Kelly Brook for New Look

Today I ventured into a shop I don't normally go into; New Look. I initially went in to drool over their shoes, as they're always amazing, but found myself with four dresses from Kelly Brook's new collaboration with New Look that I wanted to try on!

I'll bang through these quickly as I don't want to bore you!

Dress number one, the Orange Poppy Peplum Dress, £39.99. I tried this in my usual size 8, and it was quite a struggle to squeeze into. I didn't hold much hope of it looking nice, or fitting my the bust, but lo and behold, it doesn't look too bad, and fits like a glove. A rather snug glove. I have a feeling the size 10 would probably be too big, particularly on my waist. The peplum seems to be a bit too long for me, and makes my butt looks even bigger than it really is! I think this is one for the less curvy women out there...Anyway, here it is;

Dress number two, the Bardot Scenic Print Dress, £39.99. Again, a size 8, this time an even worse fit! You can't tell from the photo but I couldn't get this zipped up over my bust. AT ALL. It would probably be perfect in a 10, but I'm not that keen on the neckline as it means I'd have to wear a strapless bra with it, and quite frankly, strapless bras are always uncomfortable! 

Dress number three, the Blue Belted Dress, £34.99. A size and a MASSIVE fail! It fits perfectly on the waist and zips right up, but the bust was, as expected, a terrible fit. It has cup details stitched in, so the chances of it fitting a lot of women is very slim as the 'cups' are quite small and very wide set. No hope for me and my 28GG's! I knew this dress wouldn't fit but I was curious since Kelly Brook has a sizeable rack, so I hoped for a better fit. On the plus side, the dress is a nice colour for me and my red hair, has a matching belt and a cute keyhole detail on the back. Please excuse my bra being shown so badly, it's the wrong size and rides up my back.

Last but not least in any sense of the word, my favourite of them all, the White Floral Bow Shoulder Dress, £39.99. This time, the size 8 fitted as though it was made for me! Perfect! Again, excuse the badly fitting bra. If I wore my real size it wouldn't be seen. I love the bow details on the shoulders and the keyhole in the back, it makes a difference to everything else out there at the moment. I won't be buying this dress as I have too many already, but I can highly recommend this one from the Kelly Brook range.

So what do you think of the Kelly Brook collection? Will you be buying anything from the range? 

Bye for now :)

Fitting Faux Pas and Bikini Bloopers!

There is a rather infamous battle of bra fitting that has constantly been raging for quite a few years now, so I thought I'd give it a quick mention, as it is linked to the bikini half of my blog. The old school method is to add 4-5 inches to the actualy underbust measurement, which I'm sure is where all this 'blah blah % of all women are wearing the wrong bra size' thing comes from. I've only recently (in the past 3 months maybe) discovered that instead of the 32G I was wearing, my 'real' size is 30G. 

For my fitting I went to Bravissimo, who fit you by eye based on the bra you're wearing. To be honest, even I don't practise what I preach entirely, as my underbust measurement is pretty much 28", so I should really be trying 28 backs. The 30 backs I have seem nice and snug, so I'll stick with them for now. I'm aware that this may just be a manufacturer issue... 

It was clear from my Star In A Bra entry photos (32G) that I was wearing the wrong size, even a MAN commented on this! Surely this is proof enough that the old method is wrong?! Here's a photo of me wearing a 32 back size.Not the best picture to demonstrate this, but you just about see that the bra sits away from my chest at the gore (the centre of the bra, between the cups). This means that all the support comes from the straps, causing pain, red marks and cutting in on the shoulder muscles.

So, according to some online calculators I come up as anything from a 32E to a 34E, and many sizes besides. With this in mind, I decided to try on  a few bikinis from New Look's range by Kelly Brook.

Firstly, a very cute black and white gingham number in a 32E. I don't really need to say much about this, I think the photos say it all...The only plus side is that the cups are big enough. Stringy straps=ouch!

Next I tried a 34E swimsuit. Unflattering, badly fitting. I am NOT a 34! Maybe if I tied the 'bra strap' back instead of using the fastener....?

Lastly, I adore the fabric and ruffles on this last one, again a 34E. Cups on the large side, same with the back.

My biggest point to make with these bikinis is WHY do they have shoestring straps??? Fine for smaller cup sizes but I'm thinking cheesewire for heavier boobs....

Thanks for reading, as always x