Dare to Bare

I've been on the hunt for a denim dress ever since I saw my friend Mr. Kate rocking an awesome one at her birthday last year. Finding a fitted dress that fits my large ass and smaller chest is difficult so I didn't have much luck until City Chic (the Australian equivalent of Torrid) launched in the U.S. this year. They were kind enough to give me a gift card and after some buying and returning (yay for 2 way free shipping!) I ended up with this awesome dress.

There are pockets! Which makes me love any dress at least 50% more.

And a fun zipper down the back. Back fat realness.

Even though my office is casual I feel strapless is a bit much (apparently even I have boundaries) so I added this orange cardigan so to make it office appropriate. It also would have been perfect had I been headed to a Mets game (which I wasn't).

Aren't my earrings fun? My sister laughed so hard at me when I picked them up earlier in the summer but I have been wearing the hell out of them the past few months. They go with everything!

Dress - City Chic
Cardigan - Hand-me-down from Jamie, originally Bendel's
Shoes - Office
Earrings - Aldo

Photos courtesy of Ateqah whose birthday it also happens to be today. Happy birthday babe, I love you!

Striped Sundresses and Care Packages

I have passions outside of fatshion. Many in fact, but for this post we'll focus on just three of them. Baking, care packages and Jamie.

Jamie, like many of my beloved friends lives far away from Brooklyn in a land called Los Angeles. The distance is difficult, but we try and stay as close as if we lived down the street from one another. One of the ways is our baking tin. Basically Jamie and I bake and then pack it up in the same tin that we cover with stickers and then we ship it cross country. There's always little love notes and sometimes we pack in little presents and then, once in a blue moon I open my box to discover crazy surprises like this. Blondies, a dress and a gorgeous, metallic purple handbag - an early birthday present. Jamie (and Yoni and JuJu spoil me terribly). I do love them so.

As long time readers may remember, I have been the recipient of many wonderful Jamie hand-me-downs over the years, although this wasn't so much a hand-me-down. She said she bought it at Loehmann's, tried it on repeatedly and then finally decided that it really was just calling my name so off to New York she sent it.

I have to say I absolutely LOVE it! It's great and summery and it can stand alone without many accessories, however as you all know I have trouble saying no to accessories. Note the yellow sandals from Old Navy.

My office is so freezing that even though it's 100 degrees outside I always have to have a layer close by. My cute cropped cardi is from Banana Republic and it kills me that they haven't re-issued it as I have loved it to pieces.

My favorite part of the dress is the pockets! Dresses with pockets always make me smile.

And since I can't resist accessories, even though the dress doesn't need them, here you have a closeup of my headband from Dorothy Perkins and my necklace from Primark. Oh dear London (and your shops), I can't wait for my next trip, I've missed you so.

Jamie I hope the dress is just as you imagined it would be on me. I love you and miss you terribly.

The Accessories Make the Outfit

Sometimes you put together an outfit where the pieces speak for themselves and other times the outfit comes together with the accessories. This is one of those instances where the outfit takes shape from the accessories.

Worn unadorned this is just a simple brown dress with a purple cardigan. A fine outfit, but nothing special. Add some textured tights, boots, a hair fascinator and my new sweater clips and now we're talking.



I think I may have been especially encouraged to accessorize this outfit because both the dress and cardigan are hand-me-downs. The dress was a gift from my very well endowed friend who bought it and subsequently realized that it would not work with her chest. It is a size Large and it's by Velvet, one of those luxury cotton brands that I love so much but rarely buy due to the price. Instead I wait for hand me downs from my generous friends.

The cardigan is also a large and is a from Anthropologie via the wonderful JLR. I love Anthropologie, (especially their cardigans) but it falls into the category of far too pricey for my regular consumption. When I shop there it is almost exclusively on the sale racks. I'm actually heading there tonight after work to return some stuff, but I may be lured into full price shopping by this cardigan that my co-worker owns that I have been coveting for months.


The textured brown tights are from Target and I've become a recent convert to their Merona brand tights which go up to a 1x/2x and fit me really well. They're only $7 a pop and it's always good to find some new inexpensive tights option that fit my hips and ass. For new readers the purple cowboy boots are my most prized material possession and you can read about them in an earlier post.


Finally the outfit really comes together for me due to my hair fascinator and my brand new, worn for the first (and so far only time) sweater clips. I had never even heard of sweater clips until I recently saw someone post about them on fatshionista. A few weeks after that I was at the 2009 Bust craftacular and saw some guys selling them and purchased my very first pair. I'm loving them already and think they really tie the outfit together. If like me you're now obsessed I recommend searching for them on ebay or etsy.

3 days, 3 belted sweaters

As you've likely noticed I am a fan of belts. I wear them all the time at my high natural waist (very rarely at my pants waist) with dresses and t-shirts and tunics. But what I very rarely do is wear them over sweaters. However inspired by FLOTUS and Lesley of Fatshionista I decided to give it a go and once I started I couldn't stop. All of these outfits are from Thanksgiving weekend and I ended up rocking the belted sweater 3 days in a row. We were having gorgeous fall weather that allowed me to spend the weekend running around town in nothing heavier than a sweater coat, so it helped enable these outfits.

The first time I belted a sweater I wasn't planning on it. I was actually planning on wearing the top I wore the very next day, but for some reason I just couldn't make it work. It was driving me crazy and I was staring at my closet when I saw Saturday's sweater that I hadn't yet worn this season. I bought it a year or two ago from Brooklyn Industries, quickly became obsessed and kind of wore it to death which is probably why it has languished in my closet this season. I grabbed the sweater and finally my outfit worked. This may also have been the first time I've ever worn a belt with the buckle to the side.

Saturday's Outfit

Purple t-shirt is a hand-me-down from JLR
Leggings are Danskin
Sweater is from Brooklyn Industries
Belt is Primark
Boots are from some random store in Camden


Earrings are a hand-me-down from Ateqah and I'm kind of in love with them. They're crotched from a very fine string and I keep wearing things in this color palette which perhaps isn't as quite a surprise, but I keep being amused at how many outfits these earrings match.



On Sunday I ventured into Manhattan to meet my best friend who was in town for Thanksgiving and her family for the Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library. I'd been wanting to go to the Morgan ever since they opened from their renovations a few years ago and while the building itself is stunning and worth the entrance fee, the exhibits themselves were not worth my time or money. I however was fabulous. I think you've seen everything I'm wearing on Sunday, but never in this combination.

Sunday's Outfit

Leggings are Danskin
Button-down is some random brand via Re/Dress
Sweater-coat/cardigan is from Banana Republic
Purple cowboy boots of my dreams
Belt is Primark
Headband is from Goldy Mac
Necklace is from Peacocks

I rocked the belted sweater look again on Monday once we had to head back to the office.

Monday's Outfit

Dress is from B&Lu, a small plus size retailer that you should check out if you've never heard of them
Cardigan is Old Navy via Mirka
Belt is from Accessorize
Tights are Old Navy
Shoes were purchased at the Fat Girl Flea
Headband is from Ross
Pretzel necklace was purchased at last years Bust craftacular

Saturday's photo credit goes to Nicole, Sunday's photo credit goes to Karen and Monday's photo credit goes to one of my lovely co-workers that I cannot recall at the moment.

Day 29, Cowgirl Chic

The end is fast approaching...ok well the end actually came like 3 weeks ago, but the end of the month of dress blogging is approaching. Perhaps I've been dragging my feet because I haven't wanted it to end. I mean the blog won't end completely, but it will change and have less of a focus which is perhaps why I've been dragging my feet with posting the last few days of the month.

So here we are, second to last day and it's actually the last nice outfit of the month (you'll see why when I blog about the 30th). This dress is a petite xxl from Old Navy that I ordered when I went a bit tights mad and ordered from them last month. It turns out that they've changed their tights sizing this year and I don't like them nearly as much and am going to return all my unopened pairs. Tomorrow I will make my virgin purchase from welovecolors.com which I'm super excited about and I'll be sure to let you know they turn out. I was planning on returning this dress, but after much hemming and hawing and advice from 'cole and mo who loved it, I decided to keep the dress. I think it was a wise move, even if it is a bit short.

The dress came with a thin belt in the same plaid as the dress but I wasn't such a fan so I accessorized with another one of the belts from my closet, this one is once again from Primark. The purple cowboy boots you've seen many times before (I sometimes think I don't wear them that much, but this blog has proved otherwise to me), the purple cardigan is the same one from the previous day and is a recent H&M purchase and the tights are most likely Old Navy.



Nicole took this picture on our way out of the office, headed to the subway. Doesn't NY look lovely in the background?