Jacket – New Look Inspire via eBay

T-shirt – New Look Inspire via Fat Swap Shop

Cigarette trousers and brogues – New Look Inspire

Day two of New Look Week and I managed a complete outfit of items from the Inspire range. Well done me! When I decided what to wear yesterday morning, I kept in mind I was off to meet OSP and I wanted to show them that despite being fat, I could wear a cool yet professional looking outfit.

I finally managed to get my hands on a tweed jacket! I love it – its a wee bit tight but it still works.

I was also pretty brave and had a VBO for most of the day! When the husband initially took these pictures I hated the fact you could see the old VBO.  Today, however, it doesn’t look so bad. Also the husband was like “what are you talking about? What’s a VBO? Shut up you silly woman!”. So if he can’t see it (he the man who will tell me when something isn’t right about my outfit!), then I doubt anyone else can. So I need to learn to love it…

Also yesterday was Shrove Tuesday – so I made Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake). They are the native dish of Osaka – where I lived – and I LOVE them! Last night I made the best okonomiyaki I have ever made! We had our friends Sarah (the photographer from Plus London) and her fiancé over to help us eat them. I did intend to get pictures to show you but unfortunately, we scoffed them so quickly I didn’t get chance!

What did you lot get up to for pancake day?

Five Take!

So I’m a wee bit late with my Five Take post! Whoops … Its been a busy few days and my photographer has been recovering from an epic hangover!

Anyway this is my interpretation of Tribal:

Jacket, Jeans, Blouse & Scarf – New Look Inspire

Shoes – Dorothy Perkins

If I’m honest, I don’t like the tribal trend (or should I say didn’t like, it doesn’t seem to have made a re-appearance for SS12) and I don’t own anything tribal unless you count the Aztec blouse I’m wearing. However, the Aztecs were a civilisation not a tribe so who knows!

Gina, Becky and Rebecca have all done their Five Take post – on time – unlike me or Nicole. So don’t forget to go and have a look at how they interpreted it.

New Look Week

The outfit above is also the first of my New Look Week outfits. Whilst sorting my wardrobe out on Saturday, I noticed I now own a hell of a lot of New Look Inspire items. So I decided to set myself a challenge to see if I could wear all of the items in some way – preferable whole outfits – over seven days. I’m on day two and so far both days have all been New Look. Even down to my shoes today! You’ll see today’s outfit tomorrow and so on. As I’ve said before Inspire range has come on leaps and bounds recently and I, for one, am loving it!

The jeans you’ve seen before and I bought the jacket and blouse with a 10% voucher I had from a magazine. The jacket is fabulous and I’ve pretty much worn it none stop.

OSP Update

This morning saw me and Lauren making a very early trip to Carluccio’s in Canary Wharf to meet a few people from One Stop Plus and Bright Light, their PR company. We met to discuss what had happened at Plus London (and if you’ve been living under a rock here’s what happened!) and how we could move on from it – learning from our experience. The chat with Paige – MD of Bright Light, Karen – Brand Director of OSP and Bex – the girl you met at Plus London, was open, frank and honest. Karen apologised on behalf of OSP for the problems, as did Bex and we have now moved on.

Lauren and I spent nearly two hours explaining what an amazing and niche bunch plus size bloggers are (that we spend our days defying what we are told by the government, the media and even our friends and family about being fat!) and how best it is to work with us. Basically its about speaking to us – asking us what we’d like to see or how we would wear something. I left the meeting confident that we will see a new and improved relationship between OSP and the plus sized blogging community and that they understand what it is to be a plus size blogger. I asked that everyone who has commented and been supportive of my letter and my meeting of them, give OSP another chance.

I first met Sally at Fat Swap Shop when she came and took most of the clothes away! During the swap, I discovered she had lost a fair amount of weight and had no idea what to wear beyond the typical fat lady clothes of baggy tops, baggier bottoms and black. So I advised her on a few bits  - as did the other girls – and she toddled off at the end with a whole wardrobe of new things to wear. Through befriending her on Facebook, I also discovered she lived near me! Fast forward a few months and on a long awaited dinner date at a local Japanese restaurant, we jokingly discussed me helping her with her wardrobe and giving her some style tips – because obviously I am the most stylish fat woman around (HA!). The joking got serious and this afternoon I found myself up in Sally’s amazing loft bedroom helping her sort out her wardrobe!

My friend and fellow blogger Rebecca runs her own personal stylist service (you can see her site here), so I asked her for some hints and ran past her what I wanted to do.  Beforehand I got Sally to think about what she wanted to achieve – did she want a whole new style? Or just need some guidance in what to wear when?

Sally is a mum of two young boys and her job involves activities with children. So she needs outfits which are comfortable but also that look good. In addition she does have quite a social life so needed clothes that would be suitable for meals out, pub visits and Zumba class.

When I arrived, I got Sally to empty her wardrobe and drawers item by item and we put the clothes into piles of “KEEP”, “MAYBE” and “BIN”. The keep pile were clothes that fit Sally and she wore a lot and liked – I was quite bossy (never!!) and anything that Sally tried to put into the keep pile which I thought was either to big or did nothing for her, I made her put it into the maybe pile.

Once we had the three piles, I got Sally to pick out items she liked but didn’t know how to wear and we created outfits from them. Here are the pictures of some of the outfits:

The first item Sally wanted to know how to wear was the gorgeous polka dot skirt – I went quite safe (and in the absence of anything else!) teamed it with a white blouse and a jacket which Sally also wasn’t sure how to wear.

I also paired the skirt with a purple jersey top which had a zip down the front – I added the jacket again as well.

Next up were the red jeans. Sally has had them for ages – before it was trendy to do so. I paired them with this blue top – which Sally had initially put into the maybe pile because she was worried people would think she was pregnant. Quite clearly she doesn’t look pregnant!

This was a bit of a wild outfit – with the sequined jacket which initially I wasn’t sure about jacket but on it looks quite cool!  I’m not sure this is the BEST outfit but Sally felt confident and comfortable it in so that’s the important thing!

The black & white top was again something Sally wasn’t keen on but I think it looks really nice with the red jeans. Its something she can wear with blue & black jeans and with leggings.

I like this outfit – the dress is being worn as a top in what I call a “Brockley Mums” style. I live in Brockley and all of the mothers around here fall into two parts; Yummy mummies – those that have pinged back into their size 8 jeans days after giving birth – and Brockley Mums – the women who are struggling with the excess baby weight and wear dresses over jeans. Sally had put the dress into the maybe pile because she thought it was too big on her chest. However I just pulled it back a bit so the neckline sat on her shoulders and bingo! it fits nicely!

Two ways to wear the same top – day and night. Sally had this gorgeous top she’d won on a blog give away but wasn’t sure what to wear it with. So with the sequin jacket and black jeans for the evening and then swapping the sparkle for the plain jacket during the day. Shimples!

I let Sally keep two items she was really keen on. One was a brown velvet top with the medieval sleeve she’d had for years and the other was the top above. Sally had mainly worn this top with leggings but we tried it with a pair of jeans and it looked equally as good.

One thing that Sally has always avoided was layering – she was under the impression it would make her look bigger (yet another fat girl rule!). However with a pair of jeans she’d never worn and various tops she loved but thought she couldn’t wear or didn’t know how to, I showed her how to wear layers. The most successful I think was putting the brown vest top under the tunic which Sally thought she couldn’t wear any more because her boobs have shrunk!

The jumpsuit was a favourite of both mine and Sally’s. It had been an impulse buy and she’d only worn it once after her mother told her she looked like Andi Pandi in it! However adding the jacket instantly helped as did trying it with the shrug.

I was a big meanie and made Sally chuck out most of her beloved maxi dresses – not because I don’t like maxi dresses, I do! I have one! But because the style of maxi dress Sally has been wearing made her boobs look tiny and her belly look bigger than it was. Another fat girl myth is we must wear empire lined dresses – which is bollocks! However the above dress had been something which had been in Sally’s wardrobe for years, unworn because she had bought it when it was too small for her. Now it fits and because the bust of above the empire line is fussy it makes her boobs look bigger – WIN! As Sally doesn’t have a black cardigan, we added the jacket again!

Apart for the huge smile on Sally’s face throughout the whole two and half hours, the other thing that made me really pleased I’d offered to help was the fact Sally now has numerous new outfits to wear which cost her nothing! I know if someone was to come and be as ruthless in my wardrobe I would more and likely have the same!!

In addition to be a bossy boots and ruthlessly throwing away items of clothes Sally has had for years, I also offered to do a bit of online window shopping for her. Whilst we were sorting the clothes out I made a note of bits of clothing Sally could really do with – like a white vest, a blouse she could wear with a skirt or jeans, a few more cardigans. Sally gave me a budget and when I got home I emailed her a few links. Sally has now order those bits and I look forward to going back and helping her try those out within her already fabulous existing wardrobe.

If you would like me to help you with a wardrobe cleanse please let me know! I don’t charge anything but do ask that you cover the costs of getting me to yours and that you feed me! 

Legging – Evans

Cardigan – ASOS curve

Loafers – Dorothy Perkins

Like everyone else has said – the dress is really comfortable to wear. It also has the added bonus of being quite smart which means I can wear it to work feeling like I’m in my pjs but still looking professional. An all round win in my book!

So who else has got this dress? Hands up now.

This year – we will spending the day dodging painters! But also going to the cinema to see the Muppet Movie (massive Muppet fan here!!). So this is what I’m wearing:

Jumper – New Look Inspire

Long sleeved t-shirt – Evans

Jeans – Evans

Brogues – New Look

I cannot tell you how happy I am that the slouchy jumper trend is back! I can stop buying jumpers two sizes too big to make them sloppy!

I’m sure Gina, Nicole, Rebecca and Becky have been FAR more romantic than me! So don’t forget to go and have a look at what they’ve done.

This is what Naomi and I have decided to do. We are both massive fans of New Look Inspire at the moment (in fact who isn’t a fan – the Inspire team are doing an amazing job!) and when we both bought the same dress, we agreed to do a blog post showing all our respective readers how we would style it.

So the dress is this one:

Peach daisy lace dress – New Look Inspire

I ordered mine in a size 26 as I tend to have issues with fitting my bust into dresses. However I shouldn’t have worried – the 26 is a tad generous on me so I easily could have gone for 24. I find that is common with the Inspire range (my green jeans for example) – its pretty true to size.

This is how I wore it

Kimono cardigan – ASOS

Leggings – Evans

Belt – Simply Be

Shoes – ASOS

The colour of the dress is not one I ever wear and I wasn’t quite sure I liked it when I first tried the dress on. However adding the black accessories really helped bring it together and I really like how the dress looks!

As I said above New Look has some amazing items available at the moment. Here are a selection of my absolute favourites:

Cigarette trousers – £24.99

Kyoto jeans – £29.99

Rock t-shirt – £14.99

Colbolt jeans – £22.99

All together that’s about £100 – which really isn’t that bad when you think about what you could spend £100 on at Evans or ASOS curve.

Its official – New Look Inspire – I LOVE you! Don’t forget to go and see how Naomi rocked the dress (she’s been pretty sick recently so her post might not be up yet!).

How about you? Are you liking/loving New Look at the moment? Or is there another plus size brand who has suddenly gone up in your estimation?

You can find my selling blog here!

We slipped and slid along the river to eat at Studio Six in Gabriel’s Wharf- a favourite haunt of me and the husband because it does amazing food! Here are a few pictures:

Carla and her soup

I seriously need a bib!!

Sans bib!

Nadia with her AMAZING tatty devine necklace – me likey, me wanty!

Kirsty looking as fresh as a daisy after a night on my living room floor!

The “hot husband” as he appears to now be known as – unless you’re Carla in which his name is “Mr Claire”.

Ravishing Rachel

Winter wonderland? Hmm maybe not!

A wonderful way to end an eventful weekend.

Thank you to everyone who has commented on the blog, Facebook and Twitter. Its really good to have everyone’s support. As promised I have a few updates for you:

I have now had a personal email response from both Michael Truluck – interim CEO of OSP and Paige Mengers of Bright Light PR. In both they have apologised and are very keen to try and rebuild the relationship between OSP, Bright Light and the plus size bloggers.

Once I have further updates I’ll let you know.

Dear Mr Truluck

It is with great sadness that I have to write to you but I feel I cannot let this matter go without giving you some direct feedback about my experience of dealing with One Stop Plus and your PR agency.

Firstly, let me introduce myself – my name is Claire Marchant-Williams. I am the organiser and host of Plus London Two – a plus size fashion bloggers event which was held in London this past weekend. I am also a plus size fashion blogger.

Blogging for me is a hobby – my organising of the event was a labour of love. In my day job I am part of the customer experience and quality team at the Financial Ombudsman Service. Seeing as I spend my day putting myself in the customer’s shoes and advising people how to ensure that our customers receive the best experience we can – I believe you should know how One Stop Plus (OSP) came across during the Plus London event and the preparation before.

My first experience of OSP was dealing with Laura Hartshorne from the PR company you use – Bright Light. Overall she was good – a bit too over familiar (addressing me as “sweetie” and signing off with “kisses”) but I wasn’t too offended. Laura then left – I’m not sure if she left Bright Light or just dealings with OSP – and Bex Broughton became my main contact. I get the impression (and I may be completely wrong) that this was Bex’s first time of dealing with a client. I found her disorganised – I was having to repeat myself a times in our email exchanges, extremely demanding – ringing me when I was at work, emailing constantly, wanting replies ASAP etc and at times downright rude.

Please don’t get me wrong – I am very grateful for OSP’s contribution to the costs of Plus London Two and the fact that the brand wanted to be involved. The money helped pay for the pop up photography studio and the drinks for the evening.

However, this was an independent event with a lot of brands contributing to the costs yet the representatives from OSP acted as if it was their event and that they were doing me a favour by allowing me to arrange it. The other brands involved were the complete opposite – respectful that it was my event and bent over backwards to be friendly and helpful in both the planning and on the day of the event.

I think OSP idea to have bloggers model clothes from the SS12 range was an excellent one. However I don’t think enough thought or effort was put in to how this would work. I was asked by Bex to provide a list of the bloggers who wanted to model – along with their measurements and links to their blogs so that OSP could get an idea of the bloggers style so that items could be picked that would suit them. However, having seen what the bloggers were dressed in for the catwalk, I don’t think this was done.

All of the bloggers who volunteered did so because they thought it would be fun and a boost to their confidence. Perhaps I should explain a little about plus size bloggers – some bloggers are like me – extremely confident with how they look and with their size and are blogging to show others that being fat does not mean you can’t look and feel amazing. Other bloggers do it to help themselves learn to love who they are regardless of their size. The latter group really push themselves out of the comfort zone every time they do a blog post. So the fact that some from this group volunteered to walk down a catwalk was no small thing.

However, after their experience with OSP – they are all in agreement that it was neither fun nor a confidence boost. I have asked the models for their comments on the day and I include quotes directly from their responses below:

“I didn’t feel welcomed or valued by the brand – totally unlike Anna Scholz. They were stressy because we were “late” – having made us schlep all the way across London – still no idea whey they couldn’t have come to us at The Strand….They were short with us, not friendly or nice,  the clothes they’d selected were quite ugly and not fashionable – especially for the larger ladies in the group. They didn’t really have any alternatives if anyone didn’t like what they were wearing. They rushed us, they didn’t say a huge amount in the way of a thank you and I felt as if they didn’t really appreciate what we were doing to promote their brand on a day that was supposed to be fun.”

“XX and I were quite vocal in how we hadn’t eaten all day – rushing here and there and everywhere (which was lovely and great, and I thoroughly enjoyed my day), we ended up not eating until midnightish. No offer was made to order something for us. Nothing even mentioned when they had pizza in the office while we were upstairs. A slight peeve point, yes, but a point none the less.

Also, there were no mirrors. Anywhere – neither in their offices nor at The Strand. Granted, this may have been a bonus for some of us. But then, I now don’t know if I’ve shown everyone the bra underneath that sheer pink tent I was wearing. I suspect I had.

XX summed it up really nicely when she said “Why ask a bunch of bloggers, who KNOW what suits them, what fits them, to model, and NOT allow them to choose their own clothes from the range?” Very well said my dear.

Also, the messing on with shoes was quite comical – they knew our shoe sizes, there should not have been a shortage of size 5 / 8 / 10 etc. For a company who made such a point about natural makeup etc, to not then allow time to apply make up / do hair??? Weird, no? Quick costume changes and no help? Not even outside of the room to fasten shoes? Weird, no?

Again, I don’t want this to seem picky, or awkward. But I do feel like they were abrupt with is, and disorganised. I think XX may have mentioned it, but I don’t think they really appreciated what we had done for them.”

“It just astounded me how badly they misjudged the fashion. Some of the pieces we were given were absolutely shocking, and I know a couple of us had any confidence completely knocked out of us because what we were given to wear was so frumpy, unfashionable and unflattering. And then we were given five minutes to do hair and make up – how were we supposed to look good? They made us look 20 years older than we were. And to add insult, the PRs office was full of the most beautiful clothes, which were obviously from non plus size brands. That is the kind of thing we want to wear – NOT cargo pants and long t-shirts.

Apart from the very sweet girl with the apricot coloured hair, I felt we were constantly being judged, I felt the staff were there begrudgingly. It was a really uncomfortable atmosphere. They rushed us and made me feel extremely stressed all day, coupled with exhaustion from having to trek 3/4s of the way around London. And to think they were being that demanding to you, Claire? What a JOKE.”

“As I said to Claire via twitter, I think I got the better out off what was undoubtedly a very bad bunch of clothes, and from what I’ve heard there was no need for you to be dragged across London on a such a tight timescale if all they did was give you the clothes you where wearing on the night with no real fitting or choice. Because we may as well have slipped the clothes on when we got there on the evening like I did!!”

“Most of what people of already said, I completely agree with. I find the lack of effort they made considering the fact we were the ones doing them a favour was appalling. In fact, they barely bothered to remember our names, never mind little else.

For me, parts were traumatic. I truly feel that those of us that were the bottom end of the plus size spectrum were treated with borderline contempt. I found their logic and explanation for things ludicrous…they couldn’t provide shoes for the ‘larger feet’ yet I’m only a size 8 and they had none, whereas they could find shoes for someone with size ten feet, but was a smaller dress size. I refuse to believe that they hadn’t looked at peoples blog links, as there is no way on earth that you could manage to get it so bang on the money without seeing a picture of someone, such as matching someone’s hair colour or their stature.

I want to stress how utterly low I felt at points. I was made to wear clothes that not only had any baring to my personal style but were in the case of that sodding skirt, something that made me actually have a self esteem flashback and a mini meltdown!

Not at any point were they bothered about me at all…when I came down in the offices dressed in what they’d given me, they left me stood for about ten minutes in the case of both outfits whilst they chatted away, despite having acknowledged I was stood there. When they did finally deign to give me the once over, they barely looked at me, had no option on whether it worked and when we did the practice run, they deemed that it needed accessories, yet never bothered to provide them. Also I feel they expected us to wear things without tights/heels etc where we weren’t comfortable with no leeway at all.

The thing that galled me the most was the fact they never said thank you or offered anything in way of thanks…I feel that even when we all asked for a drink that they begrudged that…they should have provided dinner for us, plain and simple, because then there would have been no need to rush at all.

I just feel like they were plain and simply sizeist. They made sure to rope us into picture taking which no doubt will end up on their website as well as the pics/video from the catwalk. The last words they said were not thank you, but a reminder yet again to link them to any Plus London Two posts. Well, you know what One Stop Plus? I’ll do that, but I’ll damn sure make sure that you wish I hadn’t!! Because don’t they realise that multiply us all by our followers, that it will be a rather large amount of bad press?”

“Ugh, yes. I remember those HORRIBLE outfits you had to wear. It broke my heart. Most of the outfits they chose for us were thing we not only would not wear, but that we’re running away from.

They didn’t really know about my style and I sort of pardon that because I deleted my blog on a whim a few days before (but then brought it back), but what about the more prominent bloggers who have tons of OOTDs on their websites and have been everywhere for years? You surely could NOT get it wrong with them, specially the ones with a very solid style. You’re not going to give trousers to someone who hasn’t worn trousers in YEARS.”

“Ok so I arrived early and was invited in the office i was given my clothes and sent upstairs to try them on, I did notice there was no mirrors and was a bit confused due to the rails around the edge of the room with gorgeous clothes on and did contemplate squeezing my assets into something else. Clothes tried on i was sat down stairs and the girls where complaining that the models where late so rang you guys to find out where you where. The girls didn’t come across as very professional at all and if they are a fashion PR company representing a brand they weren’t enthusiastic about the brand at all, it felt like it was a chore to them, very rude and abrupt run through and total confusion with regard to running order etc

I’ve helped back stage at fashion shows before and don’t understand why they weren’t dressing us or buckling shoes etc it would have made the show run better.

No full length mirrors at the venue. Barely given time to do hair or even touch up make-up. Looking at their spring summer collection online i would have picked something completely different to wear, i did feel a bit of a frump in the clothes, I would have thought they would have done a fitting a couple of weeks in advance to see what suits body shape height and complexion also what shoes and accessories go with each outfit.”

This one in particular is from my friend and fellow blogger who I asked to help me with the models – “I had the task of liaising with Bex and the rest of the models and ensuring that we were in the right place at the right time.

Over email I found Bex often abrupt, on the phone she was almost rude.

I spent the entire time feeling I had to humour her and that she in some way was doing us a favour, rather than the other way around. We were given no option but to travel across London to attend the rehearsals, which we did with good grace. Bex on our arrival was curt and unfriendly.

The girls from OSP were friendly, but the rehearsal was shambolic and the models were in my opinion treated badly. While cups of tea were produced after being asked for, there were no other refreshments provided, no mirrors so we could see how we looked and no opportunity or help given for makeup, hair or even putting on shoes during the show. There was no where for us to change.

In my opinion the outfits were not reflective of either the blogger’s own style, or even the best that OSP has to offer its customers.

The approach should have been to work with the blogger models a week or so before the event to ensure that the outfits chosen reflected their style and they were happy to wear them. Asking the models for suggested outfits from the OSP range would have meant we would have been happy to wear and rave about them after the catwalk. As it was none of us felt the clothes reflected who we were or even what the brand had to offer.

Only two of the outfits were actually ‘outfits’ as such. The rest of us were given only one or two garments at most to wear, with no accessories. Little thought seemed to have gone into creating looks for us, and in a couple of cases the clothes were too tight, even though the model’s measurements had been sent through weeks before.

Shoes were seemingly unavailable in many sizes.

I didn’t know it at the time but apparently while we were struggling into clothes and several of the models realised they would have no time to eat prior to the next rehearsal, the OSP were eating pizza downstairs. I find it incredibly rude and completely unthoughtful that no refreshments were provided for the models.

After the catwalk we were given cursory thanks and told to write nice things in the OSP book. These models gave up their afternoon and early evening for no thanks. Some token of appreciation was only fitting given the time and energy that was put in by the models.”

As you can see from above, the bloggers felt extremely undervalued – not the way you want people to feel if you want them to promote your brand I’m sure. I agree entirely about the clothes which the bloggers were given to wear. The whole ethos behind Plus London is that it’s about a group of women who somehow find amazing things to wear from a very limited pool. The items which were show cased on the catwalk missed the mark by so much its incomprehensible.

I trusted that a brand who promoted itself on its ability to dress women of all sizes would have made sure the clothes being shown represented what the event was about. Instead what were paraded were poorly fitting, stereotypical fat girl clothes which were the complete antitheses of everything plus size blogging and Plus London stands for. Had the brand bothered to look at the blogs or even asked the bloggers to pick a couple of outfits to wear – I’m sure the experience would have been a whole lot better. I am also very upset that most of the models were absolutely exhausted and therefore left the evening event shortly after the fashion show and missed out on the fun parts such as chatting to other bloggers etc.

However, it doesn’t avoid the fact of the attitude of the representatives of Bright Light and OSP. I think the “apricot haired girl” was Victoria from OSP – the attendees have only had good things to say about her. However, as for the other three, the way they spoke to the models, me and the other attendees was not at all what I expect from representatives wanting to make a name for themselves within the community. An example of this was that the OSP team disappeared when the event finished without saying a word to me. All of the other brands in attendance stayed and helped pack away and tidy up. It’s certainly not the way to raise potential customer’s expectations of what they will expect from the brand.

I think you should also know that the models have asked that I don’t post pictures my husband took of the catwalk on the tumblr page and most of them are refusing to even acknowledge the catwalk or OSP on their blogs. If they are, it’s in a negative vein. Something which is completely opposite from the experience the bloggers had when they attend Anna Scholz’s studio for few hours in the afternoon.

The plus size blogging community is tight knit and wide reaching and unfortunately OSP has a lot of work to do to recover from Plus London. 50 bloggers from UK and across Europe attended Plus London and on average have about 5,000 visitors per month. Therefore had OSP put a bit more thought into the people behind the event rather than treating the whole thing as if it was their own event and we were doing them a favour, it could have had a really positive impact on the brand. Unfortunately, I can only see that this has backfired. I, for one, will not be having anything to do with the brand until it proves to me and the rest of the people who attended the event that it DOES understand plus size fashion and it DOES care what we think and how we dress.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

Claire Marchant-Williams