Dressember 2012 – do some good for charity

I’ve been doing Dressember for the last couple of years and I really love taking part in this fun challenge. For those who’re not familiar with Dressember, it’s a pretty simple concept. For the 31 days of December you wear a dress every day – in my case a different dress every day. Hardly challenging for a dress fan with shopaholic tendencies like myself.

But this year I want to take it to the next level and use Dressember as an opportunity to do some good, rather than just an excuse to give my wardrobe an airing. This year I’ll be using Dressember as a way to raise money for a very worthwhile charity, Parkinson’s UK.

This is a charity that is very close to my heart – I’ve seen the destruction that this horrible disease can do. Every penny counts in the fight to find a cure, and my target for Dressember is a very manageable £500, so if you enjoy Big Girls Browse, please dig deep into your virtual pockets and do a good thing!

Styling up the pencil skirt – two ways to wear!

A little while ago Debenhams asked me if I’d take part in a blogger styling challenge for their amazing new Minizine. The ‘zine lauched today, and I have to say it looks fab – kudos to Lizzie and the team for putting together something so great! My challenge was to style up a Debenhams piece, the super classic black pencil skirt from Debenhams Collection. I decided to take on an Autumn / Winter trend – blue and black – but also try something new. I never button blouses right up to the top because it can look a bit frumpy on me, but I think with this look it works…

The MoneySupermarket Challenge – how far will £100 go?

A little while ago I was contacted by MoneySupermarket.com with a challenge that sounded too good to be true. They were looking for bloggers keen to show their readers how to make savings on their shopping. As part of the challenge, I was very generously given a £100 prepaid card to spend however I chose (to suit my blog) with only one caveat – I couldn’t buy anything at the full retail price. This challenge was all about discounts!

Given this blog is 99% about fashion, my aim was to hunt down some stylish bargains that would work for Spring / Summer 2012. So armed with my card and a few secret weapons, I hit the shops! I’m a bargain hunter by nature – I rarely buy stuff at full price if I can help it – so this was the perfect challenge for me and I couldn’t wait to get started.

In My Wardrobe: Lady V London bird print green sundress

I’ve written about a lot of beautiful dresses in my time, but I don’t think any has received such a huge (and fast) response as the Lady V London dress that I put in my 50s sundresses feature earlier this week.

My twitter feed and blog comments were full of people telling me they were either buying it or thinking of buying it, and by Friday I even had twitpics of happy customers thanking me for introducing them to the label. In the end, I couldn’t resist ordering one myself, if only to report back on whether it really could be as good as it looks when it retails at only £30!

What I wore to London Fashion Week Feb 2012

This post is a sad indication of how rarely I’ve updated of late – as I post this you can still see my post from last Fashion Week in the sidebar to your left! But that fashion week coincided with moving to my new (old) job back at the helm of Catwalk Queen, which has taken up most of my time of late, and I don’t believe in posting here for the sake of it. I’m hoping now I’m well and truly settled there that I’ll have more time to dedicate to Big Girls Browse and can ramp up the post count a bit for March…so if there’s anything you’d love to see me talk about, now’s the time to speak up…

(soon to be) In My Wardrobe: What I bought in the January sales

2012 is going to be quite a frugal year for me financially (I’m saving for more important things than shoes for once!) so spending my Christmas money in the January sales is basically my last hurrah. After these purchases, I’m battening down the hatches and sticking to an ‘only what’s necessary’ approach to spending. I’m not saying I won’t buy anything this year, but I’ll definitely be reviving Frugal February and after that I’ll be sticking to those good habits at least 80% of the time, putting as much as I possibly can in the bank at the end of each month. Even with the sales I’ve tried to stear clear of the shops and only buy a few things online. Of those, I’m sure at least one or two will get returned. But while I wait for them all to arrive…here’s a look at what I bought!

Where have I been all your life?

Things have been a bit quiet around here the last few weeks – this is because we’re relaunching all our sites at work in the next two weeks, and it’s all hands on deck to get things sorted out in time for the launch. I’ve been working late almost every night and crashing out once I get home. I’ll hopefully get back on top of things in November, but for now I just wanted to say I hadn’t forgotten this site and I will still be updating when I get the chance. In the meantime, here’s a small edition of ‘in my wardrobe’ for you, a few pics of what I’ve been up to, and a very lame Halloween half-costume…

What I wore to London Fashion Week

Apologies if you’ve already seen this over at Catwalk Queen, but I thought it was worth a re-post for those who didn’t know I’ve returned to the team over there. My London Fashion Week outfit plan is pretty simple. Keep it simple, blend in. Obviously it’s important I don’t turn up in tracky bottoms, but I have no desire to be snapped by every street style photographer going, nor do I want to be the one everyone stares at. I tend to adopt a wardrobe of mostly black items, topped with blazers and handbags big enough to hold all my fashion week junk. The problem is, by day 3 or 4 I get bored and attempt to be a bit ‘creative’, having seen other people trying out silly trends and OTT pieces. This is when I end up doing stupid things – like putting on silly hats and ending up looking like I’m in bad 1920s fancy dress. But, life’s too short to take fashion seriously, and you learn from your mistakes. You’ll see what I mean on day three…

Shoeper Challenge: Polka dots x 2

I have a problem. I’m addicted to polka dots. I have at least half a dozen dotty dresses, not to mention shoes, tops, tights and sunglasses covered in spots. There’s something very fresh and fun about polka dots, which I like as someone who is known to dress quite ‘young’ as a rule! But they also work for just about any occasion, as I think these two outfits show (I use the term ‘outfit’ loosely, as the second is basically a dress and shoes). The first outfit was for fellow Domestic Slut Gail‘s gorgeous wedding, so required some serious accessorising. The second outfit was for work on a very, very windy and depressing day that called for a less-than-glamorous hairdo!

In My Wardrobe – Snakeskin and Shoe Saves

Only days after I’d joked to my fellow animal print advocate Sian than we’d have to ditch all our favourite frocks now that ‘snakeskin is the new leopard print’ (so say the glossies) I was given this snakeskin scarf as a leaving present at work. I took no time in giving my new accessory its first outing, at Gary‘s birthday drinks in Barnes. I have fond memories of Barnes as it’s the first place I lived when I moved to London (the dodgy bit by the station that’s actually Roehampton, not the scarily posh village bit). Anyway, back to the scarf, which I teamed with a black tee, my much-loved River Island boyfriend blazer, and super-skinny jeans from Primarni. Tres, tres boring I’m afraid…