My size 6 behind is sticking with Gwynnie Bee
When I first saw an ad for Gwynnie Bee, I’ll admit that I jumped in a little head over heels. The sidebar ad on one of the blogs I follow (and I’m afraid I cannot remember exactly which one) advertised a month of free clothing sent right to your door. This would excite practically any woman. Yet for me, it was particularly enticing as I blog about dresses. What a great and affordable way to add a few new dresses to the mix?
The plunge
I clicked on the ad that brought me directly to the page to sign up. What questions did I need to ask? Free clothing for a month … come on! What problem could I have with that? I go through the whole process and have an account. I’m ready to start looking through clothing.
The process looks simple. You just put clothing in your virtual Gwynnie Bee closet. Once you have at least six items, they can send you your first shipment. They never send you anything that’s not in your closet, so you’ll be sure to end up with something you’re likely to like. Great!
The realization
I’m a size six and a medium. I’m basically the middle of the road and always have been. As I began looking through the dresses, I found it odd that hardly any went below a size 10 or a large. I then realized that Gwynnie Bee is made for women size 10 and larger.
We live in a society that tells us that being a size 6 is the norm and every shop should meet our needs. While I had occasionally given thought to that before, I really gave it some thought in this moment.
“So Gwynnie Bee is focused on sizes 10-32? Great! Their stuff is adorable and I’m glad so many amazing women can enjoy what they offer,” I thought.
In my sheer excitement for free clothing, I over-looked this small factoid. I’m sure it was somewhere on that original ad, but it did not catch my eye.
And now we’re friends
I decided to keep my subscription with Gwynnie Bee. Upon searching, I found that a few brands carried mediums. Furthermore, sometimes a large or a size 10 runs small. In short, I never failed to have less than six items in my closet at a time. In fact, I currently have 16.
My subscription with Gwynnie Bee has given me a different perspective and for that I am so thankful. I spend so much of my life trying to understand experiences different than what I know. This is no different.
Once every few months I look through Gwynnie Bee’s new arrivals. I’ll see a cute dress, click on it and see that it does not come in my size. I then move onto the next thing I like and so on. For plus-sized women, this may be something they also experience. It really blows that we live in a world where not all women can shop at the stores they want. To be honest, though, I never really have to do much thinking on this. As a size 6 and a medium, I can almost always find clothing to fit, whether in brick and mortar stores or online.
As a blogger, I’m passionate about using my voice to change things. There are many things I do not like about the world we live in. Yet as a blogger, I get to be the media. So as the media, I would just like to thank Gwynnie Bee for:
- Being exactly who you are
- Running an awesome Instagram page
- Sending me amazing dresses
- Loving women for who they are
So in celebration of Gwynnie Bee, here are a few of the dresses Gwynnie Bee has sent me over the last few months:
Also linking up with:
Jersey Girl Texan Heart, Pleated Poppy, Pumps and Pushups, Walking in Memphis in High Heels, Sydney Fashion Hunter, Shopping My Closet, Elegance and Mommyhood, Doused in Pink, Curly Crafty Mom, Birth of a Fashion Blogger
Gwynnie Bee dress + Liebster Award
Hello all! Happy Monday! Last Monday was spent having some Vietnamese with my friend Una, who I actually featured on the blog several months ago (Tea with Una). I was loving my dress, so I handed the camera to her to snap a few.
Are you familiar with Gwynnie Bee? It’s a clothing subscription service that I discovered several months ago. You basically create an account and start putting things in your online closet. You have to have at least six items in there for them to send you a package. Once you do, based on what you have, they will send you an amount of items ranging from 1-10 depending on your plan. So it’s simple … only put things in your closet that you think you’d like and you’ll be pleased every time. Also just to note, Gwynnie Bee is only for sizes 10-32. Some of the dresses come in medium, which is how it has been able to work for me. I excitedly signed up and then read that later. I’m normally a size 6-8.
As we all know, I love dresses. So currently my online closet is full of 15 dresses. My next one is in the mail! Here is what last week’s looked like:
Also, I was nominated by Sarah from Bows and Clothes for a Liebster Award. Basically, bloggers nominate each other and you answer questions. I was honored to be picked by Sarah! Here are my answers to her questions:
1. What do you like to do in your free time?
Between working a full-time job, a part-time weekend job and blogging, I’m often not left with much free time. I do like to hang out with friends and practice speaking Spanish. I also dabble in a little improv comedy.
2. What is your dream vacation?
My dream vacation is a year worth of traveling the entire world and visiting as many countries as I can. Yet rather than staying in hotels the entire time, I’d spend a lot of my time staying with natives. Getting to know people from other countries is the best way to learn about the world.
3. What is the worst movie/book you have seen/read?
Birdemic is a pretty classically bad movie that I watched with my improv troupe. It’s ridiculous and if anyone is ever having a bad movie night, it should be at the top of your list. Just go watch that preview I linked above.
4. Why do you blog?
In the fall, one of my friends told me I should blog about all the dresses I wear. I have always been a writer and have dreamt about a more flexible source of income. So here I am.
5. What is your least favorite food?
Granola bars.
6. What is your favorite season?
Oh the summer for sure. I’m a very social person, so I love how everyone is out and about in the summer. And of course I love the warmth.
7. What is your favorite blog?
I do not have one, so I’ll just list a few that I read: obviously Bows and Clothes, Bright on a Budget, Jersey Girl Texan Heart, Tanvii and 26 and Counting
8. If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it and why?
I would invest it in a business that would employ women seamstresses around the world in an ethical way to make dresses. The dresses would be sold online and possibly in boutiques. I’d take the rest of the money and travel.
9. What is your favorite song and why?
This one. Really? There are too many to choose from. I’ve been listening to a lot of Lana Del Ray recently. I find the song Ride to be fascinating.
10. What is your biggest blogging mistake?
Not discovering the blogging community quick enough! It’s funny how Sarah came into my life. I participated in Dressember and was tweeting about it. Sarah started liking and retweeting my stuff. I check out her blog and found out that she was participating in Dressember. I was excited, so I reached out to her.
I noticed that she participated in link-ups and thought “what’s that?” Once I discovered what they were, I was like “why not?” Now I read a lot of other blogs and often get inspiration from my fellow bloggers!
11. What is your favorite kind of cake?
Here in Cincinnati we have a bakery that makes this chocolate and icing layered cake called an Opera Cream cake. It’s amazing.
I’m awarding the Liebster award to these bloggers: Miss Moore Style, The Work Flare and Laimouna’s Memoirs.
The Liebster Award guidelines are as follows:
- Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to them.
- Answer the questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you.
- Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
- Give the nominees 11 questions to answer on their blog.
- Let them know you nominated them.
Here are your 11 questions:
- What inspired you to blog?
- What message do you want your blog to tell the world?
- What do you plan to do to stand out and be different?
- What makes you laugh the most?
- Who shoots your photos?
- If you could only have one accessory, what would it be?
- Favorite color?
- What’s an average day look like for you?
- Where do you want to take your blog?
- Dogs 0r cats?
- What would you do with a million dollars?
Thanks friends!
Dress: Leota, also can be found at Zulily here
Boots: Target
Necklace: vintage jewelry from my grandma
Jacket: H&M similar
Also, this beautiful Catholic Church was on our walk. We of course had to snap a few photos!
Also I’m linking up with: Doused in Pink, Jersey Girl Texan Heart and Elegance and Mommyhood
My favorite Gwynnie Bee dress
Thanks to Gwynnie Bee, I’ve been enjoying dress deliveries all this month and part of December. The concept is simple: you create an account, put clothing they have for rent in your “closet” and wait for your shipment. They only ever send you items from your closet but do not send you a package unless you have at least six pieces or more to choose from in your closet. You have the option to buy what you cannot part with and return items you didn’t care too much for. After returning or buying, you simply await your next shipment.
I got five shipments this month. Except for one shipment that I sent back right away because I didn’t care much for either dress, I’ve spent a day wearing all the dresses sent to me. Oh yeah, and I only put dresses in my closet. We all know that’s because I can never have too many dresses in my life. But Gwynnie Bee also has pants, tops and skirts you can rent.
This deep teal dress was by far my favorite Gwynnie Bee dress of all. The instant I slipped it on, I felt comfortable. Furthermore the fabric is super unique. It looks fabulous with a little black belt and some black tights. My friend Hillary and I were going to meet up for dinner downtown. Hillary also takes photos. These are all her work. To see more of her work, go to www.hillarycutterphoto.com.
These next ones were captured in some cool lighting by the bathroom, of all places, at the 21C Hotel.
Thanks Hillary for making me look fierce! Again, go check her out at www.hillarycutterphoto.com. Also the great thing about Gwynnie Bee is that with my code, you can enjoy your first month entirely free! Just click here to learn more.
Also today I’m linking up with:
