Tokyo, baby!

If you follow me on the Twitter.com, you’ll have seen that I was in Tokyo earlier this month. And if you don’t follow me, then let it be known that I was in Tokyo earlier this month and it’s now become one of my favourite cities. Much as I love the countryside, big fields and wide open skies, my heart belongs to skyscrapers and metropolitan hustle bustle, which are things which Tokyo has in spades.

We stayed in Shibuya which meant I got to walk across (and occasionally lose my husband in) the world famous crossing every day while we were there. We also explored the neon wonderland which is Shinjuku, saw someone driving around Harijuku in a soft top blasting out ‘Since Yesterday’ by Strawberry Switchblade and ate extremely fancy chiffon cake in Ginza while listening to yacht rock.  And that’s before I go into detail about all the incredible food we ate, highballs we drank, skincare we* (*I) bought and karaoke classics we murdered. It truly is the most incredible, awe inspiring city and I’m already plotting ways to return there one day soon.

Its residents also happen to be exceptionally stylish. So it would have just been rude if I didn’t bring my clothing A-game to the city too.

LEATHER JACKET: River Island Plus (size up if you have big boobs!)

SHIRT DRESS: Universal Standard

TIGHTS: Heist

SHOES: Kin by John Lewis

NECKLACE: Tatty Devine

I love it when a good outfit comes together and this shirt dress from Universal Standard provides the perfect, casual canvas to build a look around. It may not look like much, but take my word for it, it is gorgeous. Everything from the colour to the tulip shape to the person who designed it is extremely my jam. I’m wearing a Medium (US size 18 – 20/UK size 20 – 22) here and it fit perfectly with just enough stretch to cover my boobs with minimal gaping. Universal Standard are an American plus size brand who I absolutely adore and who I would order much much more from if my order hadn’t been hammered by customs charges (I had to pay an eye watering £30 to get my package, so if you do buy anything from them, I’d suggest seducing someone who works for the Post Office.)

I have – as much as it pains me to admit – also become a fully paid up member of the Heist tights club. Let it be known, these bad boys are not cheap. (I actually cried when I laddered my first pair during a drunken night on the town). However, they are the first tights I’ve worn in a long time which a) don’t fall down over my fat ass and hips and which b) I can run for a bus in. If you’re a fellow chub who’s fed up of wearing cycling shorts over their ill fitting M&S 80 denier specials, I can’t recommend these enough. Just make sure you’re super careful when you’re whipping them down to take a whizz.

If you thought I wasn’t going to conclude this post with a selfie, then you would be badly mistaken my friends. This picture combines three of my current loves – Charlotte Tilbury’s gorgeous ‘Secret Salma’ lipstick from her ‘Hot Lips’ collection (which – trust me on this one – goes with everything), my new favourite Tatty Devine planet necklace and a fantastic grumpy cloud badge which I received from 3 of Cups Press as part of their ‘On Anxiety’ anthology. As an aside, an essay of mine all about my boobs will be featured in their next book, ‘On Bodies’, which is currently raising money via Kickstarter. So, if you like my writing (and my tits), you should definitely hop over there and pledge some sweet sweet cash towards it.

Grey Sunday

I’ve been in a bit of a bleak mood recently. Blame it on the achingly cold weather, the lack of natural sunlight or the fact that every time I look at the news, I want to curl up in the foetal position and wail, but I haven’t really felt like my best self. But, I’m a busy woman and I have important shit to do, so vacuum sealing myself inside a pillow fort for the foreseeable future isn’t really convenient. So, I did what I always do when I feel like the world is a flaming skip fire. I slapped on some eyeshadow, threw on a snuggly roll neck jumper and treated myself to a rather fancy brunch.

ROLL NECK: Junarose 

TROUSERS: ASOS Curve (old)

BELT: ASOS Curve

SHOES: Marks and Spencer

NECKLACE: Tatty Devine

EARRINGS: Accessorize

Despite the vast amount of #dealz filled emails hitting my inbox, I managed to be quite restrained on Black Friday. Somehow, I managed to limit myself to only purchasing a sweatshirt, a belt and the Junarose roll neck you see here in the ASOS 20% off everything sale. Not that I needed much of an excuse to buy this roll neck mind you, it’s been sitting in my ‘saved’ items for longer than I care to admit.

Like all Junarose items I’ve purchased, this roll neck is simple yet stylish. I love the soft, neutral grey colour (the exact shade of a freezing December sky) and it’s shaped really nicely. While I will never quite avoid the dreaded ‘shelf tit’ effect that larger boobed women such as myself are prone to, the cut and fit of it feel – forgive me here – flattering. While I love my body, I also feel remarkably self conscious about having very large breasts so any item of clothing which makes them look relatively proportional to the rest of my body is very welcome.

I’m wearing a ‘large’ here, mainly because I found it impossible to find an accurate size chart on Junarose or ASOS’s websites. I do wish retailers would realise that people appreciate being given accurate size guides, rather than just having to pick a size at random and praying for the best.

My birthday gifts from my (utterly wonderful) husband were a delightfully snarky Laura Callaghan necklace from Tatty Devine and a gorgeous Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palette in Legendary Muse. One of the most rewarding things I’ve done with my look this year is to experiment more with eye make-up, and I feel it’s really paid off with the look I’ve created here using Legendary Muse. The golds and green tinged yellow shades blend together to make the green-blue colour of my eyes really stand out. I’d recommend putting it on your Christmas list if you’d like Santa to stick some truly outstanding eyeshadow underneath your tree.

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Barcelona Beach Baby

Much like my beloved Liverpool, Barcelona is a city with its own beach. Frankly, it would have been rude for us not to pay it a quick visit. And while I promise that this will be my last ‘hey look everyone, I went to Barcelona!’ post, I feel like I’ve saved the best outfit for last.

JUMPSUIT: ASOS Curve

BELT: ASOS Curve (old, but this is similar!)

SANDALS: ASOS

NECKLACE: Tatty Devine (old, but this one is very similar!)

EARRINGS: Oliver Bonas

I’m mildly annoyed that I wasn’t able to take a killer outfit pic while I was wearing this jumpsuit because I love it so much. It looks like something I’d find being sold in Whistles, a store whose items I frequently lament over. (Seriously Whistles, extend your sizes and I will become one of your most devoted customers.) It’s loose and flowing, and the colours are gorgeous. The only – minor – quibble I have with it is that I wish it had a tie belt to define the waist, but this is more down to the way I’m shaped rather than any fatal design flaw.

It’s my blog and I’ll pull a stupid face if I want to.

I so wish that more plus sized designers would create modern, vibrant pieces like this instead of thinking that we’re content with twee frills and bows, boxy shapeless tents and ‘cold shoulders’. (We may be fat, but don’t we deserve to have warm shoulders too? Do you know much it rains in the UK?)

I know that this has become a bit of a Charlotte Tilbury fan blog, but I’m in awe of how good her dreamy glow highlighter made me look. One quick swish of this stuff turned me into a golden glowing goddess, despite three days of late nights, giant gins and salty snacks.

The packaging is also divine, featuring a gorgeous picture of Carmen dell’Orefice shot by Norman Parkinson for Vogue, in the Bahamas. Norman Parkinson is one of my favourite fashion photographers, so I’ll be cherishing this compact long after the highlighter powder has run out. Sadly, this was limited edition, so isn’t being stocked by Charlotte Tilbury anymore. However, I’d seriously recommend taking a nosy around Ebay and seeing if you can snap one up. It’s that good.

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Playing Out

I went out dancing for the first time in ages on Saturday night, and it was absolutely fantastic. I drank gin and tonics from gigantic red cups, I waltzed to Erasure with strangers and friends, I covered myself in glittery sequins (which I’m still finding about my person despite having bathed *and* showered) and I ate McDonald’s mozzarella dippers at 3am. On my way there, a woman looked me up and down before hissing ‘what does she think she looks like wearing THAT?’ To which I answered ‘really effing good actually, ta love.’

PLAYSUIT: ASOS Curve

BELT: Primark (old)

SHOES: Primark

NECKLACE: Tatty Devine (old)

EARRINGS: Black Heart Creatives

This playsuit is one of those items that bitchy fashion pieces will tell you that fat women should never wear. Imagine it! Getting your dumpy white legs out in public! The horror! To which I say, screw it.

I love this tropical little number from ASOS. It’s comfy and stretchy and a cinch to whip off when you’re in a toilet with a broken lock trying to have a wee.I sized up so it accommodated my boobs, but honestly you probably don’t have to do so. Buy one for yourself and revel in that gorgeous tropical print. In fact, buy two and give one to a fat pal so they can look excellent in it too.

A summer night out called for my most summery lipstick, Charlotte Tilbury’s delicious 1975 Red. Sadly, that was a limited edition shade so you can no longer find it (unless you hunt around on Ebay), but I’ve been reliably informed that ‘Hot Emily’ from her ‘Hot Lips’ collection is a pretty good dupe. I’m also totally in love with the primer I’m wearing here, Ilamasqua’s Hydra Veil. It’s a bit of a bugger to apply, as it’s a gel and so can feel a bit slimy when you’re slapping it on. However, it might just be the best primer I’ve ever used. It makes me look airbrushed and hides all my lumps and bumps. While my skin is a lot better now I’ve been patch tested by my dermatologist and know which ingredients trigger my eczema, every little helps on my quest for glowy porcelain perfection.

 

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.

Galentines

I spent last weekend in London hanging out in old haunts, spending too much money in Monki and having a rather debauched time. Saturday also happened to be Galentine’s Day which I spent in the company of some amazing women. We drank tea, we ate dumplings and steak and ran around Liberty’s trying on some ridiculous sunglasses. It reminded me of just how much  I appreciate the fantastic femmes in my life, and how lucky I am to be blessed with such a remarkable group of friends.

Knowing that I was going to be spending the day running around London with a belly full of booze, I wanted to wear something comfortable yet chic and this ASOS shirt dress did the job admirably. It’s cotton which makes it super soft and snuggly – something which is very much appreciated when your arms contain both eczema and a new tattoo.

COAT: ASOS Curve

SHIRT DRESS: ASOS Curve

LEGGINGS: ASOS Curve

SHOES: Dr Martens

I desperately wanted to buy this shirt dress in black, but – alas – it wasn’t to be. It’s a minor miracle that I managed to go a whole day without dumping coffee down the front of it. Knowing my (lack of) motor skills, this will probably be the only time I get to say that.

This was also a weekend where I really really appreciated my Dr. Martens. They are the comfiest shoes I’ve ever worn and worth every penny, particularly when you’re heading off on long walks. As much as I would love to spend my days striding around in heels, I am old and my feet get tired much sooner than I’d like them too. Therefore, I will always appreciate shoes which combine style and comfort.

I have been longing for this Tatty Devine dream phone necklace for months so when I saw it was reduced in the January Sales I was in there like a shot. It is an utterly fantastic piece of jewellery – cute, clever and unique. Sadly, it’s out of stock now but I totally recommend heading over to their website and seeing all the other incredible pieces they have there!

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.

Radio Silence

I got a passive aggressive email from WordPress last week, informing me that it ‘missed me.’ While I was previously unaware that inanimate cloud-based blogging platforms were capable of feeling human emotions, it reminded me that I really should pull my finger out and get posting again.

While it’s no excuse, my July has been a little chaotic. I’ve left my job in London, been to a wedding with a mariachi band, necked red wine from the bottle on a street corner in Soho on the hottest day of the year, started a new (terrifyingly grown up) job in Manchester and discovered the ‘joys’ of having to get up at 5.50am every morning and apply eyeliner flicks on a Northern Rail train. TLDR; I’m skint, knackered and happy. I’ve also been unable to nab any decent pics of my (admittedly excellent) work attire, so until I a) figure out how to get my phone to do a full body selfie and b) find a disabled toilet somewhere in Manchester where I can achieve this feat, I thought I’d do a bit of a round up of things I’ve been enjoying recently.

• Magical beauty products for manky Mancunian weather: While I have missed Manchester, I have not missed its ridiculous climate. My return back to the North has seen me singing the song of my people – ‘Seriously, it’s July and I’m wearing sandals. Can you stop bloody raining?’ The bizarre weather has also made a total mess of my skin – think dry patches, dark circles and a general sickly ‘Victorian orphan’-esque pallor. Two products have sorted me out – REN’s Flash Rinse One Minute Facial (which has left my skin looking firm, fresh and zingy) and Lush’s Ultra Bland cleanser (which smells like marzipan and strips every blob of make-up from your face in one swift swoop. It’s calming, soothing and great for eczema sufferers such as myself.)

• Make Yourself Beautiful: I can – and will – rave about Charlotte Tilbury’s make-up until I’m blue in the face, so it’s quite dangerous that my new office is a fifteen minute walk away from one of her concessions. Her new Norman Parkinson collection is out of sight, full of gorgeous bright colours and packaging featuring Jerry Hall in her prime.  For me, the stand out product is her 1975 Red matte lipstick. It’s £23, and it’s sheer perfection, a rosy coral with staying power, which puts one in mind of warm beaches and sipping cocktails by the pool.
• Munchies: Now I work in an office five days a week, I am determined to be sensible and bring my lunch to work with me. It’s cheaper and way more satisfying than blowing all my £££ in Pret. Smitten Kitchen’s Carrot Salad with Tahini and Crisped Chickpeas is on regular rotation – it’s satisfying, savoury and crunchy. Hollow Legs also posted a delicious sounding Sesame Peanut Noodle Salad last week which I can’t wait to shove into my lunchbox.
• How Should a Person Be?: I recently read Sheila Heti’s fantastic How Should a Person Be? after reading an interview she did with Juliet Jacques for her book Trans. I’ll admit, I initially approached it with scepticism – every review I’d read of it made it sound like some awful hipster edict filled with selfish people. (It’s frequently been compared to Girls after all, which is – guess what! –  an awful hipster edict filled with selfish people.) In reality, it’s warm, funny and a brilliant examination of female friendships. It’s a book narrated by someone trying to navigate the world and her place in it, while also figuring out how to be a decent human being. Read it.
• Gordon’s gets us drunk: I recently wrote a piece for Munchies on Liverpool, gin and Liverpool Gin. I had great fun writing this, not least because I got to drink a fair amount of G&T’s while writing it.
• Oh look, it’s me: The lovely Holly at Gadgette recently called me one of the ‘top ten plus sized babes to be following on Instagram this summer.’ It was very unexpected but utterly delightful, particularly as I was described as a ‘tattooed temptress.’ I’m in some great company too, so check it out if you fancy following some excellent plus sized fitties on IG.

• And finally, a selfie:  Like I wasn’t going to write a round-up without including a picture of my face. Behold me in all my Friday-morning-7.45am glory, wearing my favourite ASOS breton top, a Tatty Devine anchor necklace and my beloved NARS lipgloss in Corsica. How very nautical of me.

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.

Tropicalia

A word of advice – never bet. Or, to be more precise, never bet on the outcome of premier league football. Earlier this year, emboldened by wine and my own misplaced bravado, I made a foolhardy bet with Mr. McMc that if Tim Sherwood kept Aston Villa up this season, I’d buy him dinner. At the time, it seemed like a no brainer. Villa’s prospects were poor and Sherwood didn’t exactly excel as manager during his time at Spurs. Well, the gilet-wearing git only went and did the impossible. And, because I am a woman of my word, I decided to dress up all fancy last weekend and take my bird out for a slap up Tapas tea.

One day I will post an outfit picture where I am not squinting, and where it doesn’t look as though I’m going to leap through the screen and beat you up.

I’d like to apologise for any trauma that readers experience after being subjected to a picture of my manky feet.

DRESS: ASOS

BELT: Primark

SANDALS: ASOS

NECKLACE: Tatty Devine

EARRINGS: Topshop

The dress is an oldie-but-a-goodie that I bought from ASOS last year after seeing it worn on the always glamorous George from Fuller Figure Fuller Bust. Sadly, you’re going to have to take my word about it revealing a tasteful amount of back, as it turns out it’s nigh on impossble for me to get a decent picture of my own back, even when I’m contorting myself in front of a mirror. However, the crowning glory of this tropical mess of an outfit is the sandals. I lost my head slightly during ASOS’s 20% off everything sale a few weeks back, and decided that they were just the shoes I needed to cut my feet into ribbons this summer. Like so many shoes I’ve bought in my lifetime, while they look gorgeous, they require a whole lot of breaking in. In a fit of ill advised vanity, I decided to wear them to a meeting in Manchester last week, and spent most of my time there waddling around like a duck as they rubbed on the sides of my feet. By the time I managed to hobble back home, my blisters had blisters. What can I say? I suffer for my art.

I’ve spoken before about my deep deep love for MAC’s All Fired Up, but it has very quickly become my go-to lipstick. Perhaps it’s because it goes so well with my hair, or perhaps because wearing such a bright shade makes me feel incredibly joyous, but it feels like the perfect lipstick for summer. I rarely leave home without it.

And because I’m such a generous person, here’s two selfies for the price of one, and a shout out to NAR’s lipgloss in Corsica which is just gorgeous. Purchased during what I am now calling ‘the great ASOS spree of June 2015,’ it’s an incredibly flattering shade of pinky-brown with just a touch of shimmer. It’s matt, isn’t sticky or gloopy and has real staying power (or as much staying power as you could ask for from a lipgloss.)  I’m not the greatest fan of lipglosses, but (like all NARs products) this one is a real keeper.