To Be Adored (By Everybody)

Last summer I wrote about a Barbara Hulanicki for Topshop dress that had very nearly been ruined by its ubiquity but managed to be saved from the never-wearing-again heap by its prettiness. That dress for autumn/winter ’09 was my tba (or To Be Adored) smock. I bought it back in September and saw it on a couple of other girls at fashion week that same month. Then it popped up on a few blogs and I spied it on a friend or two. Next thing you know some TV presenter called Caroline Flack is wearing it. Oh well, whatevs. Everybody shops in Urban Outfitters and if you buy a dress there you have got to be prepared to bump into it on somebody else. And my little mustard smock is so pretty that I don’t really care if it gets around. I still love it. Binbin McNiven, the woman behind the tba label, has done it again with her Mia Farrow-inspired spring/summer collection. Dresses come in baby doll shapes and there are lots of girlish details like Peter Pan collars. It’s not all sugar and spice and everything nice, however, as there are also tougher-looking leather skirts and loose-fitting shirt-dresses. Basically I want it all. Along with everybody else, presumably. LE

My mustard tba smock

A dress from the new collection (available at Urban Outfitters)