Last night I went to see Becca Stevens Band, playing in Soho as part of the 'Revoice' jazz festival. The song above is not from last night, but this cover makes me giggle. I won't go into details but the band are amazing musicians, it was a great night!
I work in central London & tend to go out straight after work, so I wanted to wear something nice, but work appropriate - to be honest I can wear whatever I like to work so it's not too important, but I do like to be comfortable throughout the day, so no big heels or shaping pants is preferable!
Step in Anna Scholz ......
I look so serious in this picture - I'm not annoyed, it was just 8.15 in the morning! This is the lovely Anna Scholz Tile print Cowl neck dress, one of her Black Label dresses - there are still a few sizes in the sale for £49 (down from £159!). It's so delicious. I'm not sure how to describe the fabric, but all I know is that it falls really nicely, and I think it's a very sexy shape.
Its quite a summery frock and I'd normally wear it without tights & some court shoes, but I'm not going to let the cold stop me from wearing it!
Theres lots of lovely draping going on here, so it's super comfy and creates a nice hourglass shape. Love it!, and the print is so delicious - It makes me feel very lady like and foxy.
These are some Clarks shoes from last year. They reminded me of Campers so I snapped them up - they sometimes turn up on ebay. Tights from Primark. I think they're super thick micro fibre ones. They're fluffy on the inside so really warm. The black ones fit me nicely, but the other colours don't - typical primark!.
A nice picture of my hairy face! It's more about my earrings - I try to keep jewellery simple if I'm wearing bold prints - especially if the neckline is high, and all of my lovely threader & hoop earrings come from silver shake. They don't irritate my ears, and the earrings aren't too heavy. You have to search though lots of tacky shite, but sometimes you'll find fantastic rings / earrings on this site. I think it all comes from Thailand, but shipping is really cheap. I have loads of fab jewellery from Silver Shake - a small selection illustrated below. Their collections change all the time so I'm not sure if they'll have any of these specific pieces, but they have lots of new stuff I'd like!
They sell lots of cheap crystal earrings that are very similar to the ones you'll get in Sworovski for ten times the price, so they're good for gifts too!
Ahhhhh.... puffy morning eyes! So I had bright red hair for over 5 years, and I decided recently to go back to brown, becuase covering my white hairs with bright red is becoming increasingly impossible, and i was getting a bit sick of clashing with my pink / purple clothes. It will take many dyes to get rid of the red, but I like the new colour - my girlfriends say it's autumnal! This pic is mainly about the lipstick though. Lovely bright pink....
Revlon just bitten kissable balm stain £7.99, is my new favourite lipstick. I'm obsessed with lip colours, but I sort of hate traditional lipstick. I also hate lip gloss as it's either greasy or sticky which i find unbearable. I have a few solid red lippies, but my massive collection of lip colours are stains / ink, balms and tints. I won't give you a full list becuase it would be enough to fill an entire post by itself, but tinted balms are my everyday lippies. These Revlon ones are amazing because the colours are quite intense - anyone who has a clinique chubby stick will probably know that the colour is normally very subtle in this type of product - I have quite dark lips so I need a proper wash of colour.
I got the red ('romantic') first and loved it so went and got some more. The pink ('lovesick') is a vibrant bubblegum pink, which looks better on me now that my hair is less orange, and the orange ('rendezvous') is fairly pale on my dark lips, but is a proper orange colour (most oranges just go red on my lips or don't show up at all). The best thing about these though is that they are a great balm. I realised after a few weeks that although the colour doesn't last all day, the balm really does. My lips feel moist all day, which I don't get with other balms. I'm seriously impressed with these sticks of loveliness! So then, now a mini give away....
This is the lovely purple berry colour ('crush') that I got home and realised was a terrible colour on me! It looked less purple in the shop okay?! This keeps happening to me, I really want to be able to rock the berry coloured lipstick, but I just look like a corpse! I don't really know any ladies who wear this kind of colour, I can't sell it because it's been tested, and chucking it out seems like madness! If any of you guys would like it send me an email (plumpparsnip at gmail dot com)with your name and address and I'll post it to you! Right, I have some apple crumble waiting for me. Night ladies! x
I have fallen out of love with Marks and Spencers recently. It is almost entirely due to their A/W 2012 campaign. The slogan is 'For every woman you are' sent me into an utter rage. Right at the start of the advert you'll see the same dress on a standard model, a plus sized model and an elderly model. Initially I found the ad really exciting and applauded them for trying to be inclusive. The thing is, the clothes they offer (even the clothes that appear in the ad) don't live up to that promise. I found this out because the one item I really wanted from the ads was the brightly coloured abstract dress. I found out when I went to the website that this dress is part of the Limited Collection, and therefore is only available up to a size 18. For every woman I am eh M&S? I'm a size 22 woman who wanted to spend money on a dress advertised in your oh-so-inclusive campaign. Shame you don't do my size, because I would have rocked it! So I decided to pick out some dresses I liked from the website .....
3 of these dresses are from the Limited Collection, so only up to a size 18. 2 of them go up to a size 22 so that's a bit better (for me personally as a size 22 anyway, even though the forest dress was sold out in all the larger sizes, as if often the case). That leaves one dress that goes up to a size 28. That seems more than just a little bit crap to me. Having a mother who is incredibly loyal to M&S, and who (up until a recent illness) was a size 24 for many years, their recent size limitations have really irritated me. You might be okay up to a size 24 if you want some drab brown trousers, but not for much else. I got particularly angry recently when I noticed that some of the Woman range only goes up to a size 18. Errrrr.... does that mean that women over a size 18 aren't actually women? What are we then?!. And don't get me started on their undies. A few years back I could get amazing bras from their Ceriso range - balconettes, plunges, padding, bright colours, polka dots, lace and satin - i.e. sexy bras. Now I search for a 40DD and this is what I get....
You should have seen what it looked like before I selected 'underwired! I could seriously die of boredom. My breasts deserve better than this boring pile of un-sexy nonsense. Why did you stop making nice bras in big sizes? Yes you do big cups, but some women need a big band too! Lord knows how women larger than me cope with this. All my bras used to come from Marks & Sparks. Now just 2 of my 30-odd bras are from there, and you guessed it, they're both plain white / nude t-shirt bras. Neither of which are very comfortable may I add.
Judging by the models used for the limited collection M&S are targeting a younger clientele Errrr..... M&S, do you think all young women are under a size 18? I don't think you need much market research to find out that that is not the case. Something that any decent clothing company should know though, is that fashionable women under a size 18 (no matter what age) have quite a few shopping options. Below are some dresses that caught my eye on the Topshop website....
So many lovely dresses. 882 to choose from in fact. Quite a lot of choice then!
But I don't want to give my money to Topshop, or River Island, or Oasis, Or Miss Selfridges. I want to give it to the company that I've been shopping with all of my adult life - and much of my childhood, hand in hand with my Mother.
To sum this all up Marks and Spencers, I'm the customer going down to your food hall and spending my hard earned cash on your ridiculously expensive food. I've walked through your shop floor, I've seen how hard your trying to be more trendy, and it's working for me. You've got my attention. Am I not your target audience? I may be a 30 year old size 22 woman, but I wouldn't be seen dead in at least 70% of your Plus range, because I'm too stylish to be fobbed off with a load of stretchy black trousers and baggy white t-shirts. What I want is what all the other customers want. I want the good stuff. The 'inspired by the catwalk' stuff. If you don't want to make clothes for me, or for other plus sized ladies and if it really ISN'T for every women we are, then your special campaigns are nothing but typical, cynical advertising.
So many people take the piss out of Crocs. In fact people take the piss out of people who wear Crocs. The thing is, I don't give a shit what other people think - Crocs are comfortable, waterproof (which can only be a good thing in the UK), washable and are the only shoes I can wear (with the exception of my Nike trainers) for a whole day spent on my feet without being in serious pain. And I can dance in them too, all night long! They help with my slightly dodgy back, and since I have freakishly wide square feet they are one of the few brands that really fit me so you know what? I Friggin' LOVE Crocs in all forms, and anyone who thinks I'm unfashionable can kiss my big fat ass! You can see from the pic below that I have many pairs (this isn't even all of them!) and they all look nice with trousers or dresses. People tend to have the same reaction when they ask me where my shoes are from, it goes like this.... 'Crocs?! Really?! I can't believe those are crocs, they're so cute!'. I win!
This leads me to my real blog post. Last year I was going through the same thing that I do most winters. Trying (and failing) to find some good comfortable boots. I wanted something that would last, go with trousers & skirts, keep me dry and warm, and be comfortable enough to walk around in for long periods of time. Too much to ask apparently. There seems to be some weird rule that fake leather boots are allowed to have soft rubber soles - they are normally too thin for my liking but at least they have some give. Leather boots on the other hand always seem to have soles made of the horrible stacked (hard as nails) plastic or even wood. My heels just cannot handle such a hard sole, there's nothing to cushion the impact of the pavement! I gave up on Clarks, Ecco and the numerous other places I'd been desperately scouring, and figured that as my spring / summer go-to comfort shoes were Crocs, that I should just get some black boots from there, even if they do end up looking like wellies. Then I saw them. Crocs Cobbler ankle boot. What a thing of beauty! Yes £100 but they are suede, wedges, and lined with an ankle big enough to fit my fat legs! Joy! I ended up getting them for about £65 by buying them when there was a special offer and then using a discount code on top of that. I'm so glad I did. I love them, they look lovely on, and are so damn comfy. I wore them loads, and they're still in really good nick. I'm looking forward to wearing them again when it gets colder. So anyway, I decided I wanted some more boots - flat ones this time, and crocs was my first stop.
Here is what I got. I'm such a happy bunny right now! Lots of the boots I liked last year are now on sale in the Crocs outlet on their site. They currently have a great offer on their outlet styles which is buy 2 pairs and get 20% off, buy 3 pairs and get 30% off, buy 4 pairs and get 40% off. They are also offering free shipping for orders over £20, and if you buy before October 31st you can get an extra 5% off with the code AUTUMN5 which is what I did. The two pairs of boots cost me £87.34 and they are worth every penny!
The Crocs Berryessa buckle are solid, and can be worn as an ankle boot or rolled up to a longer boot. In a land where shoes are made for wide feet I am a size nearly always a 6.5, so I get Crocs in a size 7 (W9). They pretty much always fit me. I have to say that getting my foot into this boot is tricky. The shoe section is very solid, so I won't be able to wear big socks with them, but they're lined so I don't need to anyway. I will probably wear these with dresses and thick tights so they are perfect for that. Love them! The marks on these are my fault, they didn't arrive like this!
The second pair I got have been on my wish list for a year - the CozyCrocs Fairisle bootie. Like I said, in a previous post, I'm a sucker for festive prints and love all things with a 'winter' theme! Putting my feet in these is like putting me feet into a huge fluffy pillow. There are no words for how comfy and warm these are. Entirely (faux) fur lined. I realize that they are going to get filthy, but I kind of like my boots to look worn (I'm the same about trainers, I like them a bit scruffy for some reason!) and these will be so awesome with little winter frocks and skinny jeans. True love! Size-wise these are much more generous than the the first pair - I guess these are designed to be worn in snow so you'd want to fit a big sock inside. I should also add that Crocs are really good in wet / snowy / icy conditions, because unlike other types of rubber Crocslite doesn't aquaplane (I've had to get rid of so many shoes / boots with supposedly good grips because I've nearly broken my neck aquaplaning!). I love my uggs, but when it comes to navigating an icy hill Crocs win hands down. Btw, these are not folded because of my massive legs, they are actually sewn in folds!
I'll sign off with my favorite Crocs from the website. The one thing I will say is this - Crocs are shipped from the Netherlands so they can take a while to arrive, and they don't offer free returns so read the reviews on the site before you order. On the plus side, Crocs seem to retain their value on Ebay and sell for surprisingly high prices, so if they didn't fit you and the return postage was too expensive then you could always sell them! I think that the boots are particually good at the moment. How much do I want a pair of boots that look like a bar of chocolate?!
Let me just prefix this post / review by saying that despite having nearly 100 dresses I don't own a single dress from Simply be. I've ordered many, but every single one has been sent back with me cursing their name (and postage charges!). I wish they would have options to review clothes on their website. I don't know what it is but the cut of their clothes just doesn't fit my shape properly. Something just doesn't quite... you know.... mesh. The thing is that I adore Anna Scholz, and obviously the line she does for Simply be is kinder on the wallet than her white / black labels. I can only afford the designer line when the sales are on, but the most recent batch of Anna Scholz for Simply Be made me want to apply for a loan and buy it all. I just. I mean. COME ON! Give a shopaholic a break man! I was helpless in the face of such beauty! I set my heart on the feather print maxi straight away, and then they hit me with a leopard print side-pleat dress! I quite simply didn't stand a damn chance, so I took my credit card for a spin (something which I haven't done for a long long while!) and ordered both dresses, plus 3 standard Simply be dresses that caught my eye. Honest reviews about to begin......
God damn this dress is special - it has to be for £80! I really love it. This is a size 22 - my normal size. From the front I quite liked it but....
...... from the side It was just a bit too tight on my booty, which then pulled the front tight across my belly (more accurately under my belly!) and I could just feel it riding up my back. It was also quite tight on my arms, and unlike the images on the simply be website the pattern on the arms is quite pale which does change the overall look somewhat. I haven't given up on this dress because it's got such wow factor, I just think I need to go up to a size 24, as it would look better if it was looser - like on the beautiful Bella Styles. The Shoes are from Clarks last year.
What to say about dress number 2 except I'M KEEPING IT!
It is so friggin' sexy, I just wanted to growl! It has a much looser fit than the maxi although it's also a size 22, but it clings in all the right places. The cut of this dress is so similar to the side pleat dresses Anna sells in her designer line that for £70 this really is rather good value. Generally I don't like the polyester mix fabric used for Anna's Simply be line, but when the pattern is so vivid it works really well. Big thumbs up for this tasty little number. Shoes from Terra Plana.
On to Simply Be's own range. This peplum dress (£40) looks lovely on the model. On me it looks okay from the front but again.....
..... from the side? Not so much. This is the first peplum dress I've tried (I have a couple of peplum tops from ASOS to wear with my patterned trousers but it's a different feel) and for me it just doesn't work. A dress this fitted accentuates my belly (which is fine) but the addition of a peplum just makes my middle stick out even more, so from the front it's foxy, from the side a bit frumpy. Probably good that I don't like this one because my boyfriend just doesn't understand peplums! On the plus side the fabric is thick and lovely (almost a ponte feel) and the neckline is perfect. I got this in the 'tall' version and it was knee length on me - the regular one would have been way too short. Shoes from Crocs (honestly, Crocs - leather court shoes with a small heel!)
This floral bodycon dress size 22 (£49) just does not work for me at all. I have a fair few 'bodycon' dresses, and I love them, but this just felt a bit uncomfortable. I think this is mainly down to the super thick fabric. It does have a bit of stretch, but not enough to sculpt to the shape of my body. It really flattened my boobs, which is the last thing I want when wearing a tight dress. I want them to be like BAM!
If you compare this to the Anna Scholz feather dress side shot you can probably see what I mean. My boobs and my bum felt flattened which is a no-no in my book. A size up to accommodate my wobbly bits would leave it too loose on my waist. A bit disappointed because the pattern is lush, the colours are lush, and it would be nice and warm for winter. I Love that it has full length sleeves too. I do think this would work really well on girls with a smaller bum / boobs than me. Or of course someone with bigger and firmer boobs / buttocks than me!
Then we have this little cutie. Shoes print dress size 22. I've been looking at this dress for ages and wondering what the fabric / fit would be like, and what size I'd need. Luckily the lovely Betty Bee came to my rescue with her review and said that it was quite generous and a soft jersey fabric.
Love the colour, love the print. Its almost a bit late for this dress now, because it's quite thin material and I think I'd get cold. I will be able to wear it to work when it gets warmer though, so I'M KEEPING IT! Simply Be like to do this really annoying thing whereby they have items in the sale, but don't change the prices in the regular categories within the site. This dress is under 'dresses' at a price of £45. Don't be fooled! Go to the sale category and you'll get it for £31.50! Please sort your site out Simply Be! Shoes from Clarks last year.
There you have it. I've gone from having 0 Simply be dresses to having 2, with a possible 3rd in the pipeline if I can size up (or if I can afford it?!). Not bad really. I'm warming to them!
Well, it's more than a day really, as I've been struck down by a foul cold which is keeping me house-bound. This is not at all the first OOTD I had in mind for my new blog, but as I bought this onesie last Friday (& they are still available) I thought I'd put it up anyway!
I moved into a new and lovely flat in early Spring, and now that it's Autumn I have realised that it's going to be pretty darn cold in here during the winter months. I don't own pyjamas, and I figured that my dressing gown just wasn't going to cut it, so I set my heart of a fleece onesie. Tricky to find them in big sizes (for small prices) so I decided upon the fair isle print onesie from Simply be for £22. Look how cute it is! Also comes in leopard print but being a maniac when it comes to all things festive I chose the Fairisle. Sadly when I added it to my basket it said they were waiting for new stock and that it would take a minimum of 28 days to arrive.... but I'm sooooo coooollldddd!
Not to be discouraged I decided to visit the new Tottenham Court Road Primani after work on Friday. A much nicer store to shop in than the Marble Arch shop, still big queues for changing rooms & tills but thats Primark for you.They have loads of awesome onesies starting from £10 - even some very kitch ones with dog or cat ears. In fact, they seem to have the leopard print one above, with the pink trim. The biggest size is a 20-22, but they're stretchy and soft so I took the leapard print one to try. I also visited the mens department to get a dressing gown for my boyfriend, and saw that they had onesies there too. They had a (sort of) fairisle one with a hood, so I grabbed that and queued for the changing rooms. The ladies onesie was far too short for me. Bieng a bit above average height and having a long torso with short legs this didn't surprise me at all. Camel toe nightmare - shame because it was so cute and warm. I recommend it to shorter lasses, but it won't fit ladies above a size 22. The mens was much longer, and therefore perfect for me! I got an XL to accommodate my boobs / booty (as obviously mens aren't shaped for curves!) and its great. It's got a bit of looseness on me and would fit a size 24 easily, possibly a 26 if you don't mind it a bit fitted! Cost me £12 so I saved a tenner on the simply be one, and thank goodness I did because It's keeping me warm while I wander aimlessly around the flat feeling rough! Don't care what I look like, this OOTD is all about comfort!
Below is the dressing gown I got for my fella - I cannot even describe how amazingly soft and lush this is. It was either £12 or £15, but its so damn festive that it makes me smile every time I see him in it. It's way better than any of the dressing gowns I saw in the ladies department.
I also got some more festive super soft thick leggings while I was there. I got a caramel coloured similar version of these last winter and wore them all round Prague in the freezing cold with a denim skirt. Kept me proper toasty. These are a 20 - quite generous and fit me well, but watch out for the Christmas version of these leggings (they have amazing ones with Santa on amongst others) because they don't have much stretch so the 20 is WAY smaller.
I always come home from Primark with some kind of jewellery. I can't resist the kitsch stuff they do! I loved the little boombox brooch, and it came in a set with the lips / star brooch. The headband I love because its simply rainbow crystals.
Thats it folks! I promise my next OOTD will be more glamorous!
My love for dresses knows no bounds. Although I am not a woman who has one look (I'm too fickle to stick to one style of dressing!) I do have a bit of a thing for vintage / reproduction vintage dresses. I LOVE polka dots and crazy patterns. I'd always wanted to be able to buy clothes from Get Cutie but their vintage sizing means that a size 24 is more like a 20, so too small for my size 22 body. Plus they're very expensive. I also like Collectif for retro dresses, but I have never been on the site and found a dress in a size 22 - they always seem to be out of stock. I discovered Queen of Holloway via ebay and fell head over heals. I could finally buy some delicious pinup style dresses for decent prices. I now have 5 QOH dresses, but there are so many more that I want! Above is my wish list. Under no circumstances am I allowed to buy all of these, but the leopard print swing dress and the turquoise sailor dress have been on my list for ages so maybe I will have to order them soon!
This was my first Queen of Holloway purchase - Lovely pinup dress with cherries on, from ebay for about £18 (might be a bit more expensive from the real site, but still super cheap). It's a size 24 (a size bigger than I normally wear) and it fits really well. Love it. because it's a pencil dress I think the 22 would have been a little too snug on my belly / boobs, but having said that the fabric has a bit of stretch to it and is really skimming and comfy. QOH standard sizing goes up to a 24, but for a few quid extra you can ask for a custom size. I love this dress, and so I got some more....
The polka dot dress is a fab party dress with a full on swing skirt. The green dress is bloody awesome - It's a Frida Kahlo print, the same as Get Cutie use to do but it cost me about £35 rather than £100! I probably could have got away with a 22 in this one because it's quite generous on the bust. The fabric is amazing - thick and firm, but also soft and stretchy. the Paris print dress wasn't so good, because oddly the stretch goes from top to bottom rather than side to side (surely a mistake?!), so I couldn't get it over my boobs. I ended up cutting the lining out and recreating the body of the dress. Super scruffy work, but the dress is now wearable (albeit SUPER lowcut!), and the pattern was to good not to keep! The pin-up cowgirls dress was the one that really stopped my heart. This is the (Alexander Henry) fabric that I nearly spent loads of money on in order to try & make my own dress. Thank goodness I didn't because this dress looks amazing on - I need a belt to position the waist properly as the skirt is so full, but for £35 I was one happy bunny when this arrived.
A few words of advice - these dresses are normally shipped from China and they can take a while to arrive so make sure you order well in advance of any events you might want them for. The website is a bit of a pain to use, many of the categories don't have any dresses in, but they're on the site if you search. I advise you to click on 'All products' and take the time to look at what they have. Also, they often have almost identical dresses with just a slight difference (like one has a bow and the other doesn't) so look carefully, because sometimes you can get the same basic dress at a cheaper price. They have a range of @Audry Hepburn inspired dresses which are super elegant, and they also make copies of dresses from the series 'Mad Men', so they're good for fancy dress (or if like me you'd very much like to look like Joan!). They make 50's style wedding dresses and coats which look gorgeous, and for under £100 you couldn't go wrong. Once you own a QOH item, if you snap yourself wearing it and send it to the site you'll get a 10% discount on your next purchase (you'll see me in the customer gallery, as I love a good discount code!). I think that any plus size beauties looking for some pinup / swing dresses should take a look at this site - the quality isn't bad considering the cheap prices, and some of the dresses are identical to more expensive versions sold on American sites like 'Pinup Girl'.
For years I've been thinking about blogging. I read loads of
amazing plus size fashion blogs, and I find them very inspiring. They have fed my clothing addiction in many ways (as proved below!). I'm one
of those strange creatures - a woman who has never had body issues,
despite having always been fat. I'm not interested in talking about health,
wealth or happiness. I'm here for one reason... FASHION! I have recently
ordered a mammoth batch of dresses from Simply Be. I'll talk more about
my feelings towards Simply be when they arrive and I do the post, but
it spurred me on to create this blog, because it's so much easier to
shop when there are some honest reviews on the net! In the mean time,
here are some random pictures to get this show on the road.
Anna Scholz Dress bought from the lovely Boombands blog sale
Simply be playsuit which I finally bite the bullet and bought after seeing it on Rachel
My fist ever Igigi dress nabbed from one of Vals amazing blog sales
I hope that some ladies will find this blog helpful. I so need an outlet for my shopping mania!
