Since 2015, The British Belles have hosted an annual charity pinup meet-up. Last year, I attended my first BB event in July at Kanaloa, which was followed by their Tiki Christmas event. This year, the lovely Charlotte organised another meet-up to raise money for Shelter. Supported by Minky and Zoe, Charlotte hosted yesterday’s event at Barrio in Shoreditch. While mass meet-ups can be overwhelming due to the sheer number of  people, it’s a great opportunity to catch up with familiar faces and to get to know new folk.

This post begins by looking at my outfit, then moves on to the meet-up in photos.

OOTD

This dress was the only vintage dress I bought when I went to Viva Las Vegas back in April. The different colours, the leaf pattern, the diamanté detail and the scalloped collar all screamed ‘buy me’. As the meet-up was originally a picnic, I felt it lent itself well to the theme.

The Event

I’ve referred to everyone by their IG name (unless they don’t have one) but I’ve not linked them as it would take faaaar too long! If you want to find someone, just search the captioned name from the photo.

If you’re not quite sure about a coming to a massive meet-up, try some smaller get-togethers beforehand. Prior to yesterday, I’d had quite a few one-to-one and small group meets. – it can help you to get to know others over a longer period of time and in a quieter environment. That works for me generally. However, whether you’re mingling with the masses or chilling on your sofa, do whatever makes you happy and comfortable. I’ll be doing a follow-up post later this week regarding my journey with anxiety over the past few years.

Thanks to Charlotte, Zoe and Minky for organising everything – not an easy feat! I got to know some more faces and had time to properly natter too. As always, I’m definitely looking forward to the next one!

All photos in this post were taken on my better half’s (@darktechsupport) or my camera but he edited every single image. Thank you so so much – you’re a brilliant human!