Can a Mama rock a Midi?

When I say mama, I mean me, with 3 kids and 2 school runs and floors to be mopped (in-between blogging). Can a midi dress really fit in my life? I didn't think so but Ruth at Room 31 wasn't taking no for an answer. She showed me a stunning picture of Nicola Payne wearing hers, Nicola started tweeting words of encouragement and before I knew it, this beauty had landed in my hall..and it was love at first sight - two of my favourite colours and a great pattern.

Niamh Black/Mocha Midi Dress - £14 (25% off with SGS25!)

I studied it for a while trying to decide if it was me. It put me in mind of a woman I saw in the airport last week with a jersey dress on. It was your classic wrap jersey dress and while she had an amazing figure and the print was gorgeous, the look seemed a bit dated. It got me thinking that perhaps the jersey wrap dresses I would have worn in the past at work have been replaced by these midi dress. The same concepts apply - usually well printed (excellent disguise), jersey material, super comfortable. And better than that, these are longer, with no gaping v-necks and no risk of a gust of wind showing your undercrackers to the world. I started liking even more...

A test shot was instagrammed...and the response was favourable. 

Ok, maybe I can pull this one off after all! Bring on the photoshoot and bring on an accomplice - Fiona from Avenue 57, whom Ruth had sent a similar dress to and here we are in all our glory..

Both unsure of this style of dress, we styled our respective frocks without conferring as we knew this would make it more interesting. Here are the two looks I created. The first one is the going out option:

Shoe Boots - Autorgaph at M&S

  Necklace - Promod 

Cropped Black Jacket - Dunnes

But I want to be able to wear this on the school run so I changed the jacket and shoes and added a scarf. On reflection, the scarf is a bit heavy looking but I picked such a cold day to do these pictures and couldn't bear to take it off.

Denim Jacket & Pumps - M&S

Scarf - H&M

Dark Green Leather Bag - DKNY

Before you rush off to check out Fiona's blog and how she styled hers, here are my styling tips for midi dresses. (Remember, I'm not a stylist - it's not the law and could very well be a load of tosh that the fashion police will seek me out for)

1. Team with a shorter jacket to balance out the proportions
2. Offset the neat fit of the dress with a chunkier heel or a shoe boot.
3. Spanx (or similar - try TK Maxx) are great for getting a smooth line underneath. This applies all the time actually. I wear mine EVERY day.
4. You don't have to be skinny to wear these dresses. In fact, they are super flattering on curvy girls because of the pattern

Note : I'm wearing a size 12 but given the nature of these dresses, anything from a 10-14 would have fitted me.

I'll leave you with an out-take from my photo session. I'll set the scene - two 4 year olds riding bikes past me every 5 seconds as they sped around the house, 9 year old complaining about taking the photos and asking me what I was going to pay him, husband asking why we were all out in the garden on such a cold morning. This was my last outfit and I wasn't sure about the shoes anyway. I gave up after this. Some days, you have to quit when you're ahead..