Guest Post: Jessica VS The Birthday Dress.

Our awesome friend Jessica just had a birthday and she was nice enough to document her birthday-dress shopping excursion for our prying eyes. We love her for it. Here is the story in her words:

My boyfriend's sweet mother gave me some cash for my birthday, so I decided I needed a pretty new dress for my birthday party.  I had scoped out Anthropologie a week before and saw some promising items, so the hunt began.  The store was full of children for some reason, including a little beast named Banks who had a bag of jelly beans in one hand and a fountain drink larger than her head in the other, but I still managed to emerge from the sale room with an armload of options to try on.  Most of these are no longer on the website, but there were quite a few of each style left at my store.

This burgundy sweater dress (the Look Back Sweater Dress) was the front runner.  As you can see, it's a bit lumpy in the hips, but nothing some Spanx couldn't fix.  I love the color too.

Next was this dress with a watercolor pattern.  I still think this could be a pretty dress on someone, but it's just not right for my figure.  It was too big in the bust and waist and made me look matronly.  Next!

This dress (the Refined Rugby Dress) was so promising on the hanger, but a disaster on my body.  The fabric is just too voluminous and made me look frumpy.  This might look ok on a tall, thin person, but I felt like Ethel Mertz.

This was the worst of the bunch by far.  The unnecesary pockets that seemed to add several inches to my hips were just the cherry on top.  Bad, real bad.

Aah, much better.  Until I looked at the photos on my camera, I was still torn between the first burgundy dress and this one, by Velvet.  But looking at the photos, it's clear that this is the best choice.  I still might buy the burgundy dress if they mark it down more, though.

When it came to shoes, I immediately thought of Adrien's leopard pumps and wished that I had some.  I decided to have a look at DSW and found some cute "ocelot" pumps on clearance for $10.  I had a $5 birthday coupon, so I paid next to nothing!  Here's my complete birthday outfit:

Dress: Velvet by Graham and Spencer (similar)

Shoes: Tiffany by Impo (similar)