Review: The Perfect Fall Day to Night Dress

As you know, last week I overhauled my fall/winter wardrobe and made a list of what I needed on a go-forward basis so I would not get caught up in simply buying any bright/shiny/new object that caught my eye.

One of the items that was most definitely needed was a day dress.  In fact, my day dress category was one of the few areas of my wardrobe that was in dire need of a couple of items!  I have been watching J Crew's site to try and catch something and perhaps there will be something lovely in the major rollout this coming Thursday, but for me, J Crew dresses have mostly been misses.  Dresses with defined waists that I have purchased have waists that are slighly too high; since I am busty, they fit oddly, as if they are a dress aspiring to be an empire waist dress but not quite making it...I do have one of their sequin shift tank dresses from last year and I love it - it fits divinely.  So I will likely pick up another dress as the fall goes along from J Crew if one pops up in my fall colour story (black, navy, with pops of green, royal blue and rosy pinks).

En route to the dry cleaners, one of our local shops was placing mannequins in the window, replete with some of their new fall dresses.  One dress in particular caught my eye and so I hied me in immediately to give it a try.

The dress is by the Canadian Company, Judith and Charles, whose website you can visit here.  While it is a Canadian company, they do have a shop in NYC and until recently you could order their clothing online and since their website appears to be undergoing some kind of renaissance, I suspect you may be able to do so again soon.

I love their clothes - I have a few pieces and all are elegant and cut amazingly well and look equally appropriate in the boardroom and for a formal event. 

How chic are these outfits?

This one is pure Audrey:

And as I blogged before, I really like this blouse (and those trousers are divine!):

Of course, evil salesperson brought me MANY items to look at (they had met me before!)  However, thanks to "The List" I was able to stand firm - "No Thank You, I do not need a $2000 leather blazer or a $800 trouser.  Thank you VERY much, I simply want a day to night dress!"

I tried it on and could have wept with delight.  The fit was perfect, IMO, as evidenced below.

What I like about this dress is not only the flattering cut, but the little details at the hem that allow the dress to set itself apart from its LBD compadres.  It is 100% wool, with an acetate lining.

So I decided to style this dress three ways to show its versatility:

1) For a very formal event/meeting with black blazer and simple black pumps, single strand of pearls

2) A day in the office, paired with my Byzantine blue jackie sweater, slightly different accessories and those Aldo blue suede shoes, all to bring out the blue in the hem

3) Cocktail party with sexier shoe, simple bracelet. 

I truly love this dress and this is just so simple and elegant and is exactly the kind of look I am now going for.  What do you think?