May 2013
8 posts
6 tags
… to Westfield to see the new Star Trek fillum. Which was an absolute hoot. There was a tribble! There was a passing reference to Nurse Chappell! There was Leonard Nimoy! And Benedict Cumberbatch, (who I have seen on stage, bitches, pre-Sherlock), was the baddest badass, like, ever. In other words a Good Time was had.
I was sorely tempted to wear a thrifted bronze lurex outfit in which I...
6 tags
So, remember the plum and teal pattern mixing I promised you? Didn’t work quite as well as I hoped but here it is anyway. Because there are still quite a lot of things I do like about this outfit even if the skirt and the tee don’t quite jive. (Hey, who am I kidding? They’re barely on speaking terms).
I’ve had this Vikki Vi skirt for aeons; about ten years in fact....
6 tags
…well, all apart from my fab new bug ring from the Les Néréides sample sale, (a steal at £15). All the same I really like the way the elements of this outfit came together.
Considering I only paid seven quid for this skirt I’m getting no end of wear out of it.
I have no idea why I look like I’m going to put a spell on you (because you’re miiiiiine!) in this...
5 tags
Just a quickie this evening, tumblr. Mainly because these pics are nothing to write home about even thought the outfit looked pleasing enough on the day. As you can see the day - last Saturday to be precise - was unseasonably warm if rather windy. (Alas the same can’t be said about today; got the electric blanket cranked up even as I type). No matter which setting I tried on the camera,...
mymblesdaughter asked: So where would you suggest a beginner frockaholic goes to start her frock collection? I live in Norwich, so most big retailers are available to me,but I have spent most of my life buying clothes from charity shops, so I'm kind of out of the retail groove! Don't know if it'll help to have size/ age, but I 'm 51, and an unbalanced size! My bottom half's an 18 , but I need...
half-helterskelter-half-twinkly asked: I am so glad I found you. I'm 43, and fat, and so I figured I couldn't wear fun clothes like all the cute young things I've been seeing on the fatshion blogs. I LOVE your style, and your attitude (and your cats). You have inspired me! Thank you for sharing your awesomeness!!! xoxo
7 tags
So here’s an interesting quote I came across on the Channel Four website today. It has nowt to do with my outfit by the way – that’s just some pretty to go with the thinky.
A recent survey … showed that women take their plus-size clothing cues from other women over fashion magazines, celebrities and TV shows. That means, ladies, that you are a discerning bunch who...
1 tag
Currently coveting...
…this über cute lion pendant by Little Moose. Raowrrr!
April 2013
5 posts
7 tags
As soon as I bought these orthotic-friendly perforated pink brogues from Clarks I knew exactly which dress they’d be making their debut with. (But Buttercup, I hear you cry, you are overdrawn up to your earholes. How come you were out buying shoes? Simples: I sold Deanne a beautiful pair of decidedly non-orthotic-friendly vintage Hobbs peeptoe platforms…and bought these with the...
5 tags
Here’s a dress I never got around to photographing last year because last summer was so short lived – but, hey, it was (just about) warm enough to wear it today with tights and a denim jacket so woot!
It’s not entirely dissimilar to this Monsoon one…
… though, in fact I bought it first. It’s also without doubt the best quality item I’ve ever bought from...
6 tags
So, I’m a huge fan of Project Runway. The bitchiness and diva strops; the tackiness of Heidi’s wardrobe; the wondering if Marchesa’s Georgina thingummyjig has it written into her contract that she be described as the beeeyoootiful Georgina thingummyjig every time she’s on the judging panel – and, of course, the perennial fabulosity of Tim Gunn. Sometimes I even like the...
7 tags
So, yesterday, I wore the Best Outfit Ever. However, this is not it because it rained all bleeding day. Consequently photographs didn’t happen. This is what I wore this time last week when I saw some proper sun for the first time since last September.
Things were actually starting to bloom…
See?!
And I was even warm enough to take off my jacket, albeit briefly - but first...
March 2013
8 posts
4 tags
Yep, back again. This is the last of an outfit backlog I’ve been mostly too busy to post (because omg!work, not that my financial sitch is improving any), so it’s actually about 3 weeks old.
It’s not generally known but the UK actually had three dedicated plus-size brick-and-mortar chains until a couple of years ago. Evans; Alexon’s frumptastic Ann Harvey, who cut...
2 tags
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
If money were no object, (or even in my bank account), I’d be converting my English pounds into Oz dollars right this minute to get my grubby little mitts on this made-to-measure, buttercup yellow, (what else?), total dream of a frock by Melbourne-based label Fox Parse. It’s the Queen of Quadrant B dress from the She Came From Beyond collection and you can see it on the catwalk on...
5 tags
Another quick one I’m afraid, tumblr, on account of I have little to say other than I am so over this bleeding winter already! The above was taken in the World’s Most Delightful and Sweet Smelling Giftshop® just a couple of weeks ago, when I thought spring might actually be springing after quite the most relentless winter…but no.
My joy at being able to winterise a couple...
I was introduced to Melanie Tomlinson’s exquisite hand-printed steel brooches by a mutual friend last week. She makes tropical fish brooches too. I’d like a whole school of them!
4 tags
While I may, hands down, prefer a frock over a trouser there are times when only a trouser will cut it – like when I’m teaching in a chilly, paint-spattered studio, which is quite often at this time of year. So this is not so much a blog post as a Public Service Announcement for those with my type of bod.
Back when bootcut jeans were all the go, I managed to buy myself a few pairs from...
5 tags
Since I’m going out of town shortly, I’ll be quick like the proverbial bunny. Here’s a little serendipitous pattern-mixing fun from last weekend. Before the effing snow and Siberian winds came back. Again. (Spoke to my friend Jude in California yesterday; apparently their spring is actually springing. Ours is being a tease).
I’m not normally big on tucking stuff in...
6 tags
When I found this trendtastic mirror-print shift dress in the post Christmas sales, I initially had misgivings because it’s a little loose on me, but the fact is sometimes I like things that way. As I said to a fellow fatshionista only recently, I live in armed neutrality with my mid-section. Sometimes my shape really bothers me and other times I think sod it. On the days it bothers me, I wear...
2 tags
February 2013
6 posts
4 tags
Once upon a time I saw these Matthew Williamson earrings, which had yet to be reduced in the Westfield Debenhams sale - and promptly fell in love with their Byzantine vibe. Since I rarely spend serious money on costume jewellery, not least since I am currently borasic, I watched them like a hawk for weeks. Gradually everything around them got reduced, first by 20%, then 50%, even the matching...
5 tags
Hard to believe this time last week, I was off to LPSFW in bright sunshine and I could almost but not quite smell spring. Now it’s snowing again. Well, not exactly snowing – more that half-arsed kind that melts immediately it hits you or the pavement that I’m reliably informed is called “snizzle”. Whatever it’s called it seems a fitting accompaniment to this...
6 tags
Well, this is more or less what I wore on Saturday; these were taken on a separate occasion as I had way too much to do on the day in question – not least making sure I wasn’t late meeting the awesomely talented Carol Ryder, my companion for the event. Carol is already involved with Caryn Franklin’s All Walks Beyond The Catwalk initiative – and now, thanks to her introducing me to...
Skinny people aren’t the enemy. Fat, skinny and in-between; it’s all normal. We are all normal. Those with a vested interest in creating and maintaining our insecurities are the enemy. The diet floggers, the cosmetic and bariatric surgeons, the pharmaceutical conglomerates, the food manufacturers, the fashion and beauty publications who shamelessly exclude anyone who doesn’t...
theessentialrose asked: I just found your blog and you are now my favourite fashion blog on the internet! I, too, am an apple, and a lady of a certain age. I love clothes and shoes but I have no idea how to style things. However, since finding your blog, I have new hope that I, too, can be stylish. Thank you!
4 tags
Greetings, tumblr playmates! Just a quickie post this week as I am snowed under with work and have another hideously early-morning start tomorrow. Please ignore the wrinkles in my tights by the way; they’re just a teensy bit too long. But they’re also mint frackin’ green, (thank you, H&M), so schlepping them up once in a while is a small price to pay.
I first saw this...
January 2013
7 posts
5 tags
Oh hai, tumblr! Well…last weekend it snowed so mightily that much as I loved the idea of pics of me leaping joyfully about in the flakes, what with tube engineering works conspiring against me, (to say nothing of the biting cold itself), I just snuggled up with my fur kids and had a Dexter-thon instead. This weekend, however, showed a distinct improvement. The light’s still a bit...
My photographer and I...
…were photographed at the Serpentine Gallery last July as part of Yoko Ono’s ongoing Smile Project. I don’t know how many times I must have checked over the months that followed. Originally I wanted to include it with the first couple of pictures Neil took of me in Hyde Park, but it never seemed to appear on the gallery’s flickr stream. I don’t know what made me...
3 tags
Hold the front page!...
Steve Madden biker boots, marked down from £125 to £70, then to £50, and then to £23 in T.K.Maxx. I’m quite sure all this studded malarky is sooooo 2012, darling, (if not sooooo 2010), but they’re more than hip enough for me. At last a pair of boots I can wear with skirts that aren’t no-fun, grannytastic, orthopaedic comfort-wear. Which is not to say they’re not comfy...
4 tags
No, I’m not being self-deprecating. That’s what the UK weather oracles are calling the return of the icy Siberian winds and snow to come this week. And they’re not whistling Dixie. So out came the Serious Winter Coat which, as you can see, is Not Flattering, (double points for the horizontal stripes as well as general bulkiness). But, enfattening as its heavy duty thickness may...
4 tags
In my family the automatic response to that hoary old chestnut, “but what shall I wear?” is, “how’s about your off-the-shoulder blue taffetta and your picture hat”, regardless of the occasion or gender of the person posing said conundrum. Despite never having possessed either item, I do occasionally wonder if this well-worn catchphrase might have influenced me...
Anonymous asked: this was a quirky blog for me to come across haha i love your style of blogging
December 2012
8 posts
4 tags
Yep, it’s another, swift (and non-angsty ) OOTD before I run away to Hampshire for New Year celebrations with m’besties.
I love red and green together and don’t have any qualms about wearing the complimentary combo throughout the year. However, this is more or less what I wore to host Christmas lunch this year, chez moi. (Chilli salmon, gravad lax and crab paté with soda...
4 tags
Sometimes I feel like a fish out of water on tumblr; a bit betwixt and between. Initially I settled here because I preferred the choice of the free templates to those on offer at Blogger and Wordpress, (shallow, I know, but once a designer…) The format has its limitations but installing Disqus was easy enough and the ‘like’ function appeals to my magpie nature – plus tumblr, hands down, boasts...
4 tags
Yeah. I know. My posts are like the 65 bus. You wait for aeons then two pitch up at once.
Anyway, another Siberian day in West London’s Loveliest and Most Sweet Smelling Giftshop, another stripy sweater. Or, in this case, twinset. It’s a common moan among those who follow fatshion blogs that they’re nothing but an endless, show-offy parade of new outfits. While I like to...
5 tags
So, it’s been pretty cold around here lately. Last week we experienced some honest-to-gosh Siberian weather conditions blown all the way from your actual Russia to Blighty. Damn,it was cold! So cold, in fact, I even skipped my customary morning shower one day as the thought of having to dry my sundry shivering fatnesses in a sub-zero bathroom was more than said fatnesses could brook.
And...
3 tags
Yep, I know I’m wearing my Donegal tweed coat again but it’s lovely and snug and it’s been so crazy cold here I’ve even had to break out the big guns in the form of the coat I wore to visit Norway two winters ago. (Since it makes me look like an igloo, believe me it has to be sub zero for that). And, once again, between the crappy winter light and the Intelligent Auto...
Whale whale whale...
This needs to be beached in my jewellery box asap.
November 2012
6 posts
5 tags
Keeping it short, sweet and ranty this week, tumblr. I’m afraid the light in my garden yesterday was very, very strange, meaning only the detail shots came out well. The rest of my pics came out a weird mixture of over and under-exposed. I did the best I could via iPhoto tweakeage but I thought I’d better warn you nonetheless.
So this is my one and only piece of the Clements...
sizeshapeandcolour asked: love your blog! that pink frilly coat! those blue tights! Gorgeous :)
7 tags
Alas, with the exception of one, all of the pictures from this past weekend came out grainy and blurry as a poncey French film, for which I apologise. This will probably only get worse as London is currently wilting under a thin mist of drizzle and it won’t be long, (since the clocks went back a fortnight ago), before it starts getting dark at teatime. Man alive, I hate winter…
So...
cookandchill asked: What does "remixed" mean in the context of an OOTD post? (PS - I love your Tumblr more than ice cream!)
October 2012
13 posts
4 tags
About seven or eight years ago a clothing catalogue arrived at the small, non-profit arts organisation for whom I freelance as a consultant. It was addressed to an ex-colleague which, on leafing through it, puzzled me a bit as she is a tiny-wee petite person, (a UK size 6), and most of the clothes in the Gudrun Sjoden catalogue appeared to be made for Amazons - or, you know, whatever equivalent...
tabitha40 asked: i am so happy i have discovered tumblr - i had a fashion 'crisis' when i hit 40 - i am 43, however i felt i should be dressing more 'normal', all women my age were dressing a certain way (don't get me wrong! i embrace all women's choices, for me i wasn't being myself) but i am so happy to find like minded souls - sorry for the ramble but discovering you and...
