breezes.

And yet, this September has started like no other.

2022 brought droughts, heatwaves, floods, and war in Europe. 

Now, the sudden loss of a presence that has a been a permanent beacon for so many of us. Gone with the promise of a new beginning that embodies so much of what has gone before.

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Late Summer brings county fairs, fetes, and harvest festivals. With cups and trophies for locally magnificent marrows, cabbages, sheep and ponies.

DRESS has thoroughly enjoyed participating in all of these local countryside events, and we are proud to say honoured with an award at Dorset’s Melplash Show.

This month’s collection celebrates our love of pink and blue and diaphanous fabrics. Inspired by the welcome return of soft, dramatic sunset. Fluffed with pluming clouds in candy pink and lilac against a pastel sky of blue.

But we also celebrate traditional no-nonsense tweeds from the 1940s and 1950s to punkish, but with an oh so English Vivienne Westwood take. Hung alongside crisp silks, satins and iridescent chiffon gowns for a unique combination of textiles.

We have paired billowing silk taffeta in olive green and mustard chiffon with the corse heather checks – remembering as the temperatures drop, we can layer, layer, layer.

And finally, we’ve gone to town with a variety of accessories adorning our shelves:

Jewel tone wide belts. Unique hats and head pieces. Suede, leather and tartan tweed handbags to accent an outfit. 1940s crocodile pumps. Large silk squares famously sported by the late Queen Elizabeth. Perfect tied under the chin on those windy days ahead!