Build me up, Buttercup! Made In Preston's lovely lace creation!

I was recently contacted by Nikki Hesford of UK booby fashion brand Made In Preston asking if I'd like to review one of their products.

Firstly, let's discuss the brand in question. Made in Preston was launched in June 2013 as a fashion house catering for larger cup sizes. "So what's new about that? We have BiuBiu, Saint Bustier, Pepperberry, Urkye and DDAtelier amongst others" I hear you cry! Well, let me tell you, none of those have real edgy catwalk fashion, which is why ex glamour model and young mum Nikki decided to pursue her dream of owning her very own label. The fact that Made in Preston takes inspiration from the catwalk really sets them aside from other bigger bust brands meaning younger women aren't tied down to squeezing themselves into dresses and tops that don't fit from high street stores, boring (but admittedly very useful) 'classics' and often styles that aren't age appropriate for the wearer. The other thing I love about Made In Preston is that, as their name suggests, everything they make is manufactured in Preston, and that can only be a good thing for the local and national economy.

Nikki from Made In Preston (photo from lep.co.uk)

Not only do Made In Preston produce clothes for the bigger bust, they also do a range of funky lingerie, of which I'm excited to be reviewing today! Nikki has designed the lingerie in order to stand out, and boy does it do its job! With neon patterned lace fabrics, and blah blah blaaaaahhhhh, you'll be sure to find something for your more adventurous side at Made In Preston!

 

More from Made In Preston

Within a few days my bra arrived, wrapped up lovingly in branded tissue paper with heart stickers to secure. I'm a sucker for nice packaging, it really feels like you're getting a gift and therefore makes it easier to justify the odd splurge on yourself.... Well that's what I tell myself anyway!

On opening the package, I found Nikki had very kindly sent me this awesome buttercup yellow unpadded bra (currently at £34, matching knickers £10) in a 28H. As you may know from my previous post on the Cleo Marcie Babydoll, my boyfriend is a HUGE fan of anything yellow, so he was pretty happy Nikki chose this for me! The shade of yellow leans slightly more towards neon/green tones than the Marcie, which I would call a true buttercup yellow.

I don't tend to wear unpadded bras for anything other than dossing around the house, so I was slightly apprehensive about trialling the bra. On fitting the bra I noticed the band is nice and snug, like a true 28" should be. I'm currently measuring 27" so this is perfect. In fact it's by far the best 28" band I own. I also notice that it gives a rounded shape, not dissimilar to my all time favourite, the Deco by Freya, only without the epic cleavage, which is a good thing if you like the rounded shape but don't fancy having a cleavage for whatever reason. I normally wear a 28GG Deco and this is a 28H so bear this in mind when ordering.

The bra has a black lining with a yellow lace overlay meaning that if, like me, lace makes you itch, the lining prevents this happening.

My only criticisms are that the band only has a row of two hooks where I'm used to having three, although admittedly this doesn't appear to have made much difference with regards to support, although it might with a larger band and cup size due to the weight of the bust. What I have noticed is that the band rides up a little, so I don't know whether that could be to do with it not being wide enough or if I need to use the tighter hooks. Also the straps are a touch too thin for my liking, again not what I'm used to in bras with larger cups.

Strap comparison with the Curvy Kate Ritzy (left)

Having worn the bra for a couple of days I'm happy to report that I'm very fond of it! Like I said, I'm not a fan of padded bras and avoid wearing them wherever possible but this wonderful yellow creation will be one I hope to get more use out of.

This style of bra also comes in Monochrome, Powder Pink and Black and can be purchased here.

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!

Crop tops for busty gals? Can you, would you, dare you?

A few weeks ago Georgina of fullerfigurefullerbust tweeted that she'd tried on a crop top and since then I was curious about how they would look on me. As I was browsing in Primark one lunch hour, I saw a few I quite fancied and decided to give them a try just to see how they'd look.

I chose to team the crop tops up with a green jersey midi skirt, costing just £5. The skirt is available in red, blue, green and black. Primark didn't any have any in my usual skirt size 8 so the one in the photos is a size 10. I'm not overly keen with the midi length on me, but apparently it's THE length to wear so I guess I can live with it.

Unfortunately Primark don't have an online shop, although ASOS ave a small selection available. 

First up, a colourful Aztec print top in a size 6. Costing £6 (I think it was?) it's a cheap and easy way to work this seasons daring trend. The problem I had with this top is that besides making me look ALL boob, you could clearly see my bra straps.

                                         

You should all know by now that I'm a complete sucker for anything polka dot, so this black and white crop top immediately caught my eye. Costing £4, it's so tempting! Again, it makes me look very busty, but I kind of like how I look in this outfit and may well end up buying it. At just £9 fr both the top and skirt, I think I can justify it. My only issue is that the outfit might be a bit too young for me with me turning 32 in a month's time.

                                         

So, my curvy readers, what do you think? Would you dare to bare your midriff this summer for this latest fashion trend or is it all a bit too much for you? Would you avoid wearing fashions you know look good on you because you feel you're too old for them?

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?