Oh Holly!!

I recently wrote a post called “What is a Real Woman?"

I feel obliged to mention it again as I have just seen the new Very campaign with Holly Willoughby.  Now I love Holly and I love the clothes that she is associated with on Very.  But this ad campaign leaves a sour taste in my mouth I’m afraid.

A competition has been launched to find “real women” to walk the catwalk and model her collection.  She has been quoted in their blog saying:

“I want to show the clothes as they should be seen, on real women with real figures walking down the catwalk. This is when the clothes will look their best.”

What does that even mean?   Holly, Holly, we are all real women, whatever our size.  A woman is just as real at size 6 as she is at size 30.    

We all have a body.  We all wear clothes.  We all wear our clothes in different ways, with different attitudes and with varying amounts of confidence.  A dress can look fabulous on a woman of any size.

Design a collection for specific sizes if you want Holly, but don’t say that it is for real women.  Size 6 or size 30, every woman is real and has a right to dress, feel and be how she wants.

A Couple of Outfits of the Day

I love having red somewhere in my outfits, it inspires confidence and it is my favourite colour.  I bought a red cardigan from Primark a few months ago and it has become a key piece in my wardrobe, bringing together many an outfit.

I wore the cardigan with two different outfits today and thought I would share them with you.  The first is one photograph, an outfit I quickly put together for nipping out of the house in the afternoon.

Red cardigan - Primark £6.00

Glasses print top - Next

Jeans - Dorothy Perkins

My second outfit was put together for a Mother's Day meal out.  Never being one to turn down the opportunity to put on a dress, I raided my wardrobe and put together an outfit comprised mainly from the @So_Fab_Clothing.

Heart Print Tea Dress - So Fabulous from Very £32.00 from here

Biker Jacket - So Fabulous from Very £45.00 found here

Bow Detail Belt - Very

I loved wearing the red cardigan with the heart print dress.  I felt a little like the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland for some reason, although I promise, all heads remained where they were!

Did you have any good outfits for Mother's Day?

The Notice Me Dress

I had my birthday this week and to mark the occasion I wanted to go with the family for a meal.  I also wanted to use the occasion to find a dress that showed how my confidence journey had progressed.

When the lovely people at SimplyBe let me review a few pieces for them, I immediately noticed this Anna Scholz dress as being one that stood out from the crowd.  With it’s bright, bold colours and colour block design it is a world away from anything I would have previously chosen (black, black and more black) so I decided that this was the one for me.

The dress is very well made and has those little details that you get with a quality dress, such as a weight on the inside of the cowl neckline to ensure that it hangs perfectly every time.  There are also pockets to the front of the dress which add a different dimension to the dress.

As you can see from the first photo, if you have a larger chest the expanse of colour at the top of the dress may be a little much, so I added a necklace and also a shrug which finished the look for me and also covered my arms.

I wore the dress for my birthday meal and I loved it.   With a lot of people wearing dark and muted colours in the restaurant, I felt like a peacock strutting my plumage with the bright colours and felt confident in it.

The dress can be found here, priced at £70.00.  I also wore t-bar shoes from Love Label and a shrug from Very.