British Vogue blogger Laura Bailey stopped in to shop C. Madeleine’s recently and wrote about her expedition and her vintage find for Vogue.com. See the perfect vintage 1950s party dress Laura writes about, selected right off our mannequin and read on for an excerpt of her memoirs of shopping C. Madeleine’s in Miami.

“I did manage to resist sloping down to the Screening Snug for a screening of Vanessa Paradis’ Heartbreaker (tempting) in favour of a magical mystery shopping quest in search of C.Madeleine’s on Biscayne Boulevard. It didn’t look promising – an unprepossessing concrete bunker of a building with a yellow sign advertising the wonders within. But one glimpse inside and the boyfriend knew his afternoon was in trouble. A time limit was imposed immediately and I had to stop gasping and staring and focus fast – a wall of vintage Chanel, a souk full of Sixties Pucci, groaning shelves laden with shoes and trinkets. I felt like Eliza Doolittle, zipping in and out of corsets and Seventies prints, Chanel knits and timeless little black dresses. All lovingly preserved and in pristine condition. One of those rare shopping moments when everything you try feels like its been made for you – not necessarily a good thing. A restrained edit did at least leave me with the perfect party dress for the evening’s festivities – a little white tiered mini with a pale pink sash, very Miami, despite my English pallor.”