Dress: Riley Fringe Dress in Navy Red and White by Fables by Barrie

Shoes: Vintage (I think they're by Code West which would put them at somewhere between the 80s/90s most likely)

A sort of secret love of mine is anything that you could consider even vaguely western. I love western styled clothing, western films (campy films included, but particularly neo-westerns) and even a few video games set in the American west. There's just something about the style/genre that strikes a cord with this pasty Australian girl who really has no connections or reasoning as to why this would be something she's interested in. 

When I discovered Fables by Barrie and their Pony Tales line it was like a dream come true. Combining vintage style with an edge of cowgirl just hits all the marks for me, y'know?

I did my best to restrain myself for a long time but the spirit is willing where the flesh is weak (or something like that) and so I caved and ordered myself a nice little something or two (or four) in the Black Friday sales. To be fair, it was my only Black Friday purchase so I did pretty well protecting my bank account.

I have two more posts coming up about some of the things I purchased but for the sake of this post we're going to focus on my Riley Fringe Dress.

I'm going to preface my review by saying that, unfortunately, I found Fables to be a little bit hit and miss for me. The stuff that they do right they do so right, but there were just a couple of little things that were a problem.

I had a lot of trouble with the sizing when it came to my order. For reference my measurements are 31"/24"/34" and I ordered the dress in an XS which is made to fit a 32-34" bust, 25-26" waist and 34-35" hips. So I'm at the bottom end of the spectrum for the XS but I found that once I slipped the dress on it fit me like a glove. This is great news for me of course, but is something to keep in mind if you're around the 34"/26"/35" mark, it may be a little snug. This is something I can observe with experience though, as this was the case for me with 3 of the other items I ordered. I'll get to those in future though.

The only issue I had with this particular dress is that it is very, very short. Now I knew it would be short going into this and that short is something usually out of my comfort zone, but I hadn't realised just how short it would be! Thank the heavens for that fringe because the actual fabric literally only just covers my behind.  If it weren't for the fringe being there to kind of obscure the view I would not be leaving very much to the imagination! I was really surprised, and admittedly a little disappointed, to find just how short it was on me though, as I'm only 5'4" and most of that height is in my legs so there isn't too much torso for that dress to need to cover! It is short enough that unfortunately it won't be something I get a lot of wear out of. I had to invest in some tiny little exercise shorts to pop on underneath too. If you're tall (or just average height, realistically) be wary!

This is all coming out as though I hate the dress and I really don't! It fits perfectly and the fabric and construction is A+. It's a beautiful, thick cotton sateen that feels really nice against your skin and is comfortable to wear. If it was just an inch or two longer Riley would be in regular wardrobe rotation. I love the fringe, it's so swishy and fun and it makes me feel a little bit like a lampshade (this is a good thing). I still recommend it because it's cute as hell and I think it has the capability to look great on a lot of people. Also how good does it look with those boots! I just need to find a matching hat now. I'm thinking something white...