Hobbs - Dress Angels - Miss Bush Blog

Photograph by Eddie Judd

I have casually dismissed every compliment to my dresses for the last couple of years when I really should be thanking Hobbs. Why should I be thanking them so specifically? The Hobbs board will possibly not want a size 16/18 46-year-old as their brand pin-up but if they didn’t care they wouldn’t make such damn fine frocks. To be clear and fair they may make good separates & casual clothes but as my job involves looking smart with a twist of a daily basis and my apple shape is hard to put into a trouser I wouldn’t know. A little back history. Up until I was 40 I was a 10/12 with an E cup bust. I occasionally dropped below 9 stone but my fighting weight was 9 – 10 stone. Hoorah… yet this was mostly maintained by a serious Marlboro Light addiction, divorce & depression. Does that sound as pretty? Post 40, post Decree Absolute and the dawning realisation that smoking was no longer big or clever with the help of the Alan Carr ‘Easy Way’ and The Lovely Marshy, a lifetime nicotine refusenik, the weed was gone and the weight was on. In a shade under 3 months I gained two stone. Life without an addiction is exhilarating – no longer feeling a fool for standing in the cold and rain smoking, no longer as horrified at the rising cost of my stupidity at each budget, no longer adopting the shameful practise of straightening out long butt ends in the ashtray and relighting them. A little miracle worker was sent into my life (my hippy mate Mary reckons you are sent angels when you need them.) I wouldn’t describe Issy as angelic per se – she is a hardcore personal trainer who took me from tubby to taut in four months. From a non runner to a battling, Grim-running off-roader. Added boxing & weight training, early morning starts meaning no drinking midweek, calorie control & clearing lungs put me in the shape of my life. Fellow sufferers of the black dog condition know that the exercise & good mental health is not a myth.

From left – The Lovely Marshy, me, Issy, Susan, friend of Issy’s

My wardrobe consisted of All Saints, Reiss, Karen Millen, French Connection – nice High Street brands – mixed in with Top Shop, H & M & vintage, I maintained this non smoking weight with varying success. My eye went off the ball a couple of times but just as I was training for my third Grim Challenge a different kind of angel tore through my life and all those around me. A dark angel bringing death and destruction. This was three and a half years ago & the after shocks & fallout are only just subsiding. Just as Mother nature was changing my oestrogen to testosterone, giving me the man skill of developing a beer gut, & my once generous bust is becoming matronly my ability to give any time to myself vanished. No training, no time, no money – self medicating with food & drink & GP prescriptions leads to faltering self-esteem and the peak of physical fatness. Clothes are not a cure or the answer to good mental health & self-esteem but crikey they help. When you have done punishing yourself with some vile Primark sacks because you ‘aren’t going to be this size long’ and slide into some well cut wardrobe staples with some Bebaroque & some shoes that mean business you can become a plus size poster girl. Am I happy with my body? ‘Shallow me’ wants to be thinner. Experience has taught me, with the magnificent gift of hindsight, one’s face, figure & fat is largely about one’s own perception & self esteem. One is rarely, I would say never, the unattractive lump one casts oneself as. The stance of ‘I look hideous – please don’t take my photo’ with benefit of retrospection would seem to disagree. I wasn’t so bad – I venture that I actually looked ‘alright’. So if someone says that they like my dress I now praise Hobbs – the person giving the compliment doesn’t need to know my dress size history. I have no idea of their company structure (poor research) who cuts their patterns (a god-like genius) or who organises their seductive email marketing that will guarantee I click-through. Who ever you are, Hobbs designer, I thank you for making dresses that fit both my 36GGs in without a fight, that are age appropriate yet make me feel like I’m coming out fighting. I officially love you.

All dresses by Hobbs (there are many, many more in my wardrobe!)

Photograph by Mark Bothwell

Photograph by Mark Bothwell

Photograph by Anneli Marinovich

Photograph by Anneli Marinovich

Photograph by Juliet McKee

Photograph by Anneli Marinovich

Photograph by Juliet McKee

Photograph by Juliet McKee

Photograph by efc Photography

Photograph by efc Photgraphy

Photograph by efc Photography

Obviously I try to keep up with the kids (or is that down with the kids?) by having an Instagram feed full of ‘selfies’ – these again demonstrate my faithful addiction to the Hobbs dress – with a glimpse of the ever useful black blazer.