Saying Hello and Goodbye to the Frock

I think I shall have to soon learn the pains of not being able to keep any of the loveliness that I pull for photoshoots.  As the shiny black Brittique box arrived in my office and I pulled out this Tata Naka dress, I got the most heavy thud of deja vu, with memories of buying new party dresses flooding back.  The black velvet peter pan collared dress that I wore when I was three.  The yellow tulle bridesmaid dress that had a mini train of fake flowers attached to it (my sister wore the pink version).  Then the number of 80’s prom dresses I acquired when I went through a phase of having just discovered vintage promgear and literally going wild over anything poofy, shiny or sparkly.  Of course, in material/monetary value, none of that compares to the literal weight and cost of this Tata Naka dress.  There’s a lot of fabric on this gold brocade coat dress with a scalloped hem.  Everything about it has a ‘big’ factor – the oversized scallop on the hem, the huge poofy bow, the puffed up sleeves, the buttons (is it me or is there something oddly rewarding about doing up huge rounded buttons….?). 

Designed by identical Georgian twins Tamara and Natasha Surguladze, Tata-Naka is one of those labels that has been around a while in London and in my opinion is quite underrated.  I love their ability to go and do something whimsical and completely selfish, taking inspiration from their motherland of Georgia.  Their collection for AW07-8 is my favourite to date (Brittique also sell the mini mouse dress which I raved about a while ago…) and since then I can’t seem to find the whereabouts of their SS08 collection…

Getting back to the dress though, this is a party frock by all definitions.  It ticks all those boxes so much that I’m forced to use the word ‘frock’.  It basically is the adult version of one of those dresses that you might have worn when you were five except ten times more luxurious.   I don’t normally do straight-forward ‘pretty’ or ‘glam’ but with a dress like this you really are forced to wear it with some party shoes (Georgina Goodman in this case), a headband and some gloves for the final party touch.  In other words, going with what the grandeur of the frock is telling you to do.   

Or I could slope back to my natural ways and go layering away/de-pretty-fying again…

When I have to pack this back in its shiny box, it will be a sad farewell.  Though, if I was keeping the dress, you can be damn well sure that I’d be getting the shoes to go with the dress…. (yup…still harbouring an obsessiong with them…).  I was delighted that a State-side boutique had also fallen in love with Tata Naka’s charm and are probably the one of the few stockists in the world to sell their shoes…