Plus London - Part One - Anna Scholz

The first part of our fabulous day was an invitation to Anna Scholz's studio to meet the designer herself and have a look at the SS12 collection. And try it on!! It was a chilly day but the lucky few met outside - it was so funny playing "spot the fatshion blogger" - I swear if any large ladies had been walking down the road we would have all been stood staring at them.....Gina had organised us wonderfully and we went into the studio and promptly ignored the wonderful hospitality (Hummingbird cupcakes, sandwiches and lovely glass bottles of coke and dcoke) and started trying clothes on.

I've seen Anna's stuff online but had never worn any. And now I understand what everyone raves about. She's really the Henry Holland of plus size - the only real designer who is creating original collections specifically designed for a Plus Sized body.

She has a size 18 fit model. She wears her own designs. Her staff who are of various sizes, all test the clothes to ensure they fit correctly. Anna understands that when we need more space in the bust, we don't necessarily need a wider cut - it's all about understanding the shape of our bodies and she's amazing at that. The fabrics she uses are so beautiful - silk, but stretch silk.

My favourite piece was the dress Anna herself had on when we met her - and I made a beeline for it!  It's here if you want to buy it. Anna had an original piece of python skin and scanned it in to digitally recreate it for this dress. There are multi tonal colours as well - touches of green and blue. It's stretchy silk elastane and it's probably the most beautiful dress I've worn! Highly flattering cut and so nicely fitted. Something I'll have to save my pennies for!

I also tried this on - it's pure silk with sequins and it felt amazing. Loved the shiny sequin detail, loved the feel of the silk and it was the perfect length.

My final choice was this lovely dress

I'd seen Bethany from the wonderful Arched Eyebrow blog try it on and it looked amazing on her. She has the kind of figure I used to have before kids - very curvy with a small waist - like a 50's pinup. And it looked stunning on her. I liked it on me, it's lovely material but a tad too clingy for my personal taste.

This is Lorna from The Ginger Peardrop (and star of the Daily Mail)  in my other favourite dress (which I can't seem to find on the website!) - I didn't try this on as I'd learnt from the above experience to not follow someone else who looked AMAZING in it!

It was so wonderful to be able to try everything on - for there to be my size in any design I wanted to try. Anna and her staff were wonderfully welcoming and fun and easy to talk to.

We had a Q&A with Anna where all the bloggers shared experiences of the frustrations of trying to be fat and fashionable. And the lack of modern cutting edge clothes for the younger generation, the general blandness and lack of vision of in the high street stores. And we gave Anna a wishlist of things we'd like her to design from lingerie to boots!

As we left we got a wonderful goodie bag with information on the Black and White label collection, a gorgeous set of skincare from Dermalogica and some discount vouchers - which will definitely come in handy. (And some Haribo!!) I'd love to be able to buy the whole collection but it's way out of my budget. But then most designer labels are - the fact that this is within my sizing and designed to flatter and fit me makes it aspirational and something I am going to try and save up for. Skinnier women have access to a MYRIAD of designer options. I love the purple dress. It's an investment! And the quality, having worn all the pieces above, is what you're paying for. A true pleasure to meet such a wonderful woman! Thank you for inviting us and allowing us to have such a great start to Plus London 2!