Mirror, Mirror, what's my Curve ID?

As you may have seen in my last post I went to London Fashion Weekend on Friday and stopped off at the Levi's 'stand' for a look at their Curve ID range. Although this is not actually the first time that I have tried this range.

Around the time that the idea was first launched I was shopping in Westfield and having seen a bit about it all in magazines I thought I'd see what it was all about. Now, I should tell you that I HATE shopping for jeans. I loathe and despise it. I am constantly baffled as to how so many jeans on the high street only seem to cater for woman that I can only assume are shaped straight up and down i.e. no shape at all. I'd say that I am an all round average size 10, however even though I do have a small waist and relatively narrow hips...I have an arse like J.Lo. From the front I look quite streamlined, but when I turn to the side that bad boy curves right out there! When I stand I have a very obvious natural arch at the bottom of my back which makes it more obvious that my derriere is of the curvaceous nature. Jeans never fit me, they are normally too tight on the bum and they gape at the waistband. So, when Levis launched this new range I was quite excited, could it be, could there be a range of jeans out there that weren't heart stoppingly expensive that were made for ladies like me?

In I went to go and see what they were talking about. After looking at the range for approximately 20 minutes with no sign of any staff someone finally came over and asked if I was ok. I said that I was interested in the Curve ID range and they went to get their fancy measuring contraption. Basically you have a piece of string round your waist and then they do the same around your hips and your bum and by looking at the differences in the measurements they can see if you are a slight curve, demi curve or bold curve. The girl took my measurements and told me I was probably a demi curve. This surprised me and I also thought she'd be a bit more confident in her answer. She also told me that she thought I would be a 30 waist (I'm normally a 28/29) She found a demi curve straight leg jean and told me to go and try them on, I wasnt asked what style or colour I was after. I got into the changing rooms and went about getting the jeans on, I got as far as just below the bum area and things started to get uncomfortable, I finally managed to get them over the bum (lots of jumping up and down, you know what I mean!) and do them up. These were a waist size larger than what I normally go for and they were cutting off the circulation around my hips and giving me some really attractive muffin tops, not only that but they STILL gaped at the waistband. I was seriously confused. I came out of the changing room and looked for some help, the girl eventually came over, looked me up and down and said maybe I should try a size 32, yes that would be a size 14. I was shocked. Needless to say I left feeling fat, big bummed and even more dejected about jeans shopping. I was also very unimpressed by Levis new range.

You are probably all thinking, why did you go back? Well, yes, I did in fact think the same thing. Something made me want to give it another go though, maybe it was the champagne cocktail, actually I'm pretty sure it was the champagne cocktail. So off I went with my friend (thought I'd see how someone else got on too) to give them a second chance. This experience could not have been more different. I would like to take this opportunity to say that the girls at Levis at London Fashion Weekend were brilliant. Thank you for restoring my faith in the world of denim.

As soon as we arrived we were greeted by happy smiling people who asked if we were ok and if we knew about the range. I said I had heard about it but I left it at that, I wanted to see what they came up with. Both my friend and I were measured. I got to have the new measuring contraption that they were testing out, it looks a bit better. When she had taken my measurements I was told I was a demi curve. At this my friend shouted that they had to be kidding. Another Levis girl who had been watching came over and said that she actually agreed with my friend and was surprised as she thought I was more of a bold curve. Apparently the new contraption is not as good! So they re-measured using the old system and sure enough I was a bold curve...just! They asked what size I normally wore and I said 28/29 to which they said they thought I was more of a 27 and that I really had a great shape (loving these ladies more and more every minute!) I said I'd like to try some skinny greys and they gave me a 27 and 28 in each in two different lengths (I also am an annoying in between leg size of 33 inches). I would like to say that they were right about me being a 27, and although I could get them on and done up, I don't think I'd have been able to sit down and move all that much. I came out wearing the 28s though and they were perfect. My friend as well as the staff started handing out the compliments saying how good they looked and that they were a perfect fit. Hooray! I was so happy, I'd found them, the ever elusive pair of perfect fitting jeans! To top it all off they were offering 20% off (students make note, you can get this anyway) AND they were doing a photo shoot of people in their new jeans. So they sat me down to re-do my make up, gave me a pair of seriously high shoes and a hat to pose with and here is the result!

Thank you again ladies of Levis London Fashion Weekend!

Cocktails and Photo shoots: London Fashion Week(end)

Hello all

How is everyone enjoying their last week in September? I'm having another quiet week and actually can't wait for Friday as I have lots of exciting things planned next week that I shall no doubt be blogging about, including trips to Westfield and Ikea (yes, I AM excited about Ikea) so expect some haul posts.

The absolute highlight of my week last week was going to London Fashion Weekend on Friday with Naida. We had a brilliant, brilliant day. This may have been fuelled my lack of breakfast and consumption of alcohol, but by my reckoning that just made it even more entertaining.

We hopped on the train to a very sunny London town after the commuter rush and made our way to the beautiful Somerset House. I love this building, I came here at Christmas too when the ice rink was up and the pop up Tiffany shop (Tiffany cupcakes!). We arrived about 10 minutes before everything opened and there was only a handful of people in front of us. That was one of the things I liked about LFWE, it wasn't ridiculously busy. I didn't have to fight past people to look at anything or get constantly manhandled out of the way by greedy teens desperate to grab a bargain *cough* Clothes Show Live *cough*. Once we were in we got our bearings and tried to figure out where everything was and what we wanted to see. First thing on our agenda was our free Chambord champagne cocktail. Now, we thought this would be easy, it was not. As we were sent from person to person, information stand to bar staff clutching our email confirmations we started to wonder if it was all a set up and there was no free cocktail. Noone seemed to know who we should go to to get our token and so we thought we would give them some time to figure it out and went for a look around. First stop, shoe studio. I have to say now that I did a really poor job of taking photos. In fact...I took nothing of any clothes, shoes, accessories, nothing...I'm such a bad blogger! Instead we spent most of the day posing for pictures and generally being very silly. We got stopped by a Diet Coke lady on our way in to the shoe studio who asked if we wanted to have our picture on the front cover of a Diet Coke magazine. 'It's all free' she told us, 'it will only take a few minutes'. I was feeling a bit unsure, especially as there were various people walking past but she was so, well, enthusiastic, and I'm pretty sure was not going to let us past even if we tried. All I am going to say is that the pictures were awful! They were printed off there and then, the quality was pretty poor and you could tell I'd only had a handful of hours sleep the night before! Of course the ever enthusiastic Diet Coke lady cooed over the pictures and told us how lovely they were. Yes, easy for you to say love, with your waist length sunkissed blonde hair with a natural effortless wave, flawless skin and megawatt tooth smile, I bet you never take a bad picture.

After that experience we decided it was most definitely time for a cocktail (it was 12 by then and therefore acceptable) and yay for us, the event staff had found the illusive Chambord token.

On our way to the Chambord bar I was stopped by a lovely lady with a big camera who asked if she could take my photo. Me? 'Yes, could I take a photo to show what you are wearing for our street style' she answered. I'll admit, I got a little bit excited. You always see those girls in magazines who get stopped and asked what they are wearing, normal, every day girls. And here I was, having my picture taken for the very same thing! Ok, so I was at a fashion event which is not the same as being randomly stopped on the high street, but still, it made me feel special *stands a few inches taller*. The outfit in question was my feel good outfit that I promised to blog about, so I will do an OOTD post for you all to see it. 

I was given this little card after

We finally made our way to the bar and got to enjoy a very delicious Chambord champagne cocktail. We may have also then had another free prosecco version after some fluttering of the eyelashes and a bit of tipsy banter with the waiter. We then had a look around the various stalls and lusted after scarves and belts and other pretty things. Got given a free sample of texturising salt spray from Toni and Guy (review to follow).

Our next little adventure found us in the Levi Curve ID room. I'm sure most of you will have heard about Levis new jeans and how they are made to cater for all different shapes in women. I actually have a fair amount to say on this area so I'm going to save it and dedicate a whole post to it later this week. All I'll say is that we had A LOT of fun in this room. As a result of which we also ended up with a voucher from another free cocktail at the Hoxton Gin bar (it's about 1pm now and we STILL haven't eaten).

Now, I don't like gin. I've tried it a couple of times, and I just don't. Hoxton has been developed by a guy who is quite high up in the bar tending world who wanted to make gin more fun and also a bit different. With this in mind he added Coconut and Grapefruit. Every devout gin drinker who I have since mentioned this too has balked at the idea, and I have been told by various people now that 'That is NOT gin'. However, as a well known gin hater, I'm sold! Maybe it's because I don't actually like normal gin, or because I bloody love anything coconut based, who knows. All I know is that it was the first time that I have had a drink with gin in it and I have happily and easily finished the whole glass. 

Feeling, more than a little giddy, we decided that we should probably call it a day and find ourselves some food. Although, not before stopping off at the Vintage stands and swooning over the beautiful vintage dresses at Fraubraun. The very nice ladies there also told us that we could try on anything we wanted and have our pictures taken. Well, after two cocktails and no food we didn't need telling twice! A far cry from the apprehensive girls at the Diet Coke stand, we got ourselves into some gorgeous black evening gowns and away we went. I'm still waiting for the pictures to come through on email but once I do I'll post them up.

And that was the end of our little foray into the fashion world. We skipped off into the London sunshine, planning our trip to the next LFWE and heading towards the nearest Byron Burger for some well needed sustenance.