As many of you know twice a year the Londonedge trade show takes place at The Business Design Centre in Angel, London. February and September sees the doors open wide for a 2 day extravaganza where rock meets vintage meets fetish meets alternative. It really is a mixed bag and always great fun.
Every year I am lucky to get a VIP Blogger invite and set my plans in motion to attend along with my blogging wifey, Boo of Does my blog make me look fat?
Blogging Wifey, Boo
We are very set in our ways so usually arrange to meet up at The Parcel Yard pub at Kings Cross (normally for a spot of breakfast) and then catch the tube to Angel which literally is one stop along the line.
Hitting the show around 1130 we headed inside to get our lanyards and went straight along to see one of the organisers, Emma at the press and influencer area. Spotting two beauties (and bloggers) of the Plus Size Community, Nikee and Kerry we had to have the obligatory posing photographs and the odd boomerang too!
Ruby Thunder and Big, Bawdy, Burly Beauty
Strike a Pose
Hitting the downstairs we headed for the first few stands.
Lola Ramona was one of the first we came across. The most beautiful shoes; but I just can’t wear heels anymore so focused on the flats and lower heels that they had. Such great quality with a price sadly a little above my purse.
Stunning Lola Ramona
Spotting a new trader which pressed ALL my buttons! Brazen Canary had some of the most beautiful and massive hats I have ever seen. Talking to the owner and creator Carôllèe, she encouraged me to try on as many of her hats as I wanted.
Grecian Style Goddess
Well, I was literally in heaven.
A Perfect Match
Having an impromptu fashion show, I literally was drooling over so many of her hats that I had to try them all. I was literally that enthused I even wrote a seperate blog about her range which you can read here!
Amazing Hats
The first fashion show had already started so we headed to watch. This one featured such companies as Hell Bunny, Unique Vintage, Dr Faust, Innocent Clothing and Hearts and Roses to name a few.
Halloween Hell Bunny
Unique Vintage
I am happy to report there were no eagle-clawed toes from the models this time, but some excellent clothes and accessories. We oohed and ahhhed over the dresses that were of interest to us. The only downside was that the models are the industry standard; very tall and very thin with very little curves. Whilst they are lovely and I am in NO way bodyshaming, it does not give any idea of how an outfit would look on someone of a standard size (14-16) let alone plus size.
Hearts and Roses
It would be really great to have some diversity in the sizing, however I appreciate that there is still a long way to go on this front. I hope one day it will become the industry standard
After the show we started looking at the stands. The first we hit was the Unique Vintage stand were we had an amazing chat with the lady on there and I am happy to report that not only are they upping their sizes, they have also regraded them. This means that they will be going up to a 5XL in some of their range which equates to a UK 26 so this is great news!
My favourite item on the stall was the Harry Potter Inspired wand dress. Initially they asked us not to take photographs as they hadn’t launched it yet. However when we said our blogs wouldn’t go live for a couple of weeks, they allowed us to take some images. I LOVE this dress and the fact they have it in all the house colours makes my heart sing! I need this dress so badly.
Wonderful Wands by Unique Vintage
We wandered around and hit all our favourite places; Collectif had some amazing collections. Sadly I cannot fit in their range YET. However they did let us know that there was hopefully another Modcloth collab coming up which may well work for me.
Fairy Princess#
Rainbow Goodness
Super Shoes
Love these shades
Onto Voodoo Vixen and here was where we hit the jackpot. A massive new Plus size range including coats, dungarees, tops, skirts and evening gowns. I literally wanted one of everything.
I wanna be a Minion!
Now, I know I will probably look like a Minion, but I really want a pair of their dungarees. Also every gown they have created and of course the coat!
Plus Sized Coat now
One of the best pieces is the mustard version of the olive green dress I already own; This will also be mine!
The Mustard Dress of Dreams
Moving over to Hell Bunny we were treated to a great new Halloween range which was as cute as a button! Boo obviously loved all of it and in fact already owned a fair bit of it. Sadly not much fitted me however I still lusted over a fair bit of it.
Spooky Spectacular
Fairies and Toadstools
We went back to watch the second catwalk show which featured Collectif, Sheen, Voodoo Vixen, Gatsbylady, Hell Bunny and Sinister to name a few.
Sinister
Onto my favourite company, the wonderful Gatsbylady. We had seen some of the up and coming range on the catwalk already and I had fallen in love with a red full length dress.
My favourite dress of the whole show
Popping and having a chat meant I could ask if this dress was going to be in the full size range as I knew I need to own it. Fingers crossed it will be coming soon.
Close up details of a Gatsbylady dress
Now for some great accessories. Punky Pins always have the funniest and best lapel pins. They are sometimes a bit naughty and sometimes very cute. Either way we love them a lot and they had a great offering this time round, especially with their Christmas collection.
Cute and a little cheeky
Little Pig jewellery design was a new company to us in the February 2018 show and they have got even better. The colour wheel was cute as, but my favourites are still the rhyme and reason collection; A bee drinking tea, an octopus catching the bus, a flamingo playing bingo; you get the picture. I will own a little pig piece pretty soon, probably the fountain pen that I still lust after.
The Rhyme and Reason Collection
It will belong to me soon…..
Eventually it was time to go. Boo and I headed to one of our favourite places; Five Guys. One burger and chips later and I was ready to hit the VIP after show event. Held at The Ironworks again, it was ticket only. Boo had a heavy week ahead so decided to get an early train.
Always have a selfie together
I had at least an hour to kill for my train so decided to attend for a little while before heading home.
Tea Time
The after party is always great fun. There are acts and awards, free drinks and fabulous fun. In this case there was a burlesque dancer dressed as Maleficent who had a huge snake. I was glad to be near the back of the crowd for this one, however it meant the photographs were not very good.
Marvellous Maleficent
I ran into my good friend, Chris the photographer and we had a drink and a chat. We also had a lark about with Carôllèe and her amazing hats, taking a few shots before I decided it was time to head home.
Brazen Canaries indeed
With the lovely Miss Violet
I got to St Pancras in super quick time and there was a train due in 10 minutes. Bonus!
An hour later and I was safe in the car as hubby picked me up and hit the hay not long after that. Another successful day on the edge at Londonedge.
As always I can’t wait for the next one which will be held between 27th and 28th January and you can apply for tickets here when they open for registration.
Thanks again to the organisers of this wonderful event. It is always an honour to be invited back!
Till January,
SPSG xx