Fatshion February: Elephant

Last Thursday I did a few things around the city centre. As some of you Brits might remember, it was ‘hot’ as heck.

When I first moved here, coming from a place where it can get up to 45C in the summer, I thought people were overreacting a little every time they were like ‘OMG 18 DEGREES WERE GOIN 2 DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE’. Old people in my city wear thick wool jumpers when it’s 18 degrees. Eventually, as I was both getting used to the weather here, and enjoying the pleasures of home insulation and heating, I knew what you meant. 18 degrees does feel hot this side of the pond. Houses were built to handle cooler weather, just like houses in Mexico were built to handle hot weather. And I don’t know why, but you can feel it too when you’re outdoors. Maybe it’s the architecture, or the placement of the island on planet Earth, but it does feel hot.

This swift adaptation to weather wasn’t very pleasant when I went back home in April, as I felt I was disintegrating like Dr. Manhattan as soon as I was getting off the plane.

Since I still didn’t think it would be that hot, I wore a thin hoodie to protect me. It’s from Lane Bryant, back when I was still entry-level fierce fatty (swallowing the whole ‘real women’ fuckery like horse pills, shopping at Lane Bryant, still dieting on and off, shopping at Lane Bryant, hating skinny people, shopping at Lane Bryant). BUT it has been quite a helpful and reliable hoodie that has followed me around from high school through masters. One of the really good things about it is that, as you can see, you can roll it up if it turns out to be hotter than expected yet not hot enough to take it off.

Yes, I was in TK Maxx. Do you see all those clothes? None of them fit. LOOOOOOL

The shirt is one of my faves. It’s Norma Kamali for Walmart, and – contrary to what I tried to slip into at TK Maxx – it’s very spacey. The label says it’s L, but it has fitted me amazingly through epic weight cycles. Just like the Lane Bryant hoodie, BTW, which says 14/16 US even tho I’m more 18/20 US nowadays. I was attracted to the shirt’s print right away, as it seemed more photorrealistic than many other printed shirts. It’s still as intact as four years ago. There were also sea shells, trees, and even shirts in fluorescent yellow – as nu rave was the trend back then, but nothing seemed as strong and effortless (and unique, because trees are soooo Threadless!) as that magnificent elephant on a soft black shirt.

Which, by the way, is sleeveless. A few degrees more and I would have worn it like that.

THE RIGHT TO BARE ARMS

The skirt is from Dorothy Perkins, and was about three quid when they still had ridiculously cheap sales. I got it with a flowery miniskirt I adore, and spent less than a tenner in total, shipping included. Those are my first Doc Martens, and the shoelaces came for free when I got my second pair of Docs many years later. Love them to bits. One day I’ll take a close up of them, because I bellendly forgot to take a picture this time.

The scarf is Zandra Rhodes for Simply Be, and came included in the goodie bag from Plus London Two. The lock earrings are from an edition of Ladyfest Monterrey.

And yes, some people were looking at me strange because I, of all people, was wearing a shirt with an elephant on it. You know, ‘LOL SHES AN ELEPHAN SHES WEARING AN ELEPHAN T LMAO’. Do you know another thing about elephants? They never forget. 😉