Monday, May 30, 2011

Be BOLD not bashful at the beach! With Monif C Swimwear

Plus size women should not hide behind shapeless wraps, and frumpy swimwear.  We should not feel the need to cringe when we think of going to the beach...if we're going to go to the beach...let's go to the damn beach! And, lets dress like we're going there! Give me a little pizazz! Not long pants and a long sleeve shirt...that's not beach attire! We don't deserve to swim in pools of sweat, while others get to enjoy a refreshing dip! Claim your space! Get a little sand...and claim yourself!

Enter Monif C Swimwear.  Monif C is amazing! I admire her very much! She have given plus size women a voice, and it is a powerful one! She makes the most beautiful clothing with stunning lines and bold pops of color! She continues to be a favorite at the yearly Full Figure Fashion Week, and everywhere else! Check out her swimsuits, and a great interview at

Thursday, May 26, 2011

For all sizes...All Haile the Queen

Queen Latifah is a force to be reckoned with.  She is a multi-media, multi-talented, madly successful woman, with an excellent sense of style! She is bringing her style to the masses along with a message, "remove plus-size from the style-vocabulary" and replace it with "all sizes."  In the Look, on the Today show, Queen Latifah is quoted as saying, (Queen Latifah specifically took issue with what she thinks is disrespect for “larger girls” as consumers, who are often relegated to their own areas in stores and online.)
"I felt the marketplace didn't respect us in the way it should,” she said. “I was not going to step out with a clothing line that didn't respect a fuller-figured woman or a curvaceous woman, and really all women." Heck yea! Finally, someone who gets it.  How refreshing is it that someone has realized that larger women want to be able to wear the same outfits as "everyone else."  Why can't we all share in the joy, that is fashion and style.  Last I heard, a sense of style does not come with a size requirement! 

Check out the Look article http://bit.ly/meie9x

Sunday, May 22, 2011

No matter how you word it...it's still lipstick on a pig. Review of BridesMaids after viewing

I continue to ponder the movie, BridesMaids.  After having seen the movie, my thoughts are still the same.   There are a few scenes from the movie, that really stand out to me.

The restaurant scene where they have the plus size character "gallop" towards the restaurant, ahead of the rest of the group, like she can't control herself, once she sees the possibility of food, of the opportunity of being able to eat.  Once they are seated at the restaurant, a thin bridesmaid makes a comment that she's not going to eat any meat because she doesn't want to feel bloated before the fitting.  The plus size character responds, "That she physically doesn't bloat (her plate is piled high with meat, the thin women has a salad on her plate) that it's a gift."  The audience laughs out loud at this statement.  Why is that funny? Why does it make it ok to equate bloating with the plus size woman's shape?

In the fitting scene, the plus size character is the only who is fitted in a long sleeve, long length dress.  The other bridesmaids are wearing skin baring dresses. There's also a scene where the plus size character hits on a man on the plane very aggressively, and he looks disgusted.  She is very aggressive and vulgar.  The audience erupted in laughter.  If a thin bridesmaid would have been substituted in for the plus size bridesmaid, would the audience have reacted the same way? I think not...I think the audience would say that because the substituted bridesmaid was thin, it makes these same "vulgar, aggressive" acts, turn into "hot, dominating" acts, all because of how the character is portrayed. 

The producers, in their defense, would point to the scene where the plus size character goes to motivate Wig's character.  She is the only one of the bridesmaids to go and check on her.  She gives a motivating, yet unfeminine "fight club" style speech.  The plus size character shares her story of struggle with Wig's character, which ends with the plus size character saying that because of her struggle, she has become wildly successful.."you are your own problem, and your own solution" she states in the movie.  I feel that this is another "lipstick" portion of the show.  True, it is very motivating to see that she has become very successful, but why portray her so poorly throughout the rest of the show? Why berate her femininity, in order to show that she is strong.  Why can't you have a plus size woman be portrayed as both sexy and strong?

Regardless of this "golden nugget" that the producers "kindly bestow" on the plus size character, the audience is left with an upsetting last scene.  The scene is the plus size character, and the man she hit on, are making a sex tape.  But, of course, since this is the plus size character, there must be food involved, even in a sex tape.  It is a giant sub sandwich that holds that plus size characters attention.  She makes a move on the sandwich, before she makes a move on the man.  The audience erupts in laughter.  Why is this funny?

Saturday, May 14, 2011

BridesMaids the movie pre-viewing...Are they trying to say she's a pig or a person?!?!

The movie Bridesmaids is supposed to be the movie that turns romantic comedies on its head, that rebuttals the all mighty classification of "chic flick" that shows that women can be goofy, gross, and still maintain their femininity, but do they mean "all" women? I don't think so.

 If you look at the characters in the movie, you can see that there is a separation between the plus-size friend and the rest of the friends.  As my good friend points out, you can see the physical separation between the plus-size friend and the rest of the friends, right on the ad for this movie.  The "big" girl is left standing out on her own, barely in the ad, while the rest of the friends are huddled in together. 

Also, the plus-size woman is not given any fashionable clothes or make up in this movie, while everyone else is well dressed and polished.  It seems as though the producers realized that they probably shouldn't have the plus-size woman totally defeminized, so they threw on a snug fitting pearl necklace, in a last ditch effort to give her some "girly" quality that the rest of the thin characters have.  My good friend states it perfectly by saying, "adding that pearl necklace is like putting lipstick on a pig." I feel like the producers don't feel that this woman, because she is plus-sized, deserves to be given the same assumed rights of femininity that the rest of the female cast automatically assumes. 

There is a trailer that shows the plus-size character hitting on a man, and he is totally disgusted by her. He cannot believe that she is hitting on him.  Her girlfriends are laughing at their plus-size friend, while she is hitting on this man.  What kind of friends are those?  What is that scene and this movie saying to everyone? That that kind of behavior is ok? That you should be grateful that a plus-size woman is featured in the movie, and too bad if you don't like it that she is the butt of the joke? The producers will use the defense that she is the "bad ass character," but, I am not buying it.  I think this is just another example of how this society thinks that plus-size women are should be valued  less than "normal" size women and that it is ok to treat plus size women poorly. 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A Black "Dress"...Stylish or Silencing? Can you have the power of expression with a Burka?

In a scene from the movie, Sex and the City 2,  the four friends find themselves in a roomful of their burka clad heroes, who have just saved them from a mob of angry men (provoked from Samantha's protests about their conservative ideals.) Carrie tells the women that they are from New York, and the women in burkas all start talking.  Carrie asks them, "Have you been to New York?" The women reply that they have not, but that they "love the fashion."  The women then take off their burkas and reveal the entire Louis Vuitton Spring collection.  Carrie narrates, "There in the dried flower shop, halfway across the world, under 100s of years of tradition, was this year's Spring collection."  The women look like gorgeous Spring flowers popping up after the long winter.  Although, the women are dressed in black, they retain their own individuality and style, even if they have to wear it close to the vest. 

In another scene, the four friends are wearing burkas to get past the mob of men to make their plane.  They are trying to grab a taxi, but none of the taxis are stopping for them.  Then Carrie lifts up the hem of her burka and shows a little leg...this gets the next taxi to stop immediately. 

This begs the question...can a burka be stylish and sexy?

One woman is trying to make it so.  Meet Lela Ahmadzai.  She is the creator of the project and product called Burka Meets Haute Couture.  She draws on both her internship at Malhia Kent in Paris, a company that designs and produces luxury fabrics for both the ready-to-wear and couture markets (including Chanel), and combines that knowledge with the history of her homeland, Afghanistan.  During this project, she creates ten wearable burkas, combining traditional Afghan elements with self woven fabrics.  Ms. Ahmadzai says that she wants her wearers "to feel legal, sexy, and feminine...and that a traditional veil can be seen as erotic and seductive." The gorgeous fabrics that she created for these burkas comes many different colors from misty grays to vivacious pinks.  There is great beauty infused into the tradition of the burkas that she has created.  A woman is able to wear her style on the outside with these amazing and awe-inspiring creations.

Check out Ms. Ahmadzai's website: http://www.burkameetshautecouture.com/hm_englisch.htm