My go-to for all teacher dresses - Dressabelle

For my first post here, I would like to share a blog shop that I've started using since the start of my contract teaching, Dressabelle. I've had an enjoyable shopping experience though there have been some hiccups here and there. So let me evaluate some of my experiences here. Do note the maximum stars awarded for each component is 5 stars.

Regular updates of collections *****
Firstly, I like that this website has two new collections every week and it ensures that even if you are too busy with work to go out shopping, spending 5 to 10 minutes anywhere in the day will be sufficient to get you a new dress.

Collections  **
As the name of the blog shop suggests, the shop only sells dresses. So for blouses or other clothes, I would suggest using another blog shop.

Price ****
I find that the price of the dresses quite reasonably priced, with each dress costing between $22 to $28. I like that I will be able to get at least two dresses from this site for the price of one dress from the brick-and-mortar boutiques. More is better but quality definitely counts too!
And with evy blog shop, discounts are always a pull factor for online shoppers and Dressabelle does this by giving away a free dress from every collection when shoppers share and like the products on their Facebook pages.

Quality ***
So what about the quality of the dresses that you can get from here? The dresses are mainly polyester-cotton and chiffon. The dresses that I have bought so far are mainly quite light material and very suitable for female Home Economics teachers as the kitchen is a fairly warm place especially with practical lessons going on. 

Information provided ****
The owners provide detailed measurements of each of the dresses and they are modelled by one of their in-house models and pictures of them in the products are provided from quite a comprehensive range of angles. I like that they provide the models' height and clothing size, which helps shoppers to visualise and also estimate the product size.
Not only so, the owners also provided the material of each dress and recommendations for wash for items that may shrink after wash or if the colour of the item may differ slightly from the pictures.
They also provide weekly videos evaluating various styles and designs and how they may be paired with each other.

So shopping aside, how can we use this website in our Home Economics classes? 
Well, we are Home Eaconomics to be after all, so online shopping should not be only limited to our recreational purposes. It can be used as a tool in our classes as well as a form of real-world context to engage our students. I feel that for this particular blog shop, two main topics that can be brought across in class are Consumerism and Advertisements.

For consumerism, I can potentially see myself using this site to introduce concepts such as needs versus wants and comparing similar products (dresses) and weighing the pros and cons of buying online versus from the stores etc. Students will be able to explore some types of fabrics that are commonly used and compare them to other types of fabrics that are also used in clothing items.

Another potential teaching application of this site is the advertisement aspect. The site uses a couple of advertising tools such as discounts, freebies, attractive images etc. Students can be introduced to such advertising methods through a real example rather than through the use of a PowerPoint or the textbook.