Video: Behind The Scenes of A SVOBODA Photoshoot!

Hey Fans! Check out behind this video! It shows the very sexy Katie H. modeling for SVOBODA! Talk about a healthy, curvy and natural beauty! If you like it, let us know with your comments!

Full Figured Fashion Week

Got a chance to attend the opening event at the 2nd annual Full Figured Fashion Week in NYC. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: if you ever get the chance to check out a curvy girl fashion show, you’ve GOT to do it. You really understand that there are all shapes and sizes, and it doesn’t matter how you wear what you wear as long as you WORK IT on the runway! Gwen DeVoe, who put this shindig together, captured that essence as MC. Actually, the style was so big and bold from the women attending the event that you didn’t even need to see what was on the runway to get buzzed. Howevs…some very fun designers up there. The one we were most into was The Angel Alternative, who draws on styles from the 60s and 70s to create Diana Ross-meets-Beyonce looks for luscious ladies. The audience went craziest for Chan.nel Karama, who did this kind of crazy futuristic chopped up leather/pleather thing that was really fashion forward and also had a sense of humor. Imagine that! Just My Size also unveiled new lo-fi sportswear; Pure Energy from Target featured some looks that were cute, summery fun. The classics from Kiyonna were what we really longed to take home. The event was sponsored by Sonsi, which sounds like some kind of female prophylactic, but is actually a new community/shopping site for curvy girls. Thank you sponsors. And check out more events from FFFWeek here.

(Re)Shop

Went to a great little shop in Brooklyn over the weekend called Re/Dress, where owner Deb Malkin offers vintage and modern plus-size wear in a multitude of styles. Deb invited shoppers to meet Alyssa Roberti, a senior at Parsons who is fighting to put together a plus-size line. Go Alyssa! Also managed to pick up a couple pair of jeans, a cute jacket and some earrings. Was fun to go to the shop just to check out the rockabilly/Varga style of the saleswomen there. Some of the shop talk centered around Crystal Renn’s new bikini-baring Glamour cover, which also features a very helpful piece about finding the right swimsuit for your shape. Then once you wear it…sell it! And wear sunscreen, please. Ladies were also chatting about the upcoming “Full Figured Fashion Week” in NYC this June. Runway shows, panels and shopping. Sounds fantastic and we’re going to find out more details…

Big Bras

In light of Lane Bryant Bra-gate, New York Magazine asks an interesting question this week: Why Don’t More Designers Make Plus Size Bras? Lots of designers do, of course, but they either look like they were made for Grandmama to wear among the Mennonites, or else they are ridiculously expensive. Prima Donna bras, for example, are gorgeous and really do the job of holding up a big bust…but they run well north of $100. So what’s a B.B.G. to do? Work a variety, and take very good care of les brassieres (that means they don’t go in the washer/dryer, ladies). Could also seems like lingerie designers shy away from the larger looks for that old, subtle judgmental reasoning that prevents them from designing plus size clothing in general. They must figure, what kind of girl needs that big a bra? Either a slutty one or a fat one. Not true, designers, not true! Maybe the most startling figure is that in ten years, the average American woman’s cup size has gone from a 36C to a 36DD! Of course, Heidi Montag throws off the national average for all of us, but still…why do you think that is? Implants? Extra curves? Hype?

(photo credit: Chris Weeks/Wireimage)

Boobs

What a week for boobs. Boobs that are too big, boobs that are too small. But are there any boobs that are just right? First there was all this online muttering about Kate Hudson, and did she get breast implants? From pics you’d assume she did, but just a bit of implant. A mini-implant. A mimplant? Then Sharon Osbourne announced that she was having her breast implants removed and made into paperweights for Ozzy’s desk. The shocker about that one? OZZY HAS A DESK. What does he do there? What kind of papers could he possibly have flying around that need to be weighted down? Tax information? Monthly bills from his tattoo artist? Hilarious. And finally, there’s “Lane’s Secret.” ABC and Fox apparently refused to air a lingerie ad for Lane Bryant’s Cacique featuring gorgeous model Ashley Graham in her Barely Theres. Too much skin, they said. Too much cleavage. Well, bless those marketing geniuses over at LB who as of this posting have almost a million hits on that ad on You Tube, nonstop press coverage, and a promise to air the ad during the last 10 minutes of next week’s American Idol, which is the primo ad space on all of prime time television. And call us crazy, but we wouldn’t have even noticed the ad was for plus-size lingerie, based on Ashley’s va-va-voom and the ad’s (intentional) likeness to a Victoria’s Secret spot. Plus, we really like that magenta balcony number. Not your mother’s lingerie, indeed!

Britney Spears, Humanitarian?

Britney Spears pulled off a major act of humanitarianism this week. Not opening a school in Africa, or adopting an orphanage’s worth of underprivileged kids, but revealing the photographs from her Candies ads before they’d been retouched. So we can compare and contrast. She looks so damn good, it’s hard to figure out what needs to get touched up anyway. Does a waist one inch smaller really sell more pairs of shoes? It was apparently also news this week that makeup ads are considerably altered. That’s right, they use extensions in shampoo ads and false eyelashes on celebs to advertise mascara that has the superhuman power to grow lashes 3x the size of yours in a matter of seconds. Welcome to the world of advertising. Even the juicy burger you see in a restaurant ad is sprayed with oil to look juicier. The whipped cream someone licks off an ice cream sundae? Sometimes it’s shaving cream. It just looks better (but it definitely tastes worse).

This isn’t (necessarily) evil. People who send out baby announcements and re-touched the baby. It’s the way of the digital world. But we have to remember that what we see ISN’T NECESSARILY REAL. There’s barely an image in a mag, online or on the big screen that hasn’t been manipulated in some way. You can change a moving image pixel by pixel, even on live television. Just try to remember that the next time you’re tempted to look at Britney’s tiny tush and sigh.

Watchers Watch

Finally caught the new Weight Watchers ad campaign spots featuring Jennifer Hudson. A few thoughts: first of all, J-Hud looks frickin’ fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that it’s almost impossible to believe her new figure is not somehow enhanced by surgical intervention, Photoshop, and/or extreme shapewear. Not to say she isn’t doing W.W., or losing weight with diet and exercise, it’s just that…losing that much weight, such a dramatic change to her figure just eight months after giving birth…it’s positively Gisele-ian! No accusations, just observations.

We have to give props to Weight Watchers for appearing to be light-years ahead of their competitors in terms of image. All those commercials and print ad featuring actresses posing in bathing suits seem so 1980s. Like, “We’re cool Marie/Valerie/Sara, you can go back to step aerobics now.” Miz Hudson looks very contemporary and sleek, and we liked seeing her in clothes rather than out of them. But what really makes her rock is not her size, but her shape. MOST EXCELLENT FASHION STYLING. Tight, fitted jeans, a jacket that nips in at the waist, cool boots, a pop of color. There’s not a curvy figure va-va-vooming down the block that wouldn’t look damn sleek and sexy working those shapes.

(photo credit: wireimage)

Saturday Night Wow

What MAJOR news earlier this week that Gabourey Sidibe will be hosting Saturday Night Live on April 24th (only outshadowed by the news that the Facebook campaign to make 88-year old Betty White a host succeeded!). We have often complained that the forceful or curvy women they dramatize on the show – Oprah, Whoopi, Joy Behar, etc. – are played by dudes. Part of this is about desexualizing them – how could a plus-size woman be sexy, Lorne Michaels must wonder? – and the other part is that THEY’VE NEVER CAST A PLUS SIZE WOMAN IN THE 35-YEAR HISTORY OF THE SHOW. Always a fat dude (Belushi, Farley, etc.), but never a non-string bean girl. We’re curious to see what kind of roles Gabby will play – we have no doubt she’ll bring her trademark vivaciousness and talent to each one. But when they do a Precious parody (eek, the thought gives us bad taste chills), they’ll probably have Kenan Thompson play Mo’Nique. Note to executive producer Lorne Michaels, who reportedly told superstar Tina Fey that she couldn’t get on air until she got on Weight Watchers: Time to cast a girl with curves. And note to Howard Stern, who said that Gabby wouldn’t get work in Hollywood due to her size: Suck it.

“Big Life” Crisis

We couldn’t resist. We tuned into “Kirstie Alley’s Big Life” when it premiered this week on A&E. We like Kirstie, we really do. She has such charisma and vulnerability…but whoa, that show is a train wreck. Can’t tell what she wants from the audience. She’s clearly ambivalent about losing weight, and yet she’s starting some sort of weight loss product line. (If you want to see ambivalence in action, you should see Carnie Wilson try to struggle out of Dr. Oz’s well-intentioned clutches.)

We were struck by how regressive she was. Kirstie’s like a lonely little girl in a dollhouse (complete with LEMURS!!!), hoping someone will come over and play with her. Felt really bad for the lady. Strangest thing was a convo she has with her teenaged kids, as she wonders why she is such a target for hateful paparazzi. She asks the kids, “You know how there are all those other fat actresses out there – why do they pick on me?” First of all, WHAT other fat actresses? Second, none of these other mysterious fat actresses put a show on the air called “Fat Actress.” Can you blame them for the zing? We want someone to hire Kirstie and put her in a really great role that takes advantage of her talent – a role that’s not herself.

PS Kirstie’s got style, but she can’t find the right clothes to save her life. There aren’t enough maxi-dresses in the world, honey…if only we could get her in a great pair of jeans. Hmm, where do we find those…?

Props!

Let’s start with props!

Props: to Tyra Banks, who created the “Fiercely Real Teen Model Search” on her daily talk show. Thank goodness, because the token plus-sized girl on “America’s Next Top Model” always got the boot. The winner is an absolutely gorgeous 17-year old named Sheridan Watson. She’s a curvy, confident size 14. We think she represents beauty and style that the average girl can reach for and achieve. What we really like about her is the way she struts in a great pair of jeans. Are they SVOBODA? If not, we’ll have to get a pair on her beautiful booty.

Props: to Marchesa. You knew that anyone who ended up dressing Gabourey Sidibe, star of Precious, for the Oscars was going to get some attention. But unlike the high-end designers who would rather DIE than see their frocks on a fat girl (this means YOU, Karl Lagerfield), Marchesa designed a custom gown for Gabby that looked just right on her. We’re still shocked that girl who could be so shut down and out in a movie could be so light and sparkly in real life. Acting!

Props: to Entertainment Weekly. We giggled ourselves silly when they posted pics of all the latest books that feature plus-size heroines – all the covers see to have thighs on them (we’re hunting for it online, but for now look it up in the 3/5/10 issue). Fat thighs. Skinny thighs. Thighs with heels. Thighs at the beach. Guess you can’t judge a book by its cover – but you can judge your size by your thighs?