Sam

What is your favourite place to shop?
I love City Chic, they have such a great variety of styles, stunning evening dresses and fantastic jeans. I do buy dresses from “the internet”, but always with a sense of dread because sizing can vary so much between brands. I prefer to try clothes on before I commit to them! As a busy Mummy, I tend to buy my basic everyday items from Farmers and Kmart.

What/who inspires your fashion choices?
I love vintage / pin up style, the clothes are designed for real women with real bodies. I take a lot of inspiration from our local pinup and vintage babes – these girls are so polished and committed to the style, and whilst I don’t live and breathe vintage (petticoats and children – not always practical!), I do try to inject a little vintage glam into my daily wardrobe.

I also love to be a bit quirky – I hate being dressed the same as everyone else. I like to try and inject a little fun into each outfit, something unexpected or different that makes people smile.

I follow a lot of plus size bloggers and stylish women on social media, and I love seeing the gorgeous plus size (role) models, like Tess Holliday, that are taking the fashion world on and making it acceptable for curvy girls to be fabulous and sexy!

What made you want to take part in the Fat Girls Shouldn’t Wear Stripes project?
I wanted to be part of Fat Girls Shouldn’t Wear Stripes because I feel really strongly about providing girls with positive, inspirational images that show women of all different shapes and sizes. I want my daughter to grow up happy and comfortable in her skin, and with confidence to dress however she wants to. It’s taken me a long time and a long journey to get to the point where I am happy to “embrace my inner pin up girl” and have fun with how I look. It is really important to me that my children see how great it is to be “yourself” and to embrace the crazy and fun in life, and if that means wearing stripy tights or colouring your hair pink then so be it. It’s about showing people that it is okay to be a Mummy AND be a bit kooky, glam and sexy as well.

Do you have any previous experience with body shaming? Tell us about it.
I think a lot of the body shaming that we do is to ourselves. We are programmed to believe that we need to look / dress / think the same as everyone else in order to be happy and successful.

I went to an all-girls high school for a while and experienced bullying. I spent my teenage years feeling very different from the other girls, and desperately trying to be happy in my skin, trying to find my own style and never quite managing to do it. I was always fairly precocious and that often hid the insecurities and the shame I felt about my body. As I moved into adult-hood, I don’t think I ever quite “found” my own style. I used to dress in the only plus size clothes that I could find and they made me look like my Nana. I would often cry getting ready to go out, because I wasn’t happy with the way my clothes looked or fitted, or the fact that they were downright UGLY!

Things changed when I moved to London – suddenly there were shops that actually sold clothes in my size, and retailers that targeted plus size girls … it was mind-blowing! I was able to actually buy “trendy” outfits, not drab, boring and dull things! I became a lot happier in my skin because I felt that FINALLY my clothes were able to reflect my personality.

Now, every time I get dressed, I remind myself that I am dressing for ME and to wear what makes ME happy. It’s taken a very long time (I am nearly 40!) to get to a point where I finally feel worthy of nice dresses and glamorous clothes. I am proud to be a curvy woman, I have grown two children and my body reflects that.

If you have a day when you’re not feeling great about yourself, how do you deal with that?
I try to take five minutes to throw some lipstick on and a pop a flower in my hair, before I walk out the door do the school drop offs. It makes a big difference if I feel like I have made an effort!

I am working on not being too hard on myself, and trying to manage my own expectations of me!

I am always happiest when I remember that I have pink hair.

How do you show your body love?
I treat myself to a manicure every fortnight – I am a terrible nail biter and if I have pretty nails I don’t nibble them! I am very blessed to have great skin, but as I get older (eeek) I have started to use good quality night creams, to help keep it hydrated.

I like to be kind to my body by wearing comfy jeans so my tummy doesn’t feel cut in half, funky sneakers so my feet don’t hurt from wearing high heels, and always a good fitting bra!!

Sam wears:
Custom made dress by Gorgeous
Cardigan from Farmers
Glitter sneakers by Converse
Sunglasses from Rita Sue Clothing

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