Bravissimo and Lingerie Shopping

Bravissimo has grown in just a few years from a specialist retailer to a familiar high street presence. Their USP is "Lingerie, swimwear and clothing for D-K cup women" which is a rather inelegant way of saying that they are not a plus-size retailer as such but that their target market is big-boosomed women who may otherwise be slim waisted and snake-hipped. I know women like this and can empathise with the difficulty they have finding clothes that don't snag and gap simultaneously on different parts of their body.
The bonus for bigger women is that we can at least benefit from the lingerie. Bravissimo in common with other specialist retailers fit women for bras based on the size of their back and shoulders rather than measuring round the bust area. That means that they measure me as a size 36ff whereas in Marks & Spencers when I was last measured I was told to wear a 40c.
The big difference here is that if you fit yourself as advised by leaning down and scooping your boobies into a bra as you put it on (don't fret this becomes automatic after a week or two) then your chest sits higher and more flesh including the soft underarm tissue is supported. The first time you see this effect in a changing room mirror you'll be amazed as it can appear as if you've lost a fair bit of weight and your waist is emphasised as never before.
There is a downside to this which is that the fastening of the bra will emphasise all that lovely back fat and will dig in a bit more than is always comfortable. So while it should not be cutting off circulation you'll probably sigh with relief when you get your pyjamas on at the end of the day.
Bravissimo have also increasingly started to feature clothing in their stores and catalogue. With the majority of items going up to a size 18 in either curvy, really curvy or super curvy. But again as the naming suggests is only in the bust area that there is extra ease and so a size 20 tummy may not button into one of their shirts.
In terms of style there is not much here to set the heather alight. For me the pick from their recent collection is a safari-ish shirt dress shown above, but there are a lot of jersey wrap dresses to pick from which still make reasonable wardrobe staples.
Specialist independent lingerie shops still seem to exist in most Scottish towns where other types of shopping have been superceded entirely by chain stores. Some of my favourites are The Personal Touch in King Street Stirling and Upfront Lingerie in Dunfermline. I've found a better level of stock and service in these places than in any city centre store and would recommend them to all aliens.

Betty Jackson Black

I've not really written much about the Betty Jackson Black range from Debenhams which is strange since it really provides the backbone of my Wardrobe. Over the last couple of years I've gotten a great black full-skirted shirtwaister dress (my own Mad Men office outfit) a couple of pairs of well cut trousers which are as kind as any garment can be to my size 20 proportions and this week I treated myself to a blush pink cardi with a lace placket, wearing it today for the first time I got a couple of complements and felt pretty and feminine wearing it.

On the Debenhams website there are some examples of why I think the range offers some of the best choice on the High Street at the moment. The Dress on the left is priced £50; I think it is about as flattering a garment as would be wearable for larger sizes while still being lovely in its own terms.
One of the ranges other great strengths is knitwear. Again I love to wear pretty cardigans and the embellishment and level of detail here are a step above the Marks & Spencer functional stuff.
Debenhams is not always the most pleasant place to shop, especially the crowded, strip lit department store in Glasgow, and some of the designers ranges they sell veer towards the tacky. But I'm pretty sure I would buy this stuff without the lure of the Jackson name. Almost all the range goes to a size 20 and prices are reasonable for the quality of the finish.

Jean Muir Exhibition

I visited the Jean Muir Exhibition which is on at the National Museum of Scotland in Chambers St Edinburgh until March this year. The collection is stunning and well worth a visit for anyone with an interest in clothing. There are about 40 outfits on display, for me the most outstanding were the dark crepe dresses which unfortunately do not photograph well, but standing next to one the quality of the fabric and the drape and purity of line are breath-taking. My favourite pieces are a navy dress from 1972, with buttons at the front and pin-tucks which was just lovely. I was also very taken by a floor-length belted dress with contrast stiching at the neck.
It was poignant to see records of requisitions for fabric from mills in Scotland, long since gone and samples of the fabric dyes used in her clothes.
Miss Muir also was highly influential as knitwear designer and although some of the examples in the exhibition are 80's intarsia and thus on the far horizon of what is currently popular the quality of the workmanship is still admirable. I also loved the small selection of designs she produced for the Jane and Jane label in the 1960s including a Paisley Print dress trimmed with feather boa which is a design I've actually dreamed about before,pure B-52s glamour.
I'm happy to report that the exhibition also features something for us aliens too. A navy crepe cape tied with a pussy bow is captioned with the info that "Miss Muir designed for all shapes and sizes" I'd be very happy to wear this or just about anything else from the collection.

Alien Icons -part 2

Adele is a young, pretty singer-songwriter whom I think dresses very well. Clearly she is larger than the norm for girly pop stars but it that does not seem to be such a big deal for her or most anyone who likes her. This a novelty in itself when Cheryl Cole and Amy Winehouse both seem ready to snap under the weight of their own hair. Adele tends to wear dark colours, a lot of layers and knitted items. A lot like the way I and a lot of fat girls dress, but also there is quality of playfulness in her clothes and grooming that I admire. I particularly like the way she upsweeps her hair in a sideways bun and wears a nice even line of black eyeliner which is a creates an uncluttered look which is just retro enough to suit her music.

Alien Icons

I haven't bought much over Christmas and New Year. Mostly my splurging has been on yarn, most notably a Perl Gray kit to make this lovely bucket hat bought in the sale from Purlescence which has lots of gorgeous things, many currently on sale.

So in this spending lull I've been thinking about whose style I really admire and who actually influences the way that I dress.

One of my other Christmas Treats was a box set of the 4th series of Boston Legal. For the unintiated this is a marvellously anarchic and witty US prime time legal series starring two long-time heroes William Shatner and James Spader who spar beautifully in their leading roles. However as the series went on I realised that one of the things I looked forward to the most was to see what Candice Bergen, who plays Senior Partner Shirley Schmidt, was wearing in each scene. Bergen is a beautiful woman and as she eases into her sixties she has developed a distinctive style which is based around wearing dark suits with a high open neck and the most wonderful multi-stranded chunky necklaces. There is plenty of variation in this look which can look smart and business-like and still nod towards exoticism.
So this has inspired a style resolution for me to get chunky. Further fuel for this has come from a new Bead Company Shop which has opened in Glasgow's west end and has an exceptional range of the most gorgeous beads and stones imaginable.

Christmas Night out

The Christmas night out column is a staple piece in the fashion journalist's repetoire, ususally focusing on the dilemma of whether to go for timeless verstile lbd which can be accessorised for the season (this also applies now to black trouser suits) or to go frothy, promy and lacey. I have never yet read a recommendation for a Christmas night out outfit that offers advice on how to keep warm while drinking on the move through the streets of Glasgow which is really what I need to know most.
There is also the other issue; gauging just how "dressed up" to be. Spending the night with colleagues you want to look as if you have definitely made a bit of an effort, but go overboard and they will treat you like the certifiably insane freak they think you look like.
So this year I'm working on a look that combines safe daywear in muted colours (a grey marl jersey cowl neck) with a skirt which is a bit more dressy (a midnight blue M&S a-line cutie with embroidery round the hem) and black patent shoe-boots which I love from Clarks. All a bit safe, but stuff in which I will feel comfortable and girly and be able to stagger towards the taxi-rank come closing time.
And I have my first ever bona-fide fashion tip to share. All big bosomed girls will no doubt be aware of the Gok-commandment that thou shall not strangle thy breasts in an unflattering polo-neck. All very true; but I have practiced draping sheer scarves and chunky long necklaces to create a kind of virtual v-neck which I think works very well and which adds weight to the top if you have a large undercarriage as I have. So I will be wearing plenty of interest around my neck in a kind of pile em high type

20% off day at M&S

Well I was driving into work last Thursday and a news segment came on BBC Radio Scotland saying that there was a 20% sale off at Marks & Spencer, hmmm, there are inponderables there already, but I'll skip over them and say that I was mildy excited about the prospect of some retail therapy. Great, I thought I could skip over in my lunchbreak and stock up on opaque tights.

IF ONLY. When I got to the Braehead branch there was a line of cars stretching out the car park near enough to the M8. I managed to park several miles away from the branch and when I got there was faced by the prospect of queues in the clothing areas that would take at least an hour to work through. In front of me there were people with shopping trolleys piled high with jumpers, pyjamas and childrens games.

What does this tell me? That people are insane to put themselves through this sort of panic buying for nothing, that an incredibly simple sales ploy like this can work wonders for M&S who must have sold ten times their normal daily stock on Thursday and that there will be plenty of fluffy slippers under the tree in the Renfrewshire area come Christmas.

I did manage to grab some knickers and a few pairs of tights and paid for them with some sandwiches at one of the much less busy food area tills. I did also strike me that even with the overwhelming demand they still did have stock available in my size and with plenty of choice. Good old M&S