A Bittersweet Tale From Lady V London

It was love at first sight...BAM! On browsing Facebook a few weeks I was completely taken aback by the most beautiful sight. Rosetta was her name, she flaunted as many red roses as a sleazy Lothario on Valentine's Day. She flirtily enticed me to take a closer look and I was hooked.

Photo from Lady V London

Rosetta is of course this beautiful dress from Lady V London. Priced at £60 she's at the higher end of what I'd normally pay for a dress on account of me having so many I don't get enough use to justify the cost. Alas I was unable to resist. I knew she'd sell out quickly so I took the plunge. A few days later she arrived and I eagerly slipped her on...

I'd ordered my usual Lady V London size in the Rose Print Rosetta Swing Dress which is a UK 8. The size chart puts me at a 10 bust, 8 waist and 12 hips but I'd recommend working from your waist measurement if your figure is anything like mine. To ease the awkward 'which size do I order?' dilemma of the Rosetta Swing, you only need to take into account your bust and waist measurements since it's free at the hips. The Rosetta Swing Dress size chart below suggests a UK size 8 to be 33" bust and 27" hips. I'm currently sitting at 36" bust and 25.5" waist and the Rosetta fits fine, possibly because of the mock wrap bust line giving a bit more flexibility on size. The Rosetta Swing Dress sits a few inches below my knee. I'm 5'2" for reference. 

Rosetta Swing Size Chart from Lady V London

So let's take a look at Rosetta in full. Here I teamed her up with red accessories as I felt they worked best. My belt is from a random Chinese seller on eBay and my shoes are an old style from Debenhams. The clutch came from my local indoor market. I chose not to wear a petticoat as it doesn't necessarily need one, but you can add one if you like a more voluminous look. The neckline is definitely ideal for showcasing your cleavage and may not be suitable for those less inclined to flaunt 

Now as you may have gathered from the title of this post, this love story does not end well. It's visible on the middle photo above that one of the sleeves is slipping and that's with me posing in an attempt to prevent that happening. As I've discussed a number of times before, I often have issues with the fit of dresses and tops at the shoulders since I'm quite petite, causing straps to slip, gaping collars and a generally awkward fit. Rosetta, my love, this is where it all went wrong.

As you can see in the photo above, I'm not posing to make it look any worse, this is genuinely how much bigger than my shoulders the dress is. Sadly, the sleeves can't be altered easily as they are pleated and it would be quite a difficult job to do neatly so I'm told. This was the deal breaker for me. It's okay to have a bit of extra wiggle room in the waist, not quite enough in the bust, but the shoulders slipping, nope. 

I feel I need to throw in a disclaimer here that the dress itself is absolutely stunning and I would have kept it in a heartbeat,  but my petite shoulders let me down here, not the dress. If you're of a more standard build around the shoulder area then you'll more than likely find it will fit. Damn shoulders!

Rosetta is available from Lady V London for£60 in 7 different colours, sizes 8-20/22.

Photos from Lady V London

As an aside, if you love this dress but prefer a more streamlined silhouette, check out Loretta which has the same top half with a mock wrap tulip skirt.

Alas, I bid farewell to Rosetta. Please join me and my wardrobe in mourning this sad loss.

Bitter Lollipop tastes good to me!

Over the past few years more and more brands are popping up here and there to cater for the more busty amongst us, and in this post I'm going to introduce the latest off the cutting table; Bitter Lollipop, whom I also have the pleasure of reviewing a dress for!

Bitter lollipop specifically caters for sizes 8-14 in the two options of 'Busty' and 'Buxom'. Here's their size chart.

Bitter Lollipop was launched in September 2014 as a result of founder Kelly's passion for fashion and struggle to find dresses to fit her frame. The name Bitter Lollipop is a combination of her bitter feelings of the difficulties in dressing her own lollipop-shaped figure, in case you were wondering! 

Kelly is Chicago born and bred and moved to the UK a few years ago for her Masters degree, settling to set up Bitter Lollipop in Nottingham. Much like Made In Preston, Bitter Lollipop pieces are hand made here in the UK, promoting local industry and boosting the national economy. Kelly's designs are influenced by British culture as well as her American heritage , which are most apparent in her fabric choices. 

I was contacted by Kelly a while ago and to be honest, this was the first time I'd heard of Bitter Lollipop. Kelly asked if I'd like to review a dress from her launching collection, to which of course I jumped at the chance. I'd initially fallen in love with the fabric from the geometric print dress but I didn't think the shape would work for me as I prefer a more tailored fit, which is always difficult with my 36-25.5-40 figure, so I instead opted for the safer option hip-wise of the Olivia in the size 8 Busty.

The Olivia dress, prices at £79 is made in what I'd describe as an 'abstract floral' patterned fabric which I initially thought would be pretty for a garden party or a summer wedding, but now I have the dress in hand I can see it's quite versatile and could be worn casually and in the colder months too if you happen to be the kind of person who matches colours worn to the seasons.

Olivia close-up

My first impressions of the dress; impressed! The dress is made from quite a heavy combination of patterned stretch cotton mix and (I admit I was totally bowled over by this) a STRETCHY lining! In all my years I've often wondered why dresses are made in a stretch fabric only to have that cancelled out by having a non-stretch lining. Really, what's the point in that? The quality of the workmanship is excellent. The zip is nicely hidden at the back, the stitching is neat and tidy and a lot of thought has been given to drafting the pattern itself. 

The Olivia fits beautifully on my 25.5" waist and 36" bust, apart from a little gaping under the arms. As you can see from the side view below, my bra is slightly visible. I feel the underarm area could benefit from an extra dart to conceal my bra a bit better but that might just be how it fits on me and may well fit better on someone else. 

Of course, the dress does have it's downsides. You may have noticed I used the word 'heavy' to describe the fabric. Because of this I'd suggest the Olivia dress is more suitable for the colder months unless you're like me and gets goosebumps at the slightest of breeze! Also the weight of the fabric prevents the dress from flowing as you might expect. A twirly dress it's not. I'd suggest to remedy this, maybe the lining could be omitted from the skirt of the dress and just kept in the bodice perhaps? 

I admit I was concerned at how I was going to accessorise this dress, what with the fabric having a combination of pink, red, coral, black and a touch of pale blue too. I first thought the pattern was better suited to a summery outfit, but having tried it with both red accessories and black accessories, I'd suggest it suits the autumnal months equally. I'll go ahead and post a few different looks now to show the versatility. The black flamingo cardigan was from a charity shop, red clutch bag from my local market and hair flowers from ebay. Let me know which look you like best!

I've heard a few gripes online about the cost of Bitter Lollipop and I just want to stand up for Kelly here. Kelly has worked hard to set up her own business, Bitter Lollipop. Creating patterns, sourcing fabric and making the dresses , both fitting samples and making dresses for orders. Her heart and soul has gone into this and this is her baby. I support her integrity, creativity and passion for her business and hope you feel the same way.

Olivia is made to order and available from Bitter Lollipop at £79 in sizes 8 Busty & Buxom to 16 Busty & Buxom.

Emerald City; Sparkling With Amy Childs Collection Jasmine Dress

Firstly, I must apologise for my lack of blogging. Admittedly I am a hoarder of notable proportions, so continuing to blog regularly isn't helping my hoarding as this type of blogging relies on me buying clothes and lingerie, and well, I now have a HUGE excess of clothes!

Okay, now that's out of the way, I'll begin! Back in December I had the honour of attending my the Christmas party of my boyfriend's workplace, and of course I needed (and I use the word loosely) a new dress for the occasion. I narrowed my shortlist down to three and purchased, rather typically, the cheapest, a different dress to the one I'm reviewing today which I may review at a later date. After the Christmas Party, I couldn't stop thinking about the 'reject' dresses on my shortlist, notably the gorgeous Jasmine by Amy Childs. Then, tah-dahhh, it appeared for half price in the sale for £37.50 on the Amy Childs Official site! I used the poor excuse that "I need a dress for Valentine's night" to justify my purchase! Unfortunately the green has since sold out, but it's available in red here.

Now I'm not some kind of TOWIE fangirl, not by a long shot. In fact, I've never even seen the show and only vaguely know what it is, but I do admire Amy Childs' curves and her confidence to rock them. Here's Amy totally rocking the Jasmine dress.

*When purchasing from a brand new to yourself it's always worth checking online first for reviews on sizing and fit. That way you're less likely to have to deal with returns and disappointment. Just a little tip for you there ;o)

Onto the dress!
As I mentioned above, I checked reviews of this dress and many, if not all of them said to size up, so I ordered a size 10. When I tried the dress on it was still quite a squeeze, so when I say size up, REALLY do. Either go one size up for a snug fit or two up for a more comfortable fit. I can't comment on the fitting of this dress two sizes up (which would have been a size 12 for me) but I imagine it would have been a good fit on me.

I would recommend wearing a WYOB (Wear Your Own Bra) shapewear slip under this to make it easier to zip up, and because it's a fitted dress. If you don't have one, there are hundreds on eBay. I chose a M&S one in my usual dress size and it works perfectly. The bra I chose was an old faithful Freya Deco as it has a seamless appearance and gives a good shape.

Jasmine is a real head turner of a dress, covered in green matte sequins for a more sophisticated sparkle. It has the added detail of a spot of ruching to nip you in at the waist a bit more and create more of a curvy outline and sits at a nice length on me, just below my knee. I'm 5'2" for reference. I love the asymmetrical neckline, but be warned, you risk flashing a bra strap, so choose your lingerie wisely. Although the dress is fully lined, you still risk getting a few scratches from the sequins, so bear that in mind before you buy.

I don't have scoliosis by the way, I'm just standing wonkily!

As much as I love this dress, it doesn't come without a couple of issues. Firstly, the sizing as I've discussed already. It's a real annoyance to have to buy different sizes. Secondly, it doesn't offer a lot of stretch in the boob department and I was on the borderline of looking like I'd really squashed my boobs into the dress. And thirdly, the armholes are a bit bigger than I'd hoped for, thus flashing a bit of bra. It's nothing you busty ladies won't be familiar with.

If you've fallen in love with this dress in green, I apologise for not posting this review sooner and advise you to regularly check eBay as Amy's dresses are popping up on there all the time. I must admit I was slightly disappointed with the lack of boob room since Amy is very busty herself, but if you look through the Amy Childs Official store I'm sure you'll find something you'll love!

Lady V London's new collection!

So enthused was I on seeing Lady V London's new collection that I felt the need to write a post on them!

Relatively new to them is the gorgeous Roxie Rocks dress, with 3/4 sleeved mock wrap top section and swing skirt, it's ideal for all those Christmas parties you're all thinking about at this time of the year. It comes in red with black trim, black with red trim, purple with white trim and teal with white trim. I will say that I've tried this dress (but unfortunately didn't photograph myself in it) and was really disappointed with the sizing ON ME. It was just too big in the shoulders, a problem I often have with dresses and shirts on account of my petite frame. Roxie Rocks costs £40 and comes in sizes 8-22 and is made from a luxurious stretch satin type fabric.

Photo courtesy of Lady V London

Another new addition is the HD Swing Dress, which is the same as the previous range of swing dresses only it has the added detail of a contrast trim, which I'm a total sucker for! My favourite is the white with black polka dot, I'd wear it with red accessories as always. Priced at £45, the HD Swing Dress comes in a range of fabrics in sizes 8-22 and come with a matching headband too!

Photo courtesy of Lady V London

Next up, the delicious Dolly Darling. In sizes 8-26/28 and 5 different colours with contrasting trim and waist bow, you can turn yourself into a 50's pin up for just £45! My personal favourite is the Cobalt Blue, it's so pretty!

Photo courtesy of Lady V London

For those of you who prefer a less revealing neckline, how about Lady V's range of pretty Day Dresses? I LOVE the folded neckline and v-neck back. They cost just £30 and come in sizes 8-20 in a satisfying range of colours and prints.

Photo courtesy of Lady V London

Saving the best until last, Behold the AMAZING Isabella Dress! Drooooool...Erm, yes, I'm a sucker for polka dots AND red AND bows, and this particular dress has it all! It's sweetheart neckline and swing skirt are very similar to another favourite of mine, the Pinup Girl Clothing Heidi, so it's nice to have a cheaper alternative. Isabella is offered with 1/2 sleeves in purple (below), blue and black, and cap sleeves in Mocha polka dot, black with pink trim and black/white polka dot with red trim, comes in sizes 8-20/22 and costs £40. 

Photo courtesy of Lady V London

My only bugbear is that looking at the measurements, none of the Lady V dresses will fit me without alteration as the waist measurements generally come up between 1 and 3 inches bigger than my own. For this I'm GUTTED, but still very tempted to get this Isabella and have it altered.

For a limited time only (and I have no idea how long the offer is on) you can get a generous 15% off your entire order with Lady V London using the discount code WOW15 at checkout. GO!

Photo courtesy of Lady V London

Not causing a stink with Urkye's Skunks dress

I first fell in love with colour block illusion dresses when I saw Georgina of FullerFigureFullerBust and Caroline of CurvyWordy in this one by Scarlett & Jo for Evans, but since Evans specialise in sizes 14-32 I was sadly too small for this dress.

Caroline and Georgina; curves to die for!

Since I already own a LOT of dresses I didn't try to seek a similar dress out in my size, but when Polish fuller bust clothing specialists Urkye announced the arrival of their new 'Skunks' dress, I could feel my willpower weakening. I managed to hold out for a good few months until the dress started infiltrating amongst my curvy pals, and finally gave in! The Skunks dress is available in three colours; Sapphire, Grey and Magenta. 

If you're anything like me, you'll be slightly worried about ordering with non-English speaking companies, but sometimes you have to take the plunge or you'll miss out. on the Urkye website, you can set the language to English on the right hand side, making the process a whole lot easier.

Onto the next issue; sizing! Much like the British company Pepperberry and Polish company BiuBiu, Urkye use a system of dress sizes with varying boob sizes to ensure a neater, more tailored fit. So for example, if you fit into a 12 everywhere else, but need a 16 up top, then these are the companies you should consider shopping with. Each company has their own system, and Urkye's can be found here. I decided to size down in the body and up in the bust from a 36 o/oo I was measuring up at, to a 34 oo/ooo on the advice of ladies who'd already tried this dress.

Prices are listed in Polish Zlotych but don't be put off. Just use a currency converter such as xe.com. The cost for one Skunks dress comes out at £30, with postage a very reasonable £5.25.

A week or so later, the dress arrived. At first I didn't think it was going to fit as it seemed quite a struggle to get into it, failing arms, overheating, the lot! But when I pulled it down over my hips and straightened it out...WOW! I know I throw this phrase around a lot but this dress really does feel like it was made for me. The fit is absolutely spot on and I prefer a long sleeve over a three-quarter one because I tend to feel the cold easily. The length is perfect too, sitting just on the knee. I'm 5'2" for reference. I'm not wearing any shapewear with the dress in the following photos.

I was intending to wear this dress for work, but you know what? It's FAR too sexy for that! What do you think?

The 'I love you but you're totally unwearable' cartoon print dress from New Look

Yesterday I had half an hour to kill on my lunch break, so I thought I'd nip into New Look to have a look at their often lovely range of wide fit shoes. However, something caught my eye. Something so epic and crazy and completely unwearable that I felt compelled to try it on! The first thing I noticed about it is the amazing print, full of cartoons, doodles, photos...

I chose this eye catching number in a size 10 as it I could tell the size 8 would be too small. Off I toddled to the changing room. I slipped the dress on and soon realised that....um wow! Talk about a confidence boost. It looks like I was poured into it!

Unfortunately it's not the kind of dress you can wear a stitch of underwear with down to the sheer panels that run down the side of the dress. BUT, they add to the curvy effect so I couldn't see it working so well without them. 

The dress costs £24.99 by the brand Parisian and isn't available (yet?) on New Look's website. However, there's one without the sheer panels for just £16.99. 

As much as I love the way this dress looked and made me feel, I didn't buy it for numerous reasons. I need to wear a bra and I just couldn't in this. Also, it's way too racy and young for me!

What do you think? Would you wear it?

Lady V's Latest Offfering: The Wiggle Dress

As you may have realised by my previous posts, I LOVE Lady V London's dresses. Recently on their Facebook page they announced the arrival of the new Wiggle dresses, a prospect that filled me with sheer joy!

The Lady V Wiggle dress comes in 7 colours and 3 different prints in sizes 8-20/22. It costs £40, or £30-£40 at the time of writing this since it's on offer. I opted for the Red/White Polka Dot and the White/Black Polka Dot as they popped out to me most. As for the sizes, my measurements are; bust 36", waist 26.5, hips 38" so I ordered sizes 8 and 10 in both colours to ensure I didn't miss out on the introductory offer. Here's the size chart for this particular dress:

Two days later a pink package arrived containing the lovely dresses! My first observation was that the red isn't a bright poppy red but more of a wine red, which isn't what I was expecting, but is really nice nonetheless. The dresses are of a nice quality and don't feel like they'd fall apart or lose their shape easily. 

The fabric of the skirt part is quite a thick, quality stretch cotton/elastane mix and designed to cling to your curves, but does seem to be prone to creasing. The top part (the patterned bit) is made from a non-stretch viscose so I wasn't sure how the fit would work out on a fuller bust. The other design feature I was worried about was the 'apex' between the bust, which creates a kind of cupped dress. I've always steered clear of this sort of feature as all women have differently sized boobs, so I think a lot of women might not look quite right in these dresses as a result. A more preferable design in my opinion would be to have a high waisted design without the bit between the boobs. Something like this. I've added the collar and bow using my amazing MS Paint skills, but you get the idea! The original dress is from Ebay, apologies but I can't find the listing now!

The 'apex'

As I said before, I ordered both size 8s and 10s to try and find the perfect fit. The 8 fitted better in the body, if not a little more snug than I feel comfortable in but the top part of the dress was too small, hence the mega cleavage. The 10 was perfect at the top but too big at the bottom, which you can clearly see in the photos below. This problem could easily have be solved by a minor and relatively simple alteration.  

The one thing I noticed when I laid them flat was how 'hippy' these dresses are, making them ideal for those curvier ladies who don't go straight up and down. If I were to have kept one, it definitely would have been the white/black polka dot dress in a 10 and have it tailored to fit.

White/Black Polka Dot:

Red/White Polka Dot:

Be warned, the plunging neckline is not for the faint of heart and exposes lots of skin (and cleavage if you're busty). You'll need to wear a balcony bra, such as Curvy Kate's Tease Me or Masquerade's Rhea for the bra not to be seen. In my photos I'm wearing a Freya Deco plunge bra that I had to fold to make the cups less visible (you can see them in the red dress) and a shapewear 'Wear Your Own Bra' (WYOB) slip from Primark's Secret Possessions range to smooth out my silhouette.

I love the pin up style of the wiggle dress and the fact that it has a wide collared neckline, polka dot pattern, high waist and a bow really pushes my buttons. The 'apex' I discussed is something I would normally have overlooked for such a nice dress but I can't really afford another at the moment, so I've had to send them all back, sorry Lady V...I'll always accept gifts y'know ;)

So ladies, what do you think? 

Lady V London Revisited...and I'm in LOVE!

Back in April, you may remember my post about a newly discovered company, specialising in Vintage reproduction dresses called Lady Vintage London. The dress I bought from them is absolutely beautiful, but didn't fit in a size 10 sadly. However, I couldn't bear to return it as I'd fell deeply in love with it, so I asked my mum to tailor it to fit and she did it brilliantly! After much hassling via twitter and Facebook, Lady Vintage finally announced that they would add size 8's to their range! I was delighted at this, but couldn't choose a dress until I finally caved last week and ordered three beautiful dresses. Without further ado, here they are!

Black & White Polka Dot Hepburn Dress. At the moment, it has £10 off, making it £30. Be quick if you want one! This is a size 8 and sadly too big. I mean sadly, because I wanted this dress to wear for work. It's eye-catching without being sexy and I love the high neckline (supposedly a no-no for a big bust) and the huge amount of fabric in the skirt. The dress comes with a thin black patent belt, as seen in the first two photos. It would easily work for a day in the office, night out, wedding or even as a day dress, it's so adaptable! My only other criticism in the length. At 5'2", it's a little bit too long, but when I slipped on my petticoat (details at the bottom of the post), it looked much better. My advice; Size down in this, but it's WELL worth it.

If only this came in a size 6...

My next choice is a fairly new addition to Lady Vintage, in a size 8, the Beautiful Cat Print Shawl Collar 50's Dress, £35. As soon as I tried this on, I knew it was something special! The fabric is so soft and floaty,and the print is adorable! Just look at the little kitty! I love the Peter Pan collar and the matching fabric tie belt too. The bust is just about big enough for me, so if you're reading this because you have big boobs, bear it in mind that I'm a 28GG. Again I tried this with and without a petticoat and with various belts. With the petticoat I felt a little like a lampshade, but with a less full petticoat, I'm sure it would look much better. It's very slightly see through, but this can be tackled by wearing nude underwear. Here, I'm wearing blue and you can see it showing through a little, but not too badly.

Lastly, the dress I was most looking forward to trying after my campaign to get size 8's made; the Vintage Blue Floral Summer Swing Dress, £40. I really didn't want to fall in love with this as I've still not worn my other Lady Vintage swing dress, but boy have I fallen for it! Firstly, the fit is so perfect it's as though it was made for me! I was spoilt for choice at which swing dress to try because admittedly, I wasn't overly keen on any of the patterns, and even when I first slipped this dress on I wasn't so sure. With my nude belt and shoes, it's safe and understated, but a little 'meh'. Then I went and tried it with red. WOW. Who'd have thought that red would be the most complimentary colour for this dress?! I thought I'd be buying the cat dress but this one has me smitten so I'm going to have to make a tough decision...

So as I mentioned at the start of this post, my mum altered the dress I'd previously bought from Lady Vintage, and here it is. I'm sure you'll agree that she did an amazing job! Unfortunately this colour dress is no longer available but you can still get it in black and red, £30 or in black and pink, £30.

...and here's what I was wearing underneath. for the square necklines, it's best to wear a balconette bra like this one; Tease Me in blue by Curvy Kate, £29. My petticoat is from Collectif, and is the Lola Puffy in red, £38.

You might also want to check out Lady Vintage fans and bloggers Miss Kathryn's Misstakes,  Big Girl's Browse and  Fuller Figure Fuller Bust. They all look amazing in their Lady Vintage dresses!

So all that's left to do is decide which dress I'm keeping. Thanks for reading!