At the beginning of the week I launched my big blog birthday countdown giveaway and asked the question: what do you want to see more of on my blog? I’ve been loving reading the responses but one answer that keeps coming up excites and terrifies me in equal measure: more fashion posts and outfit of the days.
You see for some people it comes naturally to stand out in the street as the traffic whizzes past and strike effortless ‘ooh look you just caught me walking down the street whilst looking FABULOUS’ type poses, but not for me. I try my best and am starting to feel a little less self conscious, but I still end up feeling rather awkward as I squint in the sunlight. I have a tendency to blink every time the shutter closes too, which is why I tend to look down in most of my pictures!
In fact, for every fashion post on my blog or Instagram, there’s at least two others that I never end up publishing! The worst part is that they are all outfits that I love in real life and wear all the time, but it’s amazing how one bad photograph can take you from feeling like the ‘sassy girl emoji’ to ‘Jabba the Hut’ in under five seconds.
Take this dress from Boohoo. I put it on and the first time I wore it I felt pretty awesome. It’s got beautiful lace detailing, it’s in ever flattering black and although it’s longer and more figure hugging to my hips than my usual style I decided that it was nice to break out of my usual ‘skater dress’ comfort zone. I even switched up my lippy and went for Nyx in Copenhagen because I was feeling a little bit sassypants in it.
All was fine and dandy and I’d planned to put it up on the blog earlier this week, until I happened across another lovely blogger’s outfit post in the same dress and had a bit of a wobble. Being at least half a foot taller than me the skirt came to just below her knee and she looked stunning! I saw how the dress draped better on her than on me, the cut was perfectly proportioned for her shape and she didn’t have the slight sagging of fabric under the arms or the pulled bit that doesn’t sit quite right over her chest.
I began to feel like a big old fashion fail. Like, what’s the point of me doing outfit posts when I don’t make the clothes look like how the designer intended?
However since I like reading fashion posts myself, I decided to have a think about what sort I like to read and why. As it turns out I follow a truly varied bunch. Some are 6 foot tall and athletic, some actually have boobs (you lucky sods!) and some are plus sized. What I’ve realised is that whilst they are all different, they have one thing in common: They inspire me to dress confidently for the shape I’m in today, not an unobtainable shape I’m going never be.
So after mulling it over I’m posting it anyway, because not everyone has the same shape and maybe it’s good to show people how clothes fit when you’re not like the 5 foot 7, size 8 model on the website. Maybe just because it doesn’t translate the same way on me that’s not all bad.
So here I am in the Boohoo Dress of the Month, which I’ve decided that I’M going to wear instead of letting IT wear ME! So I took my hair down, stuck on a temporary tatt and stared (okay I still squinted!) down the lens.
…this doesn’t mean overnight I’m going to turn into a super confident fashion blogger or anything, but you know, baby steps and all that!
Embroidered Midi Dress*| Boohoo.com
White Structured Metal Circle Tote Bag (Blogged before, now in the sale!) | River Island
Platform Sandals | Clarks (old)
Temporary Tattoo* | GlimGlam
Update: The team at Boohoo got in contact after I published this to say the following which I think is rather lovely and just goes to show that without even realising it I got the message that they’d intended!
“The point of this campaign (sending out dress of the month to a selection of bloggers) was to show there’s no ‘wrong’ figure and that it’s possible for one trend to look amazing on everyone. It really suits you and I’m so glad you decided to get past your worries and go for it!”
What a lovely bunch! 🙂
