Ulla Johnson, £560, Selfridges
A couple of years ago Instagram was peppered with super luxe yacht hoppers wafting about in exquisitely embroidered Ukrainian peasant style dresses featuring jaw-dropping lantern sleeves and fetching tassel trims. Sadly, it turned out these dresses also had jaw-dropping prices and after frenzied googling of the jet-set’s chosen label Vita Kin I accepted that I would have to wear the same dress every day until l was 90 to make the price per wear justifiable. Scanning Etsy for fakes and vintage versions yielded little joy but then lo, last year Zara came up with one solitary homage which about 5000 people promptly jumped upon so that for about 2 months we all looked like we’d joined a very niche embroidery cult. Thankfully, this summer the high street has finally cottoned on and there is a diverse range of wafty folk dresses you can snap up without having to commit to your 90th birthday party outfit – although I have included a couple of more expensive ones here just in case you do own a MASSIVE yacht. I do like to be inclusive.
1. Kicking off with a pricey but stunning little number £325, Tory Burch at netaporter (selling fast!) 2. Black embroidered dress, £50, Next
3. Long embroidered tunic, £39.99, Zara (also selling fast!)
4. Linen Dress, £79.99, Mango 5. Cotton dress, £45.99, Miss Selfridge at Zalando. (sold out on Miss S site)
A detail of the Mango dress which is one of my favourites
6. Embroidered Tunic Dress, £45, Marks & Spencer 7. Ditsy Smock Dress (more of a beach cover up if you are tall but you could wear over PJ style trousers or tuck into a full skirt. £65, Topshop
An actual Vita Kin dress, £1,966, matchesfashion.com (yes they are a cut above) as are similar labels March 11, Yuliya Magdych, Gul Hurgel
P.S. Just adding this top/jacket into the mix incase you’re not a dress person. Would look great with jeans and a simple vest underneath. I might need it.
Embroidered Flounce Blouse, £39.99, Zara
