Women Are Back

If you have been following my social streams as of late you will have seen me gushing on and on and on and on and ON about the fact that I was in Milan! I was flown there by Marina Rinaldi, as myself and eleven other girls were due to spend four days together working on an exciting project – more will be revealed in a few months!  All I can say is that I ate gelato, met some babes, tried on some amazing clothes and had my hair and make up done every day.  It was like a dream!

It was amazing to meet some of my blogging idols, and I absolutely adore every woman I had the pleasure of spending time with over those four perfect days.

I’d love to introduce you to these women if I may, I will go from left to right.

Katya Zharkova. What can I say about this girl!? I’ve wanted to meet her ever since I saw the spread she did for Plus Model Magazine.

She looked so fun and so beautiful, and meeting her proved that she was that and then some! She has fought and fought and fought to become a plus size model for so many years, and she has such a great attitude towards body image and body confidence, and I felt truly inspired to be around her. Plus she was a dream to watch in action on one of her shoots and I can’t wait to meet her again.

Tanesha Awasthi aka Girl With Curves.

Wow is all I can say. What a beautiful graceful woman she was! She had the ability to make everything she wore look sublime, and was always so composed and perfect looking!

Melike Çarpatan was a complete darling.

She brought everyone good luck bracelets from Turkey and looked amazing in her sophisticated outfit choices.

Ditte Vallø – my booby twin! A mother of three who looked too young to even have one! Ditte was so funny and amazing to be around, a really positive effervescent woman.

Roberta Scagnolari was wearing a Marina Rinaldi dress when we met, and seeing how good her busty petite curvy frame suited the garment made me even more excited for the following when when I got to try on everything and anything! This buxom beauty had a knowledge of make up that blew me away!

Iris Tinunin – I love this girl! She was so fiery and fun, a pocket sized Italian beauty.

Gabi Gregg. What plus size blogger doesn’t want to meet this voluptuous legend!? Gabi was so down to earth and fun to be around – and the fact that she is my body shape twin didn’t hurt either!

Shila Kreuzer was an complete babe. She wore the best accessories and had the most beautiful lips.

Stéphanie Zwicky – wow!

I have to say she was a little intimidating at first, but I soon got to know her and discovered a very sweet warm loving woman. My favourite moment from the trip happened when a little old lady in the Marina Rinaldi store asked me what us girls were doing in the store. She mentioned that she read a blog by a French lady called Stéphanie, and I excitedly told her she was in the store! Stéphanie could not believe that this lady in Italy read her blog, and moments after meeting her she burst into emotional tears. ‘This is why I do it. This is why I blog. I get told I’m fat, too fat to wear nice things. But I don’t care. I blog for women like her.’ – I think we all started crying at this, and Iris summed it up with ‘Your emotion; it’s beautiful.’ Stéphanie recently launched her new collection, and she looked amazing wearing a few of the items from it when in Milan.

Marie Denee – it was so good to see her again! Marie and I first met when we worked together on the Evans campaign, and I was so glad to see her name amongst the others, as I was a little dubious about meeting so many new people. She was as fun and beautiful and sassy as ever, and seeing her work it for the camera was something really special!

Edith Dohmen – the girl with the lost luggage! I felt so sorry for Edith, turning up to Milan to find her bags a few hours behind her! Luckily it arrived, and so did she looking as beautiful as she does on her blog. I really enjoyed her attitude and outlook on the plus size world. She is more of an ‘inbetweeny’ at her size, something that she covers a lot on her amazing blog, and with her amazing brand of clothing.

So there you have it! The eleven women I spent time with last week! The Marina Rinaldi gang were also a dream to be around, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Milan, exhausting as it was! I ate great food, had my photo taken by Riccardo Vimercati and Max Cardelli. These photos and accompanying interviews will be appearing on huge posters and in magazine in a few short months, something that I’m even more excited about!  And best of all I finally got to try some beautiful Marina Rinaldi clothes – the links and reviews of which I will also post in a few months. I caught myself crying several times during the trip, and on the way home. I feel so lucky to have been given such a wonderful opportunity with some truly fabulous women, and although I can’t reveal everything about the trip just yet, I can share a few photos with you. Enjoy!

Stocking HQ’s Plus Size Offerings

Being plus size, large arsed and fairly average in height means that wearing tights is often no fun. And so when Peter from Stockings HQ offered to send me some plus size tights and hold ups to try, I jumped on the chance! I decided to try them all on with some lovely red knickers so that you could see the opacity of the products. Please do also note that the exact products I tried are seemingly not on the website, but I will be able to link you to the brands.

The first pair that I tried on were some footless tight from Pretty Polly in a size XL.

I really like these tights! Footless is always a winner because it means there’s less chance of them not fitting. I like that they are technically ‘light leggings’ and they will perfect on a cooler summer’s day… or one when I can’t be bothered to shave my legs! They feel really smooth on and pulled up really easily. I liked where they sat on me, as there is nothing worse that a pair of tights cutting into your chub. I’m keen to try some more Pretty Polly plus size tights after having these on.

The next pair that I tried were these XL Eleganti stockings.

My chubby thighs don’t always go well with hold ups, and sadly these were no exception. They were very easy to pull on and up, the length was spot on and I loved the retro seams. However, my tree trunk legs resembled overstuffed sausages! On a more toned slim pair of legs these soft elegant luxurious tights would work wonders, but sadly they would not be a choice of mine until my legs lose a little of the wobble!

The final pair of tights that I tried were a size 4XL by Levante.

These tights had gorgeous floral details around the waist and thighs, and I really loved that touch. They were not so easy to get on, and sadly did not fit me perfectly – although I was petrified of breaking them! They were really soft and had a lovely sheen to them, and it’s a brand I would probably re visit in the future.

Who makes your favourite plus size tights?