My Autumn Style

Yes there can be no doubt about it now, it's autumn, the weather of course has other ideas and at times it's as if we're still in the darling days of summer, there are moments though when it's just too chilly to wander around in summer clothing so I've been delving back into my wardrobe trying to recover all of my most favourite autumn outfits and crossing my fingers that they still fit, happily I'm currently around 2lb heavier than I was last time this year and I'm currently downsizing myself (I've lost 8lb since Barcelona, I blame the Jamon) so my clothes still all mostly fit and I love the season of warmer clothes and lots of layers, I look better in layers!

Companies get in touch from time to time to ask me if I want to review pieces of clothing or write a fashion article and up until now I've always refused unless it was shoes, I never refuse shoes!!  But too many years of anxiety and spending time with someone with whom I was never good enough knocked my confidence enough to never want to be in photos and I've often said that behind the camera I have moments of genius, in front of the camera and I look just like I've escaped from an asylum.

After talking to two quite brilliant clothing companies I decided though that I had to do this, if I didn't do it now, well I never would and as Ru Paul says "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you ever going to love someone else"

Photographing yourself is not without it's own terror, I mean, all of the things I do to relax people at photo shoots, well you just can't do that when you are photographing yourself but I wanted to showcase the gorgeous autumn/winter coat sent to me by Lighthouse Clothing, they're a UK company based in Northern Ireland and their outdoor clothes just sing to me, perfect for dog walking, photographing clients in the cold and stomping through the countryside on bright winters days.

I went for the Lana midlength coat which pulls in at the waist, covers my bottom on cold December days and is Blackberry in colour, a colour which happens to suit my skin tones, the Lana coat is available in sizes 8-20 and is priced £89.95, it's also waterproof, a relief for someone living in the North East of England, I love that it's got a myriad of pockets including one on the inside, perfect for dog walks without having to worry about the extra effort of taking along a handbag.

So, after taking several photos of myself with the Fuji X70 and a tripod Looby arrived home in school which meant I could give her my Canon 6D and let her photograph me in the most fabulous dress for utterly sparkly and amazing nights out, it wasn't quite so terrifying being photographed by Looby and actually she really did a much better job, she's definitely a photographers daughter and future creative genius.

Now I should say that I adore this dress, it's floor length (if I was even half an inch shorter or didn't wear the highest Kurt Geiger heels that I own it would have been too long) it's got splits on either side for showcasing legs and you know I've worked hard to achieve my legs, they're the one part of my body which I'm quite proud of really thanks to running and walking 10k every day with Holly Bobbins.  Pink Clove specialise in clothing for women in sizes 16-28, now I'm averagely a size 14 on the bottom and due to my F cups I have to get a size 16 on the top, this dress fits perfectly and it looks amazing, it's cut just right to bring out my curves and you wouldn't believe that you can purchase it for just £24 and from a British company!!

I've had a paradigm shift lately, lots of good stuff happening and it's taken quite some time to get me back to being confident to wear a dress like this and I know over the next couple of months I should be able to have some very sparkly amazing nights out where I'm proud to be out there and I know I'm looking better than I did 10 years ago without a doubt, these days I stand straighter, I smile bigger and I'm surrounded by the loveliest people and that makes a huge difference.

I'm proud and delighted to give you my very first style post since I started this blog over 10 years ago but I can tell you now that it certainly won't be the last one.

Thanks to Lighthouse Clothing and Pink Clove for the amazing clothes in exchange for a blog post. Also thank you to my daughter Looby for the dress photos, I could not have made this post as good as it is without your artistic talent.