I am in despair over trying to find a dress for my anniversary....want something with a 1940's style, just quite plain but sexy enough to wow my boyfriend! Got big boobs and curves that I want to show off, any ideas of good places to shop? I haven't had much luck so far, based in the midlands so no access to london shops :-( xx

My mate is in fits over a fabulous '40's style frock she found in Tesco/Asda!!

She is wonderfully curvy and thrilled with the cut! It's a brown-white-white-spots number


Hope you find something; Dressing up a cheaper garment with out-of-this-world jewellry and/or shoes is a great way of making it appear more expensive. And don't forget to go all-out on some amazing lingerie - this is your anniversay after all!!

If you have a bit of cash then look up Vivien of Holloway online for some rather amazing 1950's full-skirted dresses as an alternative?

Fingers crossed!!

I would def go for a vivien dress. I have just got my new one and im in love with it. I know that they are a little costly but they are really well made and not made by litttle children in china!! I think I paid about £70 for a dress including postage but like i say, its well worth it. Hope you find one. xx

Just to post an opposing view, I don't like Vivienne's clothes, they fabric is cheap, the boning is rigilene and her sizes tend to run a bit small, you definietely need to try it on before you buy, especially if your proportions are not standard (mine are not, have very large bust and couldn't even get my top half INTO a Vivienne dress that was actually two sizes to big).

In a way I do agree. I had to alter my first dress and the boning made my boobs look funny once I had changed it. I still love them though. Who would you go for instead? xx

Gosh, hard question, it is so difficult via mail order, you might try on something in a size X in a shop and then buy something in that size online only to find it doesn't fit at all, Fimac said she has big boobs ,as I do, which is one of the reasons not to recommed VoH because you really need to try them on. There is a lady on another forum who lives in the West Mids and she shops in a place that does good retro gear. I will look it up when i get home because the work PC has an access policy (grrrr).

The reason VoH dresses aren't good if you have big boobs is that they are cut to 1950s patterns, and on average, ladies back then had smaller boobs than now, especially in relation to their waists. It's the same reason you'll find it difficult to get good 40s/50s or repro lingerie if you're well endowed. As a smaller-busted girl I tend to find I have the opposite problem in VoH dresses - the bust is slightly too big! If it wasn't for the boning it might look very silly indeed!

And I disagree about the boning being rigilene - I've been working with a lot of the stuff recently and I'm not a fan at all! The boning VoH uses is thicker, more rigid, and a much better quality than rigilene, and for plastic boning it's not bad at all - I have two VoH dresses and the boning in both is exactly the same shape as it was when I bought them, which is more than I can say for any number of bustier tops I own. But then again, as I alluded to earlier, the boning in my dresses isn't exactly under too much pressure ... >_<

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I am used to using metal boning in my costuming so I don't tend to think much about any sort of plastic boning, though I am pretty certain when I felt the boning it was rigilene. Perhaps I shall check again tomorrow morning if I have time.


I did figure they were cut to 50's patterns, I have quite a few original patterns and I have got used to sizing up so it is not an issue for me, but then again I can sew, I suppose I am lucky.

funnily enough I've found the opposite when cutting from original patterns and drafts as they always tend to come up very booby even on the tiny sizes and it's very difficult when sizing to sell to know what to put on them I'm having to label very differently to what I normally would

But i'd agree buying off teh peg via catalogue and internet doens' always work if you aren't a standard size as they most likely won't fit so do lots of trying on

Stop Staring dresses are lovely, and the prices are comparable to VOH- around £70 upwards usually, and more 40s than 50s, which I think is what you were after. There are a lot of ebay shops that have quite a good selection. Check out ebay.com, rather than .co.uk, as I got mine from Canada, and it was cheaper, even with shipping, than anything else I'd seen! They do sizes in S, M, L, XL, etc, but usually have a comparison chart to UK sizes on the websites.