The Curve Fashion Festival

The Curve Fashion Festival, is a brand new and unique fashion event, and is slated to become the largest plus size fashion festival in the UK.

 

Louise O'Reilly, Tess Holliday, Nicolette Mason
and Hayley Hasselhoff
Photo courtesy of The Curve Fashion Festival

 

Chilled out after a
lovely massage



With the beautiful Georgina
of 'Fuller Figure, Fuller Bust' 

Debuting on Saturday 26th September, in Manchester Central, the event welcomed some great fashion brands and top plus-size celebrities and was attended by over 1,000 people. Here's my personal take on the day:

I arrived at 11.30am and was welcomed with a gorgeous goodie bag full of lovely treats including a New Look Handbag, Boohoo gift card, Curv'i'licious gift card, Creighton hair products and Bee Good skincare. I made my way to the Fashion Hall and began my day with a lovely back, neck and shoulder massage from Allie at the Spa Parties stand. It was heaven!

With my very favourite plus size blogger, the truly
gorgeous Betty Pamper

 



Duly relaxed and ready to face the day, I met up with some of the plus size bloggers before heading to the swap stand! I traded three dresses and a jumpsuit for three new-to-me dresses and a top! I love a good swapsies!

With the perfectly gorgeous
Lisa Riley at the launch of her new
collection - 'Just Be You'

 


 

 
 Following my fellow plus size bloggers lead, I headed to the Figure 8 stand to meet the lovely Lisa Riley for the unveiling of her beautiful new clothing range 'Just Be You'. If you haven't seen it - you must get yourself along to http://www.figure8collection.co.uk/18_just-be-you for a look. 

 

I bought myself the simply divine 'Katie' dress from the new collection and will be writing a blog on my purchase really soon!

Lisa Riley and the plus size bloggers
Photo courtesy of The Curve Fashion Festival

 

Next it was time for the catwalk shows with key new looks on show from ASOS Curve, Elvi, New Look, Boohoo.com, Very So Fabulous, Studio 8, Miss Guided, Evans, Pink Clove, Monif C, Taking Shape, Elomi, Simply Be, Studio Untold and Tess Holliday. The collections were beautiful and I've certainly got lots of inspiration for my autumn/ winter 2015 wardrobe.

From the ASOS Curve
Catwalk show
photo courtesy of
The Curve Fashion
Festival

 

From the Elvi
catwalk show
photo courtesy of
The Curve Fashion
Festival

 

From the Miss Guided 
Catwalk show
photo courtesy of
The Curve Fashion
Festival

My only criticism of the catwalk shows was the lack of representation of the plus size community in terms of models. The models, provided by Hughes Models, were of course beautiful ladies and did an excellent job of showing off the collections. However the buzz I got from the ladies watching the shows was that they (and indeed I) would liked to have seen more variety in the size, shape and height of the models. We are a very diverse community and this was my only downside to the day.

Following the fashion shows, it was back to the hall for a spot more shopping!

During my shopping trip, I was fitted for a new Elomi bra by the lovely Lucy at the Mish stand (https://www.mish-online.co.uk/). I was one of the 80% of women wearing the wrong size - who knew?! I had a sport of window shopping at the Very and Elvi stands, and I then went on to buy some gorgeous dresses from the 'Scarlett & Jo' (separate blog on my purchases to follow soon!) and (yet another!) t-shirt from 'Nicky Rockets'.

Tess Holliday
Photo courtesy of The Curve Fashion
Festival

With Tess Holliday

I also spoke to the perfectly gorgeous Tess Holliday at her '#Eff Your Beauty Standards' stall. I am such a massive fan of this lady and it was an absolute pleasure to meet with such a genuinely lovely person.

I could think of no better way to round off my day at The Curve Fashion Festival than with a photo of my MBBC girls; the reigning Miss British Beauty Curve, Rebecca Argent and Ms British Beauty Curve, Kat Henry.

Rebecca, Me and Kat
#MBBC

I'm so proud to have been awarded my title of this years' 'Ms Congeniality' and I'm looking forward to entering again in 2016.

Ms Congeniality 2015

I was sad to have to leave early and miss out on the seminars with Lisa Riley, Nicolette Mason, Louise O'Reilly, Tess Holliday and Hayley Hasselhoff, that completed the days events. However it has given me an added incentive to start planning my day for the 2nd annual Curve Fashion Festival.

Roll on next year...

 

 

The Road to the Pageant may be ended but the journey's just begun...

Saturday 8th August saw the final in the 'Miss British Beauty Curve 2015' pageant, at the Epsom Playhouse - and what a fantastic time we had.

Myself and 'Katherine's Closet owner (and bestie!) Emma Adams
outside the Epsom Playhouse

Starting out at 11am with the rehearsals for our opening number, we all bonded really well and with an amazing soundtrack we were all dancing and singing along together in no time - I haven't laughed so much in ages! The time went so quickly and before we knew it, interviews had been completed and we were in the changing rooms prepping for the start of the show! Then the magic started - 28 women ready to show the audience what they could do!

Isn't this supposed to be a beauty pageant?!
(clockwise from top) Stephanie, Tracey, Aisha, me, Kat, Kim and Heila

We opened to Ariana Grande's 'Problem' and I felt truly amazing in my Lady Voluptuous 'Ursula' dress and Ruby Shoo 'Piper' navy polka dot shoes. The whole theme of the opening number was the Union Jack, so we all worked our Red, White and Blue dresses with Union Jacks in hand - and we rocked it (even if some of us slightly miss-footed and nearly fell over at the end!)

Opening number - the Red, White and Blue of the Union Jack

Feeling fab in Lady Voluptuous and Ruby Shoo

After introductions, it was on to the fashion wear round and I really enjoyed this. It was a chance for us all to show the audience a little bit of ourselves and our own individual style. I chose the Gemma Collins 'Copenhagen' dress. You might have remembered that a wiggle dress was an alien concept for me not so long ago, but with a new found appreciation for a dress of a closer fit - I felt fantastic! 

Working the wiggle in
a Gemma Collins 'Copenhagen'

Then on to swimwear! Now, you can imagine that, having had a lifelong fear of a wiggle dress, the thought of wearing a swimsuit on stage once filled me with dread. BUT not anymore! We had another amazing song in Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj's 'Bang Bang' and I, like every other lady on that stage, worked my look. There was a great mix of one and two piece swimwear, cover ups and kaftans and I adored wearing my Magisculpt 'Marilyn' swimsuit and Grazia kimono (both from Simply Be).

Myself and Ms East Coast, Tracey Haynes

As I said, it all went so quickly and before we knew it we were in our Evening Wear for the final round - and what a round. So many beautiful dresses, worn by so many beautiful, caring and talented ladies. My dress was a Grecian style chiffon dress in coral from Trixxi at Macy's teamed with 'Crisp Kendra' shoes in coral suede by Clarks.

The Finale - Trixxi at Macy's and
Crisp Kendra by Clarks

After a brief interval with entertainment from 'Kaiya' and 'Dance Flavourz', it was on to the final part of the pageant - the awards ceremony. We were joined on stage by 2014 winners Emily Blake and Yvonne Cardoso, 2013 winner Amarise and 2012 winner Rio Watchorn. And the winner for the Ms category was....


The Ms Category awards

The gorgeous Katherine Henry, Ms Surrey Curve. I am so pleased to know this beautiful lady and it was a very well deserved victory.

Ms Katherine Henry - Ms Surrey Curve 2015
and now Ms British Beauty Curve 2015

Equally deservedly won were the titles of 2nd runner up, won by Ms East Curve Tracey Haynes and 1st runner up, won by Ms Hertfordshire, Kim Ireland. Best in interview was the lovely, Ms North Wales Stephanie Jaziri and Top Model was won by Aisha Namurach.

Ms East Coast and 2nd Runner up
Tracey Haynes

Ms Hertfordshire and 1st Runner up
Kim Ireland

Ms North Wales and Best in Interview
Stephanie Jaziri

Ms Cardiff and Top Model
Aisha Namurach

Yours truly didn't fair so bad either - I was honoured to be awarded the Best Application award and - much to my utter delight - Ms Congeniality! I am the Gracie-Lou Freebush of Miss British Beauty Curve 2015! The award is amazing and all the more special as it is awarded based on voting by fellow contestants. I am truly blessed to have met such amazing ladies who value me for who I am.

Receiving my Ms Congeniality sash and certificate from
Amarise and Yvonne Cardoso

My Titles

I would like to thank Leah Precod for allowing me to be a part of this amazing pageant and to the whole Miss British Beauty Curve team for their time, patience and support. It has been a privilege. Many congratulations to the winners, both in my category and in the Miss category. Very many thanks to my Mum and Dad, Sally and Clive and to my friend Emma for coming to support me, and also to all the family and friends that supported me here at home in Gloucestershire. I couldn't have done it without you.

Finally I should like to say - Ladies and Gentleman - my road to 'Miss British Beauty Curve 2015' is now at an end but this is simply the beginning of a much bigger journey....

Useful links:
www.facebook.com/KatherinesClosetVintage
https://ladyvlondon.com/LadyVoluptuous/
www.rubyshoo.com/
http://gemmacollinsofficial.com/
www.simplybe.co.uk

To wiggle - or not to wiggle - that is the question!

Bellatrix with suede mid heels
from Office and Hair flower by
Rockaflower

As many of you will know, I love my vintage and retro style clothing. I'm a particular fan of the 1950s - Full skirts, Dior's 'New Look' and generally really feminine shapes and styles. There is, however a style from that era that has never graced my wardrobe - a wiggle dress. That is until now!
I am now the proud owner of a rose print 'Bellatrix' dress from the Lady Vintage London - Lady Voluptuous range (http://ladyvlondon.com/LadyVoluptuous/). Now I have long favoured the Lady Vintage 'Hepburn' dresses - owning almost their entire collection - but the wiggle is a whole new ballgame for me. I've always been frightened of showing so  
much of my shape. But I've bitten the bullet and I'm really pleased with the results.
The 'Lady Voluptuous' range has been created in collaboration with the wonderful Georgina Horne (Fuller Figure Fuller Bust) and is the UK's first dedicated Plus Size Vintage Clothing label. The 'Bellatrix' dress (as you can see from my photo) features a V neck, 3/4 length sleeves, with a peplum hem. And best of all - drum roll, please - my size 22/24 dress is 46.5" in length! Yay!

Keep yours eye open this coming weekend for more vintage fun at the opening of the new 'Katherine's Closet' boutique in Cheltenham! Gracie and I can't wait!