Fashun Dahling

In the past month I have taken part in three very different catwalk shows. My weekends have been dedicated to travelling, networking, dressing and feeling proud followed by very tired. My weekends have been brilliant.

I think its important to say that I don’t fit into the typical ‘fashion box’. I don’t often wear a black bodycon dress, never have my hair sleeked back into a pony tail, and wine, cheese and chocolate totally tastes better than skinny feels.

I remember once reading an article about how a journalist wore a fat suit to London Fashion Week and she recounted how poorly she was treated. The fat suit brought her up to a size 16 and she wrote about how people were frowning at her and wouldn’t give her the time of day. She felt vulnerable and looked down on, making her feel that the fashion world really is only for the thin. I can happily and honestly say, that this has never been my experience.

In fact, when showing at London Catwalk Society (London Fashion Weekend) a lady came up to me and told me I was her favourite person in the room. There was a display full of free icecream that had sponsored the event. As soon as I learnt there was free icecream I made a run for it. She said it was refreshing that out of all of the people who had eyed it up and dismissed it, this one girl actually ran for the icecream. I have no shame. Especially when its strawberry flavoured and comes with one of those cute spoons…

So this is quite a waffling post, apologies for that, but the gist of it is that at times we are often thrown into situations that could be uncomfortable to us and we can often have perceived ideas and stereotypes about others that we use to stop ourselves from doing the things we love. Its about time we stopped this behaviour and realised that at the end of the day the only person holding us back is ourselves. Not just related to fashion, but maybe there is a sport you’ve always wanted to take up or a language you wanted to learn but dismissed the idea before you even gave yourself a chance.

In all three fashion shows I have met the most supportive and inspiring people along the way. Not once have I felt uncomfortable and because of this I have taken so much away from my experiences. let’s stop holding ourselves back.

Being able to bring model Evie Wolfe to Oxford Fashion Week to walk for me was a huge triumph. Let’s see more diversity on the runway ❤