IGIGI, by Yuliya Raquel (the designer and founder) an online retailer and one of the Full Figured Fashion Week event sponsors, produced a short film. Called I Am Beautiful, the short features plus size model Rosie Mercado. It's bold, moving and inspiring.
I was lucky to be one of the first plus size spokesmodels to get a contract with a major brand (Spiegel catalog in 1989), and in 1991 I became the editor in chief of Big Beautiful Woman magazine (founded by Carol Shaw). I produced over 50 model searches and hundreds of fashion shows between those two companies alone and met thousands of women along the way. Most of these women were short on self esteem. I never felt I was an activist for size acceptance, but I did and still do feel like an advocate for women's self esteem.
Subsequently I began to incorporate all sizes, including petites, tall and maternity, into my TV makeovers, to include plus size into the mainstream, rather than segregate it out as if we're different. "I Am Beautiful" sends the right message.
So with great enthusiasm and anticipation I spent the last three days attending events at Full Figured Fashion Week in Los Angeles. It's the only plus size event I've been to in many years. At the beginning of this decade I "retired" as a stylist to focus on my writing and Makeover Media, the public relations company I co-founded in the late nineties. Subsequently I returned to my origins as an image consultant and have become an expert in upscale lifestyle.
Last night, October 30, there was a fashion show featuring clothing from both designers and retailers. (I'll share more information on all the clothing companies who participated in the show in a future post.)
A sold out crowd of big, beautiful and stylish women along with several rows of bloggers, TV crews and photographers filled the room. "I Am Beautiful" opened the show. I cried when I saw it. Everyone knows one of us. We're your mothers, sisters, cousins. We're your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend. We are beautiful.
