Tuesday 27 November 2012

Pearl Lowe: It's Back!

Elbows at the ready ladies, Pearl Lowe at Peacocks is back!! As you know I've championed the collection right from the start, so when Peacocks fell into financial trouble and closed many of their stores including their website; I was pretty devastated that the fabulous vintage inspired range was no more. I know a lot of you were extremely disappointed and felt it left a hole in the market for that type of product.  Good news is; Peacocks have just relaunched their website though and there's a small selection of PL items we haven't seen before and man, are they good!
My nearest store closed down and will not be re-opening, but they didn't stock PL anyway, so I always relied on purchasing online. I'd actually spotted some of these newer items on eBay the other week and assumed they were samples that had never been mass-produced, so I'm elated that they are actually available for purchase. There are 5 items in the collection, one being a playsuit (above) which doesn't appear to be available online (not sure if it sold out super quickly or it's never been online), either way it doesn't bother me too much as it's not something I would have purchased. I had good-ish eBay sales on Sunday, so whenever I had enough money in my paypal account, I purchased all the other items (with a few failed attempts at checking-out using paypal!) and by that point had even been dreaming about one of the dresses (no joke)! I would snap these up as quickly as you can, because PL always sold quickly and once everyone realises they are back online, the collection will just go.  The range is available in 'selected' Peacocks stores like it always was, but you'll have to check which ones are still open!
The above images were taken from Peacocks Twitter page, but they didn't have one of the dresses, but I'll come to that later.  So we'll start with the red floral dress (top) £30. I'm so excited by this one (well by the whole collection). Red isn't a colour that I wear often (mostly because it's clashed with my hair in the past), but this dress is stunning-I can't wait for it to arrive. It's got a higher neckline, accentuates the waist and is the subtly sexy but still demure style that we've come to expect from PL. I can imagine this with black tights in the winter and bare legs in summer and can already tell it'll never be off my back!
This floral print tea dress £30, reminds me of the Joy dress from spring 2011 (although I'm hoping it doesn't feel the same, because I sent that one back, it was nasty)!  This is a staple, classic wardrobe item for me, that again, I'll wear repeatedly.
This next one, is the one I dreamt about.  I think I'd been subconsciously stressing that the dresses would sell out before I bought them and so while I was sleeping, someone appeared in my dream wearing this dress, then the pattern fell off and it turned a horrid light blue and became this long sleeved micro-mini tunic.  Don't think I'll be looking up the dream dictionary for that one!  Anyway, it reminds me a little of the blue/white polka dot (that was remade in white with small black dots) and I figured this was a pretty enough floral version (£35).  Then I realised it was actually ballerinas all over it and I was in heaven!  How freaking cute is that?  Seeing as this one wasn't featured in the Twitter pics, I've included a model shot, so you see how it looks on.  I may pee myself with excitement before this arrives!
The final piece of the collection is this fan print jumpsuit £35.  The wide legs give the illusion of a maxi-dress, but I'm pondering cutting it and sewing it into a maxi anyway.  I think I'll get more wear out of it that way (and have been considering doing it to the few jumpsuits I already own).  I don't want to wreck it though and it's been a long time since I've tackled something like this!  I love the details on the bodice and think this whole collection has pulled together all my favourite features of PL into one outstanding collection.
I had an unpleasant experience with Peacocks PR last year in which a situation was handled in the most unprofessional manner (through no fault of my own) and although I've always found the staff instore friendly enough, it frankly put me off the brand altogether.  It's rather sad when something like that happens and it certainly left a sour taste in my mouth.   I would just hope that companies would realise that the people that work for them at every level are responsible for the reputation of the company.  Anyway, they're very lucky they have this fabulous collection which will have me coming back for more and that I still want and choose  to blog about it, as some would say they don't deserve my free advertising!  I hope the pieces live up to my expectations and of course will let you know if they do or don't!  Do you think you'll be snapping up some?

22 comments :

  1. I love them you will look gorgeous in all of those! I wish they did my size :( but at least that saves me money xx

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    1. thank you, they are usually quite generous so luckily I can fit the 18's, sometimes 16's.

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  2. I like the designs, but to be honest, all of the PL pieces I've seen in stores have been kinda cheap looking, so I've never bought any. Which is a shame. Generally I like Peacocks.

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    1. sometimes the quality is lacking, but mostly I find they are well-made.

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  3. I got the ballerina dress and I LOVE it. I also ordered the red one but I am undecided about the fabric - it isn't something I would usually wear but I have to admit it does look nice on. Did yours come yet?

    I most love that these dresses have such a flattering sleeve length and make room for boobs. I hate when there is a seam that runs across rather than under the boobs!

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    1. LOVE the ballerina, sadly the other two are made in that slinky fabric that I didn't want them to be : ( So disappointed and annoyed at them because they would have looked a million times better in anything other than the elastane mix.

      Know what you mean about bust seams, they pretty much always sit mid boob on me, it's so annoying!

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  4. I am glad that she is finally designing some tea dresses that finish below the knee. It always seems a shame to ruin a vintage style bodice with a knicker length skirt. Might pop into my local Peacocks this evening.

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    1. my order came and yes, all the dress lengths are below the knee.

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  5. Thank you thank you thank you for posting about this!! My local peacocks has closed down but I LOVE pearl lowe stuff-I actually have 2 of her dresses coming from ebay this week! I now know what to ask hubby to get me for xmas-I want the 3 dresses! Please post when yours arrive and let us know about fit-I liked that hers were cut so I could fit into a 14 rather than my usual 16! x

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    1. Still as generous as they used to be size-wise. My order arrived and I'm disappointed that the two tea dresses have elastane in them and feel 'slinky', it completely ruins the lovely details they bothered to design. I probably could even have sized down on these because they are stretchy.

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  6. Love the fan print jumpsuit, altho their model is not showing it off to it's best IMO!!

    I would probably make it into a skirt like you suggested as it is really easy to do. I've done it before on a Primark jumpsuit, (I also cut the length to just past my knees) and it became a gorgeous 40s style dress! Mind you, it does get vaguely worrying when you've spent £35 on it...I think my Primark one was around £14! LOL!

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    1. Yeah thought it looked horrid on her! And with those shoes? Yeah going to do it when I pluck up the courage (!), can't decide whether to cut it shorter so I'd get even more wear out of it, or keep it maxi.

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    2. Personally I'd probably chop the length but then I don't "do" maxis...but then again it could be the sweeping look of the length that makes it?

      And I've just realised it probably won't suit me colourwise. Darn! LOL!

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  7. Am gutted-got my 2 pearl lowe dresses from ebay and neither fit!! they are my usual size 14 but the green grecian one is TINY and I would need to lose about 2 stone to fit it! the mint green with lace trim is slightly too tight bt if I lay off the mince pies for the next few weeks should be ok. I really wanted to wear the green one to a night out too!! ;0(

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    1. Argh, oh no! I never tried the green one. My mint one has sat unworn for years after the side seam split at the bust and I've never got around to fixing it! It's lovely though. Such a pity for you : (

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  8. Well to console myself over the ebay dresses not fitting I have ordered 2 of the new dresses-with the 20% off it would have been rude not to! I ordered the flower print and the ballerina. I think the red is stunning too but I just got an almost identical dress from the charity shop for a bargainous £4! I just hope that these ones fit!

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    1. So annoyed about the damn 20% off! Knew they would do something like that after I ordered! In saying that I decided beforehand that the prices were pretty decent without any discount (considering PL had hiked up prices on more recent collections) and right enough when my order arrived, all the dresses have tags that are either £40 or £45, so thankfully they reduced this collection before launching it!

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  9. I got my dresses this morning and I love them! the only thing I would say is that I dont think the colours are true to the pics online. I thought the ballerina was navy but its purple-no problem as I love purple! I agree about the material of the tea dress but will keep it anyway as its a flattering cut on me.
    I wish the ballerina was slightly longer-its just knee length but I prefer the calf length of the star print one.
    Still love them though!

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    1. Haha, I keep arguing with myself about the colour of the ballerina dress. I too thought it was navy, then bright purple when it arrived. However sometimes I think it really is navy-I can't decide! I love it anyway. Yeah, sometimes with my blue polka dot one, I find the length a little too short to wear with just tights or bare legs, but the star one is that little bit longer.

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  10. Well I hope it is purple as I just bought lovely purple court shoes from the new look sale to match it! Am planning to wear it next week when I go to see deacon blue again! Do you think they will do more pearl lowe stuff or that was the last batch from old stock?-I hope not as I am getting seriously addicted to her clothes! I look forward to reading your piece on this collection x

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    1. that's what I was thinking, that it's maybe old stock and seeing as they'd paid the license and probably already put it into production, they've just launched it anyway. There's no Daisy Lowe modelling it either, so it obviously didn't get that far before Peacocks troubles! Peacocks PR are pretty difficult to hold of, so I'm just guessing.

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  11. Pearl Lowe à Peacocks est de retour! Comme vous le savez, j'ai défendu la collection dès Vêtements Homme pas cher

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Wowee your comments cheer me up!

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