Topshop Paisley Cutout Sun Dress

Dress: Topshop, £38
It's not often I pay out full price for an item at Topshop. No matter how much I do shop, I'm quite a "sensible" shopper when it comes to the high street as almost always wait until sale season! I've found Topshop a little greedy with the prices they ask for not particularly great quality clothes. For example, I paid over £20 for a cream woven vest with a gold foil cross on the front on a whim - one wash later I'm left with a plain cream vest! However, when I saw Pixie Geldof modelling her Topshop picks in this month's Vogue (right) I fell in love. I'd seen the blogging world going nuts for the stripey version, but in all honesty I didn't think too much of it. Maybe it's because I've never been particularly fond of stripes? However, my love affair for paisley stretches far back!

The day after discovering the dress I literally ran to my local store before work after reading they had low stock on their website. I grabbed the size 10 assuming it would be fine, because I usually find I have to go up to a 10 in Topshop. Unfortunately, it was quite big on me - in fact it was too big to even pull off, but I bought it anyway because I so desperately wanted it in my wardrobe. Needless to say I'm not a sensible shopper when it comes to sizing - I ALWAYS buy things that are too big and convince myself it's fine - "it'll be a cool oversized look" when in fact it looks like I'm wearing a potato sack.

Thankfully, I popped into Topshop today they had a new delivery and low and behold they had a nice little selection of size 8's, which fit like a candyfloss dream. As I said before I hardly ever pay full price for Topshop pieces and I usually find them a little greedy for poor quality items. Based on this dress... I take it all back! £38 is a reasonable price that I'm happy paying for a dress, I found myself getting frustrated with Topshop when they were charging £50 +. In my opinion this is one of the better quality dress I've seen from Topshop. The material is thick and stiff, so unlike most of their other dresses in the past it's beautifully shaped. Also, the print is unlike anything else on the high street at the moment! It's different coloured patchwork means every dress is slightly different. I spent a while choosing between the selection they had for the one with the best print! As you may be able to tell from my gushing, I'm a little bit in love with my new dress.

I'm not sure when I'm going to take it for it's first outing. I'm going to BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekened next week, and I think it would look beautiful at a festival. However, I'm scared that our great British weather may find it hilarious to open the heavens so I'll be knee deep in mud. If I ruin this dress, I will ACTUALLY CRY. I've developed an emotional attachment to an item of clothing. Send for help.