Introducing the prettiest collection of fabrics, colours and details. Gabby, the founder and designer of Daydress, lives for part of the year in Jaipur, India, and her collections sing of the inspiration provided by the vibrancy and joy of India. For many years she worked for House & Garden magazine, with Daydress as her side hobby, but as the brand took off she made it full time in the summer of 2021.

The block prints and weaves are designed in house in their small Jaipur workshop, whilst the hand embroidery happens in different parts of India. Daydress mainly works with small organisations that exist to promote and support workers.

The quality of the clothes is excellent. They’re full of details that you might not find in other brands at a similar price point. For example, the layers of pleats at the bottom of both this dress and skirt are so striking, as is the embroidery on the skirt which is referenced from antique samples and documents. The weight of the stripy cotton twill is beautiful, heavy enough to hold its shape but not too heavy as to be bulky. Mum’s skirt has a draw string waist which enables it to be worn at any height. The pleats created through drawing the fabric are soft and pretty without being unflattering. Where the dresses have buttons down the front, they run from collar to hem which is luxurious and super chic.

I think that it is quite straight forward to know how to wear these Daydress pieces for the warmer months - think sandals, plimsoles and t-shirts - but I was keen to demonstrate how we might wear them for the cooler days that precede these.

First up, coloured tights! When knee high boots are too heavy, but it’s not warm enough for bare legs, tights are the obvious answer. It’s tricky though when the fabrics are pale as dark tights would be far too heavy. Luckily, coloured tights happen to be de rigueur at the moment so it’s quite easy to come across a myriad of beautiful colours. In terms of choosing which colours to go for, I'd like to be able to provide hard and fast rules but sadly it’s not that easy. The colour of the tights very much depends on the overall outfit. Picking out one colour in a pattern and using that for your tights looks good, as does choosing the exact colour of the skirt/dress. Otherwise I do find that burgundy is quite a fail safe option as it’s less harsh than black but tends to work as a nice foil to most other colours.

When choosing a coat to go over your dress or skirt, as a general rule I suggest that the hem of a long coat should meet the hem of the skirt and a short coat should sit at your waistline. Ideally, what you don’t want is for the hem of your coat to sit somewhere between the waist and hem.

In terms of knitwear and general layers (mainly for warmth as well as aesthetics!) we have gone for cardigans here. A bright red one which is longer and picks up the red of the stripe in the fabric and a lovely neat, sleeveless one. Of course, a fine knit polo neck would also work extremely well, as mum is wearing above with the red dress. This is such a clever way of extending the seasonal life of a dress. Uniqlo, Arket and COS all produce good ones, particularly the last two brands whose turtle-neck knits are extremely fine and come in the prettiest of colours.

The denim peplum top above and the pleat-front trousers below are in fact a denim twill which took Gabby and her team a year of experimenting to achieve a fabric that had the look and work-hard ability of denim, but with a warm, softer feeling. The top, with its peplum hem, sits beautifully over high waisted trousers, making it a perfect throw-on and go top for the evening without any great effort! Although I haven’t shown it here, it looks great with the pleat-front trousers too for a more striking look - similar to a jumpsuit.

Look at the stunning detail on these smocked tops. The over-locked seams of the smocked panel coupled with the criss-cross stitched pattern is so striking. What perhaps you can’t see here is how pretty the design around the neckline is. The collar dips just low enough to see the top of your collar bone which is delicate and flattering. And lastly, what a scrumptious colour combination this deep red and sky blue is together! Woven in Bengal, East India, the effect is as vibrant as the city in which the fabric was made.