Tried & Tested: Jasmine Guinness ‘Queen of Hearts’ dress

I was recently invited by Very.co.uk to try an item of clothing from their website. I knew there’d be no problem finding something – with Holly Willougby’s curve-friendly collection and plenty of stylish stuff in the Love Label range, the most difficult thing was actually narrowing it down. I eventually decided to go for something a bit special from vintage fiend Jasmine Guinness, and picked her ‘Queen of Hearts’ dress, a 50s style number with a cute heart-print peekaboo hemline that was very Alice in Wonderland…

One dress, three ways

The team at TK Maxx recently got in touch to see if I’d like to take part in their bloggers challenge. It sounded like fun, so I threw my hat in the ring. For the challenge, I had to create three outfits around the same item, each outfit matching a scenario picked for me.

I find these kind of styling challenges quite difficult, but I’m always up for having a go! I have no problem putting an outfit together at home, but faced with every accessory on the internet I get incredibly matchy-matchy. Still, it was great fun to try creating different looks around the same dress, though I could have spent another three days looking for just the right things!

The dress TK Maxx picked was a bright coral dress with frilled trim – quite a statement frock which is totally my style. I’ve worked on the assumption that these outfits are for me, so though I’ve picked from mainstream stores rather than plus size this time around, I’ve gone for items that’ll look good on a curvier woman, so hopefully these outfits might provide some inspiration even if you don’t like the finished looks…

From Beth Ditto to Big Girl – trying the Evans range on for size!

At the blogger’s preview of Beth Ditto for Evans I got the chance to see the pieces from the collection up close and there were loads that caught my eye. However, I decided if I was going to give this collection a go, I may as well go for one of the stand-out, ‘famous’ pieces. The body-con domino print dress was the item Beth herself chose to wear to the launch party, and I loved that the super-fitted shape and bold print were so unusual for a plus size range. Beth’s known for sticking two fingers up to convention so I decided to do the same. Keeping away from the pieces that were more ‘me’ (like the strapless stained glass dress) I put in an order for the domino dress. And I must say, it was a novelty to be ordering the smallest size for once!

Simply Be channel Lanvin

Bohemian, Homespun, Mexican…they’re just three of the trends that UK plus-size specialists Simply Be are pushing this season to their size 14 – 32 customers. Eschewing the usual elasticated waists, sack-like shapes and oversize t-shirts of most plus sized mail order catalogues, the brand has a more trend-lead approach that’ll have larger ladies in the UK giving their skinnier counterparts a run for their money in the fashion stakes.