What I’d Wear To LFW with Simply Be

by Charl Pearce

Nearing the end of September and the leaves beginning to fall not only signifies the return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes to Starbz and the festively patterned cups but also the beginning of Fashion Weeks across New York, Paris, Milan and of course London Fashion Week in good old Blighty.

To celebrate London Fashion Week, plus size fashion brand Simply Be teamed up with three plus size bloggers (including yours truly!) to reveal what they would wear to the fashion event of the season from the current collection available on site.

My LFW outfit pays homage to the turn of the seasons with the key piece being this AX Paris Paisley Print shirt dress in jewel tones with a tie waist.  I’m never one to shy away from patterns or autumnal tones and this dress combines the two so perfectly that I knew I had to have it to make up the foundations of a number of A/W 15 outfits. I’m looking forward to pairing this piece with long line waistcoats, chunky scarves, leggings, bare legs and knee hights or even worn open as a long line shirt with skinny ripped jeans and a cami top and layers and layers of necklace.  I did find that the dress sizings were a little bit strange, which I’ve found previously.  I usually wear a size 18 but I ended up going for a size 24 which is  three sizes bigger than I’d usually wear.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing but bear it mind if you do place an order!  I love a good collared dress or shirt as they work perfectly with a blingerrific statement necklace (which I’m a bit partial to) and this layered beauty has been my bling of choice to jazz up an otherwise plain outfit since July because you can’t have too much of a good thing.

On this occasion I paired the AX Paris dress with opaque tights (every gals autumn friend) and these Oxblood Chelsea boots* from Sole Diva that I have fall-en in love with.  Let’s be realistic for a moment, high heels are all good and they look amazing but when you’re on your feet for the majority of the day the balls of your feet will be thankful for a low heel that doesn’t make you wince in pain.  If you’re going to do a flat heel, at least make sure that the boot in question looks good and these high shine numbers are just the answer; they’re super comfortable and offer a little bit of height rather than completely flat and they bag themselves a fair few compliments.

The black belted kimono style jacket* is unlined and is the ideal transitional jacket as it’s lightweight and isn’t too warm.  I don’t know about you guys but I absolutely hate wearing a coat.  I can’t stand having to compromise my outfit in favour of staying warm and then having to carry around a coat when indoors is just more trouble than its worth, so this loose fitting and lightweight jacket is perfect and doesn’t take away from the outfit – every girl needs a plain black jacket to wear with EVERYTHING – right?  I picked up the bowler style hat on eBay to wear at Style XL and it’s quickly made it onto my list of “things to wear when you want to look stylish” for when I need a finishing touch to an outfit.  It also helps to disguise the frizz that autumn weather ALWAYS brings to my hair.

I’m not the kind of gal who can travel light.  Once I’ve thrown in my DSLR, a makeup bag for touch ups throughout the day, a notepad,  portable charger, umbrella and everything else you find in the depths of a ladies handbag I find myself struggling to zip a bag up but this leather and suede fringed and studded tote* holds everything you could need for a day in the big city (or even for a mini break), although I have found that the bigger the bag the more stuff I say I can’t possibly leave at home.

I absolutely love this outfit and the mix of jewel tones against the classic black, and of course the return of the cool weather has meant that I can dig out the Rimmel 107 lipstick and vamp it up on the lips.  I’m planning on giving it a spin this weekend on my mini break to the cobbled streets and canals of Amsterdam.

You can check out the other two beautiful bloggers who took part in Simply Be’s #LFW feature below:

Steph at Nerd About Town
Kate at How Kate Does Fashion

5 Comments

  1. Stephanie (Nerd About Town)

    You always look so gosh-diddly-darn beautiful in every photo you take! I love this dress on you!

    Reply
  2. Tessa Holly Sparkle

    This outfit is fabulous! I’ve followed you, loving your blog :) x

    Reply
  3. Mayah Thomas

    I LOVE how you styled this! Great post and gorgeous pics!

    Reply

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