MelodyMae.co.uk

26th September 2018

Wednesday Wishlist – Pin Game

Hi there friends! It’s Wednesday and I want some pins!

I’m a bit of a pin fanatic these days, if I’m honest. I LOVE enamel pins and I’m not sure when I got quite so obsessed. My personal pin game consists mainly of feminist pins from Punky Pins, but also contains some amazing pins from my travels. And in celebration of all things pins, I wanted to show you some of my favourites at the moment!

Punky Pins

Punky Pins is my favourite pin place. 80% of my pins are from them, and I couldn’t be happier! There’s a whole host of themes to choose from, I personally love their Feminist AF and Crafty Bitch series’.

Lion In The Trees

Inspired by East Asian imagery and colours, Lion in the Trees does the most gorgeous zodiac pin sets!

Leslianne Made It

Leslieanne Made It makes the sweetest and most positive pins around!

Paige Joanna

Blogger babe (who I just so happened to go to school with) turning her creative hand to pins! She’s got some lovely bridal pins that would be so good on her handpainted jackets!

Ohh Deer

Ohh Deer are famous for there greeting cards, so it’s only natural they’d go and add pins to their arsenal, right? I have the peach booty and it makes me so happy.

Radical Buttons

Feminist buttons ahoy! I literally love all their to-the-point enamel pins.

Alphabet Bags

Okay so this is more for the mums out there, since they have great mum-centric pins. But when you have chronic tiredness like me, you appreciate that life, and these tired pins!

Glitter Punk

Glitter Punk have the whole pastel-goth-witch thing down to a tee. It’s not quite my aesthetic usually but I love how otherworldly their pins are. Plus they have Pin Deals to start your own pin game!

So those are my favourites! But what about you? Do you participate in the Pin Game trend? If so – show me your favourites!

You can also view my Pin Game board on Pinterest!

22nd September 2018

A Day At The Races – Goodwood Style

Happy Saturday! I hope you’re not quite as freezing as I am today?

How are we all feeling? I had a week at my mums, which was more about decorating her house instead of relaxing – but I came home with a fresher mind than before. If I get over this head cold I’ve accumulated, of course! On Thursday we looked at what was going on around the Goodwood Revival site. But we didn’t see much style, did we? So for Style Saturday we’re going to look at some Goodwood style!

If you read the last post, or happened to be on Instagram on the 8th September, you might of known I got invited to Goodwood Revival. I was invited to be an influencer with Mastercard’s Revival Fashion, which meant I got to sit front-row to their fashion show.

The production values for this show were out of this world. It followed a “High Flyer” through the Riviera life in the heyday of Goodwood’s racing. To remind you, that’s 1948-1966.

This show was made up of higher-priced items, mainly. Goodwood’s target market isn’t exactly working class, and this show really reflected that. After the show there was a dress mentioned to be from a shop “Just across from Harrods” and I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. But hey, fashion shows are for inspiration, right? At least there was some beautiful items from Revival Retro and Seamstress of Bloomsbury to see!

Revival Fashion by MasterCard

Out of the whole show, they did the 60’s best out of all the decades. I didn’t get a picture of her, but there was a singer that was amazing, wearing the most gorgeous pink lamé dress. Complete with beehive and big ol’ hoops, of course.

It was a great show of immaculately timed dancing and smug faces on the male lead, but it did come up a bit short on a few things. Mainly the men’s trousers – why does everyone think men work ankle grazers in the 50’s?!

But now let’s get on to my style!

I’ve had this Lindy Bop Marianne suit for a while, but for some reason never wore it before. I’ll never know why, because I love it! It was a sample I received a while back, which is possibly why I’d not reviewed it for fit before. I wouldn’t say the jacket is the best fit for me, but the fabric is forgiving in that respect, and the colour is great.

The Marianne suit doesn’t come in the flared version in royal blue anymore, although you can get a pencil version. The teal version is more gorgeous though, so I want to see someone with that!

I’ve come to realise that royal blue is my colour. I stick out like a sore thumb amongst people who were dressed more authentically. But it just looks so right on me, don’t you agree? Even these pedal cars made an effort to match!

Hair Flower; Lady Lucks Boutique
Dress and Jacket; Lindy Bop (Similar)
Necklace; Vintage (Similar)
Bangles; Vintage and Splendette
Shoes; Miss L Fire

20th September 2018

Snapshots of Goodwood Revival; A Day At The Races

Hi friends! If you didn’t notice from my Instastories from the other week – I went to Goodwood Revival!

Have you heard of The Goodwood Revival before? Basically, it’s a racecourse that celebrated the heyday of racing there – between 1948-1966. Everyone spends the weekend dressing in their retro finest and celebrates a bygone era with racing, fashion and shopping.

I was invited to Goodwood Revival as part of MasterCard’s Revival Fashion as an influencer. Yes guys, I’m going up in the world! But for today, I’ll mostly be showing you some of the amazing things around the Goodwood Revival site.

The racecourse is made to mimic the three eras the heyday spans. There’s wartime-styled areas decked out with old Police cars, re-enactors and even shoeshine stalls for the 40’s. For the 50’s it had a designated Americana area – complete with hot rods and a diner!

Of course, this is a motoring event at it’s very core. I’m not a massive petrolhead, but I really appreciate cars and bikes from the past. Aside from the paddocks (which we were lucky to access with our press passes), there was sets all throughout the site with cars and bikes to view. This Motul garage that was done up from the late 40’s/early 50’s was one of my favourites!

Talking of the paddocks, this was probably the most exciting part of the festival site for me. Since we were press, we got to wander about the paddock cars are they were coming in and out to the racetrack.

And bikes! I’m not knowledgeable about bikes either, but after my forays to the Isle of Man a while back, I understand pre-1960s bikes a hell of a lot more! I was excited to see a 1953 Norton Manx, which we found out later was ridden by Guy Martin earlier in the day.

Back to the fashion side of things!

Goodwood Revival is very much a motoring festival – but there’s no denying that fashion rules here! On site there’s not just one, but two hair salons – this one being the biggest and frankly the best looking! How cute is that 60’s styled exterior?

Not too far from the entrance, and next to the MasterCard Goodwood Revival fashion show was the High Street. Including heritage brand Penhaligons, vintage’s sweetheart Revival Retro (pictured) and Space.NK’s vintage makeover! Space.NK’s little stall was adorable and 40’s styled – and I got my makeup done AND a free lipstick, which was pretty great.

Have you been to Goodwood Revival? What are you thoughts?

There’s just so much to see, this post was never going to capture everything! I’m already planning on going next year!

15th September 2018

Clinging onto Summer – Plus Size Pin Up Style!

Happy Saturday friends! It’s so chilly at the moment, but I’m fully not ready to give up on Summer, yet.

Summer is my favourite season. Sure, I love autumn and being snuggly and crunching leaves, but I also love not wearing tights. And I love summery hair flowers. And also not wearing cardigans. So although autumn is clearly in the air, I’m clinging onto summer with some plus size pin up style!

I overdressed last week to walk the dog with this outfit last week. I had planned to go on a little adventure with my boyfriend, but neither of us could really be bothered once I’d gotten ready. So overly-glam dog walking it was!

You might remember this Lindy Bop skirt from one of my Japan trips before. It still stands as the only pink item in my wardrobe, yet is worn regularly through the year. I always think that pink and red never work, but adding black breaks it up just enough, don’t you think?

Part of the reason I’m not so ready to leave summer behind is that I just have too many hair flowers to still show off! I love wearing hair flowers, and the bigger the better! I find I wear less over the winter due to a more subdued colour palate, so I want to make sure

Here I’m wearing the Billie Orchid and Pink Lily hair flower from Lady Lucks Boutique. I’m also wearing an old single pink Paloma lily, which is now out of stock, although you can still get a double Paloma! The Billie hair flower is plenty big on its own, but I really feel like the extra bit of pink sets of the skirt well.

There’s a reason there’s so many entries in my Lady Lucks Boutique tag – her flowers are the best around! I’ve had some of my flowers for nearing on five years, and they’ve never broken or looked dull and old. And I say this from real experience, I have so many of their flowers!

Are you ready for summer to end? Or are you clinging on the last of summer too?

Let me know in the comments – and if you wear ‘summer’ hair accessories year round, I want to see them!

Hair Flowers; C/O Lady Lucks Boutique (Disclaimer)
Top; Primark
Brooch; Luxulite
Skirt; Lindy Bop (Similar)
Shoes; Yours Clothing (Similar)

12th September 2018

Snapshots of London; Plus Size Representation at London Edge

Hey friends! Happy Humpday – hope you’re all doing well?

I’m tired but for good reasons – I’ve been doing so many cool things recently! With Goodwood Revival this weekend and London Edge the week before, plus an upcoming trip to my mum’s, there’s a lot going on. Hooray for being busy! But today I wanted to bring to you a little review of London Edge, a trade show for alternative brands.

You may of heard of London Edge before, since the brands we all love exhibit their future ranges there, plus it’s used as a meet up for a lot of alternative and pin up people. I can’t say I 100% understand why it’s popular as a meet up point – I go to trade shows as an exhibitor for work, and it’s not the most exciting event.

This year was my first time at London Edge as a blogger – before I’d always have to miss it whilst being at another trade show for work. My main reasoning for going was purely to see what the representation for plus sizes was in brand’s upcoming collections.

The short answer to this; There was none.

It was saddening to see that there was no plus size bodies around. Even in brands I love and support, there was no representation.

I went to the show with Tricia from Hotties Vintage, who specialises in stocking plus-size, vintage style clothing. The first thing we noticed is that there was next-to-no sizing indicated in the programme. Only three brands added it into their short descriptive paragraph. As someone looking for sizes above a UK16 only, this was disappointing. It makes it harder as a potential buyer when you’re looking at 170 brands under one roof but you have to ask each trader their size range.

So it wasn’t easy to know who was or was not dealing with plus size ranges. Only one brand had imagery of a model over a UK12 – Unique Vintage. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a plus woman in my life.

Very few brands we saw included sizes over a UK18 as their standard sizing. Collectif go up to a UK22 as standard (Although go up to a 26 in the ModCloth ranges). And Love Ur Look (a one-woman business I’d like to add) are working on all their clothing going up to their UK22-24 sizing.

But that’s it for companies going above a UK18 as standard. Two brands out of 170.

I’d pretend I wasn’t surprised to not see my body type represented, but I’m not. Disappointed? Exasperated? Even exhausted? Of course. I’m so bored of this whole conversation, honestly. I don’t want to feel like I need to fight against the world to have clothes in my size every time.

And this is not to diminish how much I appreciate brands who are including plus size ranges, course! I loved that brands I’ve worked with before like Banned and Voodoo Vixen are adding plus sizes to their straight-sizing designs. They were incredibly helpful to also have plus-size specific sections of their stands for ease of viewing, too.

Voodoo Vixen‘s Plus Size Range and my new favourite dress

But overall? There was a lack of plus size representation in the whole of this event.

A point where this was glaringly obvious was in London Edge’s programme, which featured a ‘real people’s’ style gallery with no plus bodies. Even more so in the fashion show, which clearly featured non-alternative models in small sizes. Now I get completely that sample sizes are small to reduce costs, but when brands that do feature plus sizing usually have a sample size of 20/22, surely they could of picked just one larger model?

Oh, and don’t get me started on WOC. I think I counted three women of colour in the fashion show AND in brand’s advertising.

Patti Cakes and Ruby Thunder perusing Collectif‘s prints

I did honestly enjoy my experience at London Edge, however. Being able to meet representatives of brands old and new was great – and meeting some of the friends I’ve made through blogging was also amazing.
I do, however, think that London Edge and the brands that exhibit there can do better.

Did you go to London Edge? What did you think of it? Or what do you think about plus size representation at trade shows? Is it important to you?

To end the post on a slightly higher note, though – I thought I’d pop a photo of my outfit up. I didn’t get enough to do a full style post, but since I put the effort in to wear a hat, it’s worth a tag on the end of the post!

Hat; Handmade (Similar)
Dress; Eshakti (Similar)
Bangles; Splendette
Brooch; Luxulite
Shoes; Miss L Fire (Similar)

2nd September 2018

Peachy Keen With Banned Retro

Beautiful people, it’s the weekend again! I hope you’re all okay?

Last week’s post wasn’t easy to write, but I had such a wonderful response with sharing my experiences with you! It reminds me that we should all be more open with our mental health and the repercussions of it. So thank you, everyone who read the post and shared thoughts. Luckily my mood is improving quite a bit, and after a few days of lazy loveliness with my boyfriend for his birthday, I feel so much more productive! So onwards with this week’s style post; featuring Banned Retro!

We’ve been seeing Banned on Amazon and through wholesalers for years. It’s always been hard to see the whole of their collections – but they’ve finally launched their retail site! And even better than that? They’ve extended the collection they have with plus sizing available! Now parts of their collections go up to a

Banned were so kind to offer me an entire outfit to review for you guys, so buckle in as we’ve got a dress, cardigan, petticoat AND shoes to talk about!

First up, let’s talk bout the dress, shall we? The colour of the Tutti Fruity Sundress drew me in straight away. I bloody love a royal blue – and I was so glad to see that it was so much more vibrant in real life! I was initially unsure about the peach border print – I felt like it was lacklustre in colour compared to the background. Like the rest of the dress, it’s much brighter in real life, but I do think it could use a little more.

Secondly, I love that tie neckline. It’s reminiscent of so many vintage sundresses I’ve seen and lusted over. It also means it’s somewhat adjustable. This came up pretty well-fitting for my bust, so I’d advise going up a size if you’re quite ample.

I took a 3XL in this dress – and although I do have a slight issue with a UK22 being categorised as a 3XL, it is just a label, and it fits so well. This dress is available up to 4XL, but I will say there’s a bit of stretch in the fabric so you could push that a little.

Of course, there’s something else that’s incredibly important to mention about this dress; POCKETS.

We know by now that pockets are universally loved. I adore them, personally. And I’m so pleased to say that there aren’t just bog standard pockets, there’s actual room in there to put things in!

Banned Retro have an amazing collection of cardigans (Hello cactus cardigan!) to choose from, but for this outfit I went for the most complimentary. The Hudson Bolero is a nice easy cardigan, lovely colour and super soft. I took the 2XL in this, and I’d say it was a good size for my arms without stretching the sleeves much!

Now lets talk about these SHOES! I’ve not worn stilettos since I was in my late teens for a particularly good reason – I can’t walk in the bastards. Stilettos are too narrow for my feet, and the heel is just never enough to support me. I get Bambi legs practically every time – UNTIL NOW!

I have wide feet, so I usually take an 8 or even a 9 in shoes. Banned’s shoes mostly only go to a UK7/EU41, apart from the Riverside Rae heels, which come in five colours. So initially I was a little concerned these wouldn’t work for me.

Boy, was I wrong. I have never had a pair of heels this high feel so comfortable. Theres ample width, so your feet aren’t crowded, and the heel is nice and stable. Add to that the supportive cross-straps over the foot – they are just so comfortable to walk in. I’d been looking for a nice pair of non-suede red heels for ages now, I’m so happy to have found these!

Last, but by no means least – the petticoat.

I had it on good authority that Banned petticoats are the best around, and I agree! The Lifeforms Petticoat is so soft to the touch, so fluffy and just so gorgeous! It sits nicely under this dress at 26 inches, but the adjustable waistband can be threaded in three different places to fit under you skirt perfectly.

I took the XL-2XL in this petticoat, and I’d say there wasn’t much room for larger sizes. My 52in hips were at the max for the little underskirt, but you could easily cut that out and wear the waistband on the lowest band should you have your heart set on it.

What do you think, guys? Have you bought from Banned before? Let me know in the comments!

This post may contain affiliate links in an attempt to not be a poor-arse blogger.

25th August 2018

When it’s Not All Sunshine and Rainbows

Happy Sunday, beautiful people! I hope we’re all feeling well?

Its style Saturday today, but I wanted to take this week to do something a bit different from usual. Most weeks I’m dressing up to the nines to show my best side for you. Especially since I’m reviewing products a lot lately that deserve perfect imagery. However, this week I wanted to show you that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, and that’s okay. So I present some very casual plus size style today!

I mention my mental health on here in the most fleeting way possible, usually a line in my first paragraph of each post. I do this because it’s a really important part of my day-to-day life, especially when I’m not in a particularly great way. Sadly, the last two weeks or so have been in that vein.

I have depression and anxiety, the former I’ve dealt with for a lot of my life, and the latter joined on in as I started to get older. Over the last few years, it’s gotten worse. Luckily, since moving to my current area two years ago I’ve been taken more seriously, and my doctors have been much better with dealing with mental health issues. London is notoriously bad for their mental health services, but thankfully Haringey council is one of the better ones.

A few posts back I mentioned taking it slower to focus on myself – before I was working two jobs, six days and a minimum of 50 hours a week. It was draining, let me tell you. I wasn’t happy, or looking after myself at all. My blogging started to wain, my creativity had practically died and I found myself wondering why I bothered constantly.

In that post on my latest sewing project, I mentioned how important creativity was for me, and how much happier I was cutting hours and changing things around. And I really do recommend taking more time for yourself – although I’m in a funk, it’s been so much easier than before!

I mentioned how I dress up a lot for social media, which is true. I do dress the way you see on my blog the majority of the time, but when I’m in a slump, I just don’t have the energy to look like that. Sometimes my depression and anxiety just makes it too hard to be that perfectly dressed person every day.

So when on a wander with my boyfriend last week, I decided to take some photos of my less-than-glamorous outfit. I had planned on dressing up with my hair done and showing off as I usually did, but the reality is that I just couldn’t bring myself to put the effort in. And it feels a little freeing, honestly.

This day was possibly the best day in two weeks. For some reason my anxiety and depression hit hard, and I’ve not been too well. My sleep is awful, my mood fluctuating rapidly, and don’t get me started on the tears. I dropped some milk and cried for an hour. It’s that irrational.

The weekend was a low point for me – I had such a difficult time going to a friend’s night because I believed I wasn’t wanted. I believed no one would miss me if I didn’t show up. The smallest part of me that knew it wasn’t true managed to push me there, and I really enjoyed my night. But to begin with I was skittish, on the verge of tears and my chest was hurting from panic attacks.

It’s not a pleasant thing to suffer with these things – and it’s so much more common than we’ve allowed ourselves to believe. Talking helps, that’s for sure. And taking steps to be honest with yourself and the people around you is the most important.

There’s no cure for depression. But there’s medication (I take paroxetine which has been great for me for a few months) which takes the edge off. There’s counselling and therapies of all sorts. And support groups, too. It takes a while to work out what works for you. Discuss with your doctor what could be best for you.

I guess in a way, I wanted to do this post to tell not only myself, but others that it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay when you’re not a perfect version of yourself every day. And it’s definitely okay to wear your struggles with pride. I fight this constantly, so why shouldn’t I be proud?

Do you deal with depression, anxiety or any other mental health issues? I’d love to hear your experiences and coping mechanisms in the comments.

Have a wonderful week, guys! And remember – you’re loved, worthy, valid and amazing.

Necklace; Handmade (Similar)
Dress; Boohoo (Similar)
Belt; Primark (Similar)
Bag; Vendula London (Disclaimer)

18th August 2018

Pin Up Picnic in the Park 4 With Voodoo Vixen Curve!

Happy Saturday my Darlings! How are we all doing?

The last week’s been a little weird for me. My anxiety and depression decided I was being too nice and came back with vengeance. So I’ve been apathetic towards practically everything for the last week. Maybe it’s because I had decided to be so social the week before? However, I did have a wonderful time at the Pin Up Picnic in the Park 4 before this dip – and was wearing some tiki goodness thanks to Voodoo Vixen!

I was so lucky that my dear friend GreasyChris on Instagram was so so kind to take a few photos!

I posted about Pin Up Picnic in the Park 3 last year – which was actually in a bar. This year, the British Belles pushed the date back to August – and it turned out to be the best idea! The sun was shining, we were drinking and eating to our heart’s contented enjoying each other’s company.

I love picnics in general, but this is such a fun event, because it feels very inclusive. There’s no bitching about hair or clothes, and everyone is celebrated for being themselves. It’s an event you can turn up to on your own and anxiety aside – you’ll find people! I met some amazing new friends this year.

Voodoo Vixen sponsored my outfit for the event with their Dana Dress in pineapple print, as well as some bamboo bangles. Talk about a perfect tiki pairing!

I took my usual 2XL in the Dana Dress, but smaller busts can get away with sizing down, no problem! It was the teensiest bit too big in the waist, which a smaller size would of corrected. But does it look bad? Absolutely not! It’s the sort of dress that doesn’t desperately need the most cinched in of waists. The skirt is full, but not so much that a smaller waist and bigger petticoat is needed – and what a blessing that is!

This dress is just perfect for an occasion like the PUPITP, there’s stretch to accommodate for over-eating of picnic food, and the fabric is quite breathable. I’m wearing it dressed up for the event, however I can see the working as a casual dress easily. Some cute ballet flats and a cardigan could see this go into autumn, too.

I was also gifted a pack of bamboo bangles, because how can you go tiki without bamboo? They’re the perfect accompaniment to the dress – but also to my Luxulite Pineapple Brooch and Yellow and Green spacers!

Of course, I need to address my hat, don’t I? Believe it or not – this was made at 3am the morning before from an IKEA placemat, the monstera leaf is cut from felt and prick stitched on. Then I glued the placemat onto a headband and bent into place. It’s simple to make, but the possibilities are endless!

Would anyone be interested in a tutorial?

I wasn’t the only one with the idea of turning the exact placemat into a hat, though – the wonderful Sarah (EssBDee on Instagram) made the most GORGEOUS vintage-style hat you just have to check out! I’ll be taking a leaf out of her book pretty soon!

Towards the end of the night, me and the last surviving attendees went to get our tiki on at Trader Vic’s – what a perfect setting for my Vendula London Tiki Bar Grab Bag, don’t you think?

Hat; Handmade
Necklace; Handmade (Similar)
Dress; C/O Voodoo Vixen (Disclaimer)
Brooch; Luxulite
Bag; Vendula London
Bangles;
Bamboo; C/O Voodoo Vixen |Lucite; Luxulite

11th August 2018

Late Blooms – A Handmade Cherry Blossom Skirt!

Well, hello my darlings!

It’s Saturday and finally the heatwave broke. Who knew we’d want LESS summer when we complain we never get a proper one? I’m pretty excited to show you this week’s style, though, because it includes something I’ve actually MADE! I present my first sewing project in eight months; My handmade cherry blossom skirt!

The last thing I made was way back in November, when I made my well-worn Gingham in Winter skirt. Since then work kept me from sitting at my sewing machine. Opening a new shop, taking on more hours and then adding freelance work and gaining a boyfriend takes all your spare time, apparently!

But the good news is that I’ve finally decided to stop doing EVERYTHING, moved shops, cut my hours and am working on the ol’ mental health – and part of that is expressing my creativity a lot more. As Tricia from Hotties Vintage says; You can do ANYTHING but not EVERYTHING. Life has been easier since putting that into practice.

handmade cherry blossom skirt — Hello, resting bitch face!

The fabric is from Okadaya in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It’s the same place I got the fabric from my Can I Be A Racoon Dog? skirt. As mentioned in that post, they have 2m bundles for 900¥, which is roughly £6. And when I say its the best quality fabric I’ve ever seen, oh BOY do I mean it.

This cotton is a medium-weight textured 100% cotton. It behaves beautifully, doesn’t fray and is stiff enough to keep its shape whilst being soft to the touch. Japanese fabrics are insanely good, and such pleasure to sew with, especially since

This skirt isn’t as full as I’m generally used to, 3 metres is my usual minimum for flared skirts, as I love me some voluminosity! I put off making it for a while for this reason, as I wanted to do the fabric justice. But to hell with it, I thought, and did my best.

In the end, although it’s not the most perfectly full skirt in the well, it is one of my new favourites. It actually lends itself to being more casual, which works well as the colours are so vibrant! I also did something a little different with the pockets, inspired by Ask Sarah (who hilariously was inspired by me!) You can’t see the gold button on the folder, but it’s there to bring out the gold outlining on the fabric!

Although it’s off subject, I was totally in love with my hair this day! Forgiving the awful roots I’ve now corrected, I think I’ve levelled up in my hair game! Clearly working with House of Drewvid products and seeing Miss Rockabilly Ruby has rubbed off on me.

What do you think of my handmade cherry blossom skirt? Tell me in the comments, and have a wonderful week!

Hair Flower; Handmade (Similar)
Necklace; Handmade (Similar)
Top; Collectif | Bag; Collectif
Belt; Primark
Skirt; Handmade
Shoes; Swedish Hasbeens (Similar)

4th August 2018

Fat Goth Queen with a Boohoo Plus Cape Dress

Well hi there, friends! How has the last week treated you?

I’ve ended up having just a wonderful week, the heat has died down but it’s still sunny. And I’m finally feeling like I’m on a right path on the ol’ mental health, which is so freeing. This week’s style is a combination of an amazing dress, and even better hair! I mentioned in my last post that I was lucky enough to be a hair model for Miss Rockabilly Ruby. Well, I couldn’t let that go to waste, could I? I knew it would work SO well with this Boohoo Plus cape dress.

Two Sundays ago I was invited last minute to Revival Retro for Miss Ruby’s Primp and Pose tour hair class. Like, 11pm the night before last minute. But what a great class it was, Ruby is a great teacher – as well as incredibly talented with hair.

I modelled alongside Chloe and Tahra, and we had a laugh alongside Ruby and Lottie and I got to stare at beautiful people whilst getting magic applied to my hair. Ruby showed us how to create Hollywood waves on short hair, and I got to look like this afterwards.

I’ve always wanted to do these Hollywood waves on myself, but they just never work. Turns out that it’s not 100% my fault, and it’s incredibly difficult to do on yourself. Should you want to try it, use the smallest barrel of curling tong possible, plus the tiniest sections your hair allows. And a ridiculous amount of talent, apparently!

It’s just a different sort of style for me, my usual pageboy-style is voluminous and full of height and width. I was almost weirded out looking at myself with a full face and hair without a fringe swoop. But MY GOD did I love it.

So of course, I did what anyone would do. I ran home to change into this gorgeous Boohoo Plus caped dress and posed about like the fat goth queen of my dreams.

This dress might look a little familiar, since I featured it on my Wednesday Wishlist a few weeks ago. It’s still in stock, somehow – this dress is GORGEOUS. And it’s a bargain at £18, too.

The most important part, of course, is that is has goddamn caped sleeves. The caped sleeves are large and sweeping, and unattached from the back of the dress. This means you can play around with having the draping at the front or as sleeves. Of course, I’m ALL about these sleeves. Morticia Addams would be proud. Elvira would be proud.

It’s made from a slinky polyester that breathes well, and is spot-on with being true to size. I literally have nothing negative to say about this dress, it’s an absolute wonder!

I’ve mentioned in probably all my posts featuring a pencil skirt about my issues with my belly. It’s the one thing about me I struggle the most with when it comes to my body confidence. But you know, I don’t look at these photos and notice it.

I feel like being ‘sexy’ isn’t quite my bag, but I love brands like Boohoo who bring their straight-sizing styles to their curve ranges. It lets me play with my style and also buy clothing that makes me feel – and believe – that I too can be ‘sexy’ (I really dislike that word) and glamorous. Even with my VBO (visible belly outline) and pale-ass legs. I feel fucking amazing in this dress!

Dress; Boohoo Plus
Necklace; Handmade (Similar)
Earrings; Bow and Crosbones
Shoes; ASOS (Similar)

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