Style Alert: Isobel Toledo for Lane Bryant

It's not often that one can find real style in larger sizes. Oh, you can find trends, and stylish designs on occasion, especially if you're under 30. But when you want things that are refined, with sophisticated silhouettes in that timeless classic way, you can come up empty handed.
Just take a spin on Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdales websites, and you'll instantly see what I mean. It's not that there's a lack of "brand" or "designer" names out there." But many of these so-called designer offerings are simply boxy, oversized basics, often in ridiculous prints.
Even Ralph Lauren, known for understated, tailored essentials like shirts and trousers, features what is probably one of his early equestrian prints that screams retro, and not in a good way, in his current season.
However, today, Lane Bryant debuts a collection of wearable dresses and tunics, designed by Isobel Toledo, with what I'd call a good eye for choosing shapes and patterns that will flatter a fuller figure.
I was just in Lane Bryant last night, just before closing, making some returns and buying black jeans, never dreaming that when I woke up, there would be this dreamy trousseau in sizes 14 and up!
Standing ovation to Isobel Toledo. I'm a long time fan of her work and that of her talented husband and collaborator, Rubin.
I admire this eclectic and independent star. This isn't the first time Isobel, known for her whimsical creations, has gone down a runway of a different kind. A couple of years ago, she fashioned a collection of shoes for Payless.
Many designers have to be dragged into reality to make clothes in larger sizes, and that attitude alone causes many of them to fail this audience. Often designers who want to succeed at QVC or HSN are forced to design for the loyal public, known as "the masses," who wear clothing sizes previously not in their vocabulary.
Toledo understands style is not a size.
Give Lane Bryant a shout out on Twitter for nabbing Toledo and having the best looking, really wearable spring collection on the internet, regardless of size!
Shop Now!

Big Wigs: Jenji Kohan - Women In Entertainment

Jenji Kohan

I'd love to spend an afternoon with Jenji Kohan, she's smart, sassy and successful. You might not recognize her name, but you may have seen some of her work. She created the Showtime juggernaut, "Weeds," and most recently, the Netflix hit  "Orange is the New Black."
These shows are as quirky as her persona. Courage and confidence are part of the formula for success in any field. It takes courage to be different in Hollywood, and
Jenji scores high on the richter scale of different. The content she creates is about as outside the box as one can get. Weeds is the story of a suburban housewife (spoiler alert) who sells pot and dates a despot.
"Orange is the New Black" takes us inside the trials and tribulations of a WASP who took a walk on the wild side and ends up behind bars.
Kohan's style is also outside the confines of the typical Hollywood player. Note her green hair and vintage style glasses. Her volume of work is just like her personal style, original.
Photo courtesy of deadline.com

CFDA Fashion Incubator Brands Coming to LA for Market Week

Meet the CFDA Nominees

CFDA Fashion Incubator Brands Coming to LA for Market Week

It’s exciting when the other coast makes a trip this way for once. How many red-eyes have I had to endure to wake up in the Big Apple in time for non-stop #NYFW or market week? This month, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), in conjunction with our favorite hotel, W, is bringing some fresh fashion talent to LA.
Next week, they’ll hit up DVF “Journey of a Dress” at LACMA
(The exhibit is incredible, and seeing these dresses  was a painful reminder not to ever get rid of anything, closet audits aside! Both my Mom and I had a wrap dress and I not only did I not keep the dress, after all I wore it back in the seventies, but I don't even have a photo of either us wearing the dresses.)
and end with a cool “wrap” party at the W Hotel in Hollywood.
In case you don’t know about the CFDA Incubator, they help emerging designers, much like our very own Fashion Business Inc
PS I’m excited to participate in California Fashion Organizations Scholarship Awards. This year, the Fashion Group International Los Angeles Foundation (I’m on the board!), is giving an award! LA
#follow @CFDAINCUBATOR @calfashion @FashionBizInc @FGILA

Eloquii is Back: Enter to Win $250 Shopping Spree!

Great news for "Girls" who are starved for current trends in fashion. On February 20th, I received an email with a subject that stated, " Finally, We're Back + Free Shipping! Who's back? Eloquii!

It seems that even though there are more websites to shop for plus size clothing, it's become harder to find just what I'm looking for. Eloquii could fill the gap in my book.

It's depressing to walk the floors of Bloomingdales and Macys, who by the way, are owned by the same "outfit." Their departments are full of tired looking clothes, big, boxy, boring things in bad colors and cheap fabrics.

I've been searching high and low for something cool to wear to West Week at the Pacific Design Center, and there's plenty to choose from on the Eloquii site.

I'd love to meet Jodi Arnold, the designer, and imagine how cool Jonathan Auerbach is, the company's private investor. He get's it that women come in all shapes and sizes and he's put his money on Eloquii and their talented team. Granted, I don't know the provenance of the name. Unlike Nordstrom's Encore department for "women," which was aptly named as their second attempt to get it right for this customer. And, I'm not even sure I'm pronouncing it correctly, but it doesn't matter, because they've got it right. In all the years I've been involved as an influencer in the plus size world, Eloquii is one of the most exciting collections to come down the web way.

Let's give Eloquii a round of applause. And if you enter your email address in the pop up window, you've got a chance to win a $250 shopping spree!

Casting Attractive, Full-Figured, Latina or African-American Woman for Oprah Winfrey Network

CASTING ATTRACTIVE, FULL-FIGURED WOMAN (Latina or African-American)

BE AN EXTRA ON NEW TV SHOW ON OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK

We are currently casting an ATTRACTIVE, FULL FIGURED AFRICAN-AMERICAN or LATINA WOMAN a(ages 18-40) for a one day shoot to be an extra on a new reality show for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

Pays $100 for 5 hour commitment.  Non-union.

Shoot is in Northridge, CA.  You must be in the greater LA area to be considered, and get yourself to the shoot location.

Shoot date:  January 27th, 2014 for appx 5 hours.

TO SUBMIT:

Be sure to mention you heard about this from Jeff Gund at INFOLIST.com, and email ALL the information requested below to:

taylorhenning02@gmail.com

Be sure to include:

1.  Your name (first and last)

2.  Contact phone number

3.  Recent photos, cleanly showing your face, and body type (jpg format please)

4.  Be sure to mention you heard about this from Jeff Gund at INFOLIST.com!

Eight Reasons You Should Take Better Care of Your Clothing

Why Your Dry Cleaner Could Be Your New BFF

This is the first in a series of posts about clothing care

 and how to make your clothes last longer.

Doing Laundry in India
Photo courtesy of abrinsky

Eight reasons why you should take good care of your clothes:

1. Protect your investment in terms of cost and shopping time

2. You love it

3. It’s one of a kind or hard to find

4. You look fabulous in it

5. It represents a memory

6. It’s collectible, or an iconic silhouette or designer

7. You wear a special size: plus, tall or petite

8. You pay to have your clothes altered

Your clothes are your identity and often, after you’ve spent hours on the hunt for just the right must-have, you’ve got an investment in time and money. Add what could be a hefty price tag for a fabulous silk T-shirt or pair of premium denim jeans, and you’re talking about a sizable sum. So what "don’t" you do when it’s time to care for your clothes?

My mother was diligent in her insistence that I learn how to care for my clothes. She rotated our seasonal wardrobes like clockwork, washed and blocked the wool by hand and held captive anything I left in a pile on the floor. Ironing is a lost art, even I don’t own one anymore, and I’ve got first hand knowledge that not everyone is conscientious about sorting colors and using the delicate cycle.

Knowing how to care for clothing and natural fibers paid off when I worked as a fashion stylist. My two worst experiences with potentially ruined, one of a kind pieces was on the sets of commercials. Had I not been armed and dangerous with the knowledge of what to do, it's possible I could have blown my career with two mishaps.

A good dry cleaners can take a load off, not only with the convenient services they offer, like having a tailor on duty, but especially for their knowledge of fabrics and various methods for cleaning and stain removal.

If you’ve ever had a bad experience with a dry cleaner, it’s likely the real culprit of any damage was the care label itself. A care label may offer information on how to clean the outer shell of a garment, but overlook mentioning the lining is made from a non-stable fiber, one that hasn’t been preshrunk, for example.



Care Label Guide Courtesy of The Soap and Detergent Association

Many fashionable fabrications and treatments developed for garments make them more difficult to clean, like premium denim. According to Robert Shapiro, General Manager at Milt & Edie’s Dry Cleaners in Burbank, California, “Premium denim jeans have a lot of different washes, embellishments and coatings, like wax. Waxed cotton requires specific care. Soap dissolves the waxed coating, which doesn’t hold up during the dry cleaning process either,” Shapiro said with a sigh. “When we see waxed cotton, we steam clean the item. We do a lot of business with the movie and TV studios, they trust us. And we never stopped cleaning by hand, we’ve always provided hand-processing services, especially for couture and vintage garments.”

A care label can be misleading and label enforcement is almost nonexistent.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) oversees compliance of the care labeling rule, which required manufacturers and importers to attach care instructions to garments. According to the FTC Website, over the last 22 years, they have only brought 16 enforcement actions.

What You Need to Know
The four most important steps you can do to ensure the longevity and wearability of your favorite things.

1. Inspect your clothes thoroughly after wearing to note any spots, spills or stains. Spot cleaning can often prevent a permanent stain. If you don't know how to spot clean, take the garment to your cleaners as soon as possible. Don’t hang it back in your closet, where it will be forgotten and the spot has time to set.

2. Inspect your things before you leave them with a dry cleaner, in order to identify possible stains and spills. Have a conversation with the manager of the dry cleaners if your garment has any of these features to make sure they have experience with this type of clothing: quilted, has a coating or special treatment, a lining, embellishments like sequins, is made of a synthetic leather or leather.

3. Look for and read the care labels in your clothes and point any specific instructions out to the dry cleaners. For example, some labels may say a certain dry cleaning chemical cannot be tolerated.

4. Be sure to make a point your garment is vintage or couture. Most vintage clothing, made before the seventies, was constructed out of natural fibers, but as such, these items are older and the fibers are weaker. If your garment hasn’t been stored or cared for properly, the dry cleaner may be able make the best decision in how to clean the garment.


Find a good dry cleaner on the Dry Cleaning & Laundry Institute website.

Milt and Edie's Drycleaners are in Burbank, California, around the corner from Warner Brothers, Disney and Universal Studios.

Vintage Vixen Reviews Affordable Couture: A New Fashion Book

Vintage Vixen has a really cool blog and she reviewed the new fashion book I wrote with Jemi Armstrong,
"Affordable Couture: A Guide to Buying and Collecting Couture."
I'm really happy Vintage Vixen liked the book and shared it with her readers.
It's the perfect gift for anyone who loves runway fashion and wants to know how to become a fashion insider.

Illustration by Jemi Armstrong,  co-author "Affordable Couture."

Affordable Couture is full of Jemi's fabulous fashion illustrations and an international directory of the best places to pay less for couture, vintage couture, high-end designer and vintage clothing in six cities.
Here's a link to her review: Vintage Vixen: Let's Go To Bed (Plus a Giveaway)

Gucci's Fat Sister: PPR, Parent Company of Gucci, Also Owns OneStopPlus

Photo of Gucci Outlet Store Courtesy of Premium Outlet Malls

It's a small world, even if you wear a larger size. If you don't read the business pages, you might not know that PPR, the parent company of Gucci, owns OneStopPlus, a popular online shopping mall.  
Francois-Henri Pinault, head of PPR, is the same  man who is married to Selma Hayek but has a love child with supermodel Linda Evangelista.  

Why I Love Shahs of Sunset

Photo of Asa courtesy of Bravo TV

I love the reality TV show Shahs of Sunset. It's true and here's why. Reality TV has opened the floodgates for diversity. Whether we like or dislike, approve or disapprove, Reality TV is a showcase for real people. And that means real women. Women with curves and all that goes with them.

In the first two episodes we saw mean girls and gayness, with an extravagance towards livin' the life.
Aren't there mean girls and gay guys everywhere? Don't you know some chicks that bitch and whine about everything? Don't most of us have a swishy pal to dish the dirt with? Don't most of us succumb at one time or another to the "I want I Gotta Haves" over something fashion related?

The Iranian community is up in arms over what they feel is an innacurate portrayal of their culture.
But is there really a cultural divide when one is young, rich and living in Beverly Hills?

I don't watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but I bet that there's a bit of bitchiness and showing off, albeit in perhaps a less obnoxious manner, they're older after all.
The RHBH live in grandeur, wear expensive, designer clothes and live La Dolce Vita. And just as the RHBH are real women, they are more like cookie cutter cut outs, more Stepford Wife than Real Life.


And then there are Asa and MJ, two of the females on Shahs of Sunset. Two completely different creatures, one short in stature and the other statuesque. One with an overbearing Persian mother, another a "gypsy" with a boho lifestyle. These two female characters have figures that are buxom, curvaceous, full, lush, voluptuous, well-rounded and zaftig, just to list a few synonyms for hot and curvy!
Whether you like the show or not, the cast's escapades are food for fodder, tweets for Twitter and a raison d'être for the Persian expat community.
Read more about the two, enterprising, curvy cast members.
Asa Soltan Rahmati and Mercedes "MJ" Javid

What Size Am I And Does It Matter?

If you live in the United States, no matter how old you are, you have probably seen a TV episode of I Love Lucy. Lucy was played by Lucille Ball, a talented actress and wonderful comedian.

In the show, she played the wife of Desi Arnaz (they were married for a few years in real life too), a Latin band leader. Lucy always wants to "be in showbiz," and the running gag in the story line is her constant pestering to "be in the show."

After one of the showgirls becomes ill, Desi offers Lucy her big chance with the caveat that she has to fit into the showgirl's costume. Can you guess what size the costume was?
The outfit the showgirl wore was a size 12. Yes, that's correct, a 12.
Fast forward to the 21st Century. There are no standard size specifications for women's clothing sizes.
Menswear sizing is still determined and sold by the numbers.
But when plus sized women shop, they are faced with the dilemma that every company has a proprietary size chart and even then, their clothing may not adhere to the chart.
In my closet I have tops that range from an XL to a 22, dresses in missy size 14 to plus 1X.
What does it mean? Nothing, except of course a lot of frustration, since many designers and companies that offer plus size clothing only sell online.
I love shopping online, and take the risk that what I order won't fit and will need to be exchanged or returned, often at my expense.
A recent online purchase ended up costing me twice as much, since the item didn't fit. I know my measurements and had checked the company's size chart before I placed the order. I was disappointed, but sent it back. The company sent back the wrong size and the top was too big! So by the time I received the third top, the cost of shipping actually doubled the cost of the top.
I'd like to say the answer is to know your measurements to prevent this type of problem.
However, knowing your measurements is only half the  equation. You must understand your body type, as well as other details like what necklines, sleeve styles and lengths fit you best.
My neighbor, who weighs at least 35 pounds more than I do, is also five inches shorter than me, yet she wears a smaller bathing suit.
A clothing designer must determine what body type he/she is going to address, which is why a lot of plus size clothing is just so...BIG. It's very hard to dress women, we come in a lot of different shapes, even if we all can wear the same size.
So when you're shopping, don't worry about the size the garment is, choose the garment that fits and looks the best. If an alteration will make the item fit even better, go for it. I know it's an additional expense, especially after you may have paid for postage. But if it fits well and looks great, you'll feel better. And you will wear it. After all, how many things are hanging in your closet that you don't wear?

Adele + Cosmo = Smoking: The New Cosmo Grrrl

While perusing the newsstand, dodging headlines about Kim Kardashian's wedding, I glanced  at Cosmopolitan's December issue. Speaking to all women, no matter what shape or size, Cosmo's cover girl is Adele. Wearing a sexy, bodice hugging leopard print top by Dolce & Gabanna, and staring boldly with her smoldering eyes next to this provocative cover line, "100 Best Sex Tips of The Year," she steals the show.

I'll always be a  Cosmo Girl at heart and it's nice to see a curvy Cosmo Grrrl!

Follow me on Twitter @plussizeblogger.

What I'm Reading Now: The Refresher Course for Plus Size Fashionistas

As high end retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue pull the plus size department from their brick & mortor business, adding to the confusion and frustration of the plus size shopping experience, along comes a fresh update on plus size fashion.
"Keeping it Curvy. Confident. Chic" by Marie Denee, editor in chief of The Curvy Fashionista,®  gives readers a strategy and plenty of encouragement on just how and where to find their curvy style and fit.
Once a stylist, always a stylist; I'm rotating my seasonal clothes this weekend, pulling recurring trends from my archive, and tidying up my closet. I can vouch for all Denee's tips.
Even though magazines like Marie Claire have begun to acknowledge plus size style, this book fills the void, regardless of whether you need to give your wardrobe a complete overhaul or just a seasonal tune-up. A great style guide, "Keeping It Curvy. Confident. Chic" cuts to the chase. You'll find everything you need to know to get dressed NOW and more.
Click here to buy Keeping it Curvy  @plussizeblogger's special price of $6.99.
Follow me on Twitter @plussizeblogger.

The End of an Era: Saks Fifth Avenue "Clothes" SalonZ

What Would Adele Do?

I never thought  I'd see this day. After years of  trying to convince designers and retailers to make clothing in plus sizes for curvy grrls, it's a sad day when  a store like Saks Fifth Avenue decides that the only way to cater to this demographic is online, and closing Salon Z.
I took a friend and client shopping at Saks a few weeks ago and was shocked and disappointed with the lack of selection. The sales associate rattled off name after name of recognizable brands who were no longer making clothing in plus sizes.
NPD, a market research firm on Long Island, New York, has said that sales of plus size clothing don't add up to correlate with the statistic of how many women in America wear a plus size. But if the number of American women actually wear a larger size, then why aren't they shopping?
Or, are they not being counted? The questions abound.
A conversation with a colleague confirmed the number of women who want fashionable clothing is still "at large."
But, she said the woman who wears a size 12/14/16 is still "The Forgotten Woman."
Anyone remember that store? A class act and one that will never be forgotten...Nancy, whereever you are.
What to do? We've got to get our act together sisters, because it's never been harder to shop, even though there is a plethora of choices online. And returns are rarely free, postage that is.
A recent swimsuit purchase caused me a lot of grief, because even though I measured myself, the swimsuits didn't fit that great. And...they were on sale, all sales final.
It used to be that a store like Nordstrom hid the intimate apparel and swim wear in the dressing room.
So the way to get rid of us is to get us out of the stores??
We're omnipresent on Twitter, on Facebook on MySpace...but a virtual grrrl still needs to get dressed.
A few years ago, as the former editor in chief of a now defunct but pioneering magazine called BBW, I went on record that there wasn't anything we couldn't find.
That may still be true, but now it's harder to find...at brick & mortar.
I don't sell, I tell. And I'm telling you, we've got to get our act together, one voice, much like the civil rights movement of the sixties....and tell these retailers what we really want, and then put our money where our mouth is!
Are you listening?

Is Plus Size Dead? Long Live The Queen, Size That Is

New York Magazine interviewed Marquita Pring, article headline: "Meet the New Girl: Marquita Pring Wants to Phase out the Term 'Plus Size'."
She's gorgeous, and she likes the word Curvy. I do too, but it's important to understand how we got to Curvy.
In the timeline of fashionable female body type silhouettes, curvy has a prominent role. Aside from the Flapper Girl of the Roaring Twenties, and sixites "it girl" Twiggy's influence on mod style, women have had some junk in the trunk or up front, depending on what century or decade. Bustles, corsets & farthingales are just the tip of the iceberg when we consider the lengths women have gone to alter their shapes.
BBW, the acronym for Big Beautiful Woman, was coined by Carole Shaw, who had been a broadway performer and singer, when she founded the magazine with this name in 1979.
The need for women's apparel in larger sizes at retail became glaringly obvious as women entered the workforce in droves during this decade. Carol Shaw was beautiful, proud and brave and she worked it, garnering a recognition for an acronym that has been co-opted as a term used mainly in online personals. Queen size was an attempt to be polite but cute. Queen size didn't really catch on, except for panty hose sizing and mattresses! By the year 2000, the term Real was being used more and more to describe a woman of size. I was an editor of one of the first online portals for this customer, RealSize dot com. Founded by Nancy Kaye, an early adoptor and not plus size herself, RealSize dot com was a fun and informational, magazine style portal with interactive sales features that let you purchase the clothing showcased in the fashion pages. Real Simple magazine (unrelated to anything plus size) was founded in 2000, capitalizing on the concept of authenticity. Fast forward to the 21st Century, and the online explosion of opportunity and options for every woman, but particularly the younger plus size grrrl, whose voice is as real as her authentic self. Taking a cue from the confidence women of size in ethnic cultures regally bare, curvy girls started popping up, strutting their stuff in cute, short, tight, colorful and sexy clothing, mostly available on the internet or in stores like Torrid. The Curvy movement has steam, stamina and sex appeal! Just look at some of my gal pals on Twitter! @CurvyMagazine, @CurvesandChaos, @Curvatude.
At the recent Full Figure Fashion Week LA, founded by Gwen Devoe, I met up with a lot of curvy girls.
The torch for Plus still burns bright, no matter what you call it, fueled by the ongoing need, passion and desire for stylish clothing that fits at all price points.

Add blog to our blog directory.

Buxom Chick: H&M Online Plus Size Collection to Launch

Buxom Chick: H&M Online Plus Size Collection to Launch

IGIGI by Yuliya Raquel Presents a Marc DePaola Film - 'I Am Beautiful!', Starring Rosie Mercado

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.

The State of the Curvy Community at FFF Weekend LA

*photo courtesy of NOW

It was a passionate group who gathered to listen to a panel discussing The State of the Curvy Community as part of Full Figure Fashion Week, founded by Gwen DeVoe. Bold, beautiful and curvy Chenese Lewis, president of the Hollywood chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) moderated the panel.  Lewis recently made headlines when she posed nude with America's Next Top Model Whitney Thompson as a battle cry for Love Your Body Day, launched by NOW in 1998.
An eclectic mix of representatives from the Curvy Community included actress Sharon Quinn, Reah Norman, fashion director of Plus Model Magazine, Heinrich Saint-Germain from Judgement of Paris, R&B artist Kelly Price, and Judge Karen Mills-Francis.
The mostly African American audience was very vocal about the general lack of availability of quality clothing that fit and what they perceive to be the cold shoulder given to them by Seventh Avenue. The bloggers, retailers, reps from clothing companies, stylists, photographers and plus size models also in attendance, agreed with the consensus that there's a pervasively negative attitude towards being associated with "fatties." Fatty is the new N word, and a recent provocative Marie Claire blog provoked over a thousand comments, some of which were full of fat venom.
The glaring issues facing what is said to be approximately two thirds of the American female population,
are real. A recent Los Angeles Times story discussed the some of the daunting challenges designers and retailers deal with in serving women who wear a larger size.
Nothing's changed in the more than 20 years I've been a member of this club. We've come a long way baby, but the average woman, who allegedly is about 5'5" tall, weighs about 163 pounds and wears a size 14 is still struggling to get dressed.
The few "real women" ad campaigns haven't generated any growth in the use of models and actors who portray the more realistic image of the average consumer.
One of the biggest gripes voiced during the panel discussion was a dearth of plus size models used in advertising, yet no one could answer the age old question, 'how big is big?' Is size 14 representative, size 18, or larger? When I went to work for Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) as the fashion editor in 1991, it was hard to find clothing samples large enough to put on a real plus size model. Subscribers to BBW constantly wrote in to ask how to get companies to use larger models. The same holds true today, and perhaps even more so with the global economy squeezing manufacturers and retailers.
The Internet has fostered entrepreneurship in this lively community. If you Google, you can find just about anything you could ever desire in just about any size. Whether the quality is great, the price justified or the fit accurate, at least it exists. In order for these special size businesses to succeed, they will need the support of the women who say they don't have enough choice. Three specialty fashion magazines, BBW, Mode and It Figures (published by Lane Bryant),  have gone out of business in the last twenty years, all for lack of advertising dollars, indicating the sales at retail just didn't add up.
According to NPD, a retail and consumer behavior research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y., sales of plus size clothing account for only 17% of all women's apparel.
But that raises a question. How are the sales calculated? Is there an arcane method, like the Neilsen Ratings, where only a limited number of house hold viewing habits represent the entire country? The Neilsen Ratings, derived from people 18 - 49, only recently added college students age 21 and up living in college dorms, yet surveys indicate the average age of the TV viewer is 50.
As the two hour panel wrapped up, Lewis called for solutions to resolve the dilemmas of this vibrant demographic.
The usual meet and greet fest afterwards was warm and fuzzy.  I hadn't seen actress Kim Coles  in a few years, we met in the "green room,"at one of the many TV shows I've appeared on. The owners of Abundance, an elegant and chic, large size clothing boutique in Los Angeles were passing out copies of the LA Times article I mentioned earlier. One thing was clear, the Curvy Community is a dynamic and friendly crowd ready for action!

Scouring Paris for the latest in fashion via - latimes.com

Singer Beth Ditto walked the catwalk for Gaultier. It's not the first time he's used a larger woman as a muse and it won't be the last. Gaultier and others in fashion shock us with provocative images of the unexpected to remind everyone there are other creatures on the planet besides the skeletal, barely legal waifs that often grace the narrows of fashion's future.
This year's fashion formula combines a Louise Brooks' flapper bob, a Mae West meets Shirley Temple ensemble, and Kabuki meets Amy Winehouse make-up to astound us with the ultimate Kewpee Doll, Beth Ditto!

Booth Moore's coverage of the runways in Paris provides insight on what we'll be wearing next spring.
Some welcome relief comes with the update.
Three trends emerged as fresh:
Black is in the shadows for spring, except for the continuing detour towards punk. Colors we haven't seen in awhile are blooming in multiples on floral prints, and skirt lengths are going down, down, down.
But as Moore says, no one's a slave to hemlines, still, more options are always welcome.

*photo (Benoit Tessier, Reuters / October 1, 2010) via the Los Angeles Times

Survive a Role in Your Own Disaster Movie - Get HomeBody to Help!

Jillian Hessel is a friend of mine.  We met in 1994 after I almost starred in my own disaster movie.
 I was in my office at BBW magazine, where at the time I was working as an editor writing and styling fashion, fitness and beauty...and all of a sudden there was an earthquake.
It was the first earthquake I'd ever experienced.
The building started to vibrate, it was on rollers, common in California, so it was very subtle at first, but then the quake really kicked in and the building seemed to lurch and my bookcases were tipping over, stuff was sliding off shelves, furniture was moving across the room in slow motion and I dived under my desk.
The violent shaking didn't last long, but when I crawled out from under my desk to survey the damage, my legs were a bit wobbly.
I was putting everything back in place, when I picked up some press kits off the floor. As I shuffled through them, I noticed several of them were for fitness products and experts. I set them on my desk.
I realized I had just narrowly escaped some sort of disaster and that this earthquake stuff was for real! And unlike tornadoes, where you get ample warning most of the time, could happen again, anytime.
The little trembler had shaken me up but there wasn't any damage to the building...this time.
I got my office back in shape and started thinking about how I would survive an earthquake or any disaster for that matter.
I reached for the pile of fitness press kits and opened the one from Jillian Hessel, a Pilates expert. I had just recently heard something about Pilates so I put that one on the top of the pile. Pilates sounded interesting and different.
I was going to need help to get strong enough to survive a starring role in my own disaster movie. And this was before reality TV!
Imagine...you're in your office and the big one strikes. What would you do?
My mind quickly raced back to the moments of the biggest jolts and easily imagined the building coming apart at the seams. Or worse, how 'bout that de riguer move for every damsel in distress in action flicks, you know the one, where the woman is hanging on by one hand over the edge... of something, and just in the nick of time the dashing hero saves her. Yeah, how many of you can hang by one hand? I couldn't even do a pull up at that time, well I still can't really.
I mean I could picture myself trapped in an elevator with a bunch of scared and screaming people.  Someone would suggest we try to escape through the elevator shaft....you've seen that storyline too...well could you, would you, climb into the shaft to escape?
And while I was asking myself the same question, it got worse,  cuz it hit me the boyz won't be looking for me. Nope, Bruce, Arnold,  or even Claude, none of them would have me on their radar.  I was going to have to save myself.
So I called Jillian's publicist, Kyrian Corona, to thank her for sending me the information and made an appointment to meet Jillian. And that began my ongoing quest to save myself if in case I find myself starring in my very own disaster.
Sixteen years later I'm still friends with them both and still working with Jillian.
She's helped me find strength, balance and better posture among the benefits that are too many to list. I'm grateful for the other friendships I've forged as a result of Pilates. With Jillian's guidance  and understanding of the way a body works, I can say that Pilates profoundly and positively helped me through several illnesses, including a recent hip replacement.

Jillian has a new workout DVD called Homebody.

It's really fun and easy to do. You can do it anywhere and don't need anything special in terms of equipment or clothing.

I took a screener to Europe last year and one of my friends, a bona fide couch potato, was up on her feet, making the moves before she even realized it!

Jillian created Homebody for those of us who need help finding the time to exercise, and in these uncertain economic times, for those of us who can't afford the gym, the trainer or the weekly class.
Check it out. Jillian designed the movements based on her love and awareness of yoga, dance and Pilates. There are three options, standing, seated and floor work.
I do the seated arms and hands dance every few days at my desk!
Give Homebody a try,  next time there's something shakin' you'll be the star!
About dot com reviewed Homebody

Forever 21 Comes To Their Senses! Faith 21 Name Change

I always scratch my  head in wonder when a brand names their plus size division some stupid or irrevalent name. For example, there are a few of you who may remember Liz Claiborne's plus size line called Elizabeth!! So when Forever 21 launched Faith 21 I was surprised. Wouldn't you want the customers who couldn't shop with you because the size range wasn't "wide enough" hit the floors and the buy button online?
Seems they've come to their senses, and a name change is in the works.