Evans: Swan By Clements Ribeiro AW12

One week to go ladies until the second Swan collection by Clements Ribeiro hits Evans! I ended up ordering loads of dresses from the first collection, much more than I imagined! Mostly I found them to be super generous in size, always taking at least one size down (in some cases 2 or 3)! I loved the bright colours and prints and my favourite had to be the purple pansy Peggy dress. The bright shades were just spot on for my colouring (and new hair colour) and it's just one of those 'feel good' dresses for me. Plus I own a ton of shoes that will look good with it!

The Frida dress swamped me, but boosted my ego when I returned several and kept the 14! Had they made a size 12, I'd have even tried that, but alas it's one of those 'chuck it on with anything and out the door' dresses!

The Nancy maxi dress was a little different for me, in that it has a relatively straight skirt and is very 'covered up'. All the dresses contained sleeves and I'm not huge on sleeves. Whilst I like them as opposed to sleeveless-armholes which always gape and show my underwear (the perils of having to size up to contain big boobies), I always feel a little drowned in sleeves and think I look frumpy or uncomfortable in them. On this dress though they were sheer and elasticated at the cuff, so I didn't feel forced to wear them full length. This dress has a beautiful neckline and although I wouldn't have paid full price for it, again it's an easy to wear/throw it on dress.

Finally the last one that I've already shown you on The Shoe Girl Diaries is the blue tulip print and black lace 21 dress. I really wasn't keen on this from the online pictures. It presented itself to me in the sale and I decided to give it a go and again if I remember correctly had to order a couple of sizes to get the fit right. It was actually the smallest or truer fitting of all the dresses I tried (I ended up going for the 18). I really fell in love with it though when I tried it on. It smooths out my bust and the black lace versus the blue/red/white print which I expected to hate, I actually rather like.

The hemlines of almost all the dresses from the first collection were rather modest, which may please or annoy people. Actually I ended up sending back the mint wrap dress because I looked like I was trying on my Mummy's clothes! It was bordering on ankle length (and not in a good way) and unfortunately with the contrasting band around the hem, all that would've been lost had I taken it up (and it seemed like to much hassle to take the band off and rearrange it). I own the red Joan dress with embellished shoulder detail, along with it's turquoise and orange printed sister. The first one I bought is the heart print Betty (a huge favourite), but I'm maybe going to dabble with the sleeves in all of these as they are a little large for me hence the reason I haven't worn them yet. I've mentioned my likes and dislikes of sleeves (and forgot to add, it's great not being forced to wear a cardigan when you have dress sleeves), but I know many plus size and/or older ladies absolutely heart sleeves. They think there isn't enough sleeved choices out there and so they will be championing this collection. I'm not sure how this second collection will fit, but I would imagine much the same as the first.  The items I was gutted I didn't get the first time were the heart cardigan and the black broderie anglaise Betty dress, but perhaps my wardrobe can't take much more anyway!

The second collection is not as bright as the last (as you'd expect for AW), but still has a plethora of prints to choose from including a 'Salome' Aubrey Beardsley inspired one which actually reminds me of the SS08 Prada fairy collection, plus pansies and tulips are back again. Evans say, "taking last season’s Swan to another level, dresses and sophisticated separates remain at the core of the collection with an emphasis on autumnal colours such as oxblood red, tan, cobalt blue, dark violet and black". Commenting on the collaboration, Inacio Ribeiro says, "It has been a pleasure to work on this pioneering project. With this second collection, we gained a lot more confidence….and designs are more sophisticated in order to give the curvy girl beautiful clothes which are relevant to this season’s trends".

There was a blogger preview event this week which unfortunately I didn't attend (I couldn't afford a trip to London even if I had been asked), so those bloggers will be posting more detailed snaps of the coming collection soon.  I've seen some already (also check out the Evans blog and Facebook page) and there's a couple of interesting items that I may just stalk!  And what’s more, nearer to Christmas another phase will be dropping just in time to get your wardrobe ready for the party season! Will you be checking this collection out come September 1st?

Image Evans, prices to range from £15 to £125, sizes 14-32.