Who’d want to be a plus size bride? Me … (part 1)

Very nearly two years ago I became engaged to a truly lovely chappy. The big day has been set for May 2012.

All of my life I have dreamt about my wedding day. I love a good party and viewed this at the ultimate opportunity for a bloody good shin dig (as well as celebrating our louurrrvvvee of course!). That’s partly the reason why I was so distraught at not being able to find gorgeous special dresses in my size and in the style that I wanted. I knew I wanted something vintage inspired – and not white. Various recommendations were given to me including a few boutiques in London and one in my nearest city, Birmingham. 

In Summer 2011 my sister and I visited the Birmingham boutique – whose website and reputation is very pro-plus-size. (I won’t name and shame here)(not this time anyway). When we arrived at the boutique the entire place stank of the food the designer had been eating. She made us feel quite unworthy of being there. I was told that I had to wear a corset to achieve a good shape for any dress and I was promptly forced into one. One thing I did learn from this experience is that corsets are not for me – they give me a smaller waist for sure, but they simply move any bulge from that area up and down so that my body shape was utterly contorted and I couldn’t move. Then, with bulging shoulders and something god-awful going on at the bottom of the corset, she tried to squeeze me into a too-small fishtail number. How I didn’t cry I do not know (I’m such a cry baby …).

We left.  They had said ‘get in touch to book in for measurements’. We didn’t.

I think in retrospect it was this experience – being made to feel like my size was something that needed to be concealed or improved upon (in a smelly, rude environment) – that stopped me in my dress hunting tracks. It wasn’t until this January (2012) that the sheer panic of the BIG DAY approaching at some speed forced me to start looking again.

Hours, days and weeks were spent trawling the internet looking for something 50s inspired that I could get in my size. The below dresses are the kind of thing I was after:

 To be continued .....

What a big old empty space ...

OK. So I don’t know exactly what I’m going to fill this up with. The blogging seed was planted a few weeks ago when I desperately needed some chub fashion advice (re: weddings). Having had no luck on the high street (yes, there were tears) and getting bewildered by online suppliers (I really don’t like mail order – I need to know how it will fit) I turned to Twitter for advice and came upon the likes of Emma aka Boombands http://boombands.blogspot.com/ , Claire of http://amonkeyfatshionista.wordpress.com/  and http://theramblingsofmrsbebe.blogspot.com/. It’s like someone has turned the lights on.

To any well established blogging addicts it will sound so naïve and foolish, but it really never did cross my mind that chub fashion would be something that people were blogging about. The biggest revelation to me is that these blogs have not a hint of negativity regarding the options available or poor body image – they simply rave about what is out there, trying new styles, being comfortable and confident with *ahem* ‘what your momma gave you’!

These ladies are sexy, stylish, vibrant, confident, inspiring, kind, helpful, witty, enthusiastic, beautiful and curvy. This weight has lifted from my shoulders and is something that I should work to my advantage. 

I doubt that there will be hoards of followers for this blog. I see it as somewhere I can collect my thoughts and observations, share in the odd killer outfit and other bits and bobs. I’d love to compile a list of all of the places where curvier girls can find new threads whether that be on the high street or via mail order, in the UK or further a field. 

Please excuse any grammatical flaws (I typed ‘floors’ initially – oi oi oi my brain) - not by strong point!

I’ll post again soon, and I’ll start taking pictures of what I wear. I’m so used to only taking pictures of my head and shoulders, from a high and forgiving angle, that this may take some getting used to.

Finally, for now, a big THANK YOU to all the Twitter folks who I’ve been following lately and all of the amazing blogs that I’m still trying to latch on to. Please feel free to recommend more people to me.

Sozage x

Here are two pictures of me from recent times to get the ball rolling: