I think my fear originally occurred in my early teens, due to the dreaded communal changing rooms. I used to spend some Saturdays in West Bromwich, and one shop I frequented was the late, if not lamented, Mark One. (Later to be MK ONE, but cheap and nasty all the same. Mark One had a communal changing room, and as a young teenager I found this to be both embarrassing and humiliating. All these grown up, busty women stripping off whilst I was trying to cover up my training bra. In addition, there were always women who insisted on bringing their eight year old sons into the changing room, which only made my sheer terror at removing clothing even worse. Whoever had the great idea for communal changing rooms should be made to use them on a hot sweaty Saturday, when they are packed with people, and quite frankly, smell horrendous.

Flash back to the present and communal changing rooms seem to have disappeared, but my aversion to any sort of changing room continues. They are frankly, horrible places. Key culprits in the humiliation stakes are River Island with the three mirror syndrome. I want to see what the dress looks like from the front. A back view is nice as I don’t have eyes in the back of my head, but  a side view? Any women who carries weight on her stomach DOES NOT want a sideways view. It always looks horrendous, you never buy the outfit. In addition, the River Island lighting is so bad, you spend more time checking out the pastiness of your skin rather than the amazing top you were so interested in on the shop floor.

But River Island are not the only culprits. The flagship branch of Topshop in Birmingham‘s Bullring is so hot, particularly in Summer, that you spend your time rushing to get the clothes on and off, before you pass out with heat stroke. Haven’t they ever heard of air conditioning? Wallis have large changing rooms, but the curtains are so high that I find it difficult to close them, and so often strip off hiding behind the millimetre I managed to pull shut. The queue for Primark changing rooms are enormous, and as I have no patience, that’s a definite no-no.

My most shocking recent disaster in a changing room occurred in a local branch of a shop called Store 21. This had a changing room with a curtain rather than a door. I had seen a maxi dress in there, and against my better judgement, had asked to try it on. I was stripped down to the undies when suddenly someone grabbed the curtain open. I screamed ‘nooooo’ and struck out whilst trying to grab the curtain and retain some dignity. There, on the floor was a young boy of about eight years old who I had virtually knocked out whilst grabbing the curtain back. I made a quick exit and left the store without the dress. I haven’t returned since for fears of wanted posters with my face on staring out at me.

But it’s not fair to just blame the changing rooms themselves. When I feel the need to try something on, I have always worn the most inappropriate underwear imaginable. Black bras to try on white dresses, Bridget Jones knickers that are slightly discoloured, ripped tights etc. And this must be a family trait as my sister recently went for a wedding dress fitting in the most unbridelike white bra.

In addition, clothes look better when you have your make up on and your hair looks clean and tidy. That’s not always the case when fashion-mommy goes shopping with Baba in toe. The looks you get given in Coast when you ask to try on an evening dress whilst holding a chocolate smeared toddler in your arms are not friendly. You often can’t get a pushchair into the changing room, and won’t leave Baba on his own outside, so you are basically barred from trying clothing on anyway.

And that’s basically why I hate changing rooms. But it wouldn’t be fair not to highlight the good ones that make the shopping experience better.Monsoon have good changing room with chairs, carpets and one nice big mirror. I had a good experience in the Monsoon branch in Stafford. Baba was about 5 months old and in a rather large travel system. I had seen two dresses I liked, but couldn’t decide which one I liked the best. A sales assistant asked  if I wanted to try the dresses on and I pointed to the pram and said no thanks – I couldn’t leave the baba. She took my to a really large changing room that was locked and said – you can use this. It was enormous, I could get the pram in easily. Suffice to say, I bought BOTH dresses that day.

Image by thinkretail via Flickr

Emma Iannarilli is a full-time fashion blogger who writes the blog www.fashion-mommy.com. A lifelong love of fashion and writing was transformed into a full time career after the birth of Emma’s two year old son. The former teacher decided to take a passion for fashion in a new direction by starting a blog, a time filler for when baby took his naps, and Fashion-Mommy was born! With 125,000 hits in it’s first year,  Fashion-Mommy is one of the Uk’s fastest growing new fashion blogs.  Emma Iannarilli lives in Staffordshire in the UK.

Leopard print has an element of luxury to it, it often feels soft and cosy in winter, or silky and slinky in Summer. Designers like Dolce and Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli are synonymous with leopard prints, whilst Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin have both produced stunning leopard print shoes. Actress Rachel Bilson showed how stylish leopard print could be in a Roberto Cavalli dress, whilst Paloma Faith added vampy red lips and shoes to her full length Dolce and Gabbana leopard print dress. Both looked stunning and stylish.

Leopard print has a very vintage feel to it, It was popular in the 1940′s and 1950′s, where it was the preserve of true movie stars like Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe. I remember a particular image of Marilyn with Joe DiMaggio, wearing a jaunty black suit with a leopard print scarf tied around her neck. She just looked so glamorous and stylish. Eartha Kitt was another sexy star who embraced the lure of the cat. and with her feline features she was total kittenish sex personified.

More recent star have been followers of the cat print. Kate Moss is probably the only person who could wear head to toe leopard print and still look stylish. She has long been a fan of the print, pulling a leopard print jacket from her wardrobe each year as the temperatures drop. Gwen Stefani is another glamour-puss (excuse the pun, I know its terrible but I couldn’t resist) who wears leopard print on a regular basis, often on the red carpet, and she has also made it an integral part of her LAMB collection. Other leopard fans include Sienna Miller, Kylie Minogue, Paloma Faith, Rachel Bilson, Pixie and Peaches Geldof, Nicky Hilton and Eva Mendes. The list is actually endless…

Only Kate Moss can get away with head to toe leopard print. Choose one piece of clothing, or an accessory in leopard print. Rihanna shows how leopard print shoes look great with a plain outfit.

Add bright red lips – too many nudes and you’ll start to look feral!

Dress it down – sling your glamorous coat over your jeans a la Kate Moss and Sienna Miller.

Wear it over tea dresses for a cute 1940′s feel, a la Paloma Faith.

Don’t mix your cats – leopards and tigers may live together in the Serengeti, and even sit happily side by side in your wardrobe, but they should not be worn together under any circumstances! Imagine a cat fight – you’ve just become one!

Emma Iannarilli is a full-time fashion blogger who writes the blog www.fashion-mommy.com. A lifelong love of fashion and writing was transformed into a full time career after the birth of Emma’s two year old son. The former teacher decided to take a passion for fashion in a new direction by starting a blog, a time filler for when baby took his naps, and Fashion-Mommy was born! With 125,000 hits in it’s first year,  Fashion-Mommy is one of the Uk’s fastest growing new fashion blogs.  Emma Iannarilli lives in Staffordshire in the UK.

But, that didn’t happen to me. Rather than some oversized, overfrilled, pastel pudding, I wore an amazingly simple, supremely stylish BLACK Coast evening dress. My fellow bridesmaids wore the same dress, but in the shorter cocktail dress version. I had a simple headband, and the most amazing black heels which I delighted in wearing all through the festive season. In short, I had an outfit to treasure. And it was black. Which got me thinking, when did it become acceptable for Bridesmaids to wear black?

I started to think Sex and the City could be at fault. I clearly remembered the episode entitled ‘The Turtle and the Hare’. where the girls were guests at a wedding and each wore a black dress. Before then, I could only remember black being used at funerals, never at weddings. Another episode featured Charlotte in a full length black halter neck bridesmaid dress. However, this is later referred to as a ‘slutty’ dress.  Flash forward a few years and the ‘It’ girl and friend of Kate Moss Davina Murphy had her bridesmaids in black dresses at her wedding to Football agent Dave Gardner. One of the bridesmaids was Jenny Frost, so the wedding achieved quite a bit of press coverage, especially as the stylish Victoria Beckham was one of the guests. The guests were asked to wear black and white, something the ever stylish, but attention seeking Mrs Beckham ignored.

Now there seems to be an ever-growing number of black and white weddings. Many brides are opting for black and white dresses a la Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy in ‘Sabrina‘. The obvious way to get the symmetry right at a black and white wedding is that if the bride is wearing white, the bridesmaids must be in the black.

But why have black dresses not only become acceptable bridesmaids attire, but also positively in vogue? It could be that more women are opting to get married later, and are having their grown up friends and relatives as bridesmaids rather than young flower girls. Grown women look more sophisticated in cocktail dresses and evening gowns in black, rather than more colourful, fussy efforts. In addition, black is ultra flattering, every women owns a little black dress they use for special occasions, and they usually opt for black because it masks all the lumps and bumps that women have. We feel comfortable in black because it hides our imperfections and makes us feel glamorous, something that pastel pink can never do. Bridesmaids come in all shapes and sizes, all heights and ages, and black seems to suit all. My fellow bridesmaids, Sam and Terrianne are different shapes to me, Sam is average height, but slim, Terrianne is shorter and curvy. Black looks good on all three of us, and we all feel comfortable in the dresses.

There is also an element of the High Street coming into the equation. Once upon a time, all Bridesmaids dresses were purchased from a Bridal shop, or were handmade/homemade creations. But with the recession, and the rise of Quality High street stores like Monsoon and Coast selling beautiful, good quality evening and cocktail dresses, more Brides are opting to buy their bridesmaid dresses ‘off the peg’. You can avoid all the fittings that busy women have no time for, whilst choosing a dress that your grateful bridesmaid can wear for years to come. In addition these dresses tend to be simple, stylish and tasteful, rather the milkmaid/Little Bo Peep creations of yore.

I think the final reason that black has become the bridesmaid dress colour de jour is that white has become newly fashionable for the bride. A few years ago, many modern women felt they should opt for Ivory, or cream rather than traditional white because they were already living with their partners before the wedding. The tide seems to have turned now, and many modern women are once again opting for white as their wedding colour of choice. And what goes better with white than black? Look at the amazing Cecil Beaton creations for the Ascot scene in My Fair Lady. Look at the stunning Audrey Hepburn Givenchy dress for Sabrina, or Julia Roberts collecting her Oscar in vintage Valentino. These were all black and white creations and looked totally stunning.

When I look back at some of the weddings I have attended over the years, I often find myself giggling over the crazy frocks some bridesmaids have been made to endure in the name of friendship. I think I can say that my stylish BLACK evening dress will not elicit the same roars of laughter in years to come. Hallelujah to that!

Emma Iannarilli is a full-time fashion blogger who writes the blog www.fashion-mommy.com. A lifelong love of fashion and writing was transformed into a full time career after the birth of Emma’s two year old son. The former teacher decided to take a passion for fashion in a new direction by starting a blog, a time filler for when baby took his naps, and Fashion-Mommy was born! With 125,000 hits in it’s first year,  Fashion-Mommy is one of the Uk’s fastest growing new fashion blogs.  Emma Iannarilli lives in Staffordshire in the UK.