Pyne & Smith have been on my radar a long time since they’re an ethical fashion blogger favorite. If you’ve been reading ethical style blogs for a bit, I’m sure you’ve come across them already. But I took my time getting to them since A) I already purchased way too many linen items last year (mosty Elizabeth Suzann and Only Child) and B) Their cute linen dresses weren’t really my style. But when Salina had a promo code that gave me a 10% discount and she donated her commission to charity, I decided it was the best time to give them a try. And as much as I wanted to get some linen overalls, the $248 price was a bit out of the range I was looking to spend. So a happy medium was this long sleeved no.12 dress in black linen for $165 that could be dressed up or down.
{Wearing: Pyne & Smith no.12 dress, Martiniano Glove Shoes (reviewed here), Acne Studios Musubi Bag (reviewed here)}
First a little background on the company if you’re not familiar: they make all their linen clothing in Southern California from European flax (grown in Belgium and France, and milled in Lithuania). Joanna is the founder and designer behind the brand, and she even answers all the emails sent to the company! You can read more about her and the brand here.
Now about the dress. I ordered it in the medium size after taking a look at the measurements here. I would normally be a size small but I decided to be a bit more cautious and order a size up post-pregnancy. I started ordering a size bigger than my normal because I’ve come to grips that I’m not the same size that I was and that’s ok! And if I ever shrink back to my pre-baby weight, then this dress can easily accommodate that since there’s a tie at the back so I can cinch it smaller. And even in the medium, I find that the 42” length (only 0.5” longer than the small) is perfect for my 5’4” height. It’s not quite midi, but it hits below the knees (a true midi length would look quite dowdy I think). I also love the length of the sleeves, since it hits at a really flattering area of the arm. I also ordered this dress since I can unbutton it easily from the front to breastfeed (it’s a tad tight when trying to take off one arm while leaving the other side on but it’s definitely doable).
As for the linen quality, it’s superb! The actual weight of the linen is 200gsm which makes it slightly thicker than weight of the other Lithuanian slow fashion brands like LinenFox and NotPerfectLinen, but less thick than the linen used by Elizabeth Suzann and Only Child. You can see how they all compare in this ethical linen review post here, which I updated with the addition of Pyne & Smith. They don’t have the thickest linen but sometimes you want more of a midweight than a heavyweight linen (especially if it’s hot).
As much as I love the dress though, I was a bit disappointed when trying to unbutton the buttons to breastfeed I found that several of the buttonholes weren’t properly sewed. So the buttons would snag, which is especially aggravating when trying to quickly breastfeed a wailing baby. For an investment piece like this I would expect it to me impeccably made. But who knows, it might just be a one off with the specific maker of my dress. And overall I really do love the style, the ease of the dress, and the quality of the linen.