Candy Stripes

The weather has been absolutely glorious in Liverpool recently, so Mr. McMc and I decided to make the most of it by getting out of the house and soaking up some sunshine. On Sunday, we went to see the (incredible) Francis Bacon ‘invisible rooms’ exhibition at Tate Liverpool, followed by a long walk by the River Mersey and a pint in The Baltic Fleet – possibly the only pub I’ve ever found which has a sea shanties night every Saturday.

Good weather doesn’t tend to last long in this part of the world, so I used it as an excuse to finally throw out the tights and break out the summer dresses, like this glorious ice cream striped rockabilly shirt dress from Lindy Bop.

The colours of this dress remind me of the seaside, 99 ice creams with raspberry sauce and neon pink sticks of Blackpool rock. One thing to note is that it is quite tight around the bust, particularly with the buttons, so you might need to size up if (like me) you’re blessed with rather large boobs.

I teamed this outfit with a delightful pom-pom studded wicker bag that I found in Primark (!!) which will be just the thing to cart my stuff around in when I go on holiday in a fortnight.

SUNGLASSES: Monki

DRESS: Lindy Bop

CARDIGAN: Collectif (old)

BAG: Primark

SHOES: Primark

EARRINGS: Topshop

NECKLACE: Tatty Devine (old)

I’ve really gotten into NYX’s soft matte lip creams recently as they’re a relatively cheap way to try out bold, bright colours. They’ve got pretty decent staying power and don’t crack as they dry (which is more than can be said for other budget brands I’ve tried.) I’m wearing San Paulo here which is a gloriously vibrant shade of pink and which I know will be great for summer.

Hello Sailor!

My brother turned 30 this week, a fact which I am trying to ignore as it makes me feel incredibly old. It doesn’t feel like that much time has passed since we were kids and hitting each other over the head with plates because we’d watched too much Reeves and Mortimer.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, my family decided to visit our favourite cheap Lebanese restaurant and eat a metric ton of hummus. What better reason to wear a slightly-too-big-for-me swing skirt emblazoned with lobsters and star fish?

Bolero cardigan: Collectif

Top: Collectif

Swing skirt: Collectif

Head scarf: Vintage

Earrings: Topshop

Necklace: Tatty Devine

Shoes: Primark

                                                         Rock lobster

I bought this Collectif skirt in their huge sale over the summer, and I simply adore it. It’s just so swishy and fun, plus it contains satisfyingly deep pockets. You can shove everything from lipsticks to corkscrews to hip flasks in there and they’ll barely make a dent. Collectif’s sizing can be a bit odd, so I sized up. While it turns out that I probably didn’t need to (which is a good guide for any swing skirts I intend to buy from them in the future), it does mean that this skirt is satisyingly roomy, meaning that you can eat a shed load of food while wearing it without feeling as though your stomach is going to erupt from acid reflux.

Most of all, I love this outfit because it’s so me. It’s comfy and makes me feel as cute as a button. I do wish more plus sized retailers would make swing skirts like this one. They’re just so great to wear and suit pretty much everyone.

I decided to break out my new Charlotte Tilbury 1975 Red for the occasion. It’s such a great lipstick – a coral red which comes in some of the most beautiful packaging I’ve seen. However, I feel that it makes me look a bit washed out. While I love it, it’s a shade which may have suited me better when I had red hair.

Praise be then to Sleek’s Russian Roulette. I raved about this budget lipstick in my last post, but seriously – this stuff is the bees knees. A combination of that and some seriously good Autumnal lighting led to me taking my best selfie in months (despite me being in the throes of a cracking hangover.) When a lippy can do that and only costs £4.99, it’s got to have some magical properties that aren’t listed on the label.

A Stroke of Genius

In a fit of 2002-inspired nostalgia, I went to see The Strokes in Hyde Park with my friend Bethany last Thursday. While Julian Casablancas’s hair, £5.50 pints and men announcing loudly that they had sore genitalia left a lot to be desired, I had a great time dancing around to music which reminded me of being younger, skinter and stupider. I also looked banging (even if I do say so myself).

TOP: Collectif

SKIRT: Primark

SHOES: Primark

NECKLACE: Tatty Devine

The good weather also provided me with the perfect opportunity to rock out with my tats out. When I was younger (and a lot less confident about my size than I am now), I always felt wary about getting my upper arms out in public because they were so pale and chubby. However, as time has gone on – and they’ve become increasingly covered with tattoos – I’ve learned to not to give a toss about what people think about them. It turns out that when you get a giant ‘Sink or Swim’ badge inked onto your bicep, passers by tend to pay more attention to that than the fat it’s emblazoned on.

While I’m not yet entirely at a place where I love my upper arms as much as other parts of my body, it’s a constant process. The more I get them out in the public, the more I learn to appreciate them, how good they look and how much they can do. These are arms that repeatedly lift a heavy suitcase above my head on trains after all, why shouldn’t I be wowed by them? Plus, wonderful pieces like this one in Bustle help me to appreciate just how bad ass bare armed fat women can look. While there’s lots of legitimate reasons why women feel uncomfortable bearing their arms, a bit of chub shouldn’t be one of them.

Both of these photos can also be seen on this post at the Simply Be blog.

Start Wearing Purple

If there’s one thing my family like, it’s a wedding. After all, it’s the perfect excuse to get dressed up AND get drunk. What’s not to love? So, when my brother Daniel got married to his wonderful fiancee Kathy at Manchester Town Hall last Saturday, it was bound to be one hell of a party. I was honoured to be asked to be a bridesmaid, along with my sister  Charlotte, and Kathy’s sister, Karen, and we carried out our duties with aplomb. We danced, we drank prosecco, we cried and (most importantly), we all looked really bloody good.

What a bunch of beauts, eh?

Kathy kindly told us that we could choose our own dresses, so long as they were purple. While it’s a bit of a cop-out for a fat woman to wear something in a 50s style when she wants to dress up (seriously plus sized designers, we’re not all femme!) I wanted to wear something simple yet swishy – if only so I could swirl around pretending to be Kate Bush in the Wuthering Heights video at some point during the wedding disco.

This ‘Grace’ dress from Lindy Bop was adorable without being too fussy (even if I’m not a huge fan of the black piping on it.) Plus, it has just the right amount of stretch to accommodate my mega boobs. You may laugh, but this is no mean feat.

Picture by Claire Legg Photography

DRESS: Lindy Bop

CARDIGAN: Collectif

PETTICOAT: Vivien of Holloway

SHOES: ASOS

EARRINGS: Etsy (vintage)

Doesn’t my make-up look good too? Praise be to professional make-up artists, MAC’S Russian Red and the dark arts of contoring. There’s something a bit gutting in the knowledge that this is the best I’m probably going to look all year. Maybe I should just wear false eyelashes more often.

Picture by Claire Legg Photography

A charming picture of me and my sister

Picture by Claire Legg Photography

It was a wonderful, beautiful day, and I was so happy to be a part of it. Congratulations Dan and Kathy. Here’s to many many years of happiness.

Picture by Claire Legg Photography

 Many of the pictures in this post were taken by the amazing wedding photographer Claire Legg.