Un-stereotypical celebrity Adele

I really want to take the time to look at Adele. I was going to use her as one of my fashion icons at a later date but have decided to change view I was going towards.

I think Adele is an extremely beautiful woman.  I love the confidence she appears to show us through media outlets. Adele is what could be considered an un-stereotypical celebrity as she doesn’t fit in to the norm “body image”.   The bare fact that she is able to work within the entertainment industry shows to me that she comfortable and proud of her body image and her full figure. I personally feel that this shows. Not only for me that she is a fashion icon but I also feel that young girls can look up to her and see that you don’t have to look like a certain image to be successful within this industry, which in turns means that she has a greater responsibility then just selling albums, which I feel that she understands and accepts.

What I love about Adele is her frankness that she does not care of the body image people want her to be, I feel she has a attitude if you don’t like what you see then look the other way. I just feel like its so refreshing to see someone so young and media eye saying this is me accept me and focus on my talent not my size because she is not willing to fall into peer pressure. I feel that she is surely proving this point with two successful albums behind her I would to say well done and thank you to her.

Below is snippets form pervious interviews she done where her weight has came up in discussion.

“Her body is also big, if we're talking fashion-world metrics. Adele says she weighs 11 stone (154 pounds) and wears a British size 14 (size 12 in the U.S.) Does she feel pressure to slim down? "I've been the same since I was 15 and went on the contraceptive pill. I've got this far without looking like Britney Spears. I think I can go a bit further,"

“Being told how to look is about being a product and I don’t want to be a product,’ she says. ‘I’d say my look is shabby-chic,’ she laughs. ‘I just wear big jumpers over tight jeans and carry a huge bag, and that’s it. I don’t want people to notice how I look. Although that’s probably not working because I’m bigger than most people doing this job, but I want people to just listen to me.”

“The focus on my appearance has really surprised me,’ she admits. ‘I’ve always been a size 14 to 16, I don’t care about clothes, I’d rather spend my money on cigarettes and booze. I like having my hair and face done, but I’m not going to lose weight because someone tells me to. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy.”

“People don’t need to use their bodies sexually to do well at all. If anyone ever told me to lose weight I wouldn’t work with them any more. I’d be like, “ba-bye!”’

Here are some of my favourite outfits

This outfit is pink and black dress I wore this dress when I went on holiday November what I love about this dress is that on black half it has a raffle effect which is hard to see through this picture, because of this I feel like it allowed less concentration on the stomach area. This dress was bought from Primark for £10. I teamed it with peep toe ankle boots from Evans for £30. also wore pink and gold accessorises.

This again was holiday outfit the grey vest top is H&M and was £2.99 and the skirt is also from H&M. Yes I said previously that I do not like stripes clothing because I feel like it makes me look bigger then I am but I feel that how I teemed this skirt up with a plain fitted long vest top works really well together, it allowed for vest top to create a shape rather then the skirt.

Today I am wearing a navy and white bubble top with black leggings and a navy blazer. What I love about this outfit is that it so comfortable for work, and if you any unsuspected evening plans you won’t feel like you have to rush home and change. This bubble top/dress is from Primark but it was bought last year February but this style for me will not be out of fashion. I teamed this outfit with black flats and gold accessorises.

This is the  winning outfit from last week I can not state enough how much I loved wearing this outfit I felt so good within it and I felt like it showed. The whole outfit apart from the shoes was from Primark this outfit was bought on a budget the total cost of the trouser, blazer and vest top was £20. I feel like the trouser made my legs look longer and slimmer and the fitted black vest top gave the impression of a smaller waist.
The reason I took this picture with heels was to show how again you can make your simple outfit a great evening wear as well. As I was just going to work I wore it flat gold shoes I also teamed it with gold accessories.

the black shoes in this outfit was bought for Evans for £20 in the sale.

Just to state again that Primark stock up to size 20 certain ranges of clothing. H&M also provides plus size clothing, all the clothing in these pictures was size 18.

Dieting

In an earlier blog post I stated this blog is not just about fashion in the plus size industry but also the importance of  being confident within your own skin, so that you

can you look in the mirror and accept the body image you see in front of you. If you’re unable to accept it then you’re not going to feel confident in the clothes that you wear.

This week I am going to be addressing the issue of dieting, I have always wondered what are the right and wrong reasons to diet or is there are any reasons at all?

I’m will not be the first and surely not the last person who is going to look in the mirror and think I really need to lose weight. Most people will go through a stage when they want to lose weight and make a change to their body, whether its a man or a woman.

I have a real problem when people say they are dieting, actually more of a question than a problem “Are you dieting for the right reasons?”

A diet will never work if you are dieting for the wrong reason, for example, dieting to fit into a stero-typical image, and trying to fit into the so called perfect size and body shape.

What we have to realise as a society is that not everyone has got the same body shape or bone structure. This needs to be taken into consideration when dieting. Somebody like me that has a big bone structure knows I will never be a size 6 nor would weighing 7-8 stones suit me. This would make me look un-healthy because of my bone structure and height is not suited for that size or weight.

You have to diet because you want to and are ready for a long term change, with dieting there are no quick fix solutions. I am personally not a fan of these diet tablets, or 6 weeks diet plans. “What happens when you stop taking the tablets? or stop using the diet plan?” The weight will simply pill back on and you will then feel defeated because you’re back at square one.

I feel that providers of dieting plans have seen that this industry is a lucrative business and advertise these diets as you will lose 10lbs in one week if you follow this easy no effort plans. Yes it works but the problem you will start to see is that after week one when you have lost the weight you may find that the following weeks you are unable to shed the lbs. I cannot stress enough that there are no quick fix in dieting.

I am currently on a diet myself, the reason I am on a diet is because I am ready to make the change. Plenty of times before when I attempted to diet I was not serious about it and this led to the diet not working for me or I was dieting because I wanted to fit in with the images of my friends and images of society but it never worked because I was not ready to diet.

You may ask what are my reason for dieting?, the answer is because I want to be more healthy my aim is not to become skinny or to fit the image society has labelled us to have but to feel a little bit more confident within my self.

The topic of weight has become a national concern in recent years, some have argued that obesity is at the highest its been in years. In the past I have read headings of “Fat Britain”, “parents to blame of child obesity” the headings go on and on.

Yes the level of obesity is at the highest but I feel that the media puts so much emphasize of weight that they are making more eating disorders among young woman, there is know a steady increase in anorexia amongst young women.

The biggest problem I have with the media is when they put celebrities like Beyonce and say she needs to go on a diet because she gained extra pounds. I just feel like screaming and saying “ARE YOU CRAZY, hello our youth are reading this” Some young people read it and think if Beyonce needs to diet then so do I.

I really feel like there should be a ban on the media talking negative about weight whether someone is big or small because I feel like there are bigger consequences then just selling magazines and newspapers.

The harder you make the goal or the more pressure you put upon yourself to obtain this ideal shape the more difficult it will be for you to maintain your weight lose plan.

For healthy, natural weight lose, the safest and most effective way is eat healthy and exercise and a more balanced diet. It may take longer for the weight lose to show but you will be surprised that the weight lose would remain.

The following are 10 reasons why a diet might not work

1. Mindless eating
2. Putting over needs ahead of our own
3. Not being honest
4. Skip the vegetables to eat the fries
5. Excuses, Excuses
6. I am moody- lets just eat
7. Give me the quick fix now
8. Starting off without a plan
9. Drinking away our waistlines
10. The all or nothing approach.

Types of diets according to wikipedia

·        Low fat diets: deals with the reduction of the percentage of fat in ones diet

·        Low-carbohydrate diets: such as Atkins and protein power are relatively high in protein.

·        Low-calorie diets: deficit of 200-100 calories per day, weight watchers are known to use this approach.

·        Detox diets: these diets claim to eliminate toxins from the human body, increasing the amount urine produced which is not giving the body enough time absorb the fat.

·        Very low calorie diets: deals with providing 20-800 calories per day maintaining protein intake but limiting calories from both fat and carbohydrates.

Just would like stress that dieting to fast can lead to side affects such as leading to other eating disorders, depression, rashes, seizures and rapid weight gain after the diet is over to name a few. So please be careful when dieting, will stress again I do not feel like there is a need for a quick fixt diet plan and be realistic. I been reading various articles and a lot have mention to keep a food journal because this allows you to be truthfully honest with yourself with what food you are eating on daily, also with these journals if their particular moods that affect your eating plans write it down, you be surprised on how hopefully this tool can be when dieting.

Some argue there are no right and wrong reason to dieting because everyone is different what works for me may not work for, just don’t feel like your pressured into dieting and make the choice for you.

I will be coming back to topic in a few months but I just felt like I needed to touch upon it, there are so much readings and research that I feel I need properly understand and give you full understanding of the impacts of dieting and not dieting.

Fashion icon of the month

As I said before fashion is more than about the clothes you wear but the confidence you wear it with. For this reason my fashion icon for this month is Mo’Nique. When I see pictures of her I think she is absolutely stunning and she wears the clothing rather then let the clothing wearing her. I love her style, I have to salute her stylist they get it right. Often or not we see plus celebrities and they are dressed so old and plain which does not do anything for them and they don’t look confident within their clothes.  With Mo’Nique she showing big is sexy, fashionable and trendy. Here are a few images of her.

Favourite items of the week.

 This Pink Bow shoulder dress is from New look.  (http://www.newlook.co.uk/) currently on sale for £21.59 original priced at£26.99. I would probably team this dress with gold accessorises. As the snip at the back the dress is gold but has a black lining down the back of dress. For the shoes, I would match it with a pair of black heel. This dress can be a great evening wear dress even though the design of it is simple.

This pleated pink dress is from New look (http://www.newlook.co.uk/) This dress is versatile and can be worn either to work or on a night out. If I was wearing it to work I would wear it with black tights and flat pumps.

This dress is an Asos curve exclusive (http://www.asos.com/) Priced at £32 but was originally £40. What can I say except that I absolutely love it and will be ordering one for myself. I would team it up with gold accessories and either gold, tan or black peep toe heels. Too be honest most colours would look fab with it.

At first I was not sure about this dress, it’s a real statement colour . The colour is so bold and in your face. I feel with a dress like this you just need simple add ons, so I would team it with a black clutch bag and black shoes with silver accessories.

This bird pleated blouse is from new look for £19.99 I feel this blouse is a good work shirt but also would look good if your going out for a meal. I recommend teaming it up with a pair of wide fitted trousers or jeans could even try a pair of skiny jeans as the picture shows below with a pair heels. 

 

this pair of skiny jeans are from New look priced at 19.99

This pair of clogg style heals are from Evans priced at £29.99, they also are a camel colour which i will be putting up at a later date.

This blue ruffle bandeau jumpsuit is £26.99 from New Look this one of my must have for the summer i would wear it with flat gold sandels and gold accessories and a little cardigan.

This Bangel set are from New Look

This ring is from New Look

i am absolutely in love with new looks sheer shirts they have various colours  on offer prices range from £9-14. I personally own it in pink and orange and team mine up with leggings, pumps and bold accessories.

Retailers that sell plus size clothing.

New look ( http://www.newlook.co.uk/)

I love New Look fashion as I feel like that they have got it right for plus size women and they also keep the clothes trendy and affordable. The stock clothes sizes from 6-26. There shoes range is also good as well but if like me you need a wide fitting it can be a problem at times.

Dorothy Perkins  http://www.dorothperkins.com/

Dorothy Perkins used to be good for plus size women but I feel that recently they have started to go down hill.  I found that the items on their website tends to fit me better than the clothes sold in the store. Sizes range is from 6-22.

Primark

What I love about Primark is that you can get simple items of clothing and make it into a nice outfit by dressing it up with shoes and accessorises. Primark is know for stocking up to size 20 but the average sizes in store range from 6-18.

Evans http://www.evans.co.uk/

Evans has hugely disappointed me over the years, personally I don’t think  much effort goes into the design of the clothes. I find the clothes don’t have much shape to it and the clothes are hugely over priced.

They do however have a nice shoe range which I am a fan of. They offer a huge shoe range going from shoe sizes 4-10 and also have a wide fitting range.

They also sell bras up to size 50G.

Asos http://www.asos.com/

Asos is an online website that offers a wide range of clothing from Designers to high street brands and also their own label. Asos stock clothes from size 6-26.

Matalan   http://www.matalan.co.uk/

Matalan offers a wide range of clothing from sizes 8-30 and are also good when it comes to stocking holiday clothes.

Other retailers

I personally have not shopped or bought anything from the following three websites but I wanted to give you different options of where you can purchase plus size clothing. I will put up more sites within the near future.

Simple Be

Simple be offer a range of clothing from sizes 14-26 www.simplybe.co.uk

Curvety.com

Curvety offers a wide range of clothing from sizes 16-32 www.curvety.com please note this clothing retailer prices are extremely high but they do offer nice clothing.

Your clothing

Yours clothing offer a range of clothing from sizes 16-32 www.yoursclothing.co.uk

The following large store supermarkets also offer clothes for the plus size woman

Asda http://www.asda.co.uk/

Asda’s George range offer sa range of clothing from sizes from sizes 8-20. I would recommend their bra range which goes up to size G.

Tesco www.clothingattesco.com

Tesco F&F true range offers a range of clothing from sizes 16-28.

Basic trends and recommendations

“Sometimes does it feel that choosing the right colour of clothes is hardest thing to do?”

If so, you’re not alone its one thing that most plus sizes woman find difficult to decide.

I was a fan of dark colour clothing in the past a bit too much, I believed in the myth that dark clothes would make me look slimmer and make my legs look longer. Personally I beg to differ I think its more to do with design of the item of clothing rather than the colour of the clothes. I dare you to try that bold colour of clothes you will find surprisingly that it fits and makes you look just as good as dark items of clothes.

I personally try to avoid choosing clothing that is either; shiny or has patterns and stripes because it makes me look much bigger than I am. I recommend you be very careful when choosing these types of clothing because some of them are not flattering on bigger sized women.

If you do choose any of these items of clothing, make sure that the vertical line of the body is not cut off by any part of the outfit.

It is a known fact that heels are flattering for any woman as it not only determines your outfit but will make your legs look longer and slimmer given both you and your outfit that extra sexy look. 

I love shoes with a passion and will be doing a feature on what shoes to wear wit an outfit in the near future.

As well as heels, accessories are very vital to an outfit. Whether it is, a piece of jewellery, a handbag or even a scarf, accessories is where you can be as bold as you want to be.

Using accessories allows you to hide parts of your body that you don’t like it and also allows you to dress up a basic piece of clothing. For plus sizes ladies I recommend a large statement piece trust me it will add so much affect to your body and style.

for example i teamed this outfit with a bold red and gold neckless i wore this with black ankle boots

Finally for this section is basic sizing tips

Sizing is a MAJOR issue when it comes to plus size women; we either go one of two ways; wear baggy clothing or wearing clothing that is too small.

I’m not sure why we don’t like wearing our actual size. For example, in the past I tended to wear baggy clothes because I felt it hid parts of the body I hated but I have learnt that nothing looks more sliming than wearing you actual clothes.When an item of clothes fits and fits well you will feel 100% better within your self I grantee this to you.

Never be afraid to follow trends and also never be afraid to set a trend. Don’t ever feel because of your size you can’t carry out a particular new trend you see in magazines or on mannequins.

Remember these images only show an average size person and it’s not a true representation. As a plus size person I argue you can wear anything you want as long as it fits you well. As I mentioned earlier its about having the confidence to wear the clothes.  

Below is an example of some of the current trend I like to wear.

One of my fashion love is simple black leggings as you can match it with so many different items of clothing.  For example,

this orange sheer shirt goes great with a pair of black leggings and can be worn with flats for a casual look or with heels for a dresser look.

( the shirt is from New Look. It is currently on sale for £9 was £24.99 and the leggings are also from New Look for £6.99. You can also purchase legging from Primark they know stock up to size 20 for £3)

The fashion industry and media influences

For me personally I feel the fashion industry in the UK has failed both the plus size industry and the women that fall into this industry. This makes me question whether these designers, retailers and manufactures have done research on the changing demand for this industry.

According to Mintel 2010 “10.1 million women in the uk (equivalent to nearly 40% of the female population) are wearing clothes 16 and over, there is a growing demand as over, there is a growing demand for clothing representative of the overall population”

This research shows that retailers are not matching the demand. “Demand is high but supply is low”.

Compared to the U.S., the UK fashion market is not doing the marketing that is needed to prompt the plus size industry. The U.S retailers spent a large amount of money on marketing for the plus size industry. The marketing specialists helps the U.S. retailers to determine on how these products should be sold and determine what type of advertisement is needed for the plus size industry.

I truly believe that the UK fashion industry needs to look into the market and do some research and offer more for plus sizes. I believe that more retailers need to specialise in plus sizes and offer a wider range of sizes for women. There is more annoying than finding an item of clothes you love but the shop doesn’t have your size.

I am so tried of going into shops that say they cater for plus sizes but when you look at the clothes there is no shape and design, it’s just a big piece of cloth. “Are we supposed to be grateful for this? And also be expected to pay extremely high prices for the use of extra cloth.” I find this a joke.

The industry needs to wake and look around; the average size of a woman is no longer sizes 6/8 but is actually a size 16. “So why are manufactures only catering for smaller sizes? What does this portray to the younger buyers?”

 In my eyes it gives off the message that you can only be stylish if you’re a smaller size. No this is so wrong; we need to look at the bigger picture and what these images are doing to young society. I truly believe this is the reason for all of these fad diets, to fit into an image that nine times out ten is hard to achieve.

What I love about the American fashion industry is that they don’t discriminate against the plus size industry. For example, when Tyra Banks did Americas Next Top Model season 10 and Whitney Thompson won, a plus size model, I thought it changed the perceptive on how people look at plus size models.

WHITNEY THOMPSON

Passion for fashion introduction

Hello & Welcome to my blog, this blog intends to look at fashion for the plus size industry. As a young plus size female I feel that fashion is not only important but it is very important to look and feel comfortable in your clothes no matter what your size is.

One of the main reasons for starting this blog is not only inspire women who fall under this category but to also give people a better understanding of the fashion industry for plus sizes.

The most important thing about fashion is being able to feel confident in what you wear and what you like, because I’m confident in what I wear, I don’t double question or follow a particular trend that does not suit and or complement me.

According to the fashion industry, I am considered a plus size woman because I wear size 18 clothes. Despite being a size 18, over the last couple of years I have started to really experiment with fashion due to growing tried of always wearing the same type of clothes. “There is only so much dressing in black one person can do”.

In the past I used to stick to clothes that I thought made me look slimmer and would  always be comparing myself and doubting that I be able to wear  a certain item of clothes due to my size but now I have started to wear my clothes instead of my clothes wearing me.

By this I mean, that I now own the clothes that I wear. For example, today I am wearing a grey mini dress and a grey blazer. Before I would never dream of wearing s something like this as in my mind I would think this item of clothing would ever look right on me.

  

 

My attitude before would be that it would look better on someone who is a size 6,8,10,12, 14, 16 for the simple reason of my size but as I mentioned before becoming more  confident within in my self always me to wear and own the dress.

I would like to take this opportunity to state I have nothing against smaller size woman but I just really want to show that curvy/big women are equally as fashionable as thinner counterparts.