Tuesday, July 21, 2015

#WeHaveStyleXL



Last weekend I attended Style XL 2015 at the Paragon Hotel in Birmingham. It's only my second plus size event (first being curvy con 2015) and it is by far my favourite. It was organised by the wonderful Leah Shafik who blogs over at Leah XL and the day ran seamlessly. 

I was a catwalk model for Apples & Pears Clothing and their new made to measure range. The gorgeous pink Kimono with lime green pompom edging is so light weight, loose and great with skinny jeans and a tee for a casual look or dressed up with killer heels and a bit of bling! Come pay day I'll have one of these in my wardrobe! The owner of Apples & Pears Clothing is a lovely lady called Liz. She is such a gem and I really enjoyed chatting to her about her brand and passion for clothes that fit each and every curve on our bodies! Here are some snaps of me on the catwalk! Me and all my curves and rolls! In hindsight I wish I had taken a different pair of heels to wear but hey ho! I'm so proud of myself for getting up there and giving it a shot! It's something I've never done before!

There were so many awesome catwalks and my favourite to watch was A Rose like this Designs and her graduate collection. SKILLS! Super cute, fun, quirky and bright the models really brought her clothing line to life!

I was also a catwalk model for Yours Clothing and I wore a bright pink maxi dress! Now for those that know me a bright pink, jersey material, maxi dress is so far out of my comfort zone. I just feel as though they really cling to my every lump and bump and I'm not very tall therefore I don't even own a maxi dress of my own. Never the less I put on the dress and when I looked in the mirror instead of thinking how lumpy and bumpy it looked I decided to pick out the positives for myself and I thought "Wow this colour actually looks pretty great! My hair goes great with this and the length is perfect for me" and slowly but surely I began to fall in love with the plain pink maxi dress! Yours Clothing had given me a white tassled bag to wear with my dress and off I went down the catwalk with my fellow curvy Yours models!

              

I had such a fantastic day shopping, speaking with brands and getting to know so many plus size babes! If you haven't attended a plus size event yet then I would say go for it! It's such an empowering and confidence building weekend full of making new friends, catching up with old ones and strengthening the bonds in our plus size community!

After the main events of the day there was a short break and then the evening began! We had a catwalk from Curvy Kate with some confident, fierce ladies strutting their stuff in some beautiful lingerie!

Then we had the Model XL Body Confidence Pageant which was amazing! The ladies who entered had to make an Eco outfit for their first round which is something they had upcycled or recycled from fabric and materials! My personal favourite round was the round where they had to tell us what body confidence meant to them and how they have gained their confidence. The girls all spoke so well and lovingly while telling us about their own personal journey for body confidence and acceptance the lovely Sarah from plussizeproud.co.uk told us her story and it realy resonated with me and I must admit she had me with tears in my eyes. What a lady! <3 I was there backstage with all the models to help them into their clothes and for general fun and chat! They were all so buzzing and the energy in the room as they waited for the judges to announce the winner of Model XL was electric! The winner was the Lovely Sian Yapp! This lady caught my eye all day, she is so confident, friendly and kind! She modeled an amazing bikini on stage that had burgers and fries all over it and she just rocked it all day! Total Babe!  There are so many photos to share so here are a round up of some of the days selfies and a selection from Model XL!



I hope you all enjoyed reading this! If you were at Style XL how amazing was the weekend?! Leah did such a fantastic job! And if you were not at Style XL you should check out the new community site over at www.stylexl.co.uk its a new exciting venture for Leah and something we can all get excited about!

If you want to enter Model XL body confidence pageant next year check out Model XL!

2 comments:

  1. You look like you had an amazing weekend Janet. Love the catwalk pics! xx

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    1. Aww thanks Lucie! I had the absolute best time! So many giggles and fun! Can't wait for the next event in September to have some fun, shopping and hanging out with more babes! :)

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