You can wear the crown but you’re no princess.

I really like navy, but it’s actually a colour I hadn’t worn much until recently. When I got this navy dress in the Dorothy Perkins sale over Christmas, I had great fun teaming it with different colours to create different looks. I love it with red accessories, when I fancy going a bit nautical (I can’t believe I haven’t done red tights yet) or my cranberry tights and cardigan, for a pretty jewel-toned ensemble. But I’ve done the slightly nautical look recently on here, and the last time I wore this dress I teamed it with cranberry tights, so here’s another version.

A little while ago, Amy said something that stuck with me about the old adage ‘Don’t wear navy and black together’ – basically, it’s fine, as long as you do it SUPER deliberately. And she's totally right - more than once I’ve grabbed a cardi or a pair of tights out of my clean washing pile and only realised later that it was navy, not black – so uncool. So I was like ‘RIGHT. I need to be ultra deliberate today, otherwise I will look like a FOOL.’ The result is, actually, a pretty sensible, tame ensemble, but it was perfectly suitable for a day pottering around London on two separate birthday things, where I socialised with people I didn’t know all that well (and in those situations sometimes I don’t want to go all crazy and bright coloured, you know?).

Although, as I was leaving, the heavens opened, and I swapped my neat little patent pumps for sensible brown boots, and I’m not sure WHAT the fashion rulebook says about navy and black and brown together. Nothing positive, I’m sure.

Oh yeah, and also, I’ve lost nearly two stone since the last time I posted this dress on this blog which is pretty bloody gratifying to see.

Dress - Closet via Dorothy Perkins

Cardigan - Red Herring via Debenhams

Belt & Tights - New Look