Plus London Two!

Ello lovelies!

Well what can I say, I know I'm late to the parade of posts over another very successful Plus London event, but as they say, better late than never!

I had a really fab time, and my personal highlights were getting to visit the Anna Scholz design studio and my amazing Elomi bra fitting!


Anna Scholz for me has always been a bit of an idol, a designer of plus size whom actually understands plus size! I know it shouldn't really be an issue but understanding the needs of a plus size body in order to be able to dress it well is so important! So many brands get this so wrong because they just don't understand. With Anna, it's not an issue, being a plus sized lady herself, her designs accommodate curves incredibly without compromising on style, elegance and comfort!

Fab printed jersey dress - Anna Scholz

Anna's team were so welcoming and so open to taking on feedback from us, and believe me, we're no shrinking violets! Between rummaging through the rails of the beautiful new Spring/Summer 2012 White Label and Black Label collections, eating gorgeous cupcakes and drinking wine, we got the chance to really get to know Anna and the brand, how hard it has been to get a plus size luxury brand like hers on the map and the struggle to keep it where it is! It makes you appreciate the price tag of each garment so much more when you realise this is a brand that is made out of love and appreciation for their customers and the drive to make it succeed, her clothing is pure quality from start to finish.

Bethany & Amy enjoying cake and looking fabulous!

Anna showing us some more of her beautiful designs.

My personal favourite items are the Double Silk Corset Strap Maxi Dress from her White Label collection, in the most fabulous palm print I have ever seen. It makes me long for holidays, blue skies and sunshine!


And from her Black Label collection I am all over a fabulous poodle print tunic which should hopefully be online soon! So quirky and fun!

Big thank you to Anna Scholz and the team for being so welcoming and open!

After the Anna event, I hopped off and braved Westfield in Shepherds Bush (I must have been mental!). I had packed a number of dresses to wear to the evening event, but being the typical indecisive Libra that I am, and a serial shopaholic I couldn't help but purchase a cheeky new number from, yep you guessed it, New Look Inspire! I picked up a really cute leopard print dress and due to the heavy snow fall that evening, I whacked it on with my little furry ankle boots, tights and my long standing, very favourite Evans biker jacket! The picture was actually taken at about 4am Sunday morning after an epic bit of drinking fun after the Plus London event, it's the only pic I really have of me in it, apologies!

Leopard Dress - £26.99 New Look Inspire
Biker Jacket - Evans
Tights - We Love Colors
Boots - £39 Evans

Due to adverse weather conditions, we were late to the event and missed the OneStopPlus catwalk show, but arrived with enough time to meet and greet new and old faces! But the night flew by so quickly there are so many of you that I missed! Wendy filled us with amazing cupcakes, Em was on hand dishing out the raffle tickets and Claire was the hostess with the mostess! Well done to all whom made it a really great night!

Claire
Image courtesy of A Monkey Fatshionista & Plus London Two

Wendy & Em
Image courtesy of A Monkey Fatshionista & Plus London Two

Had to include this epic little number of Carla after she bombed my phone.....always a pleasure love!

But, my absolute highlight has to be meeting the Elomi team. I wittered on to Holly (sorry love!) about the constant battle I have with my boobs! I told her my story about how I recently went into Evans for a fitting and was told to try on a 48DD! Now, I understand this whole rule with the numbers and adding and subtracting this that and the other, but someone, somewhere needs to start applying some common sense! There was no way my rack was squeezing into a DD cup bra and Holly and the Elomi girls agreed and were shocked! My terrible experiences over the years with bra fittings have made me terrified! But meeting Elomi has changed that for me!

Image courtesy of SBP Images

Elomi's bra fitter (whose name I have forgotten, I am so sorry!), was amazing! She took one look at me and knew exactly what my boobies needed to be nestled in, a 46G! But here is my problem, for around 2 years now I have been wearing 46G bra's but have been seriously doubting if it was the right size for me due to the constant rubbing I get around the back band on my left side. Over the last few months, the rubbing has become so bad I have broken skin which is so sore some days I could seriously cry. My bra's make me so uncomfortable some days I just could break down. The reason isn't because I am wearing the wrong cup size, or back size, it's because of the quality of the bands, unfortunately my body makes them roll up and chafe my skin and due to having to constantly wear a bra the cycle never seems to stop. The lovely fitter noticed this straight away and even noticed that the Elomi bra she had fitted me in was doing the same thing. She took the feedback on board and really wanted to help find a solution for this problem that I am having. I have been advised to find bra's with wider width bands to help alleviate the issue but in the meantime I know Elomi are going to look into this, fantastic! Do any of you other ladies have this problem at all? If so, get in touch! It is really important that feedback like this is given to brands in order for them to be able to rectify it!

Image courtesy of SBP Images

Big thank you to Elomi for listening and being fabulous! You have made me and my boobies very happy! :)

At the end of the night I was laden with heaps of goodies, including a £25 Navabi voucher which I won on the raffle and can't wait to spend! Thank you Claire and crew for organising another year of Plus London, also a big thank you to the other sponsors involved, Simply Be, Eliza Parker, Bijou Bijoux, Benita Blue, Evans, Domino Dollhouse, ASOS, Masaari I am so proud to be part of this community, you are all seriously fabulous!

Big Love Guys!
xoxoxox

P.S make sure you check out all the other fab write ups by all the other amazing ladies whom attended! Check out the Plus London Two site for links!

OOTD Keeping it Neutral with OneStopPlus Uk

Evenin' lovelies!

It's getting ever closer to Kissmas, are we all excited? I hope you've all been very good boys and girls! :)

So, I have been meaning to do an outfit of the day review of this lovely little dress gifted to me by OneStopPlus Uk for a few weeks now. I was asked if I fancied reviewing another item for them and of course, I said yes! I thought this time I would choose something that I would never usually go for. I opted for the Duel Fabric Dress from the Taillissime range in taupe. The dress is a combination of jersey and cotton panels all finished off with a really cute little macrame trim.

I popped the dress on with my We Love Colors tights in Maroon, some cute strappy ankle boots that I had just received from Simply Be and a little black cardigan.

Duel Fabric Dress - £45 Taillissime @ OneStopPlus Uk
Maroon tights - $9 We Love Colors
Strappy Ankle Boots - £24 Simply Be
Black Cardigan - New Look Inspire (few years old)
...and yes, the Gryffindor scarf is mine! PRICELESS!

This is a very casual outfit for me I feel. Even Mr Naomi commented on how toned down this was, I think it was due to the colours that I had put together, most of my outfits are usually full of prints, or colours or are generally quite blingy (as I can't resist a sparkle!) but this was full of muted hews and the only real pop of colour was from those oh so gorgeous tights!

I do really like the dress, although I must admit, I feel it is probably a bit highly priced for me for what it is. It is well made, and the material is really nice, the 3 quarter length sleeves make it perfect to wear in cooler months aswell as warmer months but the one thing that I think has really thrown me with it is the bust area. Although this dress is a UK 28-30 I found the bust portion which is meant to kinda sit underneath the boobage kept riding up on me, I imagine that this is due to having a rather large set of melons and that can't be helped, but it just made me feel a little bit uncomfortable as I was having to tug it down quite a lot.

Let me get onto those amazing We Love Colors tights!!!! I don't have to remind you of my constant battle with the plus size hosiery world, it never fails to disappoint me, well STOP.THE.PRESS I am sold! I bought 3 pairs of tights from the US site and I have to admit, with postage and customs charges all in all 3 pairs of tights have cost me a shade under £50 but I am not kidding you when I say it is probably the best £50 I have ever spent! They fit beautifully, I can pull them right up without there being any sagging around the ankles, they are comfy and the colour of the maroon is so sumptuous (pics don't do it justice but trust me!! AMAZE!). Seriously, if you have issues like I do and you can muster together a few quid extra then do it, purchase some, I can honestly say you will not regret the We Love Colors experience!

The Simply Be ankle boots are an absolute steal girls! Get em whilst they are available, they are leather and have been reduced from £60 to £24!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know! At the time of writing this they have low stock on the black but have lots available in the tan and they are wide fit! I have to admit, I am sending mine back, but this is only because they are slightly too big on me in the 6 and they are too small in the 5! I must have awkward feet! *booooooo* :(

Lastly, I just wanted to thank the OneStopPlus UK team for supporting my blog over the past 12 months, this is the last post I will be writing for them for 2011 but hope to be doing more in 2012! I was very new to blogging when OneStopPlus UK first contacted me to work with them and I still am really and very far from being one of the well known bloggers on the block, so I was thrilled that they gave me the opportunity me to review for them, I really appreciate you letting me work with you, thanks alot guys and have a great Xmas!!

So, in other news, from now until the 3rd January we have casual dress day every day at work, now this is great, but having to find something to wear everyday is going to be a chore, and, don't hold me to this, but I am going to try and do and outfit post of what I throw on each day, *Eeeeekkkkkk* lets see how it goes, until then guys,

BIG LOVE!
XOXOXOX

OOTD! Friday night drinks!

Evening Guys!

I've got a few lovely items to mention in this post! I recently received a gorgeous dress from the fabulous guys over at OneStopPlus Uk some really cute jewellery from Evans and an amazing pair of earrings for my birthday from my fabulous Lorna face friend! I went out for Friday night drinks with work colleagues over the weekend to all let our hair down after a very busy, stressful, few weeks in the office.

The fabulous warm weather put us all in a great mood and I was well and truly up for a night of partying in my gorgeous new Big Beauty for Taillissime drapey dress! Instead of opting for black, I primped for the Khaki as I loved the way it had been styled on Stephanie Zwicky in the promo pics for it! The lovely jersey drapey fabric was cool and comfortable, and for me, the dress is cut at a perfect length. Another major plus, it has pockets!!! I love pockets in dresses and skirts, I dunno why but I always end up a little bit excited when I get a dress with them! HA! The dress has a lovely cross over effect at the bust so its sexy without being too revealing if you like to keep things a little bit more modest! I also teamed the dress up with my H&M tanned platforms and my Primark clutch.

What do you think?......

Big Beauty @ Taillissime Drapey Dress - £39 OneStopPlus UK

Obligatory pub loo mirror pose......

When it came to accessories I was thrilled to be able to wear my new Teal bangle set from Evans, a really pretty charm bracelet by Candy Box also from Evans with lots of really pretty beads on it and an AMAZING pair of earrings made by a company called Zedhead Designs! The earrings were bought from a place called Shop Dutty, Stokes Croft, Bristol which I suggest you check out, Lorna has always got lots of awesome little treasures from there which I am always in awe at!

The Evans teal bangles are great quality, and great for anybody with wide wrists, plenty of room and they have loads of really cool colours in at the moment. I also really loved the charm bracelet, I love the fact that you can keep adding to it as you go along and changing it for new charms to suit you. The amazing earrings made my outfit as far as I am concerned! They are made from a gorgeous leather which I love, there is also another layer to them but I took off the largest leaf of the earring and opted for them to be a little bit smaller, but if you want some super statement earrings that not many people are gonna have, I'd look into getting your hands on a pair!

Check em all out.......

Teal Bangle Set & Candy Box Charm Bracelet - £15 & £12.50 Evans

Leather Leaf Earrings - Shop Dutty/Zedhead Designs

Anyway, thats all from me for this evening, what have you all been wearing?!?! Gimme some inspiration!

Big Love!
xoxox

OneStopPlus Autumn/ Winter 2011 Preview!

Ello Ello Ello!

Apologies for the minor absence. I know I haven't posted for a couple of weeks and that's all due to the usual really, lack of motivation, can't get my brain to function after work etc, etc!

I've been lucky enough to have been gifted some lovely items to review and show off to you all and I have had some fun events going on and coming up, so I am definitely not disappearing anytime soon as I do have lots to natter on about!

The first thing is the OneStopPlus Autumn/Winter 2011 preview event which I was lucky enough to pop along to.

I did my usual hop on a train down to the capital and rocked up to have a nosey at their wares! Needless to say I wasn't disappointed!

The event took place in the flagship Nails Inc store in Mayfair, even more excitingly, it was held on the day of Vogue's Fashions Night Out so London was buzzing with fashion and frolics! Joined by the lovely Rosie, we headed into the store and were greeted with cupcakes and champagne by the very friendly OneStopPlus team.

I had a good old rummage through the rails of all the gorgeous new items being bought to us, watched as Rosie played dress up and got ridiculously excited over a fabulous pair of wedge peeptoe heels! *LOVE*


It was great to catch up with other bloggers, the lovely Lauren popped along, I finally got to meet the gorgeous Mel of Mel & Trolley (whom I have a massive style crush on!), and it was great to see fellow local blogger Deena of Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too. I am also really loving the OneStopPlus team as I can honestly hand on heart say that they are a fabulous group of girls who really do seem to care about what they are putting out there. I know it sounds strange to gush about such a thing, but knowing that retailers are actually bothered about what their customers want, is really important to me and will keep me as a guaranteed customer as long as they keep listening! (Thanks ladies!)

There really is something for everyone over at OneStopPlus so it's definitely worth popping over there to have a look. Their new Autumn/Winter 2011 items are gorgeous. Here are a few of my faves.....

The gorge peeptoe wedge!

Yes!!!! Pleather leggings!!!!! FAB!

...and of course, me being me, spotted a fab blingy top!

And a few other pics! Please excuse the fact that I look like a big, hot sweaty mess!

BIG LOVE!
(I'll be back with more soon! Including a little peek at the new Simply Be Stores!)
xoxox

Sequin love from One Stop Plus!

Evening all!

I have been dying to post about this dress for ages now. One Stop Plus Uk very kindly sent me a gorgeous item to review from their OSP Collection range. Ive had my eye on the stunning pink sequin tunic for a while now and when it arrived I was so excited to put it on and go out to play! It made its debut at BGP (Big Girls Paradise) a couple of weekends ago, this dress doesn't need much dressing up at all as it totally speaks for itself. Some super slicked up legs, gorgeous heels and a matching clutch and I was pretty much ready to go. Such a summery, colourful, show-stopping item, I loved every minute of wearing it! Here are the pics, please excuse the fact that as usual, my pictures are of me out and about being a bit of a drunken lush! You can take the girl outta the party but you can never take the party outta the girl.....

Dress Collection by OSP - £109
Shoes New Look - £6 (sale)
Clutch - Primark (years old!)

The price of this dress is a little bit over my usual budget at £109, but it is honestly worth every penny if you decide to splash out and get one, it will last for seasons to come and you wont be disappointed. It comes with a seperate pale pink lining in a lovely slinky fabric and the sheer sequin tunic sits lovely over the top. I would even recommend this as beach wear if you wanted to really turn heads and wear the tunic on its own over the top of your swim suit. At the moment it is only left in sizes 24-32. The one I am wearing I sized up a couple of sizes so I could have that extra flowy, slinky feel.

My only flaw with this is that about an hour into wearing it a split appeared on the seam of the dress, now I am unsure if I accidently caught it on something or what not, but because the fabric is quite delicate I am going to have trouble getting it fixed properly. I am truly gutted, but I will do what it takes to get it back on the mend and out partying with me again! I love this dress hard, split or no split. It got so much attention that how can I not love it?! Total win ladies, seriously consider this one!

There are some other really gorgeous pieces in this collection which, after my success with this item I am seriously considering,

Embroidered Tunic - OSP £95

Draped Sleeveless top - £39 (sizes 14-36!)

In other news, I am thrilled to have found out that I have got myself an invite along to the Simply Be Autumn/Winter launch day in July, which I cannot wait to get involved in and blog about! I managed to get the time off from my manager today (thanks!) and I am looking forward to seeing some of my other fave blogger girlies, Lacara of Oh La La Curves and Kat from Plus Size Beauty. YAY! Am currently going through the website to find the perfect outfit! Too much to choose from! *eeep*

Anyway, enough of my ramblings for now!

BIG LOVE!
XOXOX

Big Beauty Collection @ One Stop Plus!

Morning Guys!

I had to post about this because my wish came true! I posted recently about a gorgeous dress I had from One Stop Plus, it was my first encounter with the brand whom have recently branched out into the UK and I wasn't disappointed. Needless to say, they have made me an even happier lady. I mentioned in that post how I really hoped that they were going to stock the gorgeous Stephanie Zwicky's latest Big Beauty Collection, 'Juicy', and well, I'm sure you can guess what I am going to say, THEY HAVE! Here is a round-up of my fave items....

Images courteously borrowed from the One Stop Plus Facebook page with thanks!

I am truly, madly, deeply in lust with the orange dress and pink leggings combo, it is a total Naomi outfit and it's a real steal as far as I'm concerned, the Orange Sleeveless dress is selling at a bargain £22, and the leggings are retailing at £17! I'm gonna be all over that one!

When the first phase of the Big Beauty collection was released way back when, I personally found it a nightmare to get hold of, it seemed absolutely no where to be seen on the UK's La Redoute website (whom actually still don't seem to be stocking the recent collection). So I missed out on that round (although now on the Uk La Redoute website there are certain items from the first collection in their sale). So to now see it being sold through One Stop Plus is very very good news!

Also One Stop Plus are stocking items from Carmakoma. Unfortunately Carmakoma's sizing doesn't accommodate for my rather large behind but I know lots of you love their items and for them to be available on a UK market is great news as far as I'm concerned, it's always fab to see the Plus Size market expanding (no pun intended) and becoming more widely available!

So go check it all out, I have to say One Stop are fast becoming my favourite retailer at the moment!

Oh and P.S, I have one of their items to review, the gorgeous sequin tunic from their runway collection is in my possession and I cannot wait to show it off on the town over the weekend! So look out!

Have a great weekend!

Big Love!
xoxoxox

OOTD Summer Brights from One Stop Plus Uk

Evening all!

I haven't done an outfit post for absolutely ages (mainly because I have nobody to take pictures for me and feel a bit silly asking people!). But after receiving a gorgeous maxi dress from the folks over at One Stop Plus Uk I had no excuse but to show it off to you all!

Last year I fell in love with the summer maxi trend and was extremley pleased to see it make a return this season. The maxi, for me is so comfortable, versatile and so easy to wear, dressed down for daytime, or done up to the nines for an evening out.

I chose a vibrant coral number from the Taillissme collection, in a really slinky jersey fabric which hangs beautifully. I am only 5,4 and was also really pleased that the length of the dress suited me perfectly, it just skimmed below my ankle comfortably so that it wouldn't drag across the floor and also wasn't too short making it look like it had shrunken (like some maxi's I have come across seem to do).

I went for a lovely walk in a local country park yesterday, the sun was shining and the weather was great, all just right for the dress to get its debut, so here it is..

Coral Vest Maxi Dress - £29 Taillissme for One Stop Plus Uk

I layered it up with a little black jersey vest, my old faithful New Look Inspire sparkly black cardigan, which has been worn to death but is still doing me proud, some satin flat black peeptoes from H&M last season and my bargain Primark shades bought on Saturday for £1!

I felt so comfortable in this dress, its super stretchy and lightweight, but the material I'd say is made to last. I have had basic maxi vest dress's from other plus size retailers for the same price and the quality of the fabric hasn't been anywhere near as good as this which has pleased me immensely. This dress starts at a UK size 12 and goes all the way up to a UK 30, due to the stretch in the garment I would definitely recommend that it could fit anybody a size or 2 higher than that.

This is my first experience with One Stop Plus Uk and the Taillissme collection and overall I am definitely not disappointed and endeavour to order from them in the future. The website offers sizes from a Uk size 12 up to a Uk size 36, although I would say the ranges seem to thin out with less being offered over a size 28. I am really hoping that they start stocking the gorgeous Stephanie Zwicky's exclusive La Redoute.fr range and make it more accessible to us Brits as I never seem to be able to find it on the La Redoute Uk site (is it just me who can't find it?). Other pieces on the site I am currently covetting are....

Striped Fleece Cropped Blazer - £49

And if I really had some cash to splash...

Pale Pink Sequin Dress - £109

So guys, go and check them out and let me know how you get on!

Big love!