i used to really, truly love shopping. going into a store, picking up a basket, and heading straight for the sale racks to see what bargains i could hunt out was literally one of my favourite past times. in fact, back when i used to have disposable income and no grand ideas about buying a flat of my own, i used to even give myself a weekly shopping budget of £50. that's £200 a month to spend on shopping, which i think we can all agree is an obscene amount of money to spend on clothes every month (and, if you do this regularly, i both commend and envy you) - yet i used to do this with wilful abandon. and you know what? i loved every minute of it.
those days are long gone, now, because who's got the time to go into a shop anymore? not me. so now instead i trawl through the sale emails that fall into my inbox daily, furiously searching for something - anything that isn't too trendy, that isn't being worn by everyone else, and that comes in an adult size of glitter. trust me, being in your mid thirties and not wearing black is hard enough, but when trends dictate crop tops and short skirts and unflattering cuts of fabric, shopping becomes something you do out of necessity, not out of boredom anymore.
i have my "safe" high street shops, where i know there will always be something hiding in the sale rail just waiting for me (nb: i worked in retail for about 15 years, so i never, ever, ever buy anything full price anymore. you wouldn't either, if you saw how quickly things are marked down!), and new faves like monki and sugarhill brighton that are quirky and unique, and made for gals like me, but i'm increasingly looking for safe havens online, full of fun and colourful clothes to make me feel fancy, that won't cost me an arm and a leg. and guess what, dear reader? i just may have found it in fashion world.
i'm wearing: skirt + jumper + shoes all gifted by fashion world
if you can even believe it, but i managed to scoop this candy pink jumper, pale blue, tiered midi skirt, and glittery as fuck silver trainers for less than fifty quid - all in the sales. yah huh! fashion world promote themselves as a "plus size" marketplace, but i don't think i'd call myself plus size - on a good day i'm between a 10 and a 12 up top, and on the bottom i'm anywhere between a 12 and a 16 - but still, i (mostly) shop in the straight sizes. fashion world sell a lot of simply be and jd williams, which do start at a standard size and go into the plus size - which is awesome, as it means more people can nab these incredible bargains.
what's different about fashion world, though, is that some stuff is sized like, 8-12. which, if you're an 8 will mean it's oversized, and if you're a 12 it'll be more fitted. i genuinely think this is an amazing way to label clothes, as there's such a mind fuck in picking up an item "in your size" only to have it not fit. this alleviates that pressure, and puts the clothing into a bracket of bodies the item will fit - a much happier and healthier way to label products, don't you think? so, big up to fashion world for coming out of hiding, and becoming one of the newest safe-houses in my web-browser.
*items were gifted, but all wordies are my own!
