Dagenham

Dagenham is a fairly recent addition to the collection; I got it during a recent trip to London, at a shop in the East End called Paper Dress Vintage. 

I was shocked, actually shocked, at the reasonable price tags I saw dangling from the cute dresses I saw there. Later on I discovered that I'd been mistaken on the exchange rate.

Nothing was actually as inexpensive as I thought it was, but in retrospect, who cares? I have two great souvenirs (just wait until Embarrassed Zebra) that rank second only to the Royal Family paper masks we picked up one night at Tesco after a couple of pints.


The shop also includes a bar and was screening episodes of Twin Peaks while we were in town — given my proclivity for polyester, and my husband's love of Lynch, we nearly moved in.

There is something about Dagenham that seems quintessentially English, like those brick houses you see when you fly into Heathrow.

When I imagine the woman who first bought it, I picture one of those lovely solid brick houses, with a yard out back for children to play in, and she's making afternoon tea. 

If I go further, she's working in the seatbelt section of the car factory in Dagenham, getting ready to strike with her co-workers because dammit, the argument "just 'cos" is just not an acceptable answer to "why are you paying the women less than the men?" !!! And she looks like Sally Hawkins. Wouldn't Sally Hawkins look so cute in this dress?

On a related note, you should totally watch Made in Dagenham. Why are English movies so much less glossy than American ones? What is it about the English that makes them so much more comfortable with reality?

In an American movie, even when the main character is a starving servant from the nineteenth century, she's still sporting a polished updo, subtle eyeshadow and straight white teeth. In English movies, even the poshest characters still look a little rumpled.

Of course, even though the lead actors in Made in Dagenham look like "real people," when the photo of the actual people on whom the movie is based shows right before the credits, you realize: Sally Hawkins, Andrea Riseborough and Jaime Winstone are still very pretty women, rumpled or not.

Most of my dresses have trippy prints in bright colors (you don't say), so it’s fun to mix it up with a striped style in muted tones, especially one that mixes horizontals and verticals as this one does. The collar and belt are sort of a nod towards formality in a garment that is otherwise quite down to earth.

Also: pockets!




All photos by Claire Loeb!