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!

Remix: Sunspots dress-to-skirt

Frocks and Frou Frou Frocks and Frou Frou Frocks and Frou Frou Frocks and Frou FrouTop: Princess Highway

Skirt: Remixed from 17 Sundays dress

Shoes: Seychelles

You may remember this dress, which I bought from 17 Sundays back at the start of the year. I wasn’t particularly happy with the fit of the bodice – it was short-waisted and baggy with armholes cut too deep, and it didn’t suit my figure at all. Belted and worn with a cardigan it was okay, but it was definitely one of those one-hit-wonder style outfits, which meant it spent most of its time languishing in my wardrobe.

Last week I finally mustered up the energy to remix it from a dress into a skirt, using the same process I did all those years ago when I altered a too-small Gorman dress I’d splurged on (you can find the tutorial here).

Frocks and Frou FrouIt was a fairly easy remix – the bodice had enough fabric in it for me to cut two waistband strips, which I interfaced for stability as the fabric itself is a soft and stretchy jersey. Because the skirt already fit well around the waist I was able to salvage the pleats by basting them in place before I removed the bodice to Frankenstein it into a waistband.

Frocks and Frou FrouI’m really happy with the result, and I’m getting a lot more use out of the dress as a mix-and-match separate that I can wear with a variety of different tops including this pretty rose-pink sweater from Princess Highway.

Screen Shot 2016-08-15 at 11.00.45 PMMEANWHILE!

I’m hilariously excited about Melbourne Fashion Week Plus, which is taking place 22-28 August. There’s a slew of events taking place, including four – count them, FOUR – runway shows, and a variety of panels on everything from feminism, to the state of the plus-size industry.

The organisers are keen to ensure that it’s an event that promotes everything about plus size culture: design, discourse and body positivity.

The runway shows include several new designers that are new to me, as well as some of my long-time favourites, and I’ll definitely be attending all four, so hopefully I can bring you news of some brilliant new local and international names to add to your lust-lists – If you’re in Melbourne I’d thoroughly recommend you check the event out yourself (and if you need another excuse to visit Melbourne and would like to make a weekend of it A+ Markets have scheduled their next market for the 28th, too)

You can find tickets for MFWPlus here.