Southern Yacht

My little take on plus size fashion, life, travel and smurfs

Wednesday 7 October 2015

The Curve Fashion Festival, Manchester

Hi everyone,

The last weekend of September saw The Curve Fashion Festival being held in Manchester. I was lucky enough to win a pair of all inclusive tickets in a competition held by Debz so there was added incentive to attend.

My friend and I arrived on the Friday and started off the weekend by attending the bloggers evening at Evans. Come Saturday, we were glad of the 11.00 start as we were definitely feeling in holiday mode.

The view from our hotel - we could see everyone arriving without even leaving the room!

I decided I wanted to be comfortable and colourful - this dress from the sale at Marks and Spencer teamed with a Primark cardigan did just that.

With any events like this, I find it takes a few minutes (ok hours) to say hello to everyone, sort out where everything is, what suppliers are there that you want to chat to and generally orientate yourself. I was a bit snap happy so I've just included some of the stalls that really caught my eye.

The fabulous Nicky Rockets

The Scarlett and Jo sample sale - blog post to follow on my purchases

The Very stand - that sequin dress is the dress of dreams. One of those photos is me clutching hold of it.

Beautiful pieces from Mink and Stone

The Just Be You clothing range from Lisa Riley

I was really impressed with this new range from Lisa Riley and how she took the time to chat with people about the collection. It looks like there is a store in Dorchester - not too far from me so maybe a day trip is on the cards

This was one of those why didn't I buy that moments - the #eff your beauty standards bags really caught my eye, but with everything going on, I completely forgot.

The beautiful Rosie from A Rose Like This. After seeing her designs at Style XL I'm sure Rosie will go far, her range is so beautiful.

I couldn't resist a bit of glitter from Glim Glam temporary tattoos. This is such a fun idea and perfect for the festive season. 

Catching up with friends

Bloggers united - I didn't realise there were so many of us until I saw this photo.

There were 2 fashion shows, but unfortunately I have no decent pictures of those. Being not very tall and sitting near the back, I only saw the models from the waist up. but I'm assured they were fully dressed! I understand that next time the seating will be better organised to address this issue. I also know that a lot of people have already mentioned the models. Very very beautiful, but not what I would call plus size. For me personally, I want to see the clothes on people of all sizes, heights and ages. That gives me a much better idea of how something will eventually look on me. Again next time hopefully things will be better.

I remember thinking that there was no way I'd last for the whole day, but the time flew past. Saying that though, by 5 I was shattered and so missed the final sessions. I would have liked to have seen these sessions earlier in the day when I was more alert!

All in all, I had a great day and an amazing weekend. I will definitely come back to the next one in 2016 - the date is in my diary already.

If the day wasn't busy enough, we finished it off with a trip to the Corrie Street Tour - more of that in the next blog post.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

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Tuesday 6 October 2015

Evans Blogger night

Hi everyone,

It doesn't seem possible that it's over a week now since the lovely ladies at Evans held a bloggers evening at their Arndale Store. It was the night before The Curve Fashion Festival, so as you can imagine, we were all quite excited!



I might be a bit biased - but I think we all look pretty fabulous in these pictures.

There's a lot of love from us all for Scarlett and Jo dresses. I love the colour of this dress, but to be honest, it was a style I would never have considered. But once on - I think I could be persuaded to change my mind.


And yep, I didn't realise my butt could look like that!


Sweeties and drinks were on hand to keep our energy up and I discovered that prosecco and pink lemonade mix very well. I may have had quite a few of those during the evening - oops!


That might help to explain the flushed face here. Or the fact that I totally fell in love with this Scarlett and Jo dress. I sized down to a 20 on the advice of the other girls and it was a good decision. It fitted like a dream.




Readers of my blog may have noticed how much I love my jeans and pumps. So imagine my delight at finding sparkly shoes



Yep, very excited!


Best bit of the whole evening though? Meeting these lovely ladies. Some I'd met before, others for the first time. But it really felt like an evening with friends. 


Debz and Lolly


Lisa and Lottie

A huge thank you to the lovely ladies at Evans who made us all feel so welcome and kept our glasses topped up throughout the evening. It was the perfect start to The Curve Fashion Festival weekend - which will be my next update.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx



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