The Pretty Dress Guide to Packing for a Beach Holiday

It’s surprising how much goes into packing for a holiday. I’m not one of those people who can just throw a few things in a bag and go, I like to plan.

Lets start with the shoes: One pair of trainers, one pair of nude-goes-with-everything heels, one pair of wedges, one pair of sandals and one pair of flip-flops. I nearly always end up sticking to sandals and flip-flops once I’m there, but I like to know I’ve got all the bases covered.

The easiest and best way to pack shoes is using a plastic carrier bag. I usually line the bottom of my suitcase with shoes and then pack smaller items around them, leaving a relatively flat surface for the clothes to lie on.

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Converse trainers from BrandAlley

The next staple is the little white dress – dressed up with wedges for the evening or down with sandals in the day.

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Dress: Topshop | Wedges: ASOS

I like outfits that can go from day to evening just by changing up the accessories. (Small hard-case clutches are great for hols as you can also use them for transporting jewellery – or anything else that might get damaged in transit). These are also some of my favourite combinations…

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Dress: Zara | Sandals: Oasis | Clutch: Next

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Playsuit: Jovonnista | Shoes: H&M | Clutch: Textile Federation via ASOS

At the beach I prefer light dresses that you can just throw on/off – maxi dresses are great but the best thing I ever bought, I got years ago from Orion. Their kimono dresses are incredibly light and the material doesn’t wrinkle so they can be chucked in your beach bag with no fuss.

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Orion

I love getting out on the water in a boat (motorboat that is… I can’t sail but I like to pretend I can by looking the part) so I’m a big fan of breton stripe tops.

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Top: F&F | Shorts: Warehouse | Sandals: F&F

And lastly: The Bikinis. I live in these things on holiday. You can never have too many right?

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Clockwise from top left: F&F | George | F&F | ASOS | South Beach via ASOS

Butterflies

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When I turned 24, I spent my birthday visiting a castle in Wales, and in the garden they had a butterfly house. It was honestly one of the most magical places I’ve ever stepped inside, the butterflies floated around lazily on soft currents of warm, tropical air and everywhere you looked there was colour, grace and beauty. The image of a butterfly just spells out spring/summer to me – so here are my picks of the best butterfly prints out there.

(Clockwise from bottom left)
Butterfly print dress – Yumi £22.50
Butterfly print top – Oasis £18
Body wash – Anna Sui (via ASOS) £16
Watch – Olivia Burton (via Topshop) £95
Butterfly print scarf – Oasis (via ASOS) £16
Butterfly print cardigan – Warehouse £40
Butterfly mesh top – Anthropologie £68
Scent – Anna Sui (via ASOS) £31

Swift

It’s no secret that I am a bit of a swiftie. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to see her live in London. I’d been mooching round the city in the daytime, and had worn the dress below. It being the ‘Red’ tour though, everyone else at the concert was dressed to match the description (and accessorising with fairy lights!) … Anyways I was bemoaning my lack of Taylor-appropriate attire to my sister, when she quite rightly pointed out that I hadn’t missed the boat at all – I was wearing swifts.

So now I love this dress even more. Here’s how I dressed it up recently for a family meal out.

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Dress: Warehouse (Via ASOS) similar here
Tights: tightsplease.co.uk
Shoes: Next
Clutch: Textile Federation via ASOS

And the concert? It was pretty incredible.
Here’s short clip I filmed of Emeli Sande performing ‘Next to Me’ with Taylor Swift.

 

The Look For Less

Did anyone see Taylor Swift at the MuchMusic Awards the other week? If the rumours are true, then Ed Sheeran is a lucky man! She looked absolutely stunning in this Herve Leger bondage dress:

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And the high-street is all over this monochrome thing. I’m tempted to copy Taylor’s look with these beauties:

Mango BW dress

Mango £24.50

Warehouse BW dress.2

Warehouse £36.00

shoe

Kurt Geiger £65

Savvy Shopping: The warehouse dress is on sale too!