image from here
Look at them! Aren’t they wonderful?!
We are always more self critical, but remember that what you may dislike about yourself, others may view as incredible! Love yourself and know that we don’t go for any body shaming here at Yellow Bunting.
Until next time,
Daisy
I have not written much in a while, but this intrigued me on a slightly personal level, so here we go. While I was browsing the web I stumbled onto this online article on the topic of the ever stale area of women, our bodies, our weight and fashion: “Can sewing change your body image?”
So by the power of sewing we can love our bodies? – As a knitter, I think this lady might be onto something. Karen Ball who writes for the Guardian, goes on to talk about her body issues as a teenager shopping in Dorothy Perkins, and how by creating her own clothes she was able to become confident and comfortable.
“When did you first start judging yourself by your dress size? I acutely remember standing in Dorothy Perkins as a teenager and realising I could no longer fit into a size 14. I scrabbled through the hangers and quickly felt the thunderbolt of fashion strike me down. Dottie P didn’t do a size 16. I was 15 years old and the high street was telling me that I no longer had the right to engage with fashion.”
I think we all have and still go through this non-acceptance of fashion. I too am finding it hard to find clothing that fits and looks nice but I am also finding that I have started to notice clothing in stores smell slightly chemically *cough* Primark, Top Shop, H&M*cough*. I am myself a loveable size 16, and yet most stores still do not cater for voluptuous bodies so to speak. Top Shop I found doesn’t think for all body shapes, Primark I will admit with open arms has lovely bargains, but I have to buy clothes 1-2 sizes bigger to fit…*cuts out size label*… I will not even start to mention H&M…
I would love to make my own dresses, tops, trousers, jackets, knitwear products – I mean I should, I have a degree within Knitwear…*sigh* But all this making is rather time consuming or is it that I am being lazy? I have thought that when I tried on suit jackets in New Look, certain areas didn’t fit correctly, now it’s not difficult to sew in some ease (ease is when you are sewing your arm pattern piece to the jacket pattern piece and create a slight gathered effect at the top where your shoulders start, this way you can then ease out the stitching once connected, this in turn allows for room when being worn), and I have even noticed in some clothes that clear elastic has been sewn into the seams of the garments. Obviously I have only noticed these HUGE little annoyances thanks from learning tricks of the trade so to speak from my course at uni; as well as experimenting on my own. I find it rather irritating that clothes today are not finished correctly and depending on the type of garment certain edges are falling apart when you pick them up, or have not been finished at all.
When looking around River Island they had these awful foam dresses… the edges had been left raw, after a couple of washes you will not have a clean cut looking dress but a tacky one…well maybe it will improve the look?
The point I am making splits into two:
First is that I think the standards of how clothing is made within factories need to change. Yes standards have changed within factories so that the workers are being paid correctly and children are not employed but obviously this is still an issue. Yet it is the way clothing is not cut correctly from source which causes further issues down the assembly line for example: these factories have huge cutters that just cut through a mass amount of fabric which in turn the workers just go and over lock everything together. They are not cutting out the correct sizes for each body size, in fact they are over locking off the excess amount of fabric not needed for different sizes or for us bigger girls not bothering at all to have correct measurements as I mentioned previously suit jackets in New Look.
Second; that the media has caused us women to feel inadequate with how we look and how our bodies develop and grow, we are constantly hounded by the Media throwing diets, weight plans, the gym and the correct volume of food at us daily. Why can we not just be any size we like or eat anything we fancy and not have to worry that this cube of cheese will give me a gazillion calories. I feel that change is light years away but maybe we can all try and start. Like myself; I keep putting off making myself something. I always moan about the way clothing is made yet I do not go and make something better. Perhaps when I gain motivation and a little inspiration I can actually get round to making something to prove my points…maybe.
About the writer: Kera-anne is currently in her final year at London College of Fashion studying Surface Textiles specialising in Knitwear who loves nothing more than baking, writing and playing the occasional Nintendo game. She wants to give something new to future artists who are yet to taste the confusing fruit that is the fashion industry! When working on a project she tends to go for the darker viewpoints as the work always leans toward the obscurer side of art.
image from here
Start loving yourself! (If you haven’t already.) You are a wonderful human being, capable of so much, entitled to good days and bad days without having to justify yourself, able to dress how you want, fragile, strong, independent and glorious.
If you’re unused to loving yourself, start off small by saying to yourself, “Hey you know what? My hair looks pretty damn good today!” Focus on the positives and gradually build and build until you can scream at the top of your lungs, “I AM AMAZING!” Because you really are.
Until next time,
Daisy
Hopefully, some day soon, it will be bikini weather. Unless you’re going on holiday tomorrow, in which case- take us with you!
We here at Yellow Bunting like to help out, so here’s our top tip for getting a fabulous bikini body this summer!
That’s it! It’s really quite simple.
Catherine’s got some cute swimsuits and bikinis lined up for you all in the nest issue- we hope you like them as much as we do!
Until next time,
Daisy
In the mean time, enjoy the sun we’re having at the moment and we’ll see you soon.
“I’m having some body issues. I’m naturally very skinny and while I’m fine with what I look like most of the time, some people I know keep declaring that only ‘real women’ have curves. Occasionally it does get me down, however I’m pretty sure that I’m real but can’t seem to get them to see things from my point of view.”
Rubyyy says: Hey babes! Great question! Yeahhh this is a silly one isn’t it, even if you were 80% plastic, you’d still be a ‘real woman’ – even if you have a penis you’re a ‘real woman’ if that;s how you identify in your spirit 🙂
Well, I think this is a great time for you to pick up a pen and paper and expand your reasoning, which is totally true and fair by the way. Expanding your thoughts, reinforcing your point of view, this will help you to feel more confident when you do have to serve somebody the T (truth) and also, you’re more likely to be less effected by their insensitivity… As my guru, Louise Hay, says: if someone called you a “purple pig” over and over, you wouldn’t listen to them – why listen when they say you’re fat, dumb or whatever… Not verbatim Louise Hay there! *wink*
I hate this conversation sometimes and that’s because I believe it is another level, another way of distracting women and the female conversation, diverting it to something essentially limiting and meaningless. A real woman is a real woman is a real woman, no matter her size, if she is a woman in her heart.
Love and light darling
xxx
R
image from here
Usually with these inspiration pieces I try to add some thoughts of my own but for this one I can’t. There’s nothing more to say.
So I will leave you with this picture and this: have a wonderful day.
Until next time,
Daisy
We’re bringing the inspiration back! Every other Sunday we’ll be posting pictures/pieces of art/films/photos/quotes/books that we love and want to share with you. Think of these posts as little nuggets of joy, they may be small but they will motivate, encourage, educate and make you smile [if all goes according to plan!].
This issue’s inspo is a wonderful piece of art by the ever-talented Olaya Valle!
image from Olaya Valle’s deviantart
It serves as a [very cute] reminder that we need to stop fat AND skinny shaming and love all bodies, including our own.
I know we here at Yellow Bunting seem to talk about body image a lot [and it’s true, we do] but that’s because it’s so important and what we write about, we believe in without a doubt. It may sound painfully clichéd by now but we want everyone to be happy and to love the skin they’re in!
Until next time,
Daisy
Now I’m not going to lie and pretend that I am not constantly thinking about my weight and my image, because I do (stupid I know), but who can blame me? The image of “perfect” that is presented today is one that is near impossible without surgery, not eating, continuously working out, extensions, teeth whitening… I could go on forever. What ever happened to being comfortable in your own skin? The biggest problem involving image, that our society today is faced with, is weight. Be it obesity or anorexia, or even adding a couple of pounds here and there – weight is constantly on a women’s mind. If I remember correctly, a woman having curves, was sexy, a women with a busty chest and derrière, was lusted after, and a women with confidence, above all, was sexy. But where has that confidence gone lades? A couple of pounds to the stomach or the thighs, and every inch of confidence we have goes down the drain, and the gym seems to be our only thought.
Have your cake and eat it! – Literally!
“I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.” ― Marilyn Monroe
The difference between our society today and what it used to be is that girls consider curves to be their hipbones that stick out, or there ribcage creating a curve to their body shape. Gone are the days where thick thighs and voluptuous women were beautiful, today the fashion world is overtaken with catwalk models; a small population of women that manage to keep their weight to an utmost minimum, no matter the cost.
Curves are what set women aside from men. Curves are meant to be admired, are meant to be held, and are meant to be adored by those with them, as well as those admiring them. Sure we all want to change something about our appearance, from flatter stomachs to thinner thighs to less of the occasional bingo wing situation – but we don’t, and that makes us better than ever!
We all wish for a figure that isn’t ours. If we were all size 6, we would still want more, something else, curves perhaps. But what we have is surely good enough?
Ladies, we are beautiful, and though you don’t believe me now you should do, as someone out there loves your lumps and bumps, loves your hips and thighs, and loves you for you!
Brace yourself…here goes another empowering female rant from yours truly! This installment surrounds the issue of dress size. I decided to focus on this because it is a personal annoyance of mine because, I REALLY don’t understand how men can just walk up to a pair of jeans and are able to purchase them without trying them on! All they need is the knowledge of their waist size and inside seem and bob’s your uncle, a new pair of jeans to add to their wardrobe containing all jeans of the SAME SIZE.
Now, don’t get me wrong I’m sure they encounter many wardrobe problems in other areas, I’m not dismissing that. It’s just for me personally; I am not a one size jean type person. I can go into one shop and to my sheer happiness be a size 12, then in another shop I am mortifyingly a size 18 or something on the other side of the spectrum! This may just be me (it would be typical), however I was ranting to a poor girl in work only to discover she has the same problem. Clothing size seems to be a common misconception, but here’s the bottom line; why does it even matter what size you are?
Imagine having to go up a size in the changing room for a minute. I can hear your thoughts now… “I am so overweight…It must have been that one malteaser I accepted…oh God I’m the biggest here…that woman must think I’m an elephant…I’m going on a diet” and so on.
But, what dress size constitutes as too big and immediately throws you into the pool of supposedly “overweight” women?
The answer to that question is no size. There is no such thing as too big, and S, M, L, XL are far too vague for my understanding. I tried on a size 12 in a shop once and that constituted as L on the label. Since when has that been a large?!
OK, so it may be terrible research on the retailer’s part, but seriously this labelling of clothing size is giving women everywhere, including me, a MASSIVE complex! It is causing embarrassment and shame on personal clothes size. I am a size 14 and proud to be curvy. It’s taken me a long time to say that without making reference to an elephant. This occurs in women of all sizes, take my housemate for example, she is easily a size 8 and is constantly making reference to weight gain and honestly, I have seen more fat on a chickens lip! It’s saddening really because all of these different sized women have beautiful figures and there isn’t an ounce of pride in any of us!
Before we hang our heads in shame however, let us ponder why so many of us think like this and waste so much time wanting to be anything other than what we are. The blame is simple: the media and our precious society have built us this way. How many “beauty” adverts have you seen that contain women over a size 10 (aside from “plus size” clothing companies)? The answer is a big fat zero…pun absolutely intended! So, how are we expected to feel confident when we have these small women paraded all over our television screens?! I am not for one moment saying these women aren’t beautiful, because they are all stunning but there should be different sized women in these adverts that reflect a true picture of society. Once again the media is promoting a lie. This problem stretches far back into our childhoods and going back to Nesrine’s article on Disney Princesses in issue 9, the media we absorb as children shapes how we think as we grow up.
I want to know who on earth decided what’s fat and what’s not, because I can’t understand why we feel shame when we have to purchase a size 14, or a 16. It completely depends on personal body build and shape. We should all focus on what a healthy size is for our own body, without comparing it to other girls. It’s such a cliché but everyone is different; we have different personalities, different faces, hair colour etc. etc. so why can’t we accept that every woman’s body shape and size is different?!
Dress size is a lie. It differs in every shop, in every style, in every person and we should no longer feel defined by it.
What do you think? Are you fussed about what dress size you are?
Oh my god- a blog post about body image! How original. Almost everyone has written about this topic, arguing for their respective sides, weighing up the pros and cons for certain diets but most can be sorted into two categories: body positive or pro-ana/mia. I fall into the former.
This here is my two cents on body image. I despise pro-ana/mia sites and thinspiration. It disgusts me and I genuinely cannot believe girls aspire to look like this:
image form here
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not skinny. I never have been, I never will be and I am fine with this. I love food (especially chocolate) and it would be all to easy for someone who doesn’t know me to say that I dislike the previously mentioned sites because I’m a jealous, fat blob. And those people couldn’t be farther from the truth. I love my fat- from my chunky legs to my squidgy arms- I can safely say I’m happy with the way I look. Oh, and I like my boobs. Damn I love my boobs.
Growing up [especially these days] isn’t easy and I for one have struggled with the way I looked in the past. I can’t say I was one for reading Cosmo or Elle Girl when I was younger and I never felt that I was consciously pressured to look a certain way, but looking back at it I guess I was. For a year or two, I always wanted to look a little bit smaller and figured I’d be happier if I lost a little bit of weight. Turns out I was wrong!
I first stumbled upon pro-ana/mia a few years ago when I was around 14 and was instantly shocked. I couldn’t understand why people wanted to look like this? At this time in my life I feel I should point out that I was slowly starting to love my fat body and knew 100% that I never wanted to be that skinny. Sure I knew people who were thin, but not that thin. Not life threateningly thin. My friends didn’t starve themselves in order to look the way they did.
The girls that maintain and read these ana/mia sites are putting themselves and others in danger- the body needs energy to survive and where do you get energy? Exactly: FOOD, the one thing they’re avoiding at all costs. It really is ridiculous. And why are they doing this? In order to achieve some form of so-call ‘perfection’.
Now, up until now this may sound like I have a thing against skinny people. I don’t, I really don’t, but I do have a thing against people who starve themselves in order to look ‘beautiful’. As previously mentioned, many of my friends are slim, some have high metabolisms, others just look after their bodies and there is nothing wrong with that. If you want to diet: go for it! If you want to gain a few pounds: I support you 100%. But do not, DO NOT, avoid food and starve yourself just because it’s seen as ‘the thing to do’. Because it isn’t.
image from here
There are hundreds of cases of people dying from anorexia, but the one I want to focus on is the first one I ever read about. The tragic story of Isabelle Caro, the French model who suffered from anorexia from a young age [13] and died as a result of it at only 28. A few years before her death, she and photographer Oliviero Toscani created the controversial No Anorexia advert, which was banned in Italy after being shown during Milan Fashion Week. Isabelle tried on many occasions to bring anorexia to light and warn others about what it really does to people. The No Anorexia advert was shocking, upsetting and heart wrenching and maybe, just maybe just the type of advert that girls and boys need to see in order for someone to get through to them.
I’ve had this picture liked on tumblr for about a year now and I love it. I’ve posted it on Yellow Bunting before and I’m doing it again but it says what I’m trying to, though ever so more eloquently.
It could be said that this illustration could be re-created by Yellow Bunting writers. I know it can and I kinda want it to.
On another note, those who say ‘only real women have curves’, please stop, you’re embarrassing yourselves. Real women are those who identify as women.
You only live once, so listen to ska and love yourself.
About the writer: Daisy is an irregular photographer, wannabe writer and full time female. In between tea and toast breaks she spends far too much time on the internet blogging, tumbling and tweeting. She is unapologetic in her love of the Spice Girls.
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