Vintage 1970s One-Shoulder Gown (The Vuelio Blog Awards) #iwillwearwhatilike

In the space of one week I’ve gone from extreme casual (walking-the-dog clothes) to extreme glamour (an evening gown and heels). I’m sure you can guess which is the least common of the two…

On Friday I was lucky enough to go to the Vuelio Blog Awards (pronounced view-lee-oh) as a finalist. An email saying I was shortlisted and had two tickets to the awards ceremony came out of the blue a few weeks ago and as any fashionista will tell you, the first thing you think is Aaaaaargh what do I wear…?!

Maybe I’m falling into a bit of a pattern here, but of course I fell back onto my tried and tested formula: vintage. (No chance of turning up in the same dress as someone else that way.) And not only vintage, but 1970s vintage AGAIN. Hey – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, I say!

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Just to explain about the awards first: did I win? My chances were pretty slim to say the least.

When I said the Vuelio email came out of the blue, I really do mean out of nowhere. I hadn’t entered myself, and no friends or readers nominated me. Vuelio is a PR & Comms company that also work with bloggers and content creators (trying hard not to say that icky term “influencers”), and somehow I managed to end up in the six-strong shortlist of women’s fashion blogs. The reason I was so shocked was because of who was also in my category: unlike the UK Blog Awards where you enter yourself, Vuelio do all the shortlisting themselves. So if you’re on their database, you’re in with a running chance (at least that’s how I think it works).

To my disbelief I ended up in the same category as some of the UK TOP fashion bloggers. And when I say top, I mean L’Oréal TV advert top (Victoria MacGrath and Lydia Millen), for example.

So it came as no big surprise, but I DIDN’T win (Victoria of Inthefrow is pretty much the UK’s top fashion blogger and rather unsurprisingly won) – just in case any of you were wondering! I went with ZERO expectation of winning, which is kinda nice, in a way. As I mentioned on my Instagram, it was like a D-list soapstar being up against Meryl Streep for an Oscar… it just wasn’t going to happen. However when you go with zero expectations you can go and just enjoy the evening, which is exactly what I did!

My vintage 1970s one-shoulder gown

Let’s talk the dress! Yes, I know I’m becoming a BIT predictable when it comes to black tie/formal events, but vintage works for me. Vintage gowns tend to be less boobilicious than modern evening dresses, which also have a tendency to be beautiful at the front then only to be totally backless. When you’re a big-boobed girl who doesn’t “do” cleavage (and needs a bra AT ALL TIMES), low cuts and backless dresses just don’t cut the mustard. Dresses tended to be more modest in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and that suits me just fine.

I found this CRAZY gorgeous one-shoulder 1970s psychedelic dress from an Etsy shop, and only when it was posted to me did I realise the owner lives in the same town as me, 10 minutes walk from my house. I could have chosen something from anywhere in the world, and I chose something from someone down the road. How nuts is that?!

I’ve been drawn to dresses with mutton sleeves for evening looks a lot lately, but this time I thought I’d try something different. I’ve never done a one-shoulder before, and it felt pretty sexy on (I cringed slightly saying that, but I honestly can’t think of another way to say it)! All the dress needed was great shoes and great jewellery: I wore my new nude/black ombré heels from Lotus* and new pink and red earrings from Toolally* (kindly gifted so thank you to both brands). Messy curled hair, a little sparkle on the wrist and I was done.

Each time I go to an awards ceremony I sure feel the pressure of finding a dress as stunning as the last one… so far I’m pretty happy with all my choices!

The Vuelio Blog Awards – who, what, where

I must of course talk a little about the awards themselves. You’ll see that I wasn’t accompanied by Keith as the event fell on his busiest work day of the YEAR so him being allowed a day off work and getting up to London was out of the question. In a way we were both glad as unlike previous UK Blog Awards he wouldn’t have known anyone there, so I immediately knew who I wanted to take: my fabulous (and gorgeous!) work wife, What Lizzy Loves. I have several BBFFs (blogging BFFs) but as Lizzy couldn’t make it to last year’s event (when I had the support of six of my girls as well as the Instagram Husband), I wanted her to come as my +1.

I couldn’t have been prouder to have such a wonderful and beautiful person “on my arm”… she is ABSOLUTELY the loveliest person and we go way back, meeting for the first time at the Fever London photo shoot back in 2014. She kindly took the photos you see of me in our hotel lobby (thank you Liz!), and when she publishes her post up of the night I’ll link to the post here – wait till you see her stunning Self Portrait dress (ughhhh she looked so beautiful, as you’ll see below).

We had a fantastic evening – it was just a little bit of a shame that so few of the shortlisted bloggers that I know couldn’t make it. Some I’ve met before, others I hadn’t so it was such a shame there weren’t more there! But Liz and I had a great evening, and next day we had brunch with the equally fabulous Lisa, AKA The Sequinist. It couldn’t have been a better couple of days.

Do add your outfits to this week’s link up – and if you’ve added a link to here or my button to your post you may be featured in my monthly Women Who Wear What They Like post!

WOULD YOU GO VINTAGE FOR A BLACK-TIE EVENT? COMMENT BELOW…!

Catherine x

Photo credits: Elizabeth Yeowart / Vuelio

Dress: Secret Siren Vintage
Strapless Bra: Wonderbra (A to G cup, I swear by this one for big boobs!)
Earrings: Toolally*
Heels: Lotus*
Clutch: Old, unknown (similar)
Bracelets: What Lizzy Loves c/o, John Lewis (this one and this one will go beautifully together)