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?

The Washington Post Takes Interest in FFF Week

Robin Givhan, a Washington Post Staff Writer who covers style, covered Full Figured Fashion Week in her paper yesterday.
Every few years the media gets around to writing about the plus size dilemma - obesity is on the rise, yet if you prowl the malls, there are few stores that carry women's sizes past 12 or 14.
It seems that a lot of women are still mad because they can't find the styles they want to wear available in their size.
I've never been an activist or pushed the size acceptance agenda, but I have spoken out about self esteem.  I've had a wonderful career dedicated to helping women of size look and feel better in their clothing, usually with a quip like "stripes make you look thinner, so sport your own stripe," if I'm giving tips on how to look slimmer.
You probably know I was a fashion editor and editor at Big Beautiful Woman magazine (BBW.) Because BBW magazine was owned by Larry Flynt, a famous pornographer, it was disdained by many in the apparel and advertising world.
I still find it interesting that the same man whose activities held up our Fifth Amendment rights, was the man who bought BBW magazine from the founder, Carol Shaw.
Larry knew that  mainstream tastes for what is beautiful ran the gamut, since he is famous for publishing magazines that focus on body parts and fetishes.
Nobody else believed that plus size women were important to their bottom line. 
But plus size women do count. According the article in the Washington Post, almost half of black women  and about one-third of American and Hispanic females are obese. That's a lot of gals with buying power.
I don't want to march to the beat of a different drummer, I don't want to protest or be angry. The sixties are fifty. I just want to get dressed, I want to feel and look good. I want to look pretty. How 'bout you?
*Photo Credit: Photo of  Rosie Mercado courtesy of Helayne Seidman-For The Washington Post

Gwen DeVoe Launched Full Figured Fashion Week

Gwen DeVoe founded Full Figured Fashion Week. Congrats Gwen. I'm glad you had the balls to sally forth and conquer!
I was at the forefront of the BBW brigade in the eighties and nineties, producing plus size fashion shows in New York City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and an annual national plus model search.
We got Entertainment Tonight to cover one of our plus size fashion shows in New York. It was exciting.
What you're doing is STILL groundbreaking and never before has the number of women who wear a larger size been bigger. Shocking as it may be, with everyone from the Surgeon General to Moms who police school campus vending machines bemoaning the perils of childhood obesity and comedians taking open shots on fatties, the fact is, women have money to spend, they want to get dressed, and that smells like opportunity to me. Some of the sexiest women on the planet, including Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, and Jane Russell, pictured here...have been a bit fleshy.



Check out FFFWeek on Twitter #SonsiFFFWeek

Plus Size Model Search Announced Today

Re/Dress NYC is hosting a model search!
Here's a quote from the New York City retail store owner who is hosting the search.
"Our goal is to find someone who's beautiful inside and out," said Re/Dress NYC store owner Deb Malkin, 40, who lives in Red Hook. "Plus-sized women deal with a lot of negativity, so we're showing something positive."

I used to produce an annual model search for BBW magazine.
Here's a cover featuring the winners from 1995.
Wonder where all the winners are today? If you know anyone who was a BBW model, tell them to contact me at Linda.Arroz@gmail.com

Thanks to Chenese Lewis for pointing out the article in the New York Daily News today.
Go for it and good luck!

Rumor Has It: Designers Cutting Back on Plus Size Clothing

Rumor has it that designers and clothing manufacturers are cutting back on making plus size clothing.
Cutting back by offering less in the size ranges 1x-3x and 14 - 16.
If the actual average size of the American woman is size 16, then I say, wtf??
As a former editor of BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) I had to go on advertising sales calls to potential advertisers.
Sadly, the demographics at that time, 91-95, indicated that overweight women were in lower paid jobs with less discretionary income. So in spite of say, a company that wants to sell sunscreen or body lotion, and my readers would by default use almost 2x as much due to their size, the companies usually declined to advertise.
We relied on clothing companies to place ads in the magazine.
I don't know if those demographics are true today, with the rise in obesity rates and the high numbers of citizens who are just overweight vs obese.
But I do know this. I've cut back on clothing purchases because I don't like the styles offered in my size, and right now, depending on where I shop and how the item is made, I wear a department store XL, a Lane Bryant 14, a regular size 16 and 18, and there's something in my closet that's an 18W. No wonder women aren't buying anything. The sheer effort to find anything that fits, no matter what size you wear, is a bore. And check out this drab, dowdy shirt made by DKNY for $99.00! Why would any of us pay $100 dollars for a shirt that looks like a budget offering from a cheap catalog. This looks like a shirt you would do housework in.
I heard Donna Karan got fat. A designer friend told me, but I haven't checked it out.
I'd love to work with her on the plus size division. It should be item driven, not a collection. Lots of classic pieces always available. That was her original concept.
I had a pair of DKNY cotton wide leg draw string pants that were fabulous, in fact a friend gave them to me, I wore them for ten years, and I just passed them on to a friend. They are suitably aged! That pant was from Donna's first foray years ago and then the collection dumbed down and it didn't survive at retail.