The funny thing is, I never set out to design dresses.

When I launched Cara & The Sky, knitwear was always the plan. Colourful, joyful knitwear that made getting dressed feel fun again. Dresses weren't even on the roadmap until much later. In fact, if everything had gone to plan, they probably would have launched years ago. But somewhere between building a brand and having two babies, life had other ideas.

The more I searched for dresses for myself, though, the more I realised there was a huge gap in the market. I wasn't looking for anything particularly groundbreaking. I simply wanted dresses that felt like they had been designed for women living real lives.

Women whose bodies have changed.

Women who want comfort but don't want to sacrifice style.

Women who still love colour, prints and personality, but also want to feel comfortable enough to spend an entire day in what they're wearing.

Ruby Check Collared Balloon Sleeve Mini Dress - Pink - Cara & The Sky

I wanted dresses that felt relaxed without feeling shapeless. Dresses that skimmed rather than clung. Dresses that looked just as good with Birkenstocks on a school run as they did dressed up for a wedding, holiday, garden party or day at the races.

I wanted dresses with pockets. Dresses made from beautiful fabrics. Dresses that felt a little bit different from everything else on the high street.

And because I couldn't find them, I decided to create them.

After nearly two years of development, countless samples, fabric sourcing trips, fit tweaks and manufacturer meetings, the collection that had been living in my head for so long finally became a reality.

Just like my knitwear, every dress is made in small batches right here in the UK. Finding the right British manufacturing partner took far longer than I ever imagined, but it was something I wasn't willing to compromise on. Supporting UK manufacturing has always been incredibly important to me, and being able to work closely with the people making the collection means every detail gets the attention it deserves.

The collection is made using a mix of deadstock and specially sourced fabrics, which means quantities are genuinely limited. In some cases, once a fabric is gone, it's gone forever.

The Maisie Maxi Dress was designed for those moments when you want to feel effortlessly put together. Whether you're heading to a summer wedding, wandering around a market on holiday, packing for a festival weekend or meeting friends for lunch, it's the kind of dress you can throw on and instantly feel good in.

The Ruby Mini Dress has that playful, carefree feel that I always find myself reaching for in summer. With its oversized collar, relaxed babydoll shape and pockets, it's the dress I imagine wearing for pub gardens, picnics, BBQs and all those spontaneous summer plans that seem to appear when the sun finally comes out.

Both styles were created with exactly the same goal in mind: to help women feel like themselves again.

Not a younger version of themselves.

Not a smaller version of themselves.

Not the person they were before children, before life got busy or before their body changed.

Just themselves.

Because I genuinely believe that getting dressed should feel joyful. It should feel easy. It should feel like an act of self-expression rather than something that fills you with dread every morning.

So if you've spent the last few years feeling disconnected from your wardrobe, frustrated by changing room mirrors or wondering where all the dresses for women like us actually are, I'd love you to take a look at the collection.

These are the dresses I spent years searching for.

And in the end, they're the dresses I created.