Thursday, November 03, 2016

Leota Dress Report

I promised awhile back to give a proper report on the free dress the nice folks at Leota sent me, and since I've voted and made my final round of donations, tonight seems like a good night to tune out the election and talk about something less momentous, namely my search for work clothes.

For those who don't want to click back and read the whole story, the short version is: I decided I wanted to get a couple of work-appropriate dresses and I posted about the sartorial problems that led to that decision and also the solutions I was considering. I mentioned Leota as a brand of dress I was looking at. Apparently someone at Leota saw that post, and I got an email offering me a free dress to try.

I took them up on the offer. I used their size chart to figure my size, and determined I was a 1L in their sizing. This limited my options for a dress a bit, but they do have a nice line of "full figure" styles, so I still had some choices. I selected one of their wrap dresses with a little bit of trepidation, because wrap styles often gap on me, requiring me to wear a tank top underneath. But I had heard good things about Leota, and it was a full a figure line... so I took a chance.

And I'm happy to say, that chance paid off. I love my Leota dress. The wrap does not gap, and the dress is a flattering cut.

Here it is on me:



Obviously, my modeling skills aren't the best, and maybe I should find a place without an ugly rug behind me to take my pictures.... but I'm pretty pleased with this dress.

I chose a long day to wear it: I had a full day at a client site, and then I picked Petunia up and took her to her art lesson, during which I sat at a nearby coffee shop doing some reading for one of the projects I'm working on. Amazingly, I never had to adjust that wrap cross-over, not even once, not even as I curled up a bit in the coffee shop chair. And the dress was a very comfortable throughout the entire day. The fabric is a a matte jersey polyester, with some spandex for a little stretch. It is definitely a synthetic, but it is soft and not at all itchy.

(Incidentally, the tights were really comfortable, too. After reading everyone's recommendations, I bought some We Love Colors tights. I was on the border between M/L and 1X-3X. My usual rule when I'm on the boundary of two sizes with hosiery is to pick the larger size, and that is what I did. Having worn these, I am now pretty sure I could have gone with the M/L, but the 1X-3X did not sag or puddle, at least not in this first wearing. We'll see how they do over time.)

Back to the dress: It is machine washable, and yes I've washed it. I draped it flattish over a drying rack to dry, and the dress retained its shape beautifully. I think this dress will do particularly well for occasions where I need to travel with work clothes, because it does not wrinkle. The only downside about the dress, really, is that it doesn't have pockets. Still, I'm impressed with the brand and will probably buy more from them in the future, particularly if they bring more styles and fabrics to their full figure line.

4 comments:

  1. I really like that dress and went to their site---they have some really cute prints in the wrap. I've never had luck with wraps but this one seems like it really would stay in place. But the prints I like are on "final sale" and I'm not sure I'm going to try a new brand (and spend $88 on a dress!) with no return option!

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  2. We hope you enjoy your tights! Let us know how they do over time.

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