Pink Haired Princess

Have you heard of Dolly And Dotty ? They have a website bursting full of affordable, retro, rockabilly dresses, skirts, tops and accessories. I can't see anything over £40 and they cater for a broad range of sizes, 6-24. They very kindly sent me a lovely package; a dress and headband to review (the latter I stupidly forgot to photograph)! I was spoilt for choice on the website actually, there's swing dresses, wiggle styles and in the prints you'd expect from vintage-esque, pin-up clothing; polka dots, cherries, florals and stripes, all in a plethora of colours. If you fall in love with either a shape of dress or print, then you'll find it in many other colours/prints or styles.

So, I've wanted a Lindy Bop dress for a looong time. I've put it off because I was unsure which size I'd take, blah, blah, blah. Then I got an email notification last year to say the dress I'd lusted after for so long was back in stock (and in the sale), so I knew now was the time to take the plunge.

Do not think this is an old post creeping into your reading list, it's new honest!  If you've been following the escapades of this floral dress, then you'll know that I've already unsuccessfully tried two and here is my third (time lucky) attempt!

ASOS have been quite generous with discount codes over the past couple of months, so I've been ordering rather regularly. I thought I'd share some of my purchases, starting with a smallish order a couple of weeks ago, which included the wiggle dresses I reviewed last week (Tall and winter floral crepe ones). 

Golly, I can't tell you the amount of half written posts I started last week. I keep finding something more important to write about, then ditch that for something else. I'm annoying myself! I've had ASOS orders arriving almost every day (not joking that much) and in amongst them has been even more 'wiggle dresses'. Uh-huh, more than the zillion I already have. So instead of dragging it out each week in Bought & Thought (which would likely last until next summer), I figured I'd do a massive compilation in one post with reviews of each one. A lot of these have gone into the sale right now (which is why I thought you'd appreciate a review now) and some have only come out in the past couple of days. I'm going to start with some of the more recent ones, because they are freshest in my mind and the amount of photos for older styles vary as I didn't have the foresight to know I'd write this post!

Growing up, I was obsessed with Sindy dolls, like proper ' all I ever wanted ' obsessed.  Royal couturiers 'The Emanuels' (David and Elizabeth, famous for designing that wedding dress for Princess Diana) produced a collection of Sindy outfits. Beautiful full length, frilled, taffeta gowns with velvet capes and coats all shrunk down to miniature size for my favourite doll (don't worry this is leading somewhere). Even as a small child, I knew those outfits were epic . I even had a VHS (probably still do somewhere) of a Sindy documentary (featuring David and Elizabeth talking about their dolly creations) that I watched over and over, until it got a bit 'jumpy' in bits. Nowadays David is probably known outside of the fashion world for I'm A Celebrity (I didn't watch it) and he also has a clothing line at Bonmarche.

The second Cut for Evans collection has just launched. Working with design students, who were asked to create a 6-piece collection for a plus size woman, the judging panel managed to whittle down the entries to two winners, whose collections are in select stores/online from today.  Eve Turley, a 2nd year BA (Hons) Fashion Design student from Kingston University created a stunning collection of knitwear, taking inspiration from vintage fabrics.  I love the illusion hourglass shapes created by contrast panels and prints.  

So I've bought dozens more 'wiggle dresses' from ASOS recently (well, maybe a slight exaggeration) and because they're experimenting a little with some of the details and more notably, the fabric, some have fitted and some have not.  One of the best ones for me is the animal print wiggle dress £50 (in a size 18, also available in Tall here ).

Last month I spoke about the welcome expansion of plus-size ranges at House of Fraser and today I'm featuring another one of those brands, Lipstick Boutique. LB's main range comes in sizes 8-16 and features celebrity collaborations with the likes of Amy Childs, Binky and Jessica Wright. The 'curvy' range comes in sizes 18-24 and very much adopts the same ethos as the main range, with bodycon silhouettes, lots of floral and lace and that same party-girl feel. That's not to say there's nothing suitable for daywear, I find the range easy to wear and it can definitely be dressed up or down, depending on the occasion.

It's always exciting to see brands expanding their ranges to cater for plus-size ladies and high-street chain Wallis are the latest to do so. It comes after much interest and demand from customers and I'm really glad they've listened to that. The Live Unlimited range comes in sizes 16-24, designed exclusively with curves in mind and to celebrate that shape. There's quite a bit of talk about "flattering" garments and silhouettes, which I know a lot of plus-size ladies take offence at or don't like to hear. Personally I buy what I like and what I think will suit me and don't pay much attention to specific product information regarding how it should be worn and why it was designed this way, so it doesn't bother me.  I'd ignore the words and concentrate on the garments instead!

It's always good to see more places catering for plus size ladies and House of Fraser are the latest, with a selection of popular plus size brands like Anna Scholz, Evans, Chesca, Lipstick Boutique, AX Paris Curve and Little Mistress Curvy. Alongside that, is in-house brand Dickins & Jones, which come in sizes 8-20 in their main range, with a selection of styles in sizes 22-26. I think it's brilliant to see HoF reaching more customers and understanding that plus size women are like everyone else; shopping on different budgets and looking for a variety of fashionable styles. It's always nice to know there's somewhere else on the high street that we can walk into and try things on (often very rare for plus-size customers) or of course shop online and try at home if we choose.

With reviews and hauls over the past couple of weeks, it's been a while since I've done a simple 'Bought & Thought' post.  I can't recall where I first spied this dress, in some magazine I think and I had to track it down, because it looked  so  gorgeous.  It's from Boden and I buy a lot for my youngest nephew from there but haven't paid much attention to the adults section if I'm honest.  I therefore didn't know anything about their sizing or if they even went up to my size.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the dress in stock, in sizes 6-22 and bonus, it was in the sale!  I'm usually an 18-20 though I'd say a 20 has been more accurate recently, so I thought I'd read the reviews to see if I should size up, down or what!  I was completely overwhelmed by them, there were just so many and all with conflicting opinions and points!  I did that internal thought process of trying to make myself hate it "it likely won't fit me a...

In my teens (late 90's) I had the most awesome wardrobe (kinda wish I had photographic evidence of every single outfit). By that point my Mum was almost letting me wear what I wanted (the Scary Spice hot pants/long coat combo thing was sheepishly returned to the shop however).  There wasn't much that was off-limits; bright prints, all black or fluffy and pastel, whatever I felt like that day really. It was a standing joke at one point that if it wasn't leopard print, furry or PVC, I wouldn't wear it! So it's no surprise I've been feeling nostalgic with all the lovely pastel colours this season and especially when it comes to patent skirts!

One of my many gripes as a plus-size lady, is the lack of 'boutique' style brands. You know the deal; you fall in love with a pretty print on a dress and yay, they have it in XL! You go to try it on and it turns out an extra large would struggle to fit a size 14. I've been there many a time and it's super annoying when you're looking for something that not every plus-size girl will own and is therefore not from one of the few 'high-street' brands that cater for women over a 16. So did you know that AX Paris , renowned for their party dresses (which usually stop at a size 14), have their own 'curve' range for plus sizes? From sizes 16-26, the range mainly consists of dresses, but includes separates such as disco leggings, jumpers and shirts and I love this dip hem skirt (below)! I like that the range isn't all to different from the main one, not only because it stays true to the brand image but because personally my style hasn't...

I just posted about the latest Swan Collection by Clements Ribeiro for Evans last week, but now that I've seen the whole collection, I wanted to write another post on it as I'm kinda in love with it. As I noted in my last post, I actually ended up buying most of the debut collection, but I'd say this one has the edge for me and is much more suited to my tastes. I'll start with the dresses (the majority of the range) and again, they all have sleeves (which will please most curvy women) and having not tried them on/seen them in person, I can't tell if the hemlines are much the same as last time (which was quite long) or if there are some slightly shorter ones. The model is most likely tall and not a good indication for us shorter ladies! Possibly my favourite is the Grace lace dress £95. Ok, so I'm not 100% sold on exposed zips, so that would be my only gripe, although I've let my dislike for them slide in the past when I've loved the rest of the ...

One week to go ladies until the second Swan collection by Clements Ribeiro hits Evans ! I ended up ordering loads of dresses from the first collection, much more than I imagined! Mostly I found them to be super generous in size, always taking at least one size down (in some cases 2 or 3)! I loved the bright colours and prints and my favourite had to be the purple pansy Peggy dress . The bright shades were just spot on for my colouring (and new hair colour) and it's just one of those 'feel good' dresses for me. Plus I own a ton of shoes that will look good with it! The Frida dress swamped me, but boosted my ego when I returned several and kept the 14! Had they made a size 12, I'd have even tried that, but alas it's one of those 'chuck it on with anything and out the door' dresses! The Nancy maxi dress was a little different for me, in that it has a relatively straight skirt and is very 'covered up'. All the dresses contained slee...

I'm writing this post in the hope of inspiring some body confidence in you. It's not an easy task and something that's taken me years to come to terms with, but at the same time it's not all that difficult and you can definitely do it. Some would say I'm the last person who should be giving out advice on this topic, but I'm finally happy in the skin I'm in and it's been a long time coming! I've been the already 'thin enough' girl who wanted to "tone up", I've been the calorie-counter, the strict dieter, I've eaten 5 Creme Eggs one after the other (boak) and entire packets of Maryland cookies all to myself in one sitting, only to feel completely overwhelmed with guilt and want to throw-up afterwards. I've never had an eating disorder, but for so many years I've restricted what I've eaten or gone the opposite way and binged-I'm an emotional eater, a comfort eater and for a lot of my life I've felt like ...