Kiss My Deadly: Hell Bunny at Yours Clothing

Urg, January! How hard it is to hold on to any semblance of body positivity in the cacophony of new year new you bullshit. Television is choked with dieting adverts, social media feeds are full of self deprecating memes about being a fat fucker, and everywhere people are being smug about sticking to their resolutions, or self flagellating for not managing to do so. It takes a lot to hold on to any sense of normality in this tsunami of bullshit. Not because making change is in any way a bad thing, but because of the nonsense moral value that is ascribed to making certain changes. As though anyone not doggedly chasing societal depictions of the perfect body, skin, hair, diet is some sort of deviant, delinquent aberration. The horrifying "Before" shot, to be avoided at all costs.  Urg! Enough!

Staying mentally healthy during this onslaught is tough - in fact I have been referring to my own post on body confidence tips, to remind myself that there are ways to keep your body image spirits high. A simple short cut for me was spending a day with a body positive buddy. The ever lovely Lottie L'Amour and I spent Saturday in the park, getting dressed up in a number of lush outfits and taking delicious pictures of each other. It was wonderful to be focussing on fun shots, and fabulous clothes, and liking the way they looked on our bodies. The pictures came out beautifully (Lottie is a burgeoning awesome photographer) and even better, had the added bonus of boosting my recently flagging confidence. It's like a cheat code for a quick confidence boost - get dressed up in something fabulous, enlist a body positive friend who will shout encouragement and hold the camera, have your own little photoshoot! You don't need to have a blog to do this - post them on your Instagram, pop them on your facebook (boom! new profile picture), chuck them on Tumblr, or just cherish them - ready for when you have your next wobble.

Hell Bunny Love Me Deadly Dress - Yours Clothing

Cropped Knitted Cardigan - Primark

Red Lip Shaped Bag - eBay

Black Lace Up Boots - Topshop (previous season)

This Hell Bunny dress (sent to me by the kind folks at Yours Clothing) is darkly whimsical and rather cheeky. I first spotted it around Halloween, but somehow in the dark months of January it feels equally relevant. This black dress is printed with lips with fangs - rather Dracula meets Rocky Horror, a wonderful aesthetic. You can really see the proper effect of the full skirt with a petticoat worn underneath - here I am wearing a black one I bought from Lindy Bop a few years ago. The dress has black accents - a collar panel at the sweetheart neckline, black adjustable straps, and a black panel at the waist. I also chose to add a belt to further define the waist. At this time of the year, pumps are really only for the brave so I added black lace up boots (which felt more edgy, and a little bit steam punk) and a lip shaped clutch for extra kitsch - you can never have enough kitsch!

I actually hadn't realised that Yours Clothing stocked loads of different brands on their website - so it's definitely worth a look in their brands section to see all the different bits they have on offer. This was a pretty effective confidence short cut - sometimes its the obvious things that cheer us up, like putting on a wonderful dress and spending time with a friend. How is your January going? How are you feeling about your body? Have you got any body confidence cheat codes to share? Let me know...