A few weeks ago I went out on a Saturday to attend the Finnish for the Eurovision Song Contest and had a “I have nothing to wear” moment. I only had time to go to my local shops, so I headed there with just two hours before I needed to get going.

I browsed the racks for quite some time and picked some pieces that I kind of liked without really considering whether they would fit correctly or suit my shape. I just decided to give anything I liked a go knowing full well some would not work. I assumed with all dresses that I needed to size up one size because of my rack and did not pick any dresses in my normal size.

I ended up with three dresses in the dressing room that were each a potential hit or miss: one color blocked dress by the local label Ril’s, one fuchsia ponte dress by another local label YourFace, and one by a Spanish label available internationally, Desigual. I’ve loved Desigual’s quirky prints for a long time but this was actually the first time I finally tried  a Desigual dress.

The Ril’s was the disaster I suspected it might be. This cut is meant to emphasize the bust and create an hourglass silhouette for the less busty women I assume. It looks awful on a racked figure. However, from the side it looked quite flattering.

Ril’s size L dress, very, very unflattering print for a curvy figure.

Then I tried on the YourFace dress. It has a back zip and is slightly stretchy but not much. I loved the color on me and to my surprise the sizing up one size was a mistake. I did need my normal size!

YourFace size EU44 dress, got this in EU size 42 which is my normal size. This was too big surprisingly enough.

I was really anxious to try the Desigual dress on, and it was both a hit and a miss. I was worried it would not fit at all around the bust, but it did. Although the miss part is that it’s too cleavagy for my preference, and it only so and so fits as it’s meant to.

Desigual XL dress, fits but is too snug around the bosom.

I ended up getting the YourFace dress in a size smaller than in the picture above, as it was something I could wear for work as well as for an evening event. It can be styled both ways. Unfortunately I have no picture of me in it from the Eurovision national final competition, but I styled it with silver accessories and black heels. I’ve been wearing it to work with different scarves (black and white ones or plain black).

And to conclude this post, here is some eye candy from the event I needed the dress for. The woman in the red dress is a well known local artist and a fellow curvy lady – the Moroccan-style dress looked amazing on her. She performed with the Scandinavian Hunks dance group in a cheeky number during the interval.