Olympic Spirit

Frocks and Frou Frou Frocks and Frou Frou Frocks and Frou FrouTee-shirt: Gorman

Trousers: Love Your Wardrobe

Shoes: Seychelles

Right. So. Before I kick off, I just wanted to say that I’ve been really, really disappointed by Gorman this year. In April they basically flunked the World Aid Australian 2016 Fashion Report; I gave then the benefit of the doubt because they claimed that their ‘F’ rating was ‘a failure to reply, not a failure to comply’, and that they’d made the decision not to disclose information about their production practices to Baptist World Aid Australia. I thought their bungled response – a belated instagram post jumping on board the #WhoMadeMyClothes awareness campaign – was misguided, but not inherently evidence that their well-known social and ethical policy was baloney (and FYI, they recently published the results of an internal and external survey of working conditions, and it looks mostly OK).

More recently they have found themselves in hot water over claims that they’ve been willfully and knowingly ripping off indie artists including Emily Green, Kirra Jamison, and Eloise Rapp. This came hot on the heels of the release of their enormously popular collaboration with Australian artist Mirka Mora and it’s one of my pet hates.

Gorman does great prints. I’ve been singing their praises for years, and hoping and wishing that they’d expand their size range (they haven’t). But I think maybe the love affair is over. I don’t think I’ll be buying from Gorman again.

This top is part of a current range at Gorman, and I’m hoping they haven’t been ‘influenced’ by someone for it. I loved it enough to spend nearly $100 on it (for a t-shirt for God’s sake) so I’m planning to wear the hell out of it.

Frocks and Frou FrouThe print’s called ‘synchronised’, and it features a bunch of ladies wearing sensible knickers and doing gymnastic poses. It’s very Olympic in spirit, and it’s a great statement piece to pair with plain skirts and pants.

Speaking of pants; the trousers are from Love Your Wardrobe, who are a new-to-me Australian online plus-size brand that I have somehow totally missed up til now.

I took advantage of their recent sale to try their cuffed-pull on pants, and I’m so glad I did. They fit beautifully – I went by the size chart, which was spot on – and are in a lovely light fabric that will be wonderful in summer. They don’t crush, fit my thighs (and giant calves!), have fully functional pockets, and feature a proper waistband at the front, meaning I can wear tops tucked in without feeling like too much of a dag.

I don’t usually like to buy trousers online because the fit is much more iffy, but Love Your Wardrobe ships free, and being Australian return shipping wasn’t going to be a major problem if the pants ended up being a trainwreck. The $25 voucher you get for signing up doesn’t hurt, either.

The range is fairly limited at the moment, but it’s nice to have another local store I can support.

On that topic – don’t forget that this weekend is Melbourne Fashion Week Plus, and tickets are still available to see some of the exciting new players in the plus-size fashion world at one of the weekend’s four runway shows. I’ll be there, front and centre, so say hi if you see me! I’m also planning to visit the A+ Markets on the Sunday – its sure to be a huge one!

14 thoughts on “Olympic Spirit

  1. Even after reading your view on Gorman I have to admit that my heart skipped a beat seeing this tshirt! You look totally gorgeous! I’m a size 16 and see that Gorman only size up to a 14…is the tshirt a loose fit or true to size?

    1. Normally I wouldn’t, but it was certified organic and the print’s outstanding. I figured I’d get $100 worth of wear out of it (and I felt like treating myself) but I’d be very disappointed if I heard the designer of the print hadn’t been adequately reimbursed.

  2. I recently bought the Love your Wardrobe jeans and thought ‘these are the bomb’ – perfect. I had the same experience as you in that their size charts were spot on. I found the jeans to be a light fabric, and they stretched within a wear unfortunately. I bought their smallest size, so will probably have a go and taking them in (or will take them to a tailor to have them professionally taken in) because I love them so much. I am presently waiting for one of their tees with pretty sleeves to arrive which I bought for a bargain when they had a sale on Ozsale, and I like the look of some of their floaty summer dresses too.

  3. Totally agree. I bought a Mirka collaboration top because I got married in front of her art and it’s gorgeous, but I made a big point in store of asking about how fair the collaboration terms were (Mirka’s son is a tough negotiator so it’s all good.) But it’s sad Gorman are turning away their loyal customer base by engaging in such poor practice.

    1. The Mirka stuff is SO divine! That’s actually why I was in there: I wanted to buy the midi skirt in a 14 and fathack it to fit, but the larger sizes were well gone. 🙁
      I hope you love your top <3

  4. gorman really shoot themselves in the foot by not expanding their size range. the other melbourne stalwart, Obus picks up the slack there.they do great prints and the cut of their clothes are for women who have boobs!! WIN! it is also disappointing that artists can’t better protect their designs from being ripped off. I hope Gorman can clean up their reputation here, and adequately compensate artists if they use their ideas in future. people are watching now.

  5. Have you been to Clear It? The Alannah hill, Dangerfield and Gorman factory outlet that sells fabric from factory leftovers. Don’t know how you feel about it now but if you want to have a look it’s 188-192 Brunswick Street Fitzroy. You have to dig sometimes but I’ve found good stuff.

    1. I’ve heard good things, but to be honest I’ve never had much luck there myself – have you? I keep hearing about it from other people, so I must just be having bad luck!

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