Evans sale part two!

I took another look at the Evans sale because they have a furthur 10% off at the moment, and I found this lovely Samya checked dress for £10...

 

Love it! I have to admit that the main selling point was that all red checked prints remind me of Vivienne Westwood, but the dress is actually lovely and has pockets... yey! Its a 24 (only size left) and it is pretty loose, but it kind of works with this dress. Again its a sort of woolly fabric so will be warm. Bargain!  

 

I managed to pick up this dress (which I'm wearing in a previous post in size 24) in a size 22. Hard to see in the images but the 24 really was a bit too big so I'm happier with this. To be honest its still quite generous. I'd call the 22 a 22-24. The 24 that I have now sent back would easily fit a 26, so if you like it keep an eye on the Evans site in case they re-list it. Only £15!

Asos sale buys and thrifty thrift

I have somewhat come up against Asos Curves mad sizing / cut again, but I have also had a bit of success.

Wore my Dorothy Perkins pleather trousers out shopping today. They are noisy and sweaty as I expected, but I did feel quite rock and roll, which I enjoyed!

So then. Asos Curve. I have ordered t-shirts from ASOS before, and the 24 has always been too big. I therefore got this in a 22.... it's too tight. Never mind I'll size up because I like it. It's cute!

I just..... you know?! This is a size 24 apparently. Terrible cut, doesn't even look good tucked in!

I'm sorry Mr & Mrs Asos Curve, but your model is surely not so tall that this top is minge-length on her and mid-thigh length on me. Ridiculous! Could have been so nice..... I wanted this to wear with my patterned trousers but its such a horrible length that it just makes me look slovenly. Going back immediately!

I am keeping this dress because I sort of love it. It's quite heavy and very swingy. It is definitely a weird shape at the top under the arms, so it's not exactly slimming, but it makes me feel like a bit of a princess so it stays! I added the belt to show that you could wear it two ways.

 So during my charity shop rummage I found this lovely gypsy dress in traid. I normally avoid traid because its a rip off, but their sales are amazing. I saw so many cool vintage dresses for £6 each. This dress as it turned out if actually from next (well, finding plus size vintage is rare so fair enough) but for £6 I was like hell yeah! The green shoes above are from traid too - £2! Get down to your nearest ones if you want some bargains. My boyfriend got a tweed jacket and Joseph trousers for the fancy dress party and it only cost him £9. http://www.traid.org.uk/

I'll be back with more ASOS buys after my birthday, when I plan to buy some (wait for it) FULL PRICE CURVE ITEMS! xx

Breaking the bank!

I'll try to keep this to a minimum word count - basically I ordered loads of sale stuff expecting to send at least half of it back, but as it turns out I'm keeping nearly all of it. Please excuse my navy leggings & white bra with all the black clothes btw! No links because some of this has now sold out but here is what I got....

New Look

Rainbow Crystals!

This lovedrobe dress looks much better in real life, but I can't keep it because it is too short for me. Recommend it to any ladies of average height or shorter! This is a 24. 22 would have been more fitted but probably a bit clingy too.

You may have seen Claire in this miss real London coat on twitter, I was pretty excited about this. Its a 24 and I was hoping it would be a bit looser, but I still like it. the pleather smells fishy and gross at the moment but hopefully that will wear off. Oh and I wish it had pockets but hey, it's only £21 in the inspire sale so bargain!

Now Evans (so much better when I'm not in the actual store!)

1st Samya dress. Great for work, unusual and I like it. This is a 24 but really I needed a 22. Sold out now so I'll keep this one and just live with the looseness!

 

2nd Samya dress and again this is a 24 but a 22 would have been a better fit. Again its now sold out so I'll keep the 24 and probably take it in a little bit on the torso. Note to self - get your normal size in Samya clothing!

 

White bra! This Lovedrobe dress is my favourite! the lace section is actually a bit stretchy (will still have to sew up the buttons across my boobs as normal though). This is a 24, a 22 would certainly have been too small for me.

 

This Samya jacket (size 24) is too big for me and totally the wrong length so it's going back. 

 

Clements Ribeiro trousers. These are a size 20 - they are a very generous cut so go one size down!

Thats me done. Will have to have another ebay clear-out now before my wardrobes collapse under their own weight!

 

Not so very fabulous

I tried on my dorothy perkins and very orders and thought meh! To be honest I wasn't expecting much and I've got so many other sale items on thier way from new look and evans (not that any of that order is actually evans own brand!) and I fully intend to do a fucking massive asos curve order after my birthday so I don't really care! Bring on the reviews!

DP first, and I couldn't even get the jeggings on! I don't normally have a problem with jeggings from dp but these are sort of coated so they are way smaller than normal size 22 from dp. Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know that I always have this problem with coated jeans so its no surprise!

The faux leather trousers on the other hand are ace. Very tight but super stretchy which is what I wanted. I didn't want any baggyness like you get with real leather so these are ideal, a bit short but I like ankle biters so that's fine by me. Obviously I'm not going to wear them like this, but with a rock chick top and some heels I think these will work. If any of you want some leather look trousers I genuinely recommend these - still available here in size 16-22 (get your normal size) in the DP sale for £20.
 

My very order was so disappointing. For one thing the pair of trousers I was really excited about didn't arrive with everything else (the feather print so fabulous cigarette trousers - fingers crossed they come soon) and I couldn't do up two of the pairs of trousers despite ordering the size 24. To be fair the smaller ones were both by 'south' and not the specialist plus size 'so fabulous' so again I was not shocked that they didn't fit. Shame as the pyjama print ones would have been my instant faves.

These South cuffed trousers are comfy and nice for wearing round the house so I'll keep them. They were only & so totally worth it. These are a 24 and although I could have fit the 22 waist-wise but I'm glad I sized up as they are snug on my thighs (everything is always snug on my thighs!). Only cost £7, still available in size 16-24 here.

These south pewter PU 'jeggings' (they so are not jeggings!) are sadly not for me, but fit wise these 24's were surprisingly big on my tummy so a 22 would have been better. My main problem is that the PU makes my legs stick together at the thigh and I can't really walk in them! However if you have smaller thighs than me, then there is something rather David Bowie about these that makes me happy - after all how often can you get metallic skin tight pants up to a size 24?! I reckon Bethany from Arched Eyebrow could pull these off. Only £8 still available in sizes 8-24 here!

This is a pretty skirt for a bargain price. It is much more gold in real life than on the site. I'm not going to wear it to be honest, because it doesn't feel very 'me'. That sounds wanky but its the best way to describe why I'm not keeping it. I recommend it to you guys though, because as shiny skirts go this is pretty cute. This is my normal size 22. Very stretchy and nicely fitted, available here for just £7.50!

More sale posts to come (as soon as it all arrives and I drag it home from work!) xx

A love letter to ASOS Curve

This is not a sponsored post BTW, it's just my thoughts. Asos may not consider an old lady like me to be their target audience but they would be wrong! 

I was trying to decide what to ask my sister for this year for my 31st birthday (which is occurring very soon!) and I decided to ask for ASOS vouchers. When it comes to plus size clothes ASOS have really just been smashing it recently, and after my depressing visit to Evans I found myself wishing that ASOS Curve was available on the high street. I would have the opposite problem then and would want nearly everything! 

Admittedly I've had ups and downs with ASOS in terms of quality / sizing / cut. I also get wound up by their Curve models who are too small for the clothes, for their blatant photoshopping, for not going above a size 26 and for sending out clothing that is not the same as the version shown in the images on the website. But because they are savvy enough to offer free delivery / returns, and sell cool clothes for bargain prices I can accept these annoyances and will continue to be a loyal customer.

I can't think of a single plus size retailer who comes near them in terms of style and range. Sometimes they have such weird and wonderful things, and they give me the option of wearing styles and trends that I could never get anywhere else. I was overwhelmed when I looked at the site today, there are SO MANY amazing things on offer that I want. I will have to wait a while to make an order ('till after my Birthday I think!), but I genuinely want ALL of these pieces and my god I hope to see some of you foxy ladies rocking some of this gear in the near future. I find the stuff below is genuinely exciting. I'd be very tempted to pair the striped peplum with the checked skirt just for even more in-your-faceness!

Really want this one.

 Cute

 Cuter

 Bonkers belt!

 Cape on a dress?! Yes please!

 I'm having this dammit!

 Long sleeves, body-con, knee length, floral, low neckline.... did I design this dress?! I MUST HAVE IT!

 This is one of the cutest dresses I've seen in ages. I want to frolic in the fields wearing this!

If this top is as good I think it is then I would wear it with everything!

Thats all folks, I'll be reviewing my sale purchases from Dorothy Perkins & Very this weekend so stay tuned as it were xx

Clements ribeiro sale hate-fest

Ergh. Why do I keep putting myself through the Evans experience?  It is not a shop for me and I need to accept that fact! I only went in to buy some of the red swan trousers. The only pieces I have from the first collection are the swallow print coat (super cool and I love it but it does make me look 4 sizes bigger than I am!) and the match-stick trousers. I love the trousers so thought I'd get the new version. Sadly they only had them in a size 30 and I needed a 20 so I thought I'd try some of the swan dresses. 

I already knew they would look shit on me because they are the same design and cut as the last collection and I was so incredibly disappointed that I became rather indignant about the collection as a whole. I had a rant on the lovely Lauren pocket rocket blog in fact. At the risk of being heartily disliked I will now explain my feelings.

My reaction was mainly because all the plus size bloggers were going nuts for the collection and in all honesty I thought that 80% of the women wearing the clothes looked dreadful in them. Women who I have seen looking amazing in dresses from elsewhere. The 20% who fitted the cuts looked fantastic but generally I thought the clothes looked way better on the hanger than on actual bodies. Most of the ladies looked swamped by these over long shapeless dresses because the cut was so bad that they had no choice but to size up. 

My opinion of this 2nd collection is exactly the same. Nice ideas badly executed. too expensive, nasty fabrics and too bloody long! It is no wonder that all the dresses were made to look shapely with the addition of fucking massive belts in the promotional photographs (I still have not forgiven Evans for using belts that weren't actually available to buy).

My personal experience is obvious from the photos. The green dress was a 24, the others 22. My fellow bloggers are more positive than me and I love them for it, but I just can't be positive about clothes that look like this on me! Any woman lacking my insanely high body-confidence would have been excused some serious body-loathing after this particular changing room session. But as an owner of nearly 100 dresses I know for a fact that this fit is not the norm! 

So tight on the thighs and bust. And the arms were unbearable! Admittedly the red dress is nice, but I'd need a 24 to accommodate my arms and bosom, so that would sadly ruin the fit under bust and waist. The green dress was the worst even though it was supposed to be a size bigger than the other 2!

I left the changing room chastising myself for walking all the way to Evans and being late home because of it. On my way out I was really struck by the fact that I couldn't see a single item in the shop the I would buy. Most if it I wouldn't wear even it were free. What I really don't understand its why all the other Arcadia group shops are so much better..... Topshop is amazing, Dorothy Perkins has it's moments and Miss Selfridges is great for younger girls. Why does Evans have to be so frumpy & boring?! Sigh..... I will try to get the trousers online of course, and I will happily write a little blog about how comfy and cool they are but I imagine my order will end there.

This is just one woman opinion of course. Each to their own. I am fully aware that the world would be a nightmare if everyone thought and dressed just like me, but I simply cannot believe that I'm the only plus size woman who thought the Swan collections were a huge disappointment?!.