Holiday Fashions

Ok, so whilst on holiday in a boiling hot country, it is hard to be completely fashion conscious. It is too hot to dress in certain ways and I would often opt for  loose fitting dress or short-shorts. However, I always tried to take care over my appearance if we were going out, and it only backfired once when I chose a gorgeous floaty, short Jack Wills dress on a windy day in Bodrum. Awkward times....

My general bikini choice was a rather beautiful yet skimpy Accessorize number from last year (below)

It cost me about £25 overall due to it being in the sale at the time, perfect. I always feel that one should make a good effort in terms of swimwear (I also had a gorgeous leopard print costume for the fat days) as it is the clothing that exposes your body to the greatest extent. A badly chosen bathing suit on holiday will, no doubt, lead to awkward moments (such as your bottoms falling down whilst entering/leaving the pool, sagging etc) that need to be avoided at all costs! The good thing about a 'string' (or tie up) bikini was that I was able to tighten the top or bottoms if and when I needed to whilst avoiding sagging. Perfect. The men seemed to enjoy my bikini too ;)

My favourite outfit, for holiday and in general, is my Topshop leopard print playsuit (below) which is loose fitting with a cute tie at the centre to emphasise the waist. I wore this on a number of occasions, especially on nights out as the shorts somewhat protected me from the advances of unwanted Turkish men! Although when you are drunk, it is a BITCH to go to the toilet haha.

Finally, thought I would show you this dress as everyone always compliments me on it and I have no idea why they all love it so much! It is a couple years old but I do enjoy wearing it, even if it is too big. It's New Look as well, which makes it even better!

I think that my summer fashion is generally practical, loose fitting, comfortable yet on-trend (mostly). I really miss Turkey, so, so much!

Hey, I got some new shoes on and everybody's smiling...

So, I bought myself those tan brogues that I was umming and ahhing over. They are exchange only so I am a bit :/ ... I have spent the last hour trying on all my clothes trying to see if they suit, as they are so different and having fat legs (which doesn't show as much in these pictures) doesn't help matters. Do they look ok? And what else can I wear them with?

I must admit they are divine, and my outfit here is pretty awesome (will wear it tomorrow, should I choose to keep the shoes). I needed some summery shoes as I am wearing out my boots...lol. I can't wait for it to be summer so i can wear nice dresses and no tights! EEP :D hehe. But yes, I am so in love with fashion right now. I also bought myself a sleeveless, cropped denim jacket which is gorgeous and goes with EVERYTHING. I am a happy bunny...now off to do english coursework :S

Oh, and here is my new jacket....

Brogues...

Ok, so today I went shopping with my Gran. It was quite good. I went to topshop and bought the loveliest playsuit (below)

I thought that it was gorgeous on the hanger and trying it on was just divine. It is so slimming and flattering, I just jumped at the chance to buy it. It was £50 but with my discount it was £45. I don't know if that is good or bad, but if I get wear out of it, then it is totally worth it :) <3 There is a lot of other stuff that I want, but I cannot decide what to buy!!

I was also looking at shoes and trying to decide what to get. I want some for spring that are nice and will last. At Office, I found some nice Brogues, but the colour I wanted wasn't in stock so I tried another colour in. Because they are so different to what I am used to, it is hard to decide if they are beneficial.

This is the colour I had wanted as it is a nice brown and will go with more stuff...they cost £68 but I would get my student discount off. The problem with Office is that they do not do refunds, only exchange, so I would need to be sure I wanted them. 

These are the other colour, which are equally nice but I still feel that it would be better to get the darker ones. I am not sure entirely what they will go with, as they are making a statement. So I am stressing as I need some new shoes and they are LUSH....but would I be wasting my money? Oh, I don't know...

My favourite Vogue Covers...

This is just a small number of them but, God, aren't they stunning? I ADORE fashion and anything fashion related and these covers make me love it more. They are just so classy, so innovative, so creative. Vogue is one of those magazines that will live on forever. It. Is. Beauty. 

Beauty

What is our obsession with beauty? Or, to put it another way, why are we so OBSESSED with being 'perfect' or 'sexy' or 'stunning' or.... 'fake'. 

The fashion world has gone, in my opinion, too far in its quest for beauty. A beautiful woman who, 50 years ago, would be considered a pin up would today be called fat.  A woman who was once seen as too thin and boyish is the epitome of beauty in our modern society. It seems that there is a certain ideal that we must all aspire to. This, to me, is wrong. 


Take Marilyn Monroe, for example. She was once considered one of the most beautiful women on the planet. She was the subject of many mens desires. She was a highly sexualised pin up of the 50's and 60's. She was gorgeous. Yet she was naturally a size 14 (UK) - which is incidentally the average dress size for UK women. No one wanted a bag of bones, they wanted curves and breasts. They desired a healthy woman. If she was to launch herself today as an actress and model she would be labelled 'plus size' and would not be recognised in the same way. At all. You may hear people talk about her positively, but who can honestly say that she would have the sex appeal and the popularity today as she did 60 years ago? If it wasn't for Twiggy, our models would probably still look like this.

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Girls as young as 5 are beginning to feel concerned about their appearance. They wear make-up and have piercings and wear short skirts and heels. We are encouraging children to sexualise themselves and this gives raise to pedophiles, praying on innocent, naive young girls who don't realise the image they are putting across to horny men. Our mothers do not stop this. There are many women that encourage their young child to dress inappropriately because it is 'cute'. Their children are becoming fake, 'plastic' and often resemble Lolita. And we all know how that story goes...


Even Barbie has changed. She portrays the commercial view of what a beautiful woman should look like. And girls aspire to be her. If she were a real person with the correct proportions she would be something like, 9ft tall and 100llb which would make her severely malnourished and probably dead. Is this the kind of role model children need?

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Our current idea of beauty has stretched so far as to give a huge rise in eating disorders, particularly among teen girls. Now, it has been suggested that an eating disorder is genetic, but only occurs through triggering. Often that triggering is the media's portrayal of beautiful, perfect women. Most of these women have been photoshopped and people do not seem to acknowledge that these models' skins are not blemish free, their legs aren't that thin and that their faces are symmetrical. Some of the triggering comes from experiences at school, for example. If you are even a little bit overweight, or perhaps you aren't what they see as attractive (even if you are) then you will be bullied horrendously. I experienced this first hand for the majority of my school life, and still experience it now. It cuts you to the core, and whilst this bullying may be down to jealousy (as often you ARE beautiful and you ARE smart and you ARE thin), you will believe it. You will look in the mirror and all you will see is a fat, ugly freak who no one loves. Trust me, I experience this on a daily basis. Sometimes, this can become extreme and lead to BDD (Body Dysmorphic Disorder) which is associated with OCD, Anorexia and Bulimia. 


Do we really need to starve ourselves in order to be beautiful? 


In theory, no. Everyone will openly state that they are NOT pro-ana. Modelling agencies state that their models need to be (UK) size 8-10. But how many of those catwalk models do you REALLY think are a size 8-10? How many do you really think are encouraged to eat healthily, to exercise with caution etc? 

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Beauty is NOT what you see on the catwalk. It is NOT what you see in the magazines or on the TV. If you look around you, there is virtually no one who looks like them. At all. Our desire to be beautiful should be based upon intellect and personality, not on the external appearance. I know this is what everyone says, but come on, if you see couples on the street, how many of them are what the industry labels as beautiful? Beauty comes from within you, and relationships aren't built on looks alone. The reason I have gone on a rant that doesn't even make sense is because I KNOW HOW IT FEELS. I experience this pain everyday. Perhaps I am a hypocrite, because I will starve myself. I will work to lose weight. I will look in the mirror and feel ugly. I will look in the mirror and feel fat. I will feel unloved and unwanted. But this does not make me right. No one will ever be 100% content with themselves, but we can still believe this is true. We can still KNOW it is true, even, because true beauty comes from within us. And everyone is beautiful in their own way. And just because I have issues, it is not because of the industry, because I disagree with their perceptions, hey are personal issues and nothing to do with them. So shoot me...