60s vibe

Lately, I seem to be loving the 60's fashion vibe. A lot of the stores seem to be reviving this era. From leopard prints to A-line dresses and tunics worn with leggings or opaque tights and flat ballerina pumps. Leopard prints seem to be appearing everywhere - from faux fur coats/jackets to shoes, bags and scarves! I'm still on the lookout for a faux fur leopard print coat. Come on Evans, you recently sold out on a leopard print faux fur coat... you must restock!

Anyway, I just love the 60's A-line dresses with peter-pan collars. They look great worn with plain black opaque tights or leggings and either flat black pumps or tan lace-up brogue shoes - these are my current favourite footwear! I even try to style my hair and make-up with a hint of 60's vibe. Hope you enjoy reliving the 60's fashion trends!

Here, I'm wearing an A-line dress with animal print peter-pan collar. Worn with black leggings and my black bow ballerina pumps. Let me have your comments on this trend.


 

Biba Fever!

I've been a fan of Biba 60's and 70's fashion for a while and was really excited to find out that Biba had relaunched their range recently. With the realaunch, Barbara Hulanicki's designs do not disappoint. I love the sparkly dresses and of course the animal print faux fur coats! Here's my homage to the Biba maxi dresses of the 70's. This dress is from Evans, but it has elements of the Biba style - long maxi dress, floral print and long buttoned cuff sleeve, and is in a chiffon fabric.

Outfit changes

Print playsuit - ASOS Curve, black bow pumps - Primark, black tights - Evans

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Playsuit - ASOS Curve

Dark blue frill dress - ASOS Curve, black platform shoes - Evans

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Dress - ASOS Curve

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This weeks hot picks!

Hi! Some of you have been asking me to give my 'top pick's on what's out there in 'plus size world'. These are some of the items I've chosen. I have to admit, my favourite picks right now are from the ASOS website. Let me have your opinions on my choices.

My christmas hit list!

Hi all. Lately I must admit I've been feeling a little lazy! I blame it on the sudden cold weather that descended on us recently in the UK. I've been doing as much as I possibly can not to come down with a cold which means wearing many layers of clothing and keeping away from anyone who show signs of even the slightest of sniffles! I have had a little time today to put together my 'Christmas' wish list! Yes I know...dream on, but you never know, Santa may be feeling a little generous this year!

A few of my favourite things

Those of you that know me will know that I am a freak with accessories! I can't get enough of them! I can't go into a store without checking out what they have on offer. The first stage is my hair accessories. I have a vast collection of hairbands and hair clips ranging from your basic Alice bands in various colours to hairbands/hair clips with bows, flowers etc! I just think that hair accessories provide that finishing touch to your look. Here is just a small collection of my accessories!

Bows

Flowers

Flowers, Pearls & Bows!

My favourite hairband!

The other type of accessories I love are shoes! Who doesn't? Recent shoe purchases have been flat ballet pumps and of course my tan 'lace-less' brogues. These brogues are sooo comfortable. When I purchased them, I actually asked the shop assistant if the laces were missing! She explained that that's how the style is ...lace-less! Anyway, I wear them with everything!



L: black bow ballet pumps - Primark, M: Purple stone pumps -New Look, R: Tan brogues - Primark





Faux Fur



New Look (Inspire), £64.99



ASOS Curve, £65

The time has come to be glam! Yes, tis the season to be merry and all that, which means its ...party time!! Along with the many party outfits I'm currently considering on wearing over this joyous party season - watch this space; I've been trying to decide whether or not to get myself a faux fur jacket. I've seen them on all of my favourite online stores, but I didn't really see any that in my opinion were 'drop-dead gorgeous'; that was until I spotted this lovely jacket on ASOS Curve. The jacket is in my opinion priced a little steep at £65, so I'm hoping the gift fairy will be 'gifting' this to me! Here's another alternative I spotted on the New Look website. This is priced at £64.99. OMG, I do have expensive taste! 

Designer love!

In an earlier post 'What's new?' I mentioned that the 50's/60s trend seems to be re-emerging, as seen on the Prada fall 2010/11 catwalk show. Well, I am really excited to say that this trend seems to be filtering into the high street stores sooner than expected. For those of us that do not have the funds to purchase designer trends, thankfully most of the high street stores have picked up on this trend. I've already bookmarked pages online, especially at ASOS Curve a few 60's inspired dresses I've got my beady eye on! So whats new? Well for those of you that are inspired by the 50's/60's, have a look at the Louis Vuitton 2010/11 fall catwalk show. WOW, it blew me away! I love, love, love Louis Vuitton. Not only obviously for their fantastic handbags, accessories etc, but this show was soo obviously inspired by the 50s Hollywood movie stars in their beautiful full skirted dresses. LV had beautiful dresses in a mixture of prints and plain luxurious fabrics. It reminded me of the type of dresses my mum used to wear in her younger years growing up in the 1950s - full skirted dresses with tight bodices and accessorised with long elbow gloves, bags and her hair tied into tight pony tails. Oh how I wish she had kept all those dresses! LV did this of course with a modern edge. Full skirts were shown in leather as well! But hey, don't let me go on about it! Here's a video of the catwalk show. Enjoy and let me have your comments on this.

Jumpsuit fever

Ever since I started seeing the 'jumpsuit' trend in magazines etc, I've secretly wanted to try one! I was thinking 'well' I'm not really supposed to as I don't fit (excuse the pun!) the criteria to be a jumpsuit wearer, ie tall and thin; if you believe what you read in the media. Well that was until I saw a few styles modelled on the Evans website and ASOS curve. Well, it didn't take me long to make up my mind - especially as the items were on sale on both websites! I purchased the teal and the floral print jumpsuit (see below images) from ASOS Curve and the black jersey jumpsuit from Evans.

I was very pleased with Evans jumpsuit as the fabric is soft and the style disguises the tummy area a little! The ones I purchased from ASOS Curve were okay, although I'm not quite sure about the all-over floral print! This will take a little getting used to. I had to break that up with a black cardi! The other one, the teal colour was great except for the fact it was made for an amazonian/very tall woman. I will have to take up the hem a lot on this one, hence no image of me modelling it! Anyway, I would like your opinion whether curvy women can carry off a jumpsuit.

What Maria wore #2

Mondays! As hard as it was to get out of my cosy, warm bed this morning, it was inevitable that Monday morning would come round again, especially after a weekend of pure hibernation! As usual I fought the battle I always find myself having every morning ...what do I wear today? Today, I finally settled on my grey dress I bought in the Next sale last season. Its a sleeveless shift dress with zipper detail to both the shoulders and front. I wore this over black leggings and my black boyfriend cardigan and of course my favourite boots of the moment. As usual, I have accessorised with a headband! This one is my latest find - a dark grey ruffled headband from Primark. Here's the photographic evidence below!

Quote

"Is ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’? Not to me."

— J.K. Rowling 

Objects of my desire

Recently, I've been putting together a 'most desired' or a wish list of items I've seen either online or in the shops that I really really want! 
These are just a few of the items on my list! Lets hope the 'gift fairy' pays me a visit soon! LOL. Anyway, here they are ...

And here's an example of how I would probably put a few of my 'items of desire' together.



Top row: Faux fur waistcoat - Evans, wool kilt skirt - Next plus, black biker boots - Primark
Second row: Yellow sequin collar dress - ASOS Curve, black shoes - Evans, black quilted chain bag - market find





Whats new?

I've been keeping an eye out on the recent trends lately and have noticed that the magazines seem to be showing a lot of 'Mad Men' influenced fashion. Basically 1950's and early 60s fashion. This is good news as these styles are particularly flattering for the curvier figure. The Prada catwalk was heavily influenced by this era. I LOVED loved the Prada fall 2010/11 womenswear show. I've already got a few ideas from the show. Whether it will be an addition to my wardrobe or accessories or even hairstyle! Watch this space as no doubt I will be updating you on this and perhaps showing you my purchases and ideas on this.   

Sew sew

Maya dress

Hi, its been a while! Life has been busy! I've been busying myself with my dressmaking recently and have just finished making a dress for my little niece. I have soo much fabric that I've just got to use up. Here's the picture of her finished dress. The dress is in pink tafetta fabric with a green silk bow sash belt and it has a net underskirt.

Coffee-date dress

I haven't been sewing for too long and am self-taught. No sewing classes for me, I just grabbed some sewing books from the library and was lucky enough to have a friend who is an advanced sewer that I could turn to for advice now and then! The very first item of clothing I made for myself was from the Burda website. The pattern dress is called the 'coffee date' dress. Of course the pattern didn't come in a plus size so there was a lot of adjusting to the pattern before I started to sew. Here's the finished dress. Its in a pink and brown polka dot cotton fabric and has a little ruffle detail to the front. Here's me trying to model the dress and take a picture at the same time! OMG!




Ruffle detail to front



Accessories and more accessories!

I think it may be time to organise my accessories. Not only do I have a huge amount of bags and shoes, but I can't resist the odd custume jewellery! My jewellery stand almost collapsed on me the other day and it forced me to look at the mounting collection of necklaces, bracelets bows etc that I kept on it. Oh dear, what a mess!

And here's what it looks like after I stripped it naked!

What Maria wore #1

My work wardrobe often depends on the mood I happen to wake up to that morning! Today, I seem to be in a 'kooky' mood. I've got on my black dress - last seasons sale item. Worn with black leggings and my oh-so-favourite boots at the moment. The credits go to Anne Harvey (dress), New Look (leggings) and Primark (boots). Oh, and that thing sticking out of my head is my black bow headband (Primark). No accessories worn with this outfit today (apart from the headband!) 

Boots, shoes and things

Who doesn't like the cold weather? I certainly do! I have to say its another excuse to organise my ever expanding wardrobe, ready for the first signs of the winter chill. Yesterday I organised my wardrobe and forced myself to finally pack away my summer sandals. I'll miss you sandals, it was fun while it lasted (sigh). But of course out comes the winter boots ...its their turn! I recently bought two pairs of boots from a certain inexpensive high street store - starts with a 'P' and ends with a K'. Thankfully they now stock a small selection of widefit boots as I'm cursed with large calfs! 



 I love these boots and I'm sure they'll be worn to death! You can see me wearing the tan 'strappy' boots in the 'what Maria wore' posting. Shoes/boots are just one of my favourite accessories and thankfully most of the stores now have generous fit shoes. Evans of course offer standard fit shoes as well as wide-fit and even go up to size 11. I bought a pair of purple satin jewelled pumps in New Look yesterday during my lunch hour (rather expensive lunch! These were from their widefit range. I was really lucky as they were on sale - reduced from £19.99 to £9.99 and the only pair left in my size, so of course I had to have them ... who needs lunch! They are a perfect colour match for my purple Evans spot prom dress! 



Purple jewelled pumps - New Look

 

Evans purple spotted prom dress



 

Aviator jackets vs Capes

 



Aviator jacket - Evans, £75

As one of the seasons 'must haves' the aviator jacket and the cape can be seen in most of the shops on the high street and even the plus size stores are in on this autumn trend. I personally am not sold on the Aviator jacket just yet, I'm not sure exactly why. It could be wearability factor, they seem a little bulky or heavy to wear or the combination of leather and wool! I don't know; maybe its just me!  Evans  as usual are in on this autumn trend . On the flipside though, I am really likeing the cape this season. 



ASOS Curve knitted cape - £40



There's a pretty smart knitted version I've seen on the ASOS Curve website, unfortunately, I just haven't been able to track down your a fashionable bog-standard cape in a plus size! If I don't see a cape I like, thats in my size, I guess I might have to consider making one myself!

 

Cape -£79.99, Zara



I spotted this version from Zara. Most of the capes I've seen seem to be loose fitting, so they may fit the more curvey/plus sizes! I would love it if Zara did plus size clothing. They have some nice pieces on their website at the moment.