Many of you know I have a good relationship with Q.L Salon, a hairdressers and aesthetics salon quite local to me.
They have cut, dyed, styled, plucked, tattooed and more to me over the past year. It has been a great year of designs, changes, colours and improvements.
These have all built up into great memories.
All the Hair
It was due to these memories that Lu (the owner) asked me if I would collaborate in a photograph challenge that would encourage her customers to get out some of their old photographs and be in with a change to win a £50 voucher to be used in the salon once COVID has gone and sod right off!
The challenge was going to be a Five day thing; Five photographs over Five days that bring back a positive, happy memory.
As the ‘owner’ of the challenge, it was my role to post first each day, in an outfit that brought me back some memories and encourage the others to post their efforts.
Lu would then draw a name out of a hat and they would be the lucky winner!
So where did I start?
My first post was wearing a traditional Austrian Style German Dirndl. I was lucky enough to buy two when I went to visit the wonderful Rhina Duque and her adorable husband Holger, the two most intelligent yet welcoming of people I have the pleasure to know.
Dirndl Days
I stayed with them in Stuttgart for 5 days for Cannstatter Wasen, which is sometimes called a Beer Festival, but is actually a Harvest Festival. The Cannstatter Wasen was originally started in 1818 and has over 4 million people visit every year for the rides, parades, and of course Bierhalles serving huge steins of local beer.
Ein Prosit
Sept 2018 was when I visited. It was the 200th Anniversary and let me tell you, What a party it was!
Volksfest Time
Rhina had taken me Dirndl Shopping and I was really lucky to get two blouse, 2 dirndls and 4 aprons. Rhina and I purchased floral hair crowns and she very kindly purchased the right kind of jewellery for me to wear.
Off We Go
I had wanted an Alpine style hat for ages, and managed to get one at the wasen; this beauty of maroon and green with a large feather plumage.
Got my Hat!
The whole holiday was out of this world and Stuttgart is such a pretty place. I will never forget the whole experience and I still get such pleasure out of putting on my Dirndl, remembering that holiday and those Beer Tents!
BierHalle!
Day two was a chance for me to show a One-Off bespoke dress that was given to me by the designer and owner of Scarlett & Jo, the fashion brand.
I had met Gifi at StyleXL, a plus size event put on by the amazing Leah of LeahXL and was walking the catwalk in some of his clothing. He gave me this dress to wear and I fell in love with it. It wasn’t for sale at the time as it was a prototype but he promised me that once they had finished with the dress he would gift it to me.
One off Beauty
Well, I didn’t expect anything to come of it. I was just a small blogger in a huge blogger pool at that time (and still am) but I am very much of the opinion ‘What will be, will be’
Blogger Babes
So, I was over the moon about 6 months later when I spent the day modelling for the Company with a load of amazing plus size babes and Gifi brought the dress out to me and told me it was mine to keep!
Model Day
I have worn it to a few posh events; It is so comfortable, flattering and I know I will never walk into an event and see someone wearing the same dress.
A Different Person…
Bonus!
Strike a Pose
Day three of the challenge saw me posting one of my favourite photos with a dress I had waited ages to purchase. The Haunted Honey dress from Vixen by Micheline Pitt.
When I was a kid, I grew up watching Musicals with my Auntie. Old, new it really didn’t matter. I also really loved the ‘Cult’ musicals (remember this was mid 1980s) such as Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shock Treatment and one of my absolute favourites, Little Shop of Horrors.
So you can imagine my excitement when Micheline Pitt designed a gorgeous sarong dress with an Man-eating Monster print, that was so reminiscent of Audrey II.
I ordered it and couldn’t wait to show it off in a photoshoot I had back in November 2019 at LeKeux Salon in Birmingham with my blogger bestie, Boo.
A Keuxtie
We spent literally the whole day shooting and this was one of the last sets that I did with Lynsey and we were trying to partially emulate the images on the decorative screen.
Cheeky
I loved the whole day and when the images came out, I was amazing at how ‘Cheesecake’ in style this was. I am not smiling, in fact I am almost grimacing and the posture isn’t what you would normally do for a modelling photo.
But that is why I love it so much!
Just like me, it is a little different.
Cheesecake Style
Day four was heading up to be one of my favourite EVER outfits.
After visiting Twinwood in 2017 I decided that in 2018 I would pluck up the courage to enter the Miss Twinwood competition. I put my name into the hat once it opened and kept my fingers crossed that I would get through the first round.
Just in case, I started organising my outfits and went to a dressmaker to get something made so that if I made it to the final, I had an idea of what I would wear.
This was the end result.
Sadly I got through to the second round but didn’t make it to the live final.
I made sure I wore the dress, shoes and petticoat that I had specially for the event. I added a stunning wig (I had cut most of my hair off before the event) a Vintage hat I bought at my first Twinwood and a vintage bag and gloves.
I’m Spinning Around…
I simply loved my outfit. I felt so elegant and ladylike.
The reason it also has amazing memories it that my family and some friends came to Twinwood that year for the first time. The sun was shining, we danced, drank, sang and had the most amazing time.
Good Times
THis dress evokes all of those happy days, even though I didn’t get through to the Final.
The Full Look
The last day and the fifth of my choices was not an outfit as such.
On my first ever foreign jaunt with the lovely Boo, we visited Warsaw in November 2015 for a few days. The main point of the visit was to get a train down to Lodz where the wonderful Bra Fairy, Ewa Michalak lives and works her miracles.
I had ordered some bras from her before the trip which didn’t fit. I hadn’t measured myself very well and I jokingly said in an email that it would be easier if I could go and see her.
With that, she invited Boo and I over and we packed our bags for a little jolly.
All of our communication had been done with her assistant Kasia as Ewa didn’t speak any English. Thankfully Kasia collected us from the train station and took us to meet her.
We spent an amazing day in Lodz at her studio, both getting bras fitted and altered before she asked if we would model them in her photographic studio too!
Blogger Besties
Needless to say, we were both nervous as hell but with Ewa and her assistant/photographer Kasia’s help, we posed in all the pretty lingerie.
We ended the day having dinner in a Polish restaurant, where Ewa ordered Apple pie as a starter – through Kasia she told us that she loves dessert but might not have room for it after the main course so chose to eat it first.
Lingerie Modelling
A woman after my own heart AND with amazing ideas too!
The icing on the cake was being told that Ewa was going to name the bra she had designed for me ‘Tanya’
Selfie Time
What an absolute honour.
So there you have a roundup of my five days of memories. I can honestly say I didn’t expect my clothing to hold such strong memories as some of these, but I am equally glad that they do.
Till next time
SPSG xxx