Flying Kites

Disclaimer

I am VERY privileged to have been given this dress. I could not have bought it myself and of course, slow fashion is often not accessible fashion. 

I have wanted to begin building a more sustainable, ethical wardrobe for around a year now. I’ve been reading about how unethical and unsustainable fast fashion is and I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to change my shopping habits. 

I have those moments of having a closet full of clothes and yet nothing to wear and the fact is these moments come from having a wardrobe that is uncohesive and not in synch with your personal style. We buy cheap trend items to keep ourselves current but it doesn’t allow us to dress like ourselves and worse, it’s unsustainable. 

Now I’m fat *see blog title* and it’s hard enough buying clothes without having to add the challenge of finding ethically made pieces. Fact is most sources for slow fashion aren’t accommodating to larger sizes or they’re sold as custom pieces that add on costs to already more expensive pieces. 

In my research for local fashion, Meiling was top of the list.

                   Heels | Kite dress | Necklace

Meiling’s Kite is a pretty iconic piece. It’s collared  with a cut out V on the back and large wide sleeves. She added on gingham print and contrast stitching to mine. It was custom made in my size in a longer length and it is exactly my style (cotton sack dress). 

I wore it to dinner with blush block heels and silver jewellery. And since ethical fashion is about fewer, higher quality  more versatile pieces I wore it the very next day to the Green Market with Birkenstocks, a tote by Drevait and my Turtle Warrior bracelets. 

             Tote | Sandals | Bracelets | Earrings


This dress means I won’t be buying any new clothes until the end  of the year but it also means I won’t be buying clothes that I am not 100% in love with and to be honest that’s the way I should always be shopping. 

Fat Island Girl

So the reality is that as a plus size woman who enjoys clothes I have no option but to be creative with every outfit I curate. It’s not something that I have the luxury of ding to “challenge myself.” My reality is that my daily dressing is always a challenge with the little that I get. Add to it the fact that I don’t live in a place where high quality plus fashion is becoming more readily available. Forget regularly ordering clothes off the internet, it’s frankly far too expensive. Ordered something you don’t like? Good luck, you’re stuck with it unless you can gift or sell it to someone it’s better suited for.

But the thing is, I love clothes. I love putting together outfits that I am comfortable in and not giving a damn who likes it. I love the thrill of putting my clothes together exactly how I want them and knowing that I look great when I step out. But damn is it difficult to shop for plus clothes in Trinidad and Tobago. I’m a size 14-18 meaning that I can still sometimes get away with straight sizing and it’s still painful to hunt down items.

I’m starting this blog not just to vent my frustrations, but I want to bring you along for the ride as I try to dress myself with the few (expensive) resources at my disposal and hopefully this might bring about some change in the patterns of local retailers.

Dress Gap | Shoes Dune | Backpack Fiorelli