Grassington 40s Weekend

Last year was my first attendance at the Grassington 40s weekend.  You can read about my day here

Having such a good time last year, this year I decided to dress up with the red dogwood patterned Isabel dress from Lindy Bop.  I have added a link as the dress is now on sale for £17.00! (I haven't been asked to promote Lindy Bop, I just wanted to share a bargain!)

Here are some of my photographs from the day.

Vintage with a Modern Twist

I love all things vintage.  Vintage clothes, vintage accessories, old pieces of furniture; I love it all.

When it comes to vintage clothing, there are so many options out there.  When you are plus size, it can be hard to source vintage pieces that work with your body; but there are out there if you look!  There are many sites now that also offer vintage inspired pieces with a modern twist so I thought that we could play a game today; which is the real vintage and which is not!

Now, I am going to share the links so that you can buy/look at the dresses if you wish, but first, comment in the comment section which you think are authentic vintage, and which aren't!

Top Left: Floral Dress Modcloth

Top Right: Peach Dress Rokit

Bottom Left: Blue & Gold Dress Rokit

Bottom Right: Red Dress Starlet

I thought that I would share a couple of pictures with a some of my dresses which I have tried to work with a combination of a modern and vintage style.

Finally, a glimpse of a closet that I always dreamed of.

I look forward to seeing your guesses in the comments section!

Dressed to the Max

I was recently invited to go out with a group of friends for a Saturday afternoon jaunt.  We are talking cocktails in the afternoon in the city, dinner somewhere fabulous, more cocktails in the evening. Right up my street.

But my second thought after replying hell yes is "What am I going to wear?".

A posh part of the city, later afternoon to early (or more likely late) evening; comfortable enough to deal with the hour's travel there and back; stylish enough to work as an evening outfit, casual enough not to look overdressed at 3.00pm.

My decision?  A maxi dress.  A maxi dress can and does tick all the right boxes for what I want.  Here are a few that I have been looking at.

I am loving this Braintree Dress  It just screams Summer and can be worn with either flats or heels.  I particularly love the waist detailing and at £60.00, it won't break the bank.

OK.  I admit it,  This dress is not on brief at all.  But just look at it.  This piece of gorgeousness can be found from Maiocci and it is an absolute steal at £59.40.

Another flower print dress, you know how I love them.  Although beautiful, I think this one is leaning more to the formal side than the casual.  Although I may keep this mind for any Summer weddings.  You can find it here on sale for £62.30.

You cannot go wrong with black and white and I love the Aztec feel of this dress.  It is priced at a very reasonable £34.50 and you can find it at the House of Fraser 

So, which one should I pick?

My Current Favourites

City Chic black dress, £79 / Michael Kors wrap dress, £55 / Hell Bunny green dress, £72 / Plus size dress, £49 / Avenue hi low dress, £47 / Bell sleeve dress, £19

A Rail Affair

Many years ago, I got a new wardrobe for my room.  Looking back now, it was always going to be too big.  Like Alice in Wonderland, the furniture all seemed to be huge in a small room with me, like Alice, sat in the middle.

The wardrobe was so large that I could not even open one of the doors properly.  Sitting at the end of my bed, the only place that it would fit, I was able to open one door fully but the other only slightly.  Gaining access to everything was somewhat problematic to say the least.

The danger of building flat pack furniture is that by the time you have built it up, there is no way you are taking that sucker down again!

The thing is though, back then and until recently the past couple of years; it did not matter.  Why do you need to search through clothes to wear when everything is black?  When your work clothes are the standard black trousers, black top and your evening consists of a couple of black dresses and black evening tops?  It did not matter therefore that only half of my wardrobe was accessible to me, as all my clothes were the same.

Fast forward a few years and my wardrobe is full of colour, prettiness and wonderment.  No longer did I want to hide my clothes away in disgust.  I decided to do away with my wardrobe and have a rail put up instead.  More room and some of my dresses would be on view.

This view makes me smile every morning when I wake up.  Not because I am thinking "Look how many dresses I have" but instead "Look how far I have come".

When you have limited space in a bedroom it is always better to look for clever storage and units that do not take up much room 

Spring Transitions

At this time of year, you never really know what the weather is going to be like.  In London yesterday it was 25 degrees I'm told but "up North" I'm afraid it was cold, wet and miserable.

When it comes to clothing, this time of year I always tend to struggle.  Do you dress for potential sunshine and end up cold?  Do you add an extra layer and be roasting hot all day?  You can never tell. 

What I tend to end up buying are dresses that I can style for both Spring and Winter.  Transitional pieces that you can either wear with tights, a cardigan and a chunky necklace or with bare legs and sandals.

On Sunday I was wearing this Dickins & Jones Floral Print Shirt Dress from the House of Fraser.  It is currently in the size, reduced from £65.00 to £26.00 and is available in sizes 22-26.  The jersey fabric lends itself well to this time of year and being a shirt dress, you can fasten/unfasten buttons at the neckline in order to change up your look and also suit  the weather.  I found the dress true to size.

As it was right between cold and warm on Sunday I styled the dress to match both.  My black t-bar wedge shoes, a chunky gold necklace and a silk slip underneath, but with an extra button or two left undone at the neckline.

This is my first foray into the plus size dresses section at the House of Fraser and I will definately be back.

*This dress was gifted to me but all opinions are my own

My Winter Wardrobe

I always used to tease my mum about the amount of clothes that she owned.  Every year when the weather turned warmer and then again, when the cold breath of winter started to make its appearance she would pack away her summer/winter wardrobe in suitcases and take out her other clothes, ready for the season to come.

I never did this.  What is the point is having many clothes when they are all black?  My summer and winter clothes fit into my wardrobe with ease.  There are only so many pairs of black trousers you can own after all. 

Last year however when the first warm days appeared, I realised that my attire was expanding at a rate that my small wardrobe could not keep up with.  The riot of colour and print, which makes me beam from ear to ear every time I opened the door, was getting cramped and overcrowded. 

I said goodbye to all of my winter dresses and cosy coats, packing them away until winter reared its ugly head again. 

This weekend I looked my wardrobe again and decided that it was time to change back to winter wear.  The nip in the air and the cold journey on the bus to work needed something a little warmer to wear than I have been wearing.

I actually found myself stood at my wardrobe talking to my clothes.  Not a good sign I know.  Dresses that I have been in love with over the summer months that I didn't want to say goodbye to.  I'll admit that a few of them have remained in the wardrobe, purely for gazing on purposes.

Upon getting my winter clothing out again though it was like greeting old friends.  My adored purple checked coat, the first leopard print dress I have ever owned, along with a body con dress that I bought when I was feeling confident.

It might have been hard to say goodbye to some dresses this year, but I can't wait to meet them again when summer comes around again!

Magnificent 7th

We will be posting on the 7th of each month, and the aim of the challenge is to create an outfit to fit the theme, using clothes from our wardrobes, and yes that does mean digging deep into the depths and finding those long lost clothes! Hopefully one of us won’t end up in Narnia, but you never know with a bloggers wardrobe!

This month’s theme is dressing in the style of your favourite celebrity.  Now I can't really say that I have a favourite celebrity.  I don't particular immerse myself in celebrity culture or gossip magazines so am winging this a little.  I decided to go with Jennifer Lawrence in the end as I like her style, she seems to fall over a lot (like me) and seems to be the kind of girl that you would have a great time with.

When I have looked at Jennifer's style she always looks great in bright colours and isn't afraid to show a little cleavage so as such, I decided to show you a dress that I got some time ago, but haven't yet worn.

You can find the Enchanted Lands Dress at Taking Shape for £39.00.  On the website the dress looks a lot shorter than on me.  I am 5ft4 and the dress lands midway between my ankle and knee.  The sizing is spot on and the material is lovely and airy.

I love the vibrant colours of this dress and I don't even mind the hanky hem.  

Bird Printed Doll Dress

A couple of Saturdays ago I attended the +Simply Be store in the Arndale Centre, Manchester.  You can read about my visit here

I was lucky enough to given £50.00 to spend in store and after playing dress up and taking photographs with the magic mirror (which you need to try, it's brilliant) I decided on the Bird Printed Doll Dress * I had previously seen the dress on the lovely Sally from The Human Mannequin and thought that she looked gorgeous so wanted to try it for myself.

My magic mirror picture from the store.

I sized up with this dress to accomodate the boobage, but i think most people would find it true to size.

I first decided to style the dress with the office in mind (yes, I like to dress up) and so went with a chunky necklace and my black ankle boots from Dorothy Perkins.

After taking the pictures however I was going out in the afternoon so decided to keep the dress on and style it down a little by changing the chunky for three long ones and adding some black sparkly sandals, from +Fashion World .

The bird necklaces are from Primark

The red heart necklace was a bargain £1 from Ebay

I adore the print on the dress and I like the high-low detailing.  I will be getting a lot of wear out of this dress all summer and with the addition of a cardigan it will probably take me into autumn too!

* Denotes gifted item

SimplyBe Store Visit

I recently had the opportunity to attend the +Simply Be store in Manchester for a styling session whilst I was spending the weekend there.

I was massively excited as I have been shopping with SimplyBe for some time now and couldn’t wait to roam around the store and try on lots of pretty dresses.

Upon entering the store I was immediately greeted firstly by the lovely Becky and then Steph who was to be my stylist. I do have to make a special mention to them both as they made me feel completely at ease and welcome and I had a great time with them.

I was chatting with Steph about her role within the store and her passion for styling woman and making them feel good about themselves was fantastic. You could really tell that she loved her job and I could have happily spent all day there talking about plus size fashion and body confidence.

Now on the clothes!

With every dress I tried on, I used the magic mirror that SimplyBe have in their stores which enables you to photograph yourself in the mirror and then send the pictures to either your email or upload on to Facebook.

I think I must have been a bit overexcited when typing my email address on to the screen as unfortunately only two images came through to me which ironically were also the dresses that I chose to bring home with me!

PU Pink Biker Jacket

Bird Printed Doll Dress

I was hoping that I wouldn't love the pink biker jacket.  I really was.  I knew I couldn't afford it at the moment but tried it on anyway because I couldn't not.  I love how well it goes with the bird print doll dress (coming soon on the blog in a separate post).  The jacket is now at the top of my ever growing wishlist!!

Tile Print Tea Dress

I spied the tile print dress and immediately thought that it would be perfect for the office.  The fabric flows nicely, is cool to wear and nips in at the waist to add a little va va voom!  Again, I will post about this dress properly in a separate post.

I am gutted that the other dresses didn't transfer to my email but I will show you the ones I tried on anyhow.

Daisy Printed Doll Dress

This is the daisy print version of the bird print dress above.  I loved them both but for my specific colouring, the bird print dress worked better for me.

 There is no reason for this jacket to be here again in the post other than the fact that I can stare at it and swoon.  I have it bad! haha

Joe Brown Rambling Rose Dress

I took this dress into the changing room as a kind of a wild card.  Pink dresses and added ruching below the waist generally doesn't look good on me, but I really liked it.  The only personal thing for me was that it was a little bit too short to wear without leggings and I HATE wearing leggings.  That is just me though, the dress is gorgeous to wear and had a flattering shape.

I am already planning when I can next get to the Arndale in Manchester and I urge you to go.  The girls there are so friendly and helpful, it is nice to see an engaged staff when you walk into a store who are interested in the fashion they are selling.

Bravo SimplyBe!!

Joe Browns Vintage Flower Dress

Today I have to show you another purchase that I made this week.

I have had my eye on this dress for a while now as I love the Joe Brown dresses and the vintage look of this dress had me sold.  After spying a cheeky discount code for +Simply Be I decided to thrown caution to the winds and give it a whirl.

Joe Browns Vintage Flower Dress

The patterning on this dress is beautiful and very 50s esq.  I found that the length was just right on me, just a little past the knee.  The sizing is a little generous, it works on me but I would suggest that anyone with smaller breasts than I size down one.

There is one thing about this dress that I wasn't too impressed with.  The material is so thin that you can see through it.  To be honest I did debate about keeping the dress because of the quality of the material, but as I wear a black slip under all my dresses anyway and I loved it so much, I decided to keep.

Below is a picture of the material up against the morning light.  Now of course it doesn't show as that see through when it is next to your skin, but it is certainly something to consider.

I wore this dress to work today (yes I do get dressed up to go to an office, I know) and I wore it with some gold seasons from Hush Puppies and a costume pearl necklace which I found in a charity shop.

If you are a slip girl like myself, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the dress to you, but for £40.00 it is something to ponder on.

A Fine Romance

When it comes to clothing I have spent the last year really getting a feel for what I love to wear.  I have tried many colours, prints and styles but have always stayed with dresses as they just give me that extra smile when I am wearing one.

I am loving some of the new collections that are around for Spring but when I saw the Springtime Romance collection from Scarlett & Jo I gave a little squeal.  I would wear this entire collection and would dance around whilst doing so.  I have never seen a collection of dresses that have been designed as though they somehow had me personally in mind.

A little bit vintage, feminine, floral prints, flattering shapes which will work with my body, I literally want all of them, but here are some of my absolute favourites.

Black Retro Wrap Front Daisy Print Midi Dress

Floral Print Prom Dress

Spot Prom Dress

Retro Button Front Floral Floral Bouquet Midi Dress

Which dresses have caught your eye?