As I am sure you all realise, it is important for a harpist to look the part. At weddings, afternoon tea at hotels, funerals, birthday parties. They all require us to look presentable. This more than not, means wearing a pretty dress. So as you can imagine, I have accumulated quite a few.
I will admit that my collection of dresses could do with an update. I have two dresses that are quite similar, in colour and style. But they are both so comfortable, that I tend to wear them the most. This first dress I bought about 7 years ago (I think?!) in Coast. I love the detail around the neck and waist, and the floating skirt with the slit up to the knee, makes it a very comfortable dress to play the harp in.
I tend to wear this dress mostly at the Jumeirah Carlton
Tower Hotel. It lives in the harp cupboard along with the harp, music stand, stool, and the many many other dresses belonging to the other harpists.
This second dress, although similar in colour, is slightly different in design. I love the use of the sequins on the neckline, along with the low back. I was very lucky to stumble across this dress in Monsoon about two years ago. It is my most worn dress.
While this is one of my favourite dresses to wear, it is also the most irritating to get dry cleaned. I've picked it up from the dry cleaners to the sequins being a complete mess, simply because I decided to go to a different and closer dry cleaners. I ended up having to take it to my usual one, Rocha in Rickmansworth. They have always done a fantastic job with my dresses. I highly recommend them, as they are also fantastic tailors.
This next dress I bought on ASOS about a year ago. It is actually a bridesmaid dress, and I bought it to wear to a Christening. So I did not buy this dress with the intention to wear it for gigs and I have only really worn this dress a couple of times at Wedding Fayre’s. The colour scheme at these events always seems to be pink, which I spoke to another exhibitor about, and she said it is the best colour for selling. Thought I would give it a go and it seems to have worked!
I really love to wear this dress. As you can tell I am a fan of floaty skirts, this is because I need to use my legs to change a lot of pedals while I play, and the harp has to lean against my legs at the same time.
I also adore the lace around the shoulders and arms. I think this dress has been beautifully made, and is a stunning design.
I was given this very bright dress about six and a half years ago, just before I started my four month contract on the cruise ship. I love wearing this dress, it is very comfortable and sooo flattering, but it is also a tad revealing so is normally only used in hot weather. We do not get much of that here in England, and this is very much a statement dress, so I would be more likely to wear it for a dinner party, or a birthday party, rather than a wedding.
But this is why this dress was so well suited to the playing I did on the cruise ship. I was the Resident Harpist, which meant I played during dinner or in the bar areas while people had drinks. We were also cruising around the Caribbean etc, which meant there were endless days of wonderful weather.
I will definitely be going into life on the ship in a future blog post.
This is the last dress of today’s blog post. I bought this dress when I was 16 years old! I didn’t buy it for playing the Harp in, but I have used it so so much. This must be my oldest piece of clothing, but it has kept its shape and colour incredibly well, and the sequins sown into it have barely come loose.
This dress has mainly been used for orchestral or ensemble gigs, rarely at hotels. Nor do I tend to wear it at weddings. All the same, it has had some good wear out of it and I will be keeping it in my wardrobe for some time yet!
As I’ve already mentioned, I could do with updating my Harp wardrobe. I think my favourite place to shop for them might be Monsoon, which is where the second mentioned dress is from. I am currently saving up to update my wardrobe and I’m looking to buy one or two more dresses. I would love to extend my range of colours, maybe get a red dress, or a green one. But I am waiting to find the perfect dress. If anyone has any tips on wear to find some new dresses, or has any questions about my current dresses, please feel free to get in touch.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!