The No Debutante Top 10 most read posts of 2018

We have reached the end of 2018 fashionistas! It's been a crazy mad year and it's time to show you the Top 10 and most read No Debutante blog posts of the year!

In previous years, I have shared my 'what I wore' outfits of the year and, although I do still share my colourful (and independent designer reppin') outfits with you all, the No Debutante fashion blog is now more about sharing the love than what's new in my wardrobe and I think these 'most read' posts reflect that.

I have also noticed that I am pretty consistent with the amount of blog posts I can physically create each year with 50 posts being the average, I managed a firm 47 posts (including this one) in 2018. Not bad for a person with 3 kids, two jobs, a band and a club night! 

From Instagram fashion crushes to body positivity to Bristol fashionistas to women in music, the No Debutante blog has covered many subjects and fashion related news over the past year. 

Here they are then, your Top 10 most read posts of 2018....drumroll please....

The most read post of 2018 is  Bristol's finest Insta fashionistas 

No Debutante shares her Top 5 Instagram faves which included Laa Woof, Duvet Days, Tezla Designs, She Shirts and That Thing! All amazing and inspiring local, independent fashion brands and designers. Yeeeessssss! 

Photography by Viktoria Kuti

Coming up closely in second place, is no surprise as this campaign was welcomed with open arms by everyone that came across it the Magnificent Mermaids post featured the female empowering swimwear brand Mermaid in England who use real models of every shape and size in their body positive photo shoots. No Debutante got involved too and met some awesome, brave and inspiring women along the way.

Rhubarb Jumble and That Thing in Bristol 

The Double whammy fashion extravaganza comes in third and shares the night No Debutante manahed to attend two brilliant Bristol based fashion events in one night, featuring vintage fashionistas Rhubarb Jumble and street wear queens That Thing.

In My Naked Journey No Debutante promotes body positivity and self love alongside Mermaid in England. Sharing my reasons on why I was signing up for the Mermaid in England photo shoot, my body issues whilst actually posing in a bikini for the first time in my blog.

NME Award female nominees 2018

2018 saw a change in the way the industry recognised women in music with the Female empowerment at nme awards blog post. Woman are still not where we should be in the industry but this is a positive start and an honest review. Let's see how this changes in 2019! This post made it inti the Top 5 and rightly so! 

An honour to have made it into the Top 10 blog posts of the year You go girl was actually my first post of 2018 and see's me sharing all the things I've been involved with from writing to DJing to being a Mum. Thank you to every one who took the time to read this post! 

Emotional Waterfall Art

Following the success of what turned out to be the most read No Debutante blog post of the year comes Bristol's finest insta fashionistas July 2018 post, that saw local fashionistas that I was crushing on insta in the summer of 2018, the list includes Zedhead Headwear, Emotional Waterfall Art, Dulcie's Feathers, Kokomo and Kuccia.

My fave Bristol festival had to get into this top ten list Love saves the day again features LSTD 2018 from No Debutante's eyes, expect amazing festival fashion, female djs, fun and an unexpected meeting with Loyle Carner! Roll on 2019! 

Back in March I fell in love with a kidswear photoshoot in Hooligan's Magazine and had to share it. It was loved enough by you fashionistas to make it into the Top 10! Little fashionistas at Hooligans magazine 

Manners London catsuits

I discovered many new independent fashion brands in 2018 and one of them is the London based bodycon brand Mind Your Manners introduced to me by a big Bristolian supporter of independent creatives - Joh Rindom from That Thing. I own a Manners London catsuit and I love it, everyone loves it! I'm so glad this post has made it to the No Debutante Top 10 most read blog posts of 2018! 


It''s been a fantastic year on the No Debutante blog and I'd like to add a few more of the most recent blog posts to this list as maybe they haven't been read quite as much as the Top 10 posts yet but have still managed to get your attention!

In Confessions of a big holiday packer  I mostly share my opinions on holiday packing and how I refuse to pack light. The Sonic Youth post features some photographs I took for my son Lucian's Instagram account that turned into a full on photoshoot that I really love. 

That Thing AW 18 collection

Another very popular recent post was the That Thing AW18 launch party from November 2018 and Super Stylin' took me back to my blogging roots and featured a few of my recent outfits in the Autumn of 2018. 

The Island Pop up Christmas shop Bristol, 2018

Lastly the most recent post that is still getting daily reads is the Have yourself a very local Christmas post featuring The Island pop up Christmas shop here in Bristol, which hopefully encouraged you all to support local and independent creatives this year when buying gifts!  

Thank you for all your support, love and for reading the No Debutante blog. Watch this space for more fabulous fashion moments and more in 2019 and get in touch if you want to be featured! Have a goodun' xxxxx

Magnificent Mermaids - A swimwear brand with a difference

I am very proud to be able to share the official Mermaid in England photos by Viktoria Kuti from a recent swimwear photo shoot I took part in.

It was so lovely to meet such an inspiring group of women, who all overcame their fears and stripped down to their swimwear to support body positivity and the REAL body image. What a brave and beautiful group of powerful and empowering mermaids we were! 

None of these images have been been digitally altered -  all lumps and bumps are the models own!

For those of you who haven't seen my previous posts and articles on the Bristol based Mermaid in England swimwear brand and the real women photo shoots please read My Naked Journey  and A little mermaid with big ideas

Love your body! Love yourself! 

Girl, you got it goin' on! 

Mermaid in England Real Women photo shoot no 4 - Sept 18- Photography by Viktoria Kuti

Photography by Viktoria Kuti

Photography by Viktoria Kuti

Photography by Viktoria Kuti

The No Debutante Signature Jump!
Photography by Viktoria Kuti

Behind the scenes....

Thanks to Antonia Furlong for the inspiration, Viktoria Kuti for the beautiful photographs, Wild Thing Designs for the natural body painting, English Rose Makeup and Shari Knowles Makeup

Read Mermaid in England real model Ali Muskett's blog post Making a splash...and find out her experiences from the day. A very inspiring read! 

My naked journey - Promoting self love and body positivity with Mermaid in England

I met Mermaid in England founder and body positivity promoter Antonia Furlong after I wrote a fashion article on her for Bristol 24/7, promoting her inspiring swimwear fashion shoots.

The important thing you need to know about Antonia is that she only uses real models for her photo shoots. Y'know, people like you and me! People with lumps and bumps and scars, people with disbilities, real people who have not been airbrushed, - just real women, photographed in some swimwear, looking bloody fabulous!

A year ago, you would not have seen an image of me wearing swimwear on anything close to how naked I feel in these photographs. I have no real explanation why I wouldn't show off my body, hell, I do it at the beach and really couldn't care less, but for some reason, for me, to take a photo of my body and share it with the world, was a step too far! 

No Debutante wearing the Wild Side Halter neck top string bikini by Mermaid In England for the Majorca photo shoot

One reason, I guess, would be that my body is the body of a 42 year old woman, who has had three kids. I am not the Victoria Secret model you were expecting, I have a normal body not an instagrammable body and I am not even young anymore!

I am unhappy because, I don't have enough curves or my legs aren't skinny enough or my belly is no longer flat or I have dimples in my legs, I don't have a thin model body but I am not meeting the criteria to be a plus model either. I'm just in the middle, just normal. So, why am I making such a fuss? 

Well, another reason is that, despite taking photos of myself all the time in my fashion selfies and sharing them on my blog and social media, I , now stay with me here, think that if I share a photo of myself, in lingerie or swimwear, I am showing off! 

Honestly, how messed up is that? I think it may be a generation thing but to flaunt yourself, when I was a teenager, was showing off. We were made to feel bad about exposing our bodies, unless you were a super model, of course! 

Hell, my body looked bloody fab in my early twenties (ahem..the whole of my twenties) I even did some lingerie and swimwear modelling when I was at Uni, but I only shared that with the Uni and the hundreds of people that saw me at the fashion shows and in the photographs! There was no instagram to share my amazing body with. It was like a dirty little secret, that I had photos taken half naked! Yes, me!

With the kids getting ready to throw water over the Mermaid in England colour changing bikini which turns from pink to leopard print when wet. A-MAZE!

An unoffical photo from the Mermaid in England photo shoot

So, how did I manage to conquer my fears and get my kit off again after all these years?

After chatting with Antonia about her inspiring photo shoots, taken by the lovely and now very pregnant, Viktoria Kuti, I got caught up in a wave of female empowerment to start really promoting body positivity. Previous to the Mermaid In England article I had already seen so many amazing female motivational artists and instagrammers promoting self love and their fabulous bodies of all shapes and sizes. Getting themselves out there and saying it's Ok to not be, what society see's as perfect!

It is so important for women, young girls, my daughter, my sons, in fact everyone, to just love themselves and to be kind and positive to others too! I see all these positive role modes and just thought, what the hell am I worried about here? What can I do?

Loving this group shot of all the Mermaids from the September shoot.

Antonia kindly, gave me this fabulous pink bikini to take on my holidays so I decided to take the ball by the horns and do a fun-filled No Debutante 'how I wore' photo shoot to help promote Mermaid In England as a brand and their body positive ethos. 

Then, Antonia took it a step further and asked me to join the next body positivity photo shoot! This was way out of my comfort zone, it's all well and good taking photos of yourself, on your private holiday, where nobody except your family (they are used to this sort of thing going on) can see you but being in a room, with lots of other people you don't know including a photographer seemed to be taking things a bit too far. 

How can I promote body positivity if I am not body positive myself? I said 'yes' straight away as I have a problem with agreeing to things without thinking them through but after doing my own No Debutante X Mermaid in England bikini photo shoot the nerves started to kick in. 

Inspiring women on the shoot

Less than a week after I had returned back to the UK from my, much needed, holiday in Majorca, I found myself sat in a room with loads of women I hadn't met before, we were all strangers and we were about to take part in a bikini fashion shoot together. This already sounds very surreal. 

The first thing I was asked was if I had done anything like this before. I realised that I was telling a stranger about my student lingerie modelling days and that yes, I had done something similar but made excuses that I don't have the same body as I had then and I'm too old to do that now! As soon as I said it, I felt silly for feeling bad about it and putting it down. 

Why would I hide that I used to be very happy with my body, of course my body has changed, I've got older and have had three children! I USED TO MODEL LINGERIE! 

I have never met such a group of courageous, honest and fabulous women, the more I spoke to them and the more stories I heard, the more I felt happy with myself, as a woman. We were all beginning to feel happy with ourselves. 

There were burns victims confidently flouncing around, girls who thought they were fat (they weren't), larger women embracing their curves, Mum's with 4 kids, a mother and daughter model team, just so many amazing women. 

I have to admit that I did not feel, at any point, uncomfortable with showing off my body, to me it seemed that none of us did in the end! We were all in it together.

I am really looking forward (half dreading) seeing the photographs taken by Viktoria for the Mermaid in England, real models shoot, just so you know, all of these photos shown today are my own, I will share the official shoot photographs once they have been launched by Mermaid in England!

Growing up in the nineties had made me very self-conscious about my body. Despite loving modelling as a uni student. I would buy fashion magazines, I loved fashion (obvs) but all the models were as skinny as hell. The influential look was waif and even worse Heroin Chic (Fucking Heroin Chic? Really?) with role models like Kate Moss and Jodie Kidd, plastered over everything, making you feel fat and giving you a borderline eating disorder to try and get super thin.

At the same time, boys at school would call me a footballer, saying I had footballers legs, which used to upset me so much as I really wanted skinny legs, like the girls in the fashion mags and I was already aware that my legs were a bit bigger than the (what I saw as normal) skinny girls! 

One moment of self realisation for me, was that those boys, whether it was maliciously or not, they were saying I was fit! I had a strong and athletic body. I WAS SUPER FIT! If anything, it's a massive compliment and I'm gonna take it!   

The real question is, am I happy with these photo shoot images of me prancing about in a bikini? Well actually, yes, I am. My body is now half toned and half curvy, I have a few dimples and lumps and I do wish I had Shari Knowles, the make-up artist from the Mermaid in England shoot for my holiday shoot, but yeah, my body is alright......OK, I'll say it, it's bloody amazing! 

I have (quite literally) bared all today, shared some stuff I am not entirely happy with sharing, but I am on the right path for my journey for self love and body positivity and I urge you all to do the same. Join a Mermaid in England photo shoot, love your body, be kind to others, accept yourself and remember how bloody amazing you are! 

Find out more about Mermaid in England and their body positivity photo shoots

Read the original Bristol 24/7 article A Little Mermaid with big ideas 

If you are having a fashion event or a have a new collection you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine under my name 
Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr,  Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name.

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas.   
ND xx