At last weekend's fabulous Curve Fashion Festival, I was invited to meet Geordie Shore's Holly Hagan to discuss the launch of her new plus-size range with Want That Trend.
Now I must confess, I didn't know what to expect with Holly at all but I really liked her.
I have to say despite this, I'm not entirely in agreement with Holly's rationale behind the range; There's a lot of talk of "health" and use of the word "flatter". For me, fashion is fashion, health is health - The two bear no relevance to each other whatsoever and it's part of the anti-fat agenda to suggest otherwise.
Holly is not currently plus size and the world in which she's lived for the past six years is diet and fitness-centric - She can be sympathetic to the needs of a plus size woman but can't truly understand it. What I will say from speaking from her is, there is no sense of dislike for how she looked in the past, quite the opposite, there is also none of that dissociation from herself as a larger woman that we've come to expect from the exercise DVD generation of celebs. This means more to me than a few poorly worded tweets.
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| Holly Hagan at the 2016 Curve Fashion Festival |
I know it's very fashionable to berate reality TV stars as being inappropriate role models to young people, but Holly has never been anything other than herself; she works her ass off, stands up for herself and her family and comes across as an incredibly smart young woman. The amount of hate she has received over the past six years is obscene, the fact that she's come out of the other side as sensible and self-aware as she is simply phenomenal. That has to count for something.
By far, my favourite item of Holly's range is the Navy Fiona Bodycon dress* which I was very fortunate to be gifted by the lovely WTT team at last week's Curve Fashion Festival. The dress is a textured elastine which means that it has a bit of stretch but still keeps its shape perfectly. Also, IT HAS A CAPE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.
I'm wearing a 16 here and it is very much true to size. I mentioned in my last review of Want That Trend that the lengths were a bit of an issue for me, I also fed this back to the WTT team and they told me that they're going to be working on more longer length designs in the future. Fortunately, the Fiona dress is a very true midi length even on my 6ft height.
The Holly Hagan range goes from a size 8 - 24 in many styles, up to a 32 in two of the designs (I love the lace skater dress here), and includes jumpsuits, dresses, separates and trousers. I'm not always great at articulating my admiration for brands but I want to make a point while I'm able: All WTT designs are a set price, regardless of the size - This is how it SHOULD be, but not always how it IS (looking at you ASOS...)
Finally, the owner of WTT, Victoria Molyneux, is a genuinely awesome (and utterly gorgeous) woman - It would have been so easy for her to carry on turning over a substantial profit without expanding the range, but she genuinely wants to make the same styles available to women of all sizes, as she said before Curve Fashion Fest:
"I'm really looking forward to launching our new plus-size items at Curve and meeting like minded ladies who are as fierce about fashion as I am."
The fact that she recognizes plus size women are capable of being passionate about fashion speaks volumes and I look forward to seeing this range go from strength to strength.
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| Rear view - I love my ass in this dress, |
I have some fab posts coming up over the next week. Until then, you can always catch up with me across the plethora of social mediums which exist on this planet as below:
Em x
* Denotes Item gifted for review - All views are my own because I'm an honest kinda chick,
