Thursday 30 April 2015

Springtime florals part one

Hello my loves! 

I hope this post finds you all well and that you've all been out and about making the most of this gorgeous springtime sunshine we've been blessed with over the past few weekends. I've been enjoying the lovely weather and thinking more and more about spring- my second favourite season of the year.

Personally I find that spring reminds me of all things bright & beautiful- baby animals, picnics with friends and fields full of florals. Tulips, Daffodils, Pansies, Carnations... the list goes on! It's no great secret if you take a peek in my wardrobe that I absolutely adore flowers and floral prints are one of the greatest and most repeated influences in there. I've always been a big fan of floral prints ever since I was a little girl and I think this is, in part, due to the fact that floral prints can be so diverse. I currently own at least 30+ items of clothing that feature a variety of roses, sunflowers, daisies and a whole garden's worth of flowers and yet no two pieces are too alike.

Baby me rocking some green floral 90's dream dress 

This apparent fascination with all things floral print has stayed with me into adulthood, and most recently has manifested itself into my love of UK-based vintage reproduction giants Collectif Clothing. Collectif have made themselves known in both the pinup and plus size clothing community by standing out with strong prints, impeccably cut clothing and high-end tailoring with an affordable pricetag. 

I've been wearing Collectif for about 4 years now and one dress in particular has been a wardrobe staple for me over this time frame, culminating in me now owning a whopping 9 (yes, 9!) of the same dress in a wide variety of colours and prints! What is this amazing dress you ask.....?

 

Why it's the Delores Doll dress of course! Modeled here in "Summer Bouquet" print by the beautiful Georgina of FullerFigureFullerBust what's not to love? This dress is incredibly big-bust friendly and very flattering on a variety of body shapes. The full skirt is perfect for twirling (something I do a lot of, as it's one of my two staple dance moves, the other being "the awkward dad at a disco jive") and the little cap sleeves give a nice amount of coverage and can be worn on or off the shoulder. 

Information about this dress from the Collectif Website:

"Bring some sunshine into your day with our Dolores Doll dress in Summer Bouquet. Bright, zesty and bursting with joy; this cotton print features a white background with bright floral blooms. Combine with our Elizabeth bolero in yellow classic cotton for an elegant, fun outfit for summer garden parties." 
In terms of sizing for the Delores Doll Dress, most reviews I've read suggest sizing down as this particular style has a lot of give. Now that I own 9 versions of this dress, this advice is something that i'd reiterate. I'm wearing a size 16 in the Summer Bouquet Print (i'm usually an 18, given my 46" bust and 36" waist) and it fits incredibly well. It's accommodating for my bust yet still fits neatly around my waist, helping me to achieve that hourglass figure and pinup look. 

Another aspect of this dress that I absolutely love is the sweetheart neckline. It's flattering without being too cleavage-heavy and can be pulled up or down depending on how much skin you wish to show. Within the plus-size blogging community the Delores Doll dress has become a wardrobe staple for the masses, coming in a plethora of different prints and styles - one for every occasion imaginable! It's not hard to see why this dress is such a winner in the eyes of so many!


I shot these images with the wonderful Michala Oborna, of Michala Oborna Photography up the historical point of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. The Scottish Gorse bushes provided the perfect backdrop to offset the bright yellow florals of the Delores Doll Summer Bouquet dress and as you can see, the cloudless blue sky provided a lovely contrast. 



I have shot with Michala previously several years ago when I was a member of a burlesque troupe and modeled for a pinup company in Edinburgh and can confirm that years later, she is still every bit as fun, professional and sweet as ever. Michala gives fantastic instruction - she is direct yet overwhelmingly positive which ultimately led to a wonderfully fun photoshoot that yielded some great results! If you're Edinburgh based (or Central Scotland based for that matter) and are looking for a talented photographer then you need look no further. Michala can be reached via her facebook page linked above and I guarantee that you'll enjoy every minute of your photoshoot experience with her. 
Outfit details
Dress: Collectif 
Flower Crown: Etsy 
Stockings: What Katie Did

I hope that you've enjoyed my little springtime styling. Keep an eye out for the next installment of my springtime florals update, where i'll be sharing an absolutely breathtaking gown by vintage reproduction faves Vivien of Holloway

Until next time my darlings, 

Lovelustloves xO

Friday 17 April 2015

The COSLA Excellence Awards


Hello my darlings!

I hope this latest post finds everyone well on this lovely Friday afternoon. Today on the blog I'd like to share my recent experience at the 2015 COSLA awards. For anyone who does not know, The COSLA awards represent the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and are held annually to celebrate good practice across a wide range of services within Scotland's 32 councils.

For this post we're going to need a little context: During my day to day life I work two jobs; one is for a local authority and one for a charitable organization both doing youth work with elements of community education and resource organization involved. One of the areas of youth work that I am most passionate about is LGBT (lesbian gay bisexual and transgender) work within schools and communities, fighting proactively to tackle homophobia and hate crimes and to give young LGBT people a safe space to feel comfortable, accepted and free to be their authentic selves. I've been working locally with two wonderful LGBT projects -the West Lothian LGBT Youth Forum and the Glitter Cannons project- for just over a year now and it is these projects that were recently nominated for a COSLA excellence award. 

In order to gain a bit of insight into the nature of the work that both of these projects do, please take a wee look at this video, highlighting the strengths and achievements of the LGBT youth work that happens locally. Look out for me and my freshly dyed orange hair!

 

Hopefully you'll agree with me that the work that these projects do is incredibly important and gain an understanding of just how valuable this type of youth work is. Supporting people who identify as LGBT (and otherwise) is such an enriching part of my personal and professional working life and truthfully is one of my favourite aspects of my day job - I absolutely love it! Needless to say I was absolutely elated when I heard that our projects were shortlisted as finalists for the COSLA awards- not for the actual awards themselves, but for the opportunity for our work to be shown on a National platform and to prompt a recognizable discussion regarding the importance of LGBT youth work across Scotland as a whole; humbling stuff really! 

After submitting an application and presenting our projects to an illustrious panel of judges in Edinburgh, we were finally gearing up for the actual awards themselves. 

Taking place at the suitably swanky Creiff Hydro Hotel in Perthshire, the awards were a black tie formal affair which set my little fashionista heart racing. Formal wear has always been something that has eluded me; aside from my high school prom back in 2009 I have never attended an event that required a "formal" dress code. My concerns were primarily centered around the fact that my usual everyday attire in itself is relatively formal, swing dresses, petticoats and vibrant colours are my wardrobe staples, so what traction was there to vamp up this style into something more "black-tie"? 

After many hours spent traipsing online, panic- purchasing and subsequently returning an ill-fitting discount dress and a few tears of frustration I finally found it- the formal wear dress of my dreams. This dress is none other than the phenomenal Lesley Ann Dress from my old favourites, yep you guessed- pinupgirlclothing.com! 


I have discussed this dress briefly before in my post about the Miss Scottish Pinup Pageant (which you can read by following this link) however I really feel as though this dress requires further discussion -it's really just that good! 

Information about this dress from the pinupgirlclothing website reads as follows: 

"Inspired by the timeless poise and striking beauty of actress Lesley-Ann Brandt, the Lesley-Ann Dress from Laura Byrnes California is the embodiment of grace and classic elegance. Suggestive of the exquisitely-made and highly treasured party dresses of the 1950s but with clean modern lines and refined detailing for today's woman, this dress is a marvel of construction. 

The full charmeuse-lined skirt offers a stretch Meredith satin base in a delicate mauve purple with layer upon layer of pale blue tulle overlaid on top with a satin waistband to accentuate its 50s-inspired silhouette. The top, to put it mildly, is breathtaking. Meticulously cut, pleated, and sewn into a herringbone-shaped design, the tulle overlay across the lined satin bust transitions into a straight-pleated back enhanced by a satin border on the top following the lines of the tulle. Sitting slightly off-shoulder and extending to the back zip to create a drop v-back, the tulle and satin cap sleeves complete this dream of a dress. Thanks to its careful construction and enduring design, this dress will last a lifetime and beyond if cared for properly!"
 

Needless to say, this dress is truly exquisite. It may come with a hefty pricetag but I can assure that it is more than worth the investment as it will quite easily become a timeless wardrobe classic for all formal, black tie and let's be totally honest here- party opportunities for years to come! I thought that this dress was absolutely perfect for the COSLA awards- the structure, fabric and design tick all the boxes of my ideal formal gown, but the colours and tulle skirt add a necessary element of whimsy to proceedings and keep it very true to my personal style as a whole. 

Just look at that tulle 

The construction of this dress is second to none- you can really see where every penny of that $260 pricetag has gone into getting the fit, structure and fabric of this dress just right to encompass designer Laura Byrnes' vision of the perfect modern representation of this delightful 1950's party dress. 

Since sharing this dress on social media, many people have asked me about the fit. As usual, I ordered this dress in my regular size of 2x in Pinupgirlclothing - according to their size chart I fit right in the middle of the 2x measurements with my 46" bust, 36" waist and generous hips, and i'd say that this dress really does fit true to size. Because this dress is so well constructed, i'd definitely say that if you are considering ordering, take a good look at the size chart before placing your order, but keep in mind that this dress is fairly big-boob accommodating, so don't let that dissuade you!

After deciding on my gown for the COSLA excellence awards, I needed to glamorize myself appropriately to match, so I opted for a big bouffant with a simple purple flower fascinator.

Props to my amazing hairdresser Nicky of Mark Brown Hairdressing, West Calder for always keeping my updo's on point! 

To continue with the glamorous theme for the evening's proceedings, I opted for a lovely silver clutch which dates all the way back to my aforementioned high school prom and lots of cheap sparkly jewelry, including a beautiful sequince (a little  Rupaul's Drag Race inspired joke there!) wrap that my mother kindly purchased for me on eBay and a co-ordinating purple and blue manicure to match the stunning Lesley Ann dress. Links to purchase all of the above will be feautired at the bottom of this post.



I kept my makeup for the event reasonably simple; a little touch of Urban Decay's Naked Palette on my eyes and a gorgeous purple lipstick (I love co-ordination, can you tell!?) on my lips. I also added a little silver heart necklace that belongs to my mother for some added sparkle.



Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of my whole outfit including accessories, but this is almost as good, right?

Now, with my formal attire finally on point, it was on to the main event- the awards themselves!

We (the staff) arrived at the Creiff Hydro Hotel with a minibus full of young people who are members of both youth groups discussed earlier. Everyone was all kitted out in their finest ensembles and each and every person looked truly magnificent. We met with one of our colleagues from the wonderful voluntary organization LGBT Youth Scotland and proceeded inside, seizing the moment for a quick photo opportunity (naturally) and making the most of our beautiful surroundings. 




As you can see from the above images, the awards themselves were quite the experience! The entire shindig was an incredibly glitzy and fancy affair, with all nominees being treated to an exquisite 3 course meal before the awards themselves began. Hosted by television personality Jackie Bird proceedings were soon underway, with our category being the 3rd announced. 

Our projects were up for nomination alongside Midlothian and Edinburgh City Council under the category "Tackling Inequality and Improving Health" which is fitting given the nature of work that we do. Unfortunately we didn't win the gold in our designated category, this accolade instead going to Edinburgh City Council's awe inspiring "Willow" project which addresses the social, health and welfare needs of women in the criminal justice system and is an incredible piece of work- a truly deserving winner. 

After this, we collectively presumed that our chances of winning at the 2015 COSLA excellence awards was over, however we were surprisingly mistaken. Right at the end of the evening it was announced that there would be three additional awards given to projects that had demonstrated excellence in their field - the Solace Awards for best team, the Scottish Government Award for Local Matters and lastly, the COSLA Chairperson's Award. 

The Chairperson's Award was the last to be announced and to the absolute shock of everyone at our table- we won!!

The West Lothian LGBT Youth Forum and Glitter Cannons alongside the Chairperson of COSLA and television host Jackie Bird. 

This wonderful accolade took us entirely by surprise- none of us were expecting to win in our category, let alone a surprise award we knew nothing about! The Chairperson of COSLA made an impassioned speech about the work that the West Lothian LGBT Youth Forum and Glitter Cannons project does and why it is so important not only to the LGBT youth community, but to everyone, because tackling inequality is something that we should all be striving to achieve. One of our young members then made a further (incredibly moving) speech that had me crying with pride, discussing how important LGBT youth work is and what impact it had made to her life. I guarantee that there wasn't a dry eye in the house! 

Overall, the COSLA Excellence Awards were such a wonderful experience, and I'm so happy that I was able to be a part of it. This award has made our desire to achieve positive change for LGBT youths even stronger and has given us the drive and determination to ensure that the needs of this marginalized community are met in full. I absolutely love what I do and to for these projects to receive national recognition of this type on a public platform is awe-inspiring and truly speaks volumes. 

Outfit details
Sequin stole: eBay 
Hair Flower: eBay
Ring: Primark 
Clutch: Kudos
Shoes: Schuh 

I hope you've enjoyed reading this latest post. 
Until next time my darlings- with lots of love, 

Lovelustloves x0

Sunday 12 April 2015

Mean Green Mutha' From Outer Space


Hello darlings,
I hope this blog post finds everyone well!
I'm wanting to deviate from my regular clothes obsession for a quick minute and chat about one of my favourite films- Little Shop of Horrors. This movie has many elements that I absolutely love; great fashion, catchy songs, an upbeat musical score as well as a young Rick Moranis and dark undertones...perfect! What more could a girl ask for?!

This will always be one of my ultimate feel-good movies and I feel compelled to watch it every several months (I've actually just finished re-watching it for probably the hundredth time with my little sister this very morning!) so you can imagine my delight when last August one of my favourite clothing brands -Pinupgirlclothing- announced that they were planning to release a dress honoring this film. Well, I'm not exaggerating when I say that this dress had my heart fluttering from the offset. I could picture it so vividly- the bright purple colour, the swing skirt, the bold print.... everything about it sounded like a dream! This dress was the brainchild of the wonderfully gifted designer/model/artist/ultrababe Micheline Pitt (follow her on instagram here!) and was born from her increasingly fabulous "Deadly Dames" collection for Pinupgirlclothing. 

After relentless online stalking of their facebook, instagram and twitter pages I contacted Pinupgirlclothing direct to ask for a release date of this amazing dress-of-my-dreams. Originally I was told it'd be out for October 2014, however this date was pushed back on two separate occasions due to the print of the fabric being not quite perfect, which whilst slightly annoying at the time is more than anything a true indication of the perfectionist nature of the design team at Pinugirl - only releasing the dress once every issue was addressed. The actual release date of this dress ended up being March 2015, and you can guarantee that I mine was one of the first orders in- after months and months of waiting this dress was finally going to belong to me, making all of my kitschy Audrey 2 dreams come true! 

So, what was my verdict when I received the dress? 



Unsurprisingly, I loved it! This dress exceeds all of my expectations and is a true marvel, and surprisingly is one of the most comfortable pieces of clothing I've ever put on my body - It literally feels as though i'm wearing pajamas! The print is absolutely divine and adds a brilliant element of whimsy that i'm totally in love with- Audrey 2's cute and creepy animated makeover is definitely something I support fullheartedly.

For anyone considering buying this dress, or placing themselves on the wait-list for it to be restocked in various sizes, here's an extract of information about the Venus Flytrap Hotrod Honey Dress direct from the Pinupgirlclothing website (and link to purchase here!):

"The comfort of your favorite t-shirt meets the design you love from Deadly Dames with the Hotrod Honey Swing Dress! Made of a high-quality cotton stretch knit, the Hotrod Honey features a wide scoopneck, 3/4 length sleeves, and a full swing skirt that is slightly gathered at the elasticized waistline. Comfortable and cute, this dress is available here in Micheline's custom Venus Fly Trap print and comes with a faux leather belt.

I can 100% vouch for all of the above information. 

In fact, I loved this dress so much that I decided to organize a little photoshoot to show off how amazing it is!  For the occasion I decided to do something a little different and go for some big 60's style bouffant hair- something that the original Audrey herself would be proud to wear! 


Suddenly Seymour

To get my hair looking so big and fabulous, I went to a fantastic little local salon called Myka and was styled by the wonderful Cheryl Bowes, salon owner and vintage hair enthusiast extraordinaire! Making use of my lovely little headpiece that I picked up at the Scottish Tattoo Convention (flower clip is by Alternate Normality - follow this link to purchase!) Cheryl curled, backcombed and fixed my hair into place and set it with an atomic serving of ultra-hold hairspray; this girl really knows what she's doing and set me on my way with a giant smile on my face and my high hair skimming the door frame on the way out! 

My lovely friend Jenni came over to my Bathgate home to shoot - we are working on a body positive photo project that i'll share more about soon but also used the opportunity to photograph this gorgeous dress- and I had a delightful time doing so! I've really been enjoying getting back in front of the camera after such a long hiatus, it's been fantastic for my self-esteem and I've been loving the images that i'm getting back too- an added bonus! Jenni is an incredibly talented photographer and made the experience wonderfully positive & comfortable. We shot mostly outside in my shared garden area and my lovely neighbour even let us use her decking. Check out the results of our little collaboration below:


 


Wearing seamed stocking from What Katie Did to give this outfit that little bit extra 



 
Overall, this dress is everything i'd hoped for and more! It's soft, comfortable, wonderfully constructed and even comes with a free leather effect belt. It's absolutely gorgeous and so easy to wear due to the comfortable jersey material. This dress is currently sold out in most sizes but if you add yourself to the wait list that I linked to above you'll be notified as soon as it comes back into stock.

I hope that you enjoyed my little review and photoshoot- let me know what you think about this dress in the comments below.

Until next time lovelies! 

Lovelustloves x0


Friday 3 April 2015

The Scottish Tattoo Convention & Miss Scottish Pinup Pageant


Hello loves!

I hope this little blog post finds everyone well; life has been absolutely crazy as of late with lots going on so I apologize for the lack of frequent updates! I do however have lots of exciting news to share with you all. 

As some of you may know, last weekend (28th and 29th of March) was the date of the infamous Scottish Tattoo Convention, held at Edinburgh's Corn Exchange. Now in it's 5th year, the Scottish Tattoo Convention is quickly becoming one of the UK's leading tattoo events, standing proudly with the likes of the London Tattoo Convention, Brighton Tattoo Convention and the Tattoo Tea Party. The Scottish Tattoo convention hosts all of the usual fare to be expected at an event of this type: burlesque performers, world renowned tattoo artists and piercers, vendors selling their Sailor Jerry print wares and a fabulous host in the form of Pedro- a hilarious American compere with a love for all things tattoo and dance related! As of 2014 however, the Scottish Tattoo Convention is also host to a particularly special event- the Miss Scottish Pinup Pageant. 

The Miss Scottish Pinup Pageant is the brainchild of the beautiful Rachel Renegade, star of "Pretty things Peepshow" and fearless knife throwers assistant extraordinaire (Rachel can be found on instagram @Rachelisarenegade). First launched in 2014 when the beautiful Miss Edith was crowned as "Miss Scottish Pinup" the pageant has grown in leaps and bounds since, culminating in the 2nd official Miss Scottish Pinup pageant last weekend. It may be slightly transparent by now, but I decided on a bit of a last minute whim to enter this wonderful competition and this post will detail my experience. 

All of the finalists with the lovely Rachel before the summer wear round

The pageant consisted of two separate rounds: summer wear and evening wear with an informal interview portion, followed by the announcing of the winners at the end of the day. Now, I think it's important to mention why I decided to do something like this. For those who know me from my old days on Tumblr or via Instagram you'll know that I'm a huge advocate for body positivity  and self-love. I realize that some may view a pageant as something that goes against this stance, but I am a firm believer that beauty comes in all shapes, forms and sizes and I thought this would be a brilliant opportunity to bring this viewpoint to the masses and showcase the diversity that we Scottish women encompass. Truthfully, I've recently been feeling a little less-than-confident about myself and my appearance, so taking part in this pageant seemed like the boost and shock to my system that I was desperately needing. Looking at my beautiful fellow finalists it is abundantly clear that we are all beautiful and all beautifully different- each and every one of us stunning in our own way. The Miss Scottish Pinup Pageant was a truly fantastic experience and although strutting around a stage in a swimming costume sounds quite petrifying- I found it to be an oddly invigorating experience that I ended up loving! 

Waiting to go onstage with my lovely fellow finalists 

On to the day itself! Fighting nerves and unease, I made my way to the Edinburgh Corn Exchange with several friends, my mum and a giant leopard print suitcase in tow. I made my way backstage to unpack my goods and meet my fellow finalists; expecting a room full of icy stares and a cold reception I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of the girls were friendly and welcoming - our backstage dressing area was a vibrant buzz of hot rollers, makeup and lots of beautiful clothes (the dress envy I was suffering was unlike anything i'd ever experienced before!) We all introduced ourselves to one another and ooh-ed and aah-ed over everyone's wardrobe choices before a brief pep-talk from Rachel and began preparing for our first round- summer wear. 

For the summer wear round I wanted to be vibrant and colourful, whilst showcasing my personal style and modern twist on the classic pinup style. I opted to wear the beautiful Marilyn swimsuit by Pinupgirlclothing in a stunning emerald green and I felt incredibly comfortable and happy with this choice. I ordered this swimsuit specifically for the pageant but i'll definitely be getting good use out of it for years to come! The gathered and skirted style is fantastic and incredibly flattering, not to mention the detachable jewel clips - any piece of clothing that comes with it's own jewellery is a huge plus in my opinion! The fit of this piece is fairly generous, and being available in sizes from xs up to a 4x it's a great option for any plus-size or straight-size babes looking for a vintage one-piece this summer. My only gripe with this was the straps; I'd prefer thicker and more robust straps to better support my bosom, but that's by the by. 

I paired the Marilyn swimsuit with a vintage sequin kimono that I picked up in Brighton back in December at a Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair. It's a wonderful 80's number with padded shoulders, and with all honestly, these photos do not do this piece justice at all. The craftsmanship and bead/sequin work that has gone into this kimono honestly take my breath away. What also took my breath away was the £25 price tag- proving that pinup style on a budget is totally achievable with a little raking through rails and bargain hunting! 

I polished off this summer wear look with a cheap purple hair flower from eBay (find similar here), stunning purple floral and lucite-look shoes from one of my favourite brands Irregular choice (find similar here), plus-size nude fishnet dance tights and the highest hair imaginable. 


Next up was the evening wear round. For this I opted to wear my new favourite dress of all time: the Lesley-Ann dress, again from Pinupgirlclothing. This is a dress that I've been lusting after for the longest time- ever since the first photos emerged on Instagram of Doris Mayday rocking this tulle and satin explosion I was living for it. This dress does come with a hefty pricetag at $260 but it is so worth it- this dress is heavy with layers upon layers of beautiful fabric and the little details are to put it simply, exquisite. The tulle is delicate but the waistband and construction on the top are made to last -this is definitely a dress to invite comment (all positive, may I add!) and will have everyone lusting over it instantly. I purchased my usual size of Pinupgirlclothing dress (2x) and it fit like a glove. For maximum volume on the swing skirt I added two full-length petticoats from Oh My Honey which are amongst the fullest and softest petticoats I've ever encountered - one in pale pink and one in purple that I hand-dyed to match the colours on the Lesley-Ann dress. 

I wanted to add an element of whimsy to this particular style, so added a flower crown with lots of pink and lilac tones to my big bouffant. This crown was picked up in Primark for the grand total of £4 so if you're a fan I recommend getting out and scooping one up. What with festival season and the warmer weather fast approaching this is another piece that'll be making it into my regular wardrobe rotation.





I kept my accessories simple for this round; a plain pearl necklace and some little blue stone drop earrings added some necessary glitz. The main attraction however came in the form of my shoes- i'm afraid there aren't many photos where you can see them clearly but they are a silver sparkly extravaganza from Red or Dead. If you'd like to buy your own pair, check out this link

With my fellow beautiful finalist, Kelly-Marie of LadyandtheVampVintage


After the finalists had all finished strutting our stuff out on the main stage it was time for the interview rounds. We each had to answer three questions out of a possible four: "Who is your biggest pinup style icon and why?" "If you had three wishes what would they be?" "Describe your ideal date?" and finally "What is your favourite feature about yourself?" I went for the former three options and used this as a chance to showcase issues that I care strongly about - promoting LGBT inclusion in schools, women being in power, making connections with as many people as possible and Cher Horowitz's wardrobe computer from Clueless, naturally. 

Once the evening wear round was finished, we finalists were free to wander around the convention until it was time to announce the winners. For this, I decided to change into a separate outfit; the Sweetheart Print Grace dress from Vivien of Holloway. 


The Grace dress is another of my firm wardrobe favourites- When I find a dress that I love I usually have an overwhelming urge to buy it in every colourway imaginable, and I have the Grace in Black Lace print, Pink Floral print and the above Sweetheart print which is testament to my feelings! This dress features a gorgeous high-v neckline with a lower v-style back, a huge billowing circle skirt and tiny nipped in waist, perfect for dancing or prancing around on stage as you can see from the above photograph! I coupled this with a pair of simple red shoes from BHS, nude stockings from What Katie Did and a red rose flower crown from Topshop. 

The crowning was the pinnacle of the Miss Scottish Pinup finals, and there were four awards to be given out: 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place and "People's Choice" whereby the audience of the Scottish Tattoo  Convention vote for their winner. The judges on the panel included the incomparable Georgina Horne of FullerFigureFullerBust, timeless beauty Tina Warren of burlesque collective Club Noir and 2014's Miss Scottish Pinup Miss Edith. After much deliberation we were called on to the main stage for the winners to be announced......



I was absolutely flabbergasted to be awarded the "People's Choice" title! I was in absolute shock and so honoured by this accolade- It took me completely by surprise! Taking part in the Miss Scottish Pinup finals was such a wonderful opportunity and I'm so happy to have been given the chance to share the stage with so many fabulous women. My fears and apprehensions about taking part in the pageant were completely unfounded and by pushing myself to do something out of my comfort zone and a little scary, I had a brilliant time and now have a brilliant memento of the day in the form of this beautiful sash! 

A huge congratulations also belongs to my fellow three winners; Miss Katt, Miss Fifi le Fox and the new 2015 Miss Scottish Pinup Miss Kelly-Marie (whose wonderful blog I've linked to above). Meeting all of these wonderful women was such a privilege and definitely is experience that i'll be treasuring for an age to come. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my recent adventures, and I promise not to go so long before another post!!

Until next time darlings, 

Lovelustloves x0