Happy Thursday my blogger fam! It’s hard to believe but its already time for the 4th instalment in my Holiday Double Slay Look Book. I hope you have enjoyed the looks and my special guests so far.
For today’s look I asked my amazing friend, Stefanie the voice behind the blog SassyPlus to join me. And for those of you who follow the blog you probably also recognize her as the owner of SexyPlus Clothing, one of my fave boutiques located in Mississauga Ontario and the photographer behind some of my wonderful photos.
I had the opportunity to meet Stefanie at an event called The Big Deal in 2014 that started my inevitable journey into the blogging world. In the summer of 2015 when I had just started blogging I reached out to Stefanie to see if she would be interested in working with me and from that very moment she welcomed me with open arms and our friendship began.
What I love about Stef is how generous and caring she is. She cares so much about the plus size industry and empowering women to love themselves as they are that she will do something not because it benefits her but because it is good for the community.
And we have this amazing ability to collaborate together, we can discuss ideas and thoughts and projects and end up coming up with awesome ideas like the concept for this look book.
But ultimately what I love about our friendship is that we get each other and have so much fun no matter what we do. I don’t think I ever stop laughing when we are together, she always finds someway to make me laugh, even if I am down. But she also is an amazing listener and supporter. I admire her determination as a small business owner as I know the many challenges it brings and that she has chosen to do something she truly loves.
Stef and I are both lovers of the brand SWAK Designs, so it only made sense that we teamed up with them to bring you this look. We appreciate that they are an affordable brand that carries a very inclusive size range from 14 to 36. They are also super supportive of the plus size community. For Stef’s review of this look please click here.
So yes Stef and I are twinning the same dress but it wasn’t planned to do this at first! We both decided to take a look at the new arrivals and see what we liked and the first thing when we came back to each other with our lists was this dress so we figured what the heck, let’s go for it.
I really believe in twinning a look because it provides such a great visual opportunity for women to see how a dress will look on women of different sizes and shapes. It also helps that Stef and I two totally different sizes and shapes – Stef is wearing the 1x and is more of an apple shape and I am wearing the 5x and am pear shaped.
I have to admit that I am not generally drawn to bodycon dresses but when I saw this one it just spoke to me and I knew it would be something special and I was certainly not disappointed. I love wearing red, especially during the holiday season but it has to be the right shade of red and this one is rich gorgeous dark red.
This combined with the black side panels which are simply amazing for accentuating your curves and providing a bit of an optical illusion that is oh so slimming sold me on this dress. And then there is the details at the neckline.
I absolutely love this mesh illusion neckline that is rounded with some ruching and short sleeves but also has a deep sweetheart neckline where it meets the red part of the dress. It feels sexy but sophisticated at the same time. And the deep v in the back just adds that extra wow.
Finally I love the length of this dress as it hits me just at the knee so it doesn’t show too much skin. I sized up in this dress from my normal SWAK size because it is a bodycon and I didn’t want it to be too tight. I loved how it fell perfectly over my curves and I honestly felt amazing the minute I put it on.
For me this is totally a date night dress and I styled it with that in mind. I added my new patent leather sling back heels from JD Williams USA for a little height and class. I absolutely love these heels, I can even walk in them!
Then I added a super fun clutch that I recently got from Aldo. Yes, I am a little purse obsessed and when I saw this sparkly creation that looked like a present I couldn’t resist lol. And yes, my honey will be holding the phone for me because it isn’t necessarily as practical as it is cute. But I am totally okay with just being cute lol.
I wanted the neckline to stand on its own so I added a dramatic earring in black and gold from H&M and some gold bangles from Avenue for some festive fun. Then I kept my hair down for that extra date night factor.
There are always certain pieces that I believe will make a woman feel truly amazing and this is definitely one of those looks for me. I think you can tell from the photos that it just gives me a certain je ne sais quoi feeling that just shined through. And when something magical like that happens, it will make you feel like a million bucks.
Both of our looks were provided care of SWAK Designs but all opinions are our own. Special thanks to SWAK for helping to make this project possible. And thank you so much Stef for agreeing to be a part of it all.
Special thanks to Robert of Robert Skuja Photography for these stunning pictures.
Dress by SWAK Designs | Shoes by JD WILLIAMS USA | Clutch by ALDO | Earrings by H&M | Bangles by AVENUE (alternative here) |
