Category: Accessories

The British Plus Size Awards & The Stunning Missguided Velvet Wrap Dress

Awards Ceremony

As you might have heard I had been nominated for an award in this year’s British Plus Size Awards. So two weeks ago I stepped onto a glamorous Megabus to London and attended the somewhat more glamorous awards ceremony in the Raddison Blu.

I did not win an award but it was a true honour to have been nominated. I am not going to go into detail as to who as been nominated and who won each price as there are been a number of posts taking care of this and I will post a list of the winners below this post for your reference.

I decided to wear the more than  stunning Missguided velvet wrap dress in cobalt blue. I absolutely love this dress and together with the golden accessories, a Yours Clothing golden glitter belt, asos golden plateau heels and golden  necklace from Missguided, it was an absolute eye catcher. Unfortunately this dress has sold out since then.

The Nomination

I was nominated in the category “Best New Blogger”. While I was very, very proud to be nominated, I did not expect to win this prize, particularly as I was nominated in the same category as some amazing  plus-size blogger babes. It would have definitely been no shame to lose to any of them, ultimately it was an incredible and true honour to be nominated after less than one year of blogging.

The above red carpet picture shows me alongside Lucy from Fateauty X (second from left), Hollie from Pretty Big Butterflies (fourth from left) and Katie from Toodaloo Katie (fifth from left) who all have been nominated in the same catogory. The girl third from the right is Michaela from Cardiffornia Girl, also a blog very much worth checking out.

Ultimately it was Hollie from Pretty Big Butterflies who won the award in our category, very much deserved. Congratulations Hollie!

Amazing People At The Table

The best thing about the evening was though not the entertainment, which no question was great or the awards themselves, it was the great  and incredibly interesting people I ended up at the table with.

As I could not afford two tickets due to the very high price for the tickets (tickets for nominated bloggers should really be free…). I had to go on my own, so I was a bit worried about the evening and who I would end up with at the table, but I could not have been more lucky.I ended up with a bunch of the most interesting people possible.

The Girls From Yours Clothing

Some of the people were the three girls from Yours Clothing, an absolutely lovely and funny bunch who managed to win 3 of the 4 awards they were nominated for. It was absolutely lovely to have a chat with them and they gave me some great tips on what dresses to try when I was representing Yours Clothing at #MAAfterDark a party dress event in the Manchester Arndale Center.

Leah from LeahXL, Organiser of StyleXL, Founder of ModelXL

Another Amazing person I had the honour to meet at my table was Leah from LeahXL sat at my table together with her partner. She is an absolutely great person with an admirable drive and a great upbeat personality who is also the organiser of StyleXL an amazing plus size event  in the Midlands that is going to take place in July 2015 and also the founder of plus-size pageant and a plus-size modelling agency ModelXL.

Bethany Churcher – Singer, Artist, Author, Inspiration

Next to all those lovely girls the most exceptional girls on my table were Bethany Churcher and her mother Amanda. Not only is Bethany an amazing singer (check out her youtube channel) and was part of the entertainment this evening, she is also an absolutely beautiful girl, talented artist and book author. She is truly a truly inspirational girl, not only is she as talented as she is, this girl had to fight her way through life & she also founded a charity. Not too long ago she was only given a few more months to live, her weight was threatening her life & she suffered a mini stroke and further complications caused by her weight issues and a gastric bypass- read more about it here. Neither this, nor  several surgeries and following complications were stopping her to pursue her dream. You should definitely look out for her I am sure you will hear much more about her in future.

The Only Downside – Overpriced Tickets

All in all it was an amazing evening, the only real downside were the prices of the tickets. £130 is a lot of money and £80 for a reduced ticked for nominees is still a stiff price, particularly when it turns out that drinks aren’t even included and the cheapest bottle of wine is £23. I do understand that this evening was collection money for a charity and a lot of companies won’t think twice before spending the above money. However, for a blogger like me, even the reduced ticket at £80 is A LOT of money, particularly when this has to be combined with a hotel and train/bus tickets to London. All in all the evening has costs me £300 and I wasn’t even able to share this evening with my partner or any other loved one due the price and I would have very much loved to share this as being nominnated was something really special to me.

Thank you all

Since I have started blogging I have received one or the other amazing direct message of some lovely girls telling me that I have supported them in finding their own self confidence, and that is just absolutely amazing and just reminds me again and again why I put that much time and work in this. I’d like to thank everybody who either nominated me or voted for me. It is great to know that my ramblings are appreciated and as mentioned above it was a true honour to be nominated and I always love to hear feedbackAll your feedback and comments is very much appreciated. Your feedback is helping me to determine what you like and what you would like to see more of. Lot’s of love Signoff


 

Thanks to Nicky Rockets for taking the great red carpet pictures and the pictures of the ceremony and entertainment.

The Winners

Best celebrity Female – Lisa Riley
Best celebrity Male – James Corden
Best Entertainer – Sarah Millican
Best Model – Haley Hasselhoff
Best High street Retailer –  Yours Clothing
Best Online Retailer – Asos
Best Designer – Lovedrobe
Best Accessories Range – Chunky Cat Cuddler
Best Footwear Range – New Look
Best Lingerie Brand – Curvy Kate
Best Swimwear Range –  Yours Clothing
Best Magazine – Big Is Beautiful
Best Bridal Range – Curves and Couture
Best Supermarket Range –  George at Asda
Best Lingerie Blog – Curvy Kate
Best New Blogger – Hollie – Pretty Big Butterflies
Best Fashion Blog – Georgina – She Might Be Loved
Best Person In Business – Andrew Killingworth for Yours Clothing
Best Blogger – Betty Pamper – Pamper & Curves
Best Fashion Event – Plus North
Best Achievement – Sarah Hadzipasic

#MAAfterDark – It’s All About The Party Dress

UNIQUE wedding dresses

 #MAAfterDark – The Event All About The Party Dress

If you follow my blog you will have seen several excited posts leading up to #MAAfterDark. The Hashtag stands for Manchester Arndale After Dark and was an event organised by the Manchester Arndale center all about the perfect party dress and looking glam during this party season.

This evening brought 18 amazing Mancunian blogger babes together as well as special guest and competition judge Victoria from Inthefrow, who you can see in the bottom left in the below image collection.

An Inclusive Event

As I had mentioned in my very first post leading up to this event that I absolutely loved, that is was one of my very first inclusive events. This means here no distinction was made between “normal” fashion blogger and plus-size bloggers. It is nice to be surrounded by lot’s of amazing plus-size ladies and to feel all the support but it is also amazing  to once in a while to be recognised as simply being part of the “fashion scene” and not only plus size.

This inclusive nature of the event was not only reflected through the bloggers that were invited, but also by the represented shops, showing off their current party fashion, with Simply Be, Yours Clothing & Evans having rail space – and I fell in love a few times that evening.

 The Task

Each of us bloggers had been paired beforehand with one of the many retailers in the Arndale Center and given the same task: find your perfect party dress. Finally the best 10 party dresses would be chosesn by a jury. I was paired with the lovely Yours Clothing.

 

My Retailer

 

But let’s get to the important part: finding my dress. I was very excited to be paired up with yours clothing, as it is a brand I very much support. Not only do they offer clothes in a large sizing range (up to a 32) but they are also quite affordable compared to others while still on trend.

So last I week,  I set foot in to their yours clothing branch for an epic shopping sessionarmed with a shopping voucher given to me by the Manchester Arndale center. You can read more about this in one of my latest posts here. The last contenders were these three dresses:

Choosing The Dress

Before I went I had a look online and was dead set for the lace skater dress, especially as skater dresses are usually my go to party dress. However, if there is one thing I have learned over the last few months blogging, then it is always to try new things. And ultimately I liked the dress, but I felt I looked a bit unbalanced and bottom heavy in it, with relatively little fabric on the top and the poufy skirt on the bottom.

 

So I tried the sleeveless 20s style flapper dress in the middle. The 20s are currently very much on trend and this dress had been recommended to me by the Yours girls at the Plus size awards. I loved it on the hanger and although I liked particularly the fringes and had lot’s of fun shimmying for the camera I believed it did not really do my shape justice.

 

Finally I tried the lace shift dress in combination with a sparkly silver belt, the silver version of the golden belt that I had worn for the Plus Size Awards. To my surprise that combination really convinced me. The short sleeves seemed to really balance my uppper body and the belt nicely took my waist in to create a lovely hourglass shape. The length is perfect for the office when combined with leggins and shows just about the right amount of leg in it’s night look when combined with

The Accessories

With a lovely simple dress like this you can go all out and sparkly on the accessories. And this is what I did. I went for a sparkly silver belt, in combination with a black clutch with silver studs. Luckily I even had a pair of Deichman plateau heels that almost perfectly matched the studs in the bag.

The best thing about this was though that my £100 did not only pay for the dress, but also for all the accessorie: the handbag, the belt, the earrings and the bracelet and that with money to spare. I would say that was a pretty good deal. Interestingly enough, looking at the hangers when coming in, I appeared to be the only one who accessorized the dress out using our budget.

The Styling

After  having a first look at the new party wear collections, a nice prosecco and some nibbles. It was time for beautifying. I got the perfect classy and simple yet effective makeup to match my dress together with the most amazing curl and updo I have had in a long time I really loved what the stylists did.

My Final Look

Black Lace Swing Dress With Contrast Insert* –  (£34) – Yours Clothing
Black & Silver Diamante Across The Body Bag* –  (£20) -(Yours Clothing*
Grey Glitter Thin Belt*-  (£7) Yours Clothing
Bracelet* –  (not on site) – Yours Clothing
Earrings* – (not on site) – Yours Clothing
Shoes – (old season) – Deichman

I am really, really happy with my final look. Individually all things were great, the hair is absolutely amazing but together they are just a killer style. I so love what the stylist has done with my hair, the makeup was subtle but effective and matched the style of dress very well, I just know if I would have done it myself I would have overdone the smokey eye once again.  And finally the sparkly accessories give this simple look the perfect dose of glamour.

#MAAfterDark – The Competition

The jury had a very close look and intensive discussion about the dresses you can see in the group shot. Finally the 10 dresses below were crowned the top 10 party dresses of this season.

 

These dresses will be displayed in the Arndale Center and here on their website. You can win a voucher for £100 yourself by voting for which one is your personal favourite. Vote here. You can have a closer look at these dresses here, and also enter the competition.

 

Which Dress Would You Have Chosen

Which of the 18 dresses is your favourite? You can have a closer look at them by clicking on the image to enlarge it. Which one is your favourite? Do you agree with the Jury or would you have chosen differently? And which one is your absolute favourite?

Lot’s of love.

 

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#FridayFavourites – A Koala In A Suit…

This Week: A Favourite Piece Of Jewellery

This weeks #FridayFavourite isn’t an outfit, but a lovely and quirky piece of jewellery. I just had to share this absolutely lovely koala necklace with you, that has become one of my absolute jewellery favourites.

I am talking about this cute guy:

Chunky Cat Cuddler

I bought this lovely fella at plus north from the stand of Chunky Cat Cuddler, a lovely blogger who also has a great little online shop featuring fashion and jewerllery.

She offers actually quite a few more animals from the same range. I think I will actually have to get one or two more of them:

Animal Instinct –  Chunky Cat Cuddler

I think the cat will definitely soon by mine and I am strongly contemplating to get the cheetah too. And I can only recommend to have a look around through the shop and particularly the necklaces, as there are some true gems in there (see what I did there…).

What do you think

What do you think about the little fella Which one of the necklaces is your favourite?

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My #FridayFavourites – First Edition

New Weekly Post: #FridayFavourite

I am planning to share with you every Friday from now on my favourite outfit of the week, my #FridayFavourite. Which I am aware is no clever pun, but it serves it’s purpose, a bit like #FollowFriday I guess…

#FridayFavourite is not meant to be an in depth review but rather to give you a glimpse into my day to day combinations,  showcase my new but also my older all time favourite pieces in always new combinations. This can be something that has never made the blog, or something that has already been on the blog but newly combined.

First Edition

I would guess that in most cases the photography would also be relatively low key, like the below.

Skirt – Anna Scholz
Body – Asos
Necklace – Missguided
Belt – Yours Clothing
Cardigan – Hand my down (given to me by my mom)

Finally A Bit Of Animal Print

This is an outfit I have been and am quite excited about, paricularly the skirt. I had been looking for some nice animal print, and particularly leopard print, for quite a while. The problem with leopard print though is that especially in the larger sizes it easily looks” cheap”. So I was dead excited when I found the skirt in an Anna Scholz Sale, it was reduced from £139 to £27 and it has not disappointed me. I am absolutely loving it.

The Perfect Autumn Office Outfit

I also love how the mesh insert of the high neck body goes with the amazing choker from Missguided. And finally the waterfall line cardigan is smart enough for the office but still dressing it down enough to make the combination of the otherwise maybe a little bit to glamorous for the office combination, the perfect autumn office outfit in my opinion.

Fashion Updates On Instagram

If  you want to keep up with little treasures like that, that I might love but that might not quite make it to the blog, for whatever reasons it might be (in most cases most likely time), follow me on Instagram.

 

What Do You Think?

I hope you like my new category and that you will come back to check for next weeks #FridayFAvourite In the meantime you could let me know what is your favourite autumn office outfit? Do you have a blog and maybe want to join me, showing me your #FridayFavourites? Let me know! Signoff

#OOTD Lady Vintage Polka Dot – Plus North

One Of My Long Loved Dresses

This lovely dress was my #OOTD (Outfit of the day) on the second day of Plus North. I have had this Lady Vintage London for ages and am still absolutely in love with it, like I was from the very first second. However, somehow up till now it had not made it’s way onto my blog yet. Although this is the dress I am wearing in my header picture on the top right.

The Lady Vintage Tea Dress

This is one of Lady Vintage London‘s tea dresss just like the dress in this post, Unfortunately they don’t offer this style anymore in the plus-size versions (meaning above a size 22).

I have worn this dress a thousand times and it is and will always be one of my dresses. To be honest you just can’t beat polka dots .  Polka dots are just a timeless classic and an amazing throwback to the 50s. The cut of this dress not only just really comfortable but also very figure flattering, especially with a thin belt. I also love to wear it with a cardigan, which goes really well with it,  for the chillier days.

A Plea To Lady Vintage London

So I can only plea:

Dear Lady Vintage London, I plead with you, please offer your tea dresses again in sizes larger than 22.

If you do, I can promise you I will most likely very soon own one of them in almost every single pattern of the plus-size tea dresses you will offer.

In Love With The Colour

I am absolutely loving the colour of this dress, especially after I was for years I not able to wear blue as it basically made me look “dead” complexionwise. This changed when I dyed my hair darker. The happier Iam now how well this lovely blue still goes with my new orange hair and actually even nicely “pops” the orange colour due to the strong contrast.

Where You Can Get (A Similar) Dress

If you are one of those lucky people that fit in a size 22 or below, here is where you get them, maybe not in polka dots but in a lot of other lovely patterns. While they offer neither the tea dresses in the larger sizes nor the tea dresses in polka dots anymore, Lady Vintage London has recently released quite a few polka dot dresses in the larger sizes (going up to a 32), which you can get here.

One of those cuts offered now in polka dots is the lovely “Estella Dress” which I absolutely love and bought in several patterns as soon as it came out (some of which are not offered anymore). Now that it is available also in polka dots I might be tempted again. Although owning one dress in 4-5 different patterns (currently 3) might border to madness. I am actually considering wearing one version of this dress to the upcoming Plus Size Fashion Days in Hamburg

“Flawless” by Missguided

On this day I was also showing off my new “Flawless” earrings from Missguided. A company that is most likely not on most of your radars. While in several interviews they have stated that a plus-size range is very likely to follow at some point, up till now they offer a clothing range up to a size 18.

However, I have currently really discovered them as a great place for  shoe and especially jewellery. To me they are becoming, despite being a fast fashion retailer, bit by bit a real replacement for my favourite jewellery shop in Germany, Bijou Brigitte, which I still dearly miss since I moved to the UK.

I love these earrings. The hoopstyle reminds a bit of the 90s but they also have something 50sy about them of which I can’t quite put my fingers on yet, but I do like whatever that is. They went bang on with my outfitand and especially my hair on that day, but most importantly, the “Flawless” statement” sends a great and important body positive message!

What Do You Think?

Would you like Lady Vintage London to bring back their tea dress in the plus sizes? What do you think about Missguided and have you ordered from them before?

I would love to hear from you.

 

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British Plus Size Awards

I am proud to announce that I have been nominated for the British Plus Size Awards in the cateogory “Best New Blogger”. I really would appreciate it if you would take you time to vote for me.

To vote for me and your favourite plus-size retailers & celebrities just click on the button below:

Lady Vintage – Plus-Size Hepburn Dress

I was recently invited to a fancy cocktail party so I finally had a reason to wear the red Hepburn dress I bought a few weeks ago. This dress came from one of my favourite shops: Lady Vintage – a shop definitely worth checking out. They sell absolutely lovely vintage-style plus-size dresses, though their plus-size selection seems to have significantly shrunk over the last few months. This particular dress has sold out in red, but is still available in several other beautiful colours here.

Plus-Size Hepburn DressPlus Size Hepburn Dress

Dress – Lady Vintage, Leggings – Simply Be, Shoes – Deichmann, Belt – Yours Clothing

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The dress is made in London and has a lovely shape – I think it really flatters my curves, especially when teamed with a belt. The big drawback of dresses like this for me is that they are sleeveless – I rather feel that bare upper arms do not agree with me and my figure.

Because of this I absolutely love this short bolero, which is basically nothing but a set of sleeves; I would love to have more of these but unfortunately I’ve never come across another one in this style since. This one I bought quite a while back at… well… I think at New Look. I’m not quite sure any more as I don’t even recognise the logo on the tag…

So if anyone knows where you can buy boleros like this one, please let me know – you would make me very happy.

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