Hello, lovely people!
Now some people have mentioned wanting more vintage clothes videos
and what better time when my house is covered in clothes because we're moving!
No, genuinely, I am drowning in dresses!
[slow-motion playback]
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If you're new to this channel: Hi, I'm Jessica, and I'm obsessed with vintage fashion.
If you like amusing girls
who may have accidentally time travelled through the eras in search of somewhere she could be really gay
and really disabled and really fine with it,
then, please, subscribe.
As much as I love the true vintage beauties,
the further we move away from the 50s, the harder they are to find and the more expensive they get.
Even in a dystopian future where I've become a stonkingly rich millionaire,
I'm still going to choke at the thought of spending over 150 pounds on a dress.
Currently, I even consider fifty pounds to be a bit steep.
I'm either cheap or sensible, you decide!
Which is where retro dress makers come in.
These brands make vintage-esque dresses using modern fabrics and methods,
but vintage patterns.
Their clothes are more affordable, easier to wear, and you don't have to freak the hell out
if your strawberries and cream fall in your lap.
I lost a wonderful vintage dress that way.
I held a funeral for them.
Worn annually at summer parties.
I have a playlist on my channel going through a number of different retro brands
which you can find linked in the card above and also down in the description.
In those videos, I look at the clothes I own from them; the history of the brand;
the good; the bad; the look; sizing; and wearability;
price and ease of shipping.
And that is what you'll be seeing in today's video regarding Miss Candyfloss.
Timestamps are on screen now and you'll also be able to find them in the description.
I asked on my Instagram page and on the Community tab here on YouTube
for any other questions you would like answered,
and I'm sprinkling those in through the whole video.
If you haven't heard of them before, Miss Candyfloss is a Swedish women's wear brand
creating ethical 40s and 50s style clothes.
They not only make beautiful clothes,
but are determined to contribute to a sustainable apparel environment
by only using manufacturing facilities with fair working conditions
and creating pieces that should last for decades.
And I can thoroughly attest to that last part.
Miss Candyfloss is my go-to for travel clothing.
I'm going to take you through the pieces that I own one by one in a second,
but honestly,
I never worry that anything will tear whilst I'm sleeping on an aeroplane or
in a car or just on the floor in the corner of the room because
I have Chronic Fatigue, I pass out a lot.
Before we move forward, I want to point out that this video is not sponsored.
I'm doing it because I genuinely love this brand and I get a lot of questions about it.
However, they have gifted me all of the clothing that you will see in the video over a number of years.
Here's a quick run-through of the pieces that I own in order of them coming into my life.
We're going to start with this lovely here, which also comes with a belt.
This is one of my absolute travelling go-to faves.
Also one of my autumnal faves.
Wonderfully thick material,
but there is a little bit of a stretch to it.
I find that with a lot of their fabrics, actually. Because they use modern fabrics, they do have that
stretch that makes them very comfortable, but the tailoring
that makes them look quite smart.
I'm wearing this dress in an extra small and I'm generally about a size eight.
The one downfall about this dress for me is that I think the sleeves are a little too baggy at the very end.
I would like them if they were a little more
tailored, but maybe that's just because I have skinny elbows.
This dress has really been through the wars,
I have to say. It's been everywhere, this dress;
it's travelled through a myriad of countries.
Also has gone through the washing machine a number of times.
Wash it with all my other clothes and I never worry about it.
Next we have this lovely skirt here with a beautiful bow at the top.
I know they sell this in a variety of colours.
You don't have to get it in this maroon.
I don't love it as much as I should love it.
I don't know. Sometimes it really works for me; sometimes it doesn't so much.
The bow at the top
is fantastic.
It's amazing.
Again, also very comfortable.
However,
it's not a full...
circle skirt.
I'm a girl who likes to wear a lot of petticoats.
Even with just two petticoats, I find that at the top,
it seems to be cut a little straighter.
But I think it does look absolutely gorgeous
if you're wearing it with just a very light petticoat underneath or even no petticoat at all.
Highly recommend.
Just to prove that I don't just get clothes in one colour,
we're moving on to the blues now.
Now, they sell this again in various colours on the website.
It's such a flattering top, it really is.
Very, very gorgeous.
And we've also got lovely turned up cuffs here.
The little buttons are so cute;
the sweetheart neckline - aah!
Very nicely tailored around the waist area here.
As you can see these darts - so nice!
But I would say this dress - this style - is incredibly good value for money.
Also a lot of material down at the bottom here.
These pleats hide a lot of the larger material further down.
So then, again, you still get that lovely nipped-in waist.
And, yeah, it comes in a variety of colours. There is a little bit of a stretch to it.
Not quite as much as some of their other clothes, but a little bit.
It's just a little thinner.
However, you don't necessarily have to wear a structured undergarment with it.
I wear a longline bra and...
this one I feel just holds me in nicely anyway.
I wear this dress all the time.
But! The downside of this dress, for me,
is that I find it quite uncomfortable wearing halter neck tops
because of my very weird neck - which, if you saw my video about my scoliosis,
you'll really know what I'm talking about.
So my neck at the top,
instead--the bottom of my neck, instead of going this way,
goes this way,
which means that I need--I got a longer
halter neck.
That might just be me.
That might just be my problem.
Clearly it doesn't bother me that much, because I wear it all the time.
I should note that all of these dresses do come with coordinating belts.
They are also the type of belts that blissfully have actual belt loops.
Ah!
This gorgeous thing!
Ooh. You'll recognise this if you saw my interview with Sky.
I absolutely love this dress. Again, it's one of those gorgeous 'every day' type dresses.
Miss Candyfloss very much, back in the day,
when I first started looking at their site,
there were amazing
vintage day dresses.
Very much in that kind of vein of you look fabulous going to your lunch,
but they weren't super fancy; super...exciting, necessarily.
Love those dresses, but they're not fancy dresses that you would wear to something.
However, as you can see from the dress I'm wearing right now
(and spreading glitter everywhere),
they've moved on.
But they still have the great staple dresses.
That's the word, really: staple
These dresses are staples.
And this is a lovely
summer staple.
So, this dress is a hundred percent cotton.
It's a lovely, lovely summer dress.
Buttons right the way up to the top here.
I adore it. I cannot wait for it to be a little warmer
and start wearing it.
Lovely thing about this dress: it has big arm holes
If you're like me, sometimes you'll notice even when you're a small person,
the arm holes in dresses are just like...
Why do they expect my arm to be this thick? I don't know.
You've got tiny armholes and it just cuts in - right into your armpits; it's very uncomfortable.
But no, we have a lovely large armhole here,
with a very cute little capped sleeve.
Again, it comes with a belt.
I find a bit--this one, I don't love
necessarily wearing with the belt, but it's just because of the buttons.
Highly recommend this one.
You do have to iron it a lot because it's a hundred percent cotton and that's life.
Oh well - but that's what you're getting into.
You knew what you were getting into.
I throw this in the wash with all my other clothes as well.
Just put a colour catcher in there because, you know, the first time...
that red's gonna move.
Meet the world's most gorgeous and yet comfortable
and somehow shaping summer dress.
I don't know.
This thing -
it gives you such good shape, wow.
Beautiful work here that very much emphasizes the décolletage.
However, if you are large-chested, like me,
sometimes it may be a bit much.
Sometimes I feel a bit too, um, like there's too much attention on this whole area.
By the way, yes, I can say large-chested.
I'm 28E.
Gorgeous stretchy material.
Absolutely love that.
A week of the month, it's a bit too tight.
A bit too squished in that area.
But obviously then still fits on top,
so then I'd feel debatable if I was the next size up,
I suppose.
It's very much a V shape.
So, if you are not of that body type, this may not be the dress for you.
Look at some others.
But this dress if you're--if you've got an hourglass or if you've got an inverted triangle.
But there must be some kind of fruit for that, because they're all named after fruits, aren't they? Body shapes?
These bows at the top here are detachable, so if you wanna take them off; make it a bit of a plainer dress.
Or! You could take them off and tie them in your hair! And then you'd have a coordinating thing!
I'm gonna do that next time I wear it, quite clearly.
One negative would be that if you do catch it on something...
(not sure if you can see this).
Um, if you catch it on something, it does have the unfortunate effect of bobbling.
I think the answer there is avoid sticky things.
Next up in the lovely range of comfortable, slightly stretchy dresses that are well cut,
we've got this one.
I really love the darts that come in either side here.
Lovely neck, looks gorgeous, and!
There's a bow on the back!
It's the most exciting thing ever.
I think this is cut along the bottom here; the same pattern as the light blue one.
Again, that looks lovely no matter how many petticoats you decide to put underneath it,
or if you choose not to wear it with petticoats.
Gorgeous day dress.
Does have the same issue with the bobbling when you catch it on things,
like the dress I'm wearing right now.
We'll get to this dress in a minute.
This dress, this dress...
I...obviously give away a lot of my clothes, as you saw in my Marie Kondo video.
I like to make sure I don't have too many things at once,
and I also love giving things to charity shops and doing my bit.
Oh! Excitingly,
this is just random to throw this in here,
Scope told me that they made £380 with the clothes that I donated from my Marie Kondo clean-out,
so, that was good!
Some dresses look amazing
online
and then you get them and you're like 'don't love.'
This is a 'don't love,'
but I still have it because I wanna make it work.
It's a tuxedo dress and really, I should have known better,
because, I mean, it's a tuxedo dress.
But I thought I could make it girly.
I really don't like
fabrics where they're pinned together to look like something else.
You know like those jumpers that we used to have
that had the fake--the fake shirt collar and sleeves and the end?
So you have the kind of fake waistcoat here.
Just too much.
There's also the problem of: these sleeves are very straight cut.
So maybe this centre section could have worked
if the sleeves were a little more shaped.
Had a little more to them.
But they just look very blocky.
If you feel like you might be in need of a tuxedo dress
in the size extra small,
let me know,
and I'll, er, shoot it your way, along with its corresponding belt.
Moving away from dresses,
this little delightful article
is a beautiful, beautiful jacket that I picked up from them a few weeks ago
and loved the front;
thought, "Oh, that's such a cute little jacket, how lovely; look how nicely tailored it is at the bottom."
"Look at these ruffles, so adorable."
And then it came, I put it on. I was like, "Aw, so cute!" And then I turned around.
[Excitable gasp]
It's so beautiful!
And now I want all of the jackets.
This style in all of the colours, please.
All of the colours.
But obviously, this is made to be worn over one of the other dresses.
Generally how these things tend to work.
They make beautiful little pencil skirts that go with some of their jackets
to give you a very cute little suit.
Now, this is an extra small, which is the size that I normally wear.
All--everything here,
everything I'm showing you, is an extra small; as I said, on the high street, I'm generally a size 8.
This is just a little too small for me.
It's a bit of a squeeze,
especially when worn over another dress.
So I really think in future,
I would size up.
'Cause of the stretch in the fabric, it may become a little easier to wear.
I have noted some of the things that are a stretchier fabric have become more, ever so slightly, larger.
I'm talking millimetres..
Don't worry, your dress isn't gonna become completely unshaped or not work any more.
Unless you get something in this kind of fabric.
So it's quite a thin crepe-y material. It is almost see-through,
but it's lovely; it's light, blah blah blah.
However! Again, this dress is 100% cotton
and there is no give; there will never be give,
but it looks so nice.
Beautifully cut here at the top.
Oh! This little, like--this draping; the pattern work. It's lovely, it's adorable.
But yes, do be careful when it comes to the sizing.
Hello, Tilly.
So, Miss Candyfloss make the most adorable little look books.
They are so cute.
Basically, they're to show how the entire collection works together;
how you can like team some pieces with other pieces,
but their latest collection is all about Disney and Disney Princesses and Disney bounding.
And all of these pieces are excellent for Disney bounding.
Now, if you've never heard the term "Disney bounding" before,
it's basically going to Disneyland dressed as your favourite character,
except you're not actually allowed to look like your favourite character when you're in Disneyland,
because they shut that down.
So! You can use the colours from your fave,
or dress like your fave in a very vintage way.
That does get around the rules.
So this entire collection showcases gorgeous, gorgeous pieces.
All of the princess dresses, like this beauty I'm wearing right now. This is the Belle dress.
And yes, I now do feel that my need for the Belle dress has been met.
I needed a dress like Belle. I've got a dress like Belle.
My heart is full.
World peace solved.
This here is the Cinderella dress; as you can see, it goes after the same vein here.
Beautifully cut at the front;
lots of skirt.
You can wear with many petticoats; you can wear with no petticoat, it will still swish around.
You've also got a gorgeous little cape type at the back. I just adore it.
I just adore it. It's so cute.
This one, we've got a little bit more structure here because, indeed, her dress does have a bit more structure.
The only downside I would say with this particular dress
is that the cut is a little too close to the neck at the top,
which makes wearing a bra with it quite difficult.
I wear a longline bra with this one
because the straps, rather than being closer to the shoulders, they're quite close to the neck
and sit perfectly underneath this,
but I think with the modern bra, you will have a little bit of difficulty.
It might--you might find also that your straps show a little bit.
Um, but you always pin them in.
Of course, that's not the main issue with these dresses.
Oh, no.
If you don't know, the outer layer of my skin on my hands doesn't work,
so it always feels like I'm wearing gloves and yet I still touch stuff
to try and get some kind of feedback,
and it gives me nothing.
But yeah, I'm gonna say cotton, by look.
'Cause I cannot quite read the label, it confuses me.
And then the outer layer,
is very soft netting;
it's not the kind of netting that's gonna scratch you up too much. Don't worry about that.
I've never felt any scratchiness under the arms or at the top here.
I've worn this one a lot and I've washed it twice.
This one, I have not yet washed.
Big difference between them.
In that when I first got this one -
boy, did it, um...did it spread that glitter everywhere!
I'm essentially Tinkerbell.
I just go around places
sprinkling glitter
like magic. [Twinkling SFX]
Yeah, this one is still leaving glitter, and it's some kind of weird glitter that sticks to everything.
Do be warned, do be warned.
Now, obviously I have shown you the things that I really like
from Miss Candy Floss, but in the interest of fairness,
there are definitely some things they sell that I am--is a no.
It's a no.
Maybe because of the colour or the pattern or the cut.
So, I'm gonna put those on the screen right now.
And now you know.
I just wanted to be fair.
Their accessories.
I do own one of their hair pieces and after receiving it, I was then a bit like, 'Oh, no I'm not getting one again.'
It's red and white, and it lives in the Christmas box now because I can only wear it at Christmas.
That red is 'wow.'
I thought the pictures on the accessories page were just incredibly over-saturated,
but no, things really are that bright.
So, be warned - if you are a lover of the bright colours,
definitely, it's for you.
If you prefer a much subtler look, I would suggest
some subtler accessories.
I feel like the red and white headpiece, I could be spotted from the other end of the road.
Moving onto my next part: The Look.
One very important aspect of retro and vintage clothes is whether or not they look costume-y.
You know. That dress that looks amazing, but is just too much for every day life?
I mean, granted I live in a very different life to most people and largely because it's spent in my room,
and I have a style that is apparently "out there" according to some people.
No idea why.
Massive skirts are normal; jeans are weird, and I stand by that.
All clothes on the Miss Candyfloss website can be worn with a retro hairdo;
a pair of gloves and some vintage accessories, and look like they've stepped out of a 1940s or 50s catalogue.
The majority of them can be dressed down.
You don't need to wear a petticoat for them to look lovely and they're elegantly tailored enough
to look like just modern high-end clothes.
She says whilst looking like an Oscars trophy. [Twinkling SFX]
Yeah, I don't know what your office is like, but maybe they wouldn't love the amount of glitter that this thing sheds.
Lovely Fleur asked on the Community tab: Do the dresses have linings and petticoats built-in?
I have to say no, they don't have built-in petticoats.
Many of the dresses do have a lining or a double layered bodice,
but some of them like this one because it's very...
it's a very kind of summery and light dress,
it is quite thin.
These guys with the stretchy, quite durable fabric -
I don't think that they need, necessarily, to have a lining
because the material is so good.
They didn't tell you on the page for each individual dress whether it has a lining,
but of the ones that I've received, none of them have any built-in petticoats
and I don't think they normally do.
So, then, Aly Class asked what material do they use because a lot of vintage dresses bought online
are cheap polyester-feeling, which is such a shame.
So, as I just took you through, the most common one they have is a poly... polyethylene
and viscose blend.
That's their most common combination.
The very kind of stretchy, thick one.
Hi, Tilly.
However, again, this is a very high quality,
quite thick version.
I know exactly what you mean about the vintage online dresses and polyester
and, you know, how you get electric shocks from them.
This is Germany. I would say the materials are very good.
They also have some really lovely cotton dresses as I went through, so there is a real mix.
But you definitely won't get that very gross,
just printed on one side...polyester.
The great thing about using the modern fabrics, though, is that they are wrinkle-resistant.
They're very soft. You can just throw them in the washing machine.
They're very durable.
And, I mean, I think there's all really important aspects for current lifestyles.
Hello, Walter.
So, Hania asked: what are the smallest and largest sizes that they do?
From looking at the website,
I would say that generally their sizes go from extra small,
which is the size that I wear (again, I'm about an eight),
to 3XL.
However, there are some pieces that go to a 5XL.
But do check each individual dress for the specific sizes.
And then a number of you, Elyza included, asked whether the sizing charts were accurate
and will they except returns
And obviously I can only speak for my own size
But they are true to the sizing chart and they do fit beautifully; the stretchy fabrics are obviously
the most forgiving fabric,
but if you're gonna get the cotton ones,
they are exactly what the sizing chart says.
And from the day you've received the order, you have ten days to change your mind,
and then if you'd like to return the item,
you just send them an email and they were really sweet about it.
But send them an email before you send anything and you do have to pay for the return shipping.
I don't know how far away you live from Sweden, but it might be a lot, so do bear that in mind.
Price!
Now, a lot of you, including Josephine, asked about the value for money.
Which, of course, is very important
These dresses aren't, I would say, the cheaper end of the market.
I think that's because Miss Candyfloss is designed in Sweden and it's manufactured in Transylvania,
which--they're both in Europe,
under Fair Trade conditions.
The clothes aren't mass-produced in large factory lines,
so things like working conditions and salaries and good item quality
is something that's really important to them and something that they can have quite a handle over.
But, yes, comes with a price.
Miss Candyfloss: definitely on the high end.
Which is worth it in my mind.
Also, I love that I just said "high end" and I'm perfectly aware of far more vintage brands that are incredibly expensive
Incredibly expensive.
And I...
have been...
disappointed
[whispering] in the past.
I would really recommend Miss Candyfloss for.
They are durable pieces that are going to last you for a long time.
They're really comfortable.
They have staple pieces.
They have showstoppers.
It's great.
MyLadyMarijn asked: do they ship internationally?
And the website is, not gonna lie,
confusing and not straightforward,
but my understanding is that they ship globally
but to individuals, and they also do a wholesale.
One of their stockers, though, is Top Vintage,
which I made a brand review video about before (card above),
and they do ship to a greater number of places.
In terms of the UK and having ordered from the past, it's really fast; really reliable.
You get plenty of emails to let you know that your order's coming.
They're based in Sweden,
so I think it takes Germany around five business days.
I pay a flat rate eight Euros.
Can get expressed shipping, which is two to four days,
but then that's twenty-seven Euros.
I tried to make an order, though, with the US address and I got the same prices,
so I'm assuming they have a worldwide flat rate.
Question, again, website very confusing.
Please do correct me in the comments if I'm wrong
or if you've had a very different experience when it comes to order.
Fleur asked again if we've got extra shipping charges, like duty fees and import taxes,
and I personally haven't got any extra shipping charges here to the UK,
but it--again, it can vary country to country
and unfortunately I have that information because the website is [quietly] not that great.
But I do sometimes get custom taxes when I order items from US brands,
so I'm not sure how it works the other way around.
[Gasping in horror] Oh, my God.
I have just remembered that Brexit is a thing.
Well, I guess we'll just wait and see on the shipping to England and taxes and...
So, to round up quickly and and really move away from that depressing subject...
The clothes themselves are wonderful.
Yeah, some of them are a bit out there.
Do appreciate the block colour pieces over the heavily patterned stuff.
Yeah, the website's highly confusing there.
That's definitely the down point of the whole brand.
I hate that it's impossible to filter by size or by price properly.
It just...
Moving away from that issue that's very easy to fix, some of it.
I really support buying from brands that are ethical and I love that these pieces are going to last and last.
Yes, I would call some of their things expensive,
but the amount of work that's gone into them is just... it's incredible!
I know that a lot of you, when you're just starting to dip your toe into dressing vintage,
it can seem like quite a scary prospect
to put a lot of money into one dress,
especially if you are living off pocket money.
I did want to do more videos looking at brands that were at the cheaper end of the scale.
You know which ones I mean.
The Facebook advert ones.
The ones that seem too temptingly cheap, but really are just terrible quality
and repulsive other brands,
but even a negative review is good publicity, right?
So, instead, I really want to start talking more about ethical fashion brands
and how buying pieces in a classical style means they're going to be wearable for a really long time.
I also think a lot of conversations about sustainable fashion
tend to ignore that for a large majority of often marginalised people, the reduced budget comes first.
There you go: thought for the day.
Let me know which brand you would like me to look at next.
Who are you gazing at
online?
Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already or hit the bell notification if you have.
Also don't forget: I'm moving house this month!
So we're temporarily at one video a week,
so I shall see you next Friday.