AVOID VS. BUY WITH SUMMER DRESSES | WHERE TO SWERVE AND WHERE TO SPLURGE

Hello everyone, welcome back to my YouTube channel and another lessons with Lydia, this time all about what dresses to avoid and buy. So I've done these avoid and buy videos in the past and they always go down really well. And I think that is because it's just useful to know what not to buy sometimes rather than what to buy, just to help you in your wardrobe when you're shopping so that you don't go and waste money on pieces that you just won't buy, that won't be useful, that won't be versatile, that won't look good. So hopefully this video will kind of narrow down those styles and the ones that, I mean, it's just personal opinion, but the ones that I think work better. So I'm gonna start with all the don't buys first and then we'll move on to the buys. So the first dress I would avoid is this ruffle white dress. I just don't really like anything about this. I think it would be quite unflattering to be honest. I think with the kind of ruffles on it, just don't make it very flattering. I don't like the shape of it. It's got no kind of structure to it at all, which I personally don't like. I also think the kind of ruffles hanging down look a little bit cheap and just kind of don't make for a very nice look. My style is very much about classic pieces and this just doesn't feel classic to me. And also it's one of those pieces that I think once you've worn it, you've worn it and you probably will get bored of it quite quickly. Next is this floral pattern dress. There's nothing particularly awful about this. I just personally would not buy it. I don't like the look of it. I don't like the length of it for one with this mid length. I think maybe this would work much better in more of a maxi style. I also think it's a little bit too low cut and I just don't love the shape of this. I also don't really like this floral print either. I'm not a huge fan of floral prints in general. This just feels a little bit twee. I feel like this whole look is a little bit dated. It doesn't feel very classic. It's one of those pieces that I already feel like has gone out of fashion. So I don't feel like it's kind of either current or classic. I think this next one, it's a sage green, like halter style. I do think this is a style that a lot of people go to. I personally really don't like this shape, this cut. I don't love like head to toe tight dresses. I feel like this could be quite clingy. It's a scuba material. So I think not only would it be clingy, but it would just kind of feel quite hot and kind of too tight on the body. So I think for one, the fabric of this just is something I would avoid, especially in a dress. Also the shape of it. Again, I think if you're gonna do like a low cut halter style strappy, I do think it's nicer to have a full long length. I think there's a bit too much leg to like shoulder ratio on show. It's that kind of famous thing of, you either have like a long top on and a mini skirt, or you go for a long skirt and then like kind of show your arms, that kind of thing. It just creates balance in the outfit. And I just, I honestly, again, just feel like this style of dress is so done. It's not classic piece, but again, it doesn't feel very contemporary. Next, I've got this red lace dress. Honestly, I've never been into lace that much. Even when lace is like really, really popular and a big trend, especially as it can be in winter time, Christmas time. I'm just not really into it. Maybe one or two pieces and never say never, but I think in general, I really don't like lace. Again, I think it can look quite old fashioned and dated and just, again, a little bit cheap, especially done with certain colours. So I think with the red, just really cheapens the lace. I think the only way to do lace, to be honest, is like a black, possibly a white. So overall, I don't like the fabric again. I'm not really into red. And I think if you are doing red, I do think it's nicer to go for like a very plain fabric or even something more relaxed to give that bright, vibrant red a little bit of juxtaposition. And I think that's always the case with a bright colour. I like to go for a more relaxed fabric, like a linen or like a jumper, that kind of thing. So I think the red, because it's so bright and in this dressy style, it just feels too conflicting and too over the top for me. I also just think the style and shape of dress, again, just feels, it feels very done. I think this common denominator is that none of these pieces are classic pieces, but they're also not like trend pieces either. So they're just kind of not falling into any category. I just really don't like this one. Next, we've got this shirt dress. And I don't, again, feel like there's anything mega offensive about this, but I just think we can do better. It's got like a kind of ruffle around the middle, which I don't like. I like a shirt dress to be what it is. I like some structure to it. I like a bit of oversized edge to a shirt dress. This just feels like it's trying to be a hybrid dress and I don't love it. I personally as well do prefer longer sleeve shirt dresses. So I would definitely avoid this one. Also, again, the length just feels a little bit neither here nor there. It's not a short length, but it's also not a longer length. And I feel like the fabric doesn't look that great on this either. I say this in every avoid and buy, but price really doesn't come into this at all for me. It never does with fashion, to be honest. I'm just more looking at style, quality, how it will fit in my wardrobe. And so next is this floral dress. This isn't like a cheap dress, but I think it just kind of has that cheap look to it. The florals are very contrasted. There's a lot of different colors in this. I've said this before about print, but I do think prints look nicer when they're a little bit more cohesive, maybe just like one or two colors within that print. I also really, really hate this combination of colors. The orange with the purples and blues, I just really don't like. It has that kind of 60s feel. I'm not a big fan of that proper kind of flower power, 60s kind of thing. And again, it's just, doesn't feel very wearable, doesn't feel classic. If you wear this once, you're not gonna really want to wear it again. Next we have this halter maxi style. I don't mind the shape of this with the halter and the longer length. It's just for me more the colors and the patterns. I really don't love this pattern on the dress either. Again, I do prefer my patterns to just be a little bit more cohesive and repetitive rather than this is just very bold pattern everywhere. I know some people like that. Just personally, just something I don't really like. And I also don't think that it's that wearable. I also think the colors of this dress really cheapen the dress altogether. This very, very bright turquoise just feels very cheap. I've got a turquoise dress and because it's a much darker turquoise, it looks so much nicer. And I also think the turquoise with this kind of pinky beige just doesn't look that good either. So another kind of halter maxi dress in this black. I just don't like the pattern of it. It just feels, I just don't understand the pattern of it. I've never really seen this pattern before. I think this dress would just look so much better if it was head to toe plain black or head to toe plain white. I personally think a block color does stand the test of time so much better. Next is this ruffled white dress. I don't love ruffles. Obviously this kind of harks back to that first dress, but I think you've got to be really, really careful with ruffles. I think maybe this just isn't my style in general. There's nothing awful about this dress, but I'm just not that boho person. And I know there's a bit of boho creeping back in slightly. I'm not gonna be excited about that trend at all. I just think boho, maybe it's just not me. I prefer some sharper edges, something a bit more structured, something a bit more classic. And so this dress just personally feels very out of my comfort zone. And I think as well, if you're gonna do a ruffle dress, maybe just keep it to ruffles. This has got like a lace trim. There's a lot going on for just a plain white dress. So I've just got two more avoids. And one is this kaftani style dress. This to me is honestly horrendous. So this is like a bright blue tie dye and white kaftan dress. Again, the shape is okay. I think if we had this in a block plain colour, not this blue, but any block colour would be okay. Personally, I think a white or a black would be best. I don't love the shape. I probably wouldn't buy it, but it's more about the pattern here. I just think tie dye doesn't stand the test of time. I think you would feel like you've wasted your money buying tie dye. I think tie dye in general can look a little bit cheap, especially in these colours. I think it can be a little bit kind of young looking, childlike almost. It doesn't feel very chic to me. It doesn't feel polished. It doesn't feel pulled together. All of those words that I use to describe my style, I just don't feel like it fits. And again, this is all about my personal preference, but if you are here, then you probably like my style and agree with my style. So I just want to help you. Sometimes we're all over the place with our style and we gravitate towards things like a magpie without really thinking. So we might just see this, think it's affordable. It's from Amazon. I can get it next day. I need a beach cover up. I'll buy it. But actually, sometimes we need to take a step back and think about whether we actually even like something and does it fit us, our style or not. Finally, I just want to talk about leopard print. And again, this is not a cheap dress, but I do think it looks cheap. I do like leopard print. I do like animal print. As a preference, I prefer a snake print or a zebra print to a leopard print. And I do think that's just because I suit the colours of both of those more than a leopard print. I don't really suit those brownie tones. However, I don't like this dress. I think if you're going to do a leopard print, it needs to be more simple. Like just like a shirt, or I love like maybe just a strong, bold, simple leopard print coat, or maybe just some simple like cigarette trousers. I think in a dress, and again, there's so much going on here. I think if you're going to do that leopard, it needs to be simple. Here we've got the ruffles, the shirt detail. I just think there's too much for the leopard print, and I don't love this leopard print. Okay, let's switch gears a bit and move on to some pieces that I would buy. Some that I already own as well, and just pieces that I've seen that I really like and why. So the first is this pretty lavish wrap dress. I actually have this. I'm so excited to wear it. The weather is not really giving summer in England yet. However, when the weather changes and when I go on holiday, I will be pulling this dress out. It's simple. It's kind of got that beachy feel to it, which some of the other dresses in the Avoid had, but this is a way I would do that kind of beachy, summery feel in a good way. So it's got this nice, simple wrap detail. I think with a dress, you just want to go for like one or two details. You don't want to go for too much. And I love the simple color of this. I also like that it's a little bit exaggerated, but not too exaggerated. And I do think this is one you can just pull out in your wardrobe every year. I don't think this would date at all. Another pretty lavish one I own, which I know so many of you have loved because I posted it when we're in the South of France, is this gorgeous beige one. It also comes in black. It's like a halter detail, slightly maxi style. And it's so easy to wear. It's so, so elegant. It's also kind of casual at the same time. So again, what I was saying before about mixing something more formal with more casual, here we've got quite a dressy style of dress, but because it's in this linen blend, it just makes it more casual, more summer appropriate. And then this is definitely a piece you can take from day to night, especially the black one, but the beige one too. Put some bold earrings with it on holiday, wear it in the evening. I wore it in the day on holiday, just a little bit more dressed down. I love the style and shape of this next one, this asymmetric dress. This is definitely a dressier style of dress, but I do think you could probably dress this down with like a pair of flat sandals. It is a lovely style. I love this kind of slash style. It's simple, but got a twist to it. It's also just this simple block color. This is personally a way that I prefer to do color. It's just that block all over color. It's in this lovely green shade, very classic. It's not too bold and in your face, which means you can wear it and style it in different ways as well. I also think just before we move on, that would be a really nice dress for a summer wedding or kind of destination wedding as well with some gorgeous earrings, a nice clutch bag and heels, you're good to go. Again, if you're a color lover, I think this is a really nice one for you. We spoke before about the red lace dress. And so this is kind of like the opposite of that. And the kind of option I would go for instead, if you wanted to do that red, I spoke about red just being like a plain kind of fabric. And this ticks that box. It's also got kind of more modern architectural details to it, whereas the lace one just felt a little bit twee. This feels a lot more modern. At that same time, I also think this is a dress that you'll be able to wear in future because there's nothing too trend led about it. It's simple. It's got a nice architectural shape about it. It's not fussy. You can dress it up, dress it down. I could really see this dressed up in the evening, matching red lip with some really big gold earrings. That would look so good. Nice tan. I think that would look great. I think this is how you could do the red, if you love red, how you can do it in a much better way. So if we're talking about shirt dresses, this is kind of contrasting to the shirt dress we had before with the kind of little ruffle around the middle. This, again, just feels a little bit more, I want to keep saying modern, but I don't necessarily mean modern as in trend. I mean modern as in kind of fresh and simple and things that maybe are classic with a twist to them, if that makes sense. So I'm not meaning trend when I say modern. I'm almost meaning like wearable classic in a way, but it just has some details to it. I love the length. I love the way the shoulders kind of sit out a little bit. And I think it's very flattering the way it kind of darts in as well. So if you're looking for a shirt dress, I think this is a much better way to do it than that first dress we had. Next is my Uniqlo dress that I've got. Very, very simple. I've got the pale beige color, although I think it might have sold out now. I had the pale beige. I know so many of you ended up buying that pale beige one because it's just so useful, but it also comes in other colors too. I love the simplicity of it. I think we neglect those simple pieces that we can just wear on a day-to-day basis. This has kind of everything going for it. It's very, very comfortable. It's just got the simple straps, which give it some detail. Again, just one of those pieces you can pull out every single summer. Okay, so we spoke a little bit about floral prints. That's quite a tongue twister. Tongue twister, floral prints before. So now I want to talk about how I would do a floral print. And this one does actually have a few different colors in it, however, they are more muted. They're more natural tones. I think because they are more natural muted tones, they blend together much more seamlessly than that bright orange and that bright purple. So this dress almost does replicate that garden feel. And when you pick out those nice, subtle tones of like an English country garden, I think these are the colors that you get. And they just feel a lot more effortless together. Next, moving on to halter style, which we had a few of before. I've got this one here. It's like a black halter neck, very, very simple. I love the length of this. This just feels so classic and elegant as opposed to those kind of tight fitting ones with the slits at the side and the cross in the middle. This just feels so much classier. This will stand the test of time. It feels very Audrey Hepburn. It's got that 1950s feel to it. But again, still modern because I think it's got that simplicity and structure to it as well. So if you love the lace vibe in summer, which I know so many people do, I did just want to show this alternative. This is from Suzanne. It's like a long, gorgeous maxi. It's simple in its style though. We've not got kind of lace and ruffles altogether in one. It's also a bit more of a kind of eyelet style. It runs throughout from top to bottom. I think the shape of this as well is very classic. So I think if you want to go for detail, kind of stick to classic shapes. It's got this gorgeous high neck, big long sleeves, maxi style with a tie belt. This is so classic, but it's still got that, well, it's not really a lace. It's more of an eyelet. And I think maybe that's a nicer way to do that kind of lace style or lace image if you like that. So we talked about that tie dye kaftan beach coverup thing before from Amazon. We've actually got another Amazon alternative to show you just to show that it's not about the brand or where we get it from. And to show that one brand can have something really bad and really good at the same time. So this is this gorgeous shirt dress. Perfect for a beach coverup, nice and lightweight. Got a nice classic stripe running down it. It also looks a really nice maxi length. You can throw this on over the pool or dress this up in the evening if you wanted to. But this is what I would do and replace that kind of kaftan kimono tie dye thing with instead. And the stripe is so much more classic and wearable and timeless than the tie dye. So I actually did a recent video with Arket and I styled this dress. This is one I will definitely be taking on holiday with me. It's just so simple, but sometimes the beauty is in the simplicity. So it's a nice crisp cotton in the white. It also comes in black, I think, and it's so easy to wear. Definitely one of those pieces you can dress up, dress down. Again, if you're looking for a kind of beach coverup or something you can take from day to night on holiday, then this is just the ideal piece. Again, something you can pull out every single year. And I think that's the sign of a really good purchase. Think to yourself, will I be able to wear this in five years time? So next is this pretty lavish dress, bandeau style. I love bandeau style at the moment. Again, I think that's quite classic shape, but maybe something a little bit different. It's this stripe dress. I actually have just got this in, so I'm so excited to wear this. It's got nice tie at the back, so a little bit of detail to it. The stripes also provide detail. And I think personally for me, I think a stripe is so much nicer than the leopard print, especially for summer. I think leopard sometimes lends itself a bit more to winter. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike leopard print. I do quite like it, but I think just in terms of summer pattern, I think a stripe you can't go wrong with. Again, it's much more classic too. And my last two are actually from COS. So this is this black detail one. Again, this actually arrived yesterday. I ordered it online because I thought that will be so useful for those really hot days. I personally find that I have a lot of dresses that maybe have a sleeve to them and they're just maybe a bit too hot for when it's very, very warm. You know, on holiday in the daytime when you're wandering around exploring and you want nothing on your arms, this is perfect. It's got the cute little spaghetti straps, but it also just has some interesting detail to it on the body, but it's very wearable. Again, this is one that you can dress up, dress down so easily. In the evening, just add a nice earring and a red lip and you're good to go. And then wear it for the next day with more of a basket bag. I definitely think I'll be wearing this a lot when it gets warmer and also on holiday too. Again, this is absolutely one of those dresses you can pull out time after time. I always look for pieces that are slightly interesting. I think this has a bit of interest to it, but it's still very, very, very wearable. Finally, I just wanted to give a shout out to this shirt dress. I actually did like a couple of picture montages not too long ago where I showed different ways to style this dress. They'll all be on my LTK by the way. If you don't follow me on LTK, basically it is an app or a website if you want to use it on the website where I post all of my outfits kind of like Instagram. Well, it's very much like Instagram, but you can actually shop the direct pieces. So rather than being on Instagram and people saying, where's that from, et cetera, it's listed below where it's from. You can click on the link and shop it. So if you don't follow me on that and want to know where all of my outfits are from, then it might be useful to download the app. All you need to do is kind of go into the app store, type in LTK, and then just search my name and you'll find all my outfits. Also, I do like roundups of all my favorite pieces. I've got loads of lists of basics on there as well, all my favorite basics. So it might just be worth downloading the app to find out where everything's from, or you can just Google Lydia Tomlinson LTK and the website will come up with all of my pieces again. Directly shoppable, so it's a lot easier. I think I always put a link in the description box as well. So hopefully there'll be a link that'll take you directly to that as well. Anyway, what was I saying? This shirt dress was on my LTK. That's where we got on from that, but you'll be able to see that on there. Lots of different ways to style. I think this is so useful. It's a really good shirt dress because it's got a bit of an interest. I think the stripe feels a little bit different because it's kind of got the thicker blue stripe and it's got a bit of black running through it, which I think is really useful for a shirt dress because it means you can style it with black accessories really easily. If you've somebody who kind of always has like a black sandal, black sunglasses, black bag, then this will be the perfect shirt dress for you because it will just tie it in really nicely. Whereas some dresses feel a little bit too light, I think, to wear with black. Very, very useful. I also think this is a great one because you can wear it for work as well. It just has that slightly smarter feel, but then also wear it in a much more relaxed way. So I think very versatile. Again, it's classic with a little bit of a twist, which I think we should all be looking for in our pieces just to get the most out of them. So I hope that has been useful for you. Let me know what you want to see next in this avoid and buy series. Don't forget, hit subscribe whilst I've still got you here and I'll see you in my next video. Bye.