Kimono is a Japanese word which literally means "a thing to wear". In Japan, Kimonos are a part of everyday life, women wear them on their wedding day, at tea ceremonies and the Japanese bury the dead in Kimonos, changing the cross over from left to right,to right to left.

However, after designers such as Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, L'wren Scott and Diane von Furstenberg featured kimono jackets in their collections, it was only a matter of time before the eastern influence hit the UK High Street. You can believe us when we tell you, it has definitely hit and it has caught on like wildfire. Every shop we went into had some sort of kimono-style top or jacket and we were both quite happy to snap some up. 

Jesse is a lover of all things Japanese and has now got herself quite a collection of Kimono's, we will feature some of these here, but in order to keep the loading time down and bandwidth free, we will post links to the others.  To start us off, here is when we wore our Kimonos to go shopping for shoes to match our graduation dresses (which will become another post at some point). 






Kimono - River Island
Black top - New Look
Jeans - New Look
Shoes - New Look
Necklace - Forever 21






Kimono - Penneys/Primark
Black top - Primark
Jeans - Peacocks
Shoes - Primark

Jesse's Other Kimonos Include the two following, both also from River Island. Actually, I'm pretty sure all of her kimono's are from River Island, haha.  (Jesse: nearly all Sami I do have one from Tokyo :p)




The top one is like a peachy pink colour but it's hard to see in the picture.  She also has, the same top as the 2nd picture in plain white from River Island, as well as the kimono here, here and here. She also bought a navy blue floral one today which is not available on the website at the moment. There is also a gorgeous white kimono here, we recommend you go and snap any of these up asap! They sell out fast! The third one is an actually yukata from Jesse last visit to Tokyo.  (As you can tell Jesse is obessed with Japan :p)

Sami's other Kimonos are as follows:


The Black Kimono with Roses all over it I got from Ebay, I couldn't resist it, it was so pretty! It's longer than most of the ones on the high street but still great. The second one is from River Island, it is no longer available on the website. The third one with the butterflies all over it is a Kimono top from New Look which is available here and I've just noticed it in the black too. Oh New Look, why do you torture me so! There are also some new floral ones on the new look website which are gorgeous. I am currently lusting after this butterfly one from Matalan though!

  A simple search on any of the websites such as New Look, River Island, Topshop, Asos and Ebay will produce some good results with a variety of kimono jackets and tops. Some of the websites also list their Kimono style tops under 'Oversize tops' and a lot of One-sleeved dresses have Kimono-style sleeves such as this and this.

As far as we are concerned, kimonos are definitely a trend we are on par with. Adding a kimono top or jacket to your wardrobe is an easy way to brighten up a boring outfit and you can even add them to a little black dress and match your shoes for a night out, or for a nice dinner. I know some of the ones from River Island and ASOS for example can be rather expensive for a floaty jacket, but Primark is in on this trend and you can get yourself a nice cheap one for around £10. So get into girlies and get one of these babies into your wardrobe!!

Now that we've discussed kimono's, of course we couldn't go into town without buying a little something, so here is what we bought:


Jesse bought these two rings, the first one is from New Look and is two claws coming together, this is definitely our bizarre item of the week! She also bought the heart knuckle duster from Internacionale. The ring she has on is a Snow-white pick-axe ring from Disney couture, who can't spell Jewellery we discovered:


A lot to be said for disney couture, they do some beautiful items. We will definitely do a jewellery post sometime in the near future, promise!


We should also do a post on nail polishes and nail art, Jesse owns pretty much every colour of nail polish from Collection 2000. She bought these four new shades called Fruit Loop, Lemon Soda, Milkshake and Angel Wings. We also both bought this Barry M Crackle Nail Polish, which if you paint over your nail it crackles it in a cool style, this has definitely taken off throughout the blogsophere, it's a lazy way of making your nails a little funky. Jesse demonstrates here:

The light blue nail polish that Jesse has on as a base coat is also for the collection 2000 hot looks set called button moon.


 Jesse also got two free lipglosses from Collection 2000 as it was buy any 2 items and get a free lipgloss, since she bought four nail polishes, she got two. She also bought the Rimmel 2n1 Mascara that she uses, a make up post will need to be done too, you guys have a lot to look forward too from us!



 Jesse was also wearing her forever 21 Koi fish necklace, but the chain was too short so she used it as a bracelet which I think works better! It looks really cool!



 Sami is allergic to nickel, which means she can't wear high street jewellery as it's made with nickel. Today we were shopping for shoes again in Lisburn and we went into this little shop that was closing down and found loads of jewellery made with buttons and ribbon/elastic. She couldn't resist snapping it right up. Jesse also bought some which I don't have a picture of. We both got cool lip balms, Sami's is Opera Mint and Jesse's was Green Tea flavour. Here is a picture of Sami's jewellery:

 

As a side note, I know it says that Bracelet was £8, it was actually only £4 as everything was 50% off due to the closing down sale. 

I can't wait to try out some of my Jewellery and see what people think, I never get to wear anything cool and stylish! I could even pair some of it with some of my kimono's!

We hope you are enjoying our blog and as we've promised we now have jewellery, make up and nail polish posts coming up, as well as our graduation outfits. You have plenty to look forward to, so please, keep reading and forward our link on! Also if you want a link on our nice little links bar on the side, please let us know, as long as you are willing to link back!

Also, if you are reading, please feel free to leave us a comment, we really would appreciate some! And if you have any questions or queries, you can always contact us via email at beautifulbizarre@gmail.com 

Hope to hear from you soon!

Sami & Jesse


Hey Guys,

Yesterday, we adventured down to Dublin via the train, we were hoping to find dresses for Sami's graduation ceremony, after not having any luck in Belfast or online. So we decided, we might as well make the most of it and see what we could find for you guys whilst we were there. 

Let's start by showing you what we both wore, we call this 'Practical but Pretty' as we needed to be sensible for the weather forecast predicted Rain and we were walking about on our feet for the entire day:



Top - Exhibit
Shorts -
Asos Curve
Cardigan -
New Look
Tights - Primark
Shoes -
New Look
Headband -
Urban Outfitters
Necklace -
Homemade



Top - New Look
Waistcoat -
Internacionale
Jeans -
Peacocks
Shoes -
Asda (they are grey flats)
Necklace -
Swarovski
Hair clips -
Dunnes Stores
  



Top Picture: Jesse's Jewellery
Homemade necklace using a Japanese Yen coin and some material. Ring is from Accessorize and Bracelet is from Newlook. That is also a Japanese Origami Crane Incense Burner.

Sami's Jewellery
Both Pearl Bracelet and Butterfly bracelet are from Internacionale.

So clothes wise, we didn't really find anything interesting. I tried on a one-sleeved Kimono like dress which was white and black, but it was completely see through and for privacy purposes I am not going to post here. Instead, we found lots of pretty interesting shoes from New Look.  Here are some pictures:



 These Denim sandals we both really liked, they were designed by a student from one of the fashion Universities in London. Jesse bought these on the day. They are also available in black. Click Here to go to the New Look website and check them out.



We both really liked these Polkadot High Heels which are also available in Grey with red polkadots. We liked the funky and summery colours of the yellow and blue though. Neither of us purchased them but Sami is still considering it. Again, available here on the New Look website.


And the most interesting shoes we seen the whole day. Sami feels they are Lady Gaga-esque and possibly the ugliest things she has ever seen. Jesse on the other hand thinks they are cute and remind me of lolita style. (Though I would love to wear these they just a bit too high for me :p)

We also found many interesting accessories, the most interesting of which was this Mohawk inspired hat, which Sami couldn't resist trying on:


Really though, I think we should stick to the animal inspired hats for winter, many of which are available over on the River Island website, alongside this one.

While neither of us found what we were looking for (i.e. a dress for graduation), we did manage to spend some Euros on the following:

Jesse
Cherry Blossom Shower Gel and Perfume from The Body Shop.


 Alongside the Japanese Crane Incense Holder, Jesse bought Cherry Blossom Incense and Matcha Green tea.

She also bought the Denim sandals pictured earlier from New Look alongside: these shorts, these hareem pants and two boyfriend cardigans here in blue, she also got it in a brown colour which is not displayed online.

Sami


Denim Satchel Bag, Mint Green 3/4 Sleeve Top, Floral Kimono*, Cookie Monster Red Tee, Happy Face Tee and Meow Tee. All from the Irish version of Primark, Penneys.

We had dinner at a place called Captain Americas which comes highly recommended for the brilliant and speedy service. We'd also recommend the Bounty's Revenge and Bubblegum Cocktails which we enjoyed very much. We did try the Oreo Meltdown Cocktail but it tasted of Mint which was overpowering and very strong. Disappointing.

All in all, the day was pretty fun though quite exhausting as we hadn't slept the night before and we were walking everywhere. So if you are ever going to Dublin, either stay over, or sleep the night before and get yourself some decent walking shoes or an all day tram/bus ticket which will hopefully take you where you need to go.  Make sure if you're planning to shop to bring your own bags as the paper bags they give you aren't very good in the rain, as we unfortunately found out.  Running in the rain with an arm full of clothes and shoes down Grafton Street not so good.

Also look out for The Spire and Molly Malone, both pictured below. Would you believe we missed the spire the first time? I have no idea how!



 We had a good day, but now the hunt is on again for dresses to wear to graduation! 

We seen some Beautiful and Bizarre things yesterday and we know that fashion changes very quickly, so we'll keep our eye out for more.

Until next time,

Sami & Jesse

*Kimonos are trendy at the moment, we'll blog on this next time (Jesse is obsessed with these).
**Title Story: We were told to keep walking until the tiles turned red and then we'd be on Grafton Street. So if you ever are looking for it, keep walking until the tiles turn red ;)
"More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers." 
- Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth, 1991

In our introduction, we left out important details about this blog and ourselves. This is ultimately a fashion blog and will discuss fashion trends and everything that is entailed within that category. However, we forgot to mention that we are big women. Now we know 'big women' isn't exactly politically correct or the best way of putting it but what we mean is, we aren't the skinny size 0-10s, or the average 12-14s. We are both women who fit into sizes 16-18+. Now we know that somewhere along the line size 16 was deemed the average size for a woman in the UK but we aren't sure if this is still true. If it is, then fair enough, we are of average-large sizing and that works for us. Essentially, this is what is termed as a fatshion blog.

While a size 16-18 is now acceptable and easy enough to find in most fashion outlets nowadays, it is still deemed as 'plus size' and people of this size are often criticized for being 'fat' 'obese' or 'overweight' and other crude words we will leave out here. Through the online body positivity movement which this blog is now part of and supports, women of bigger sizes are trying to promote body acceptance and positive attitudes to women of all shapes and sizes.

As for the quote from Naomi Wolf at the start of this post, we feel that it is still as relevant today as it was in 1991 when The Beauty Myth was published. The reason that this blog and other fatshion blogs exist is because we are trying to change the way we feel about ourselves. If we didn't feel so bad about ourselves in the first place, our blogs wouldn't exist. While we may not be as bad off in this century as our unliberated grandmothers were, we are definitely not portayed in a positive light. 

All you have to do is pick up a fashion magazine to understand why women are creating fatshion blogs, because those mags are full of skinny women that we are led to believe are the ideal women. We are told that being so skinny is how we can find men who will like us and make them fall in love with us, which is not true in the slightest. There are plenty of men out there who like bigger women, and many of the fatshion bloggers have boyfriends, Sami of this blog here included.  And while, as liberated women, we shouldn't feel the need to have boyfriends or a man on our arm to make us feel good, that too is what is being portrayed in the media.

We are liberated, independent women and we shouldn't be made to feel insecure and unhappy by reading a magazine, the media is there as an outlet of ideas and opinions by everybody, it's part of the freedom of speech, but surely there should be a magazine somewhere that is promoting body positivity and acceptance. We are pretty sure that there isn't, but if you do know of one somewhere please let us know. Hence, we have created this fatshion blog, to take a stand against the beauty ideals put across by the media, to promote a positive attitude towards body positivity and acceptance and to show that no matter what the size, fashion, whether from the high street or the designers, is and should be available for everyone.

We are two different women and while we agree on all of the above, we do have two different opinions about our own bodies, so here's a little excerpt from each of us:

Sami: Hi guys. I am a size 16-18 in most shops, but I am slightly larger in the chest area and have to order bras from plus size companies in order to get the support I need for my chest. I have no complaints about doing this, as I feel more supported and better for wearing the bras made for my size rather than having them spill out of a bra that is supposed to be my size but isn't actually. While I may be deemed as fat/overweight or obese, I am happy enough in my own skin. As long as my weight is not affecting my long-term health then I am happy enough to keep wearing a size 16-18 as long as it is available for me to do so - which it should be. I am in a long-term relationship with my boyfriend, we've been going 7months now and he likes the extra love handles. He has no complaints about my size or what I wear and I am happy to have found someone who likes me for the way I am. As for fatshion, I have been following fatshion blogs for quite a while now and I dont really see the girls on them as fat at all and some of them have really great style. After this post, I'm going to go put some links in the sidebar to some of the ones I enjoy so you can enjoy them all too :). Anyway, just wanted to put in my two cents and I should be speaking to you all again soon!

Jesse: Hey I'm Jesse, the e on the e is silent so it's Jess.  I like to be different, (I'm no sheep).  Well like Sami I'm a size 18 in most shops, however unlike her I don't have as big as chest, I'm short instead I'm only 5". Unfortunately unlike Sami I don't like my body.  Nobody can say that they like everything about their bodies, if the do then they are lying.  I'm healthy my weight doesn't effect me in that way which is good.  I don't have a boyfriend, but hey why do I need one I'm enjoying being single.  It's fun!!  

My weight doesn't stop me wearing and doing what I want.  The way I see it, other people aren't going to like everything about you and will find a way to try to demoralise you.  I say screw them, be confident and wear what you want to.  It is your life to make it what you will.  Somebody once told me that fashion is when you are wearing something different and unique.  I like this even if we shop in the same place, the same shops, we are all different personalities and we all have different styles.  Look at me and Sami even though we are best friends we are different with different styles. If you continue to read this blog you will see this. :P 


Now that you have heard from the both of us and have a better understanding of what this blog is about, we want to remind you of one last thing, while we might be larger ladies, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and if you don't like what you see here, then so be it. Everyone is different and to each, their own.


Thanks


Jesse & Sami


p.s. Don't forget that our blog is based on the fact that beautiful is always bizarre!!
Welcome to our Blog!

We are two young women in our early twenties from Northern Ireland. We have decided to start this Blog out of our love and obsession with all things fashion. This includes clothing, footwear, jewellery, make-up and much much more. On this blog, we plan to share our fashion and beauty finds with you so you can keep up to date with the latest trends from the high street. 

While we'd love to bring you trends from high fashion, we're in a recession and anyone willing to pay £1000 for a t-shirt is pretty flipping mental. Just saying.

There are two of us here, so this could get rather confusing. Let us make it easy for you; One of us is Sami, the other Jesse. We both have very different styles and tend to influence each other, so we decided to post our own styles as well as our combined favourites. 

Our blog title stems from the quote by Charles Baudelaire: "The Beautiful is always Bizarre".

Since fashion can often be beautiful and these days with the likes of Lady Gaga, definitely Bizarre, we felt it was only appropriate to pay homage to both of them and so this blog was born. 

Hopefully you'll join us on our bizarre adventures to find beautiful things!

See you soon,
Sami & Jesse