Igigi Dress Review

DISCLOSURE: The dress in this post was provided for review purposes by IGIGI. The content of this entry was not dictated by IGIGI, but I kept the dress for my personal use. Links to the IGIGI site in this entry are affiliate links for Weetacon.

I feel incredibly fortunate to know Wendy Bix. She is witty, beautiful, creative and inspiring. And, if I am smart, I make sure to board an airplane and get myself to the magical land of Wisconsin for the yearly conference she hosts/plans/organizes. She is a powerful women and so.

As in past years, those of us girls who are larger than a size 12 have the opportunity to receive an Igigi dress. In these pics I am wearing Sommer, in size 14/16. Since there is no standard sizing in women’s clothing lines I will share with you that I am 5’7″ and usually wear a 1X, or 16/18 in non-plus sizes.

I love the pattern, and I love the easy wearability of the soft stretchy fabric. I was a little nervous about the style because my boobs are rather generous (ok 42DDD), and I tend to spill out the top. I am thrilled that it fits in the front! I also really like the Shapestylist aspect of the Igigi website, which helps you figure out what size to order based on your measurements and body type. This was very helpful and as you can see, the dress fits like a dream. My one complaint is that it is a bit clingy in the back, but since I usually wear a body shaper under my clingy dresses it isn’t really an issue.

I do plan to have it shortened so that the hem rests just above my knee.

 

 

Now seriously go look at the other reviews! Go to our Weetacon IGIGI page. You should check out the all the reviews because once again there is a give away!

How to participate in the IGIGI Weetacon Giveaway: Go to the IGIGI website and pick out your ideal dress for a special occasion, important business meeting, date night or what have you. Then leave a comment on this review, telling us which garment YOU want and where you plan on wearing it. You can increase your chances of winning an IGIGI gift certificate by leaving comments on each of the other Weetacon IGIGI reviews at this page. Comments must be received by May 14 at midnight PST. Winners will be notified and announced on this page and the IGIGI at Weetacon 2013 page by May 18th
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A review of the One Stop Plus Fashion Show

I have a love/hate relationship with fashion week. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend several exciting, glamorous Fashion Week runway shows over the years, not as media, but as somebody with friends who were in a position to put my name on a list. Thank you, you know who you are, and I still owe you a bottle of wine.

I really love the fashion shows. I love watching those lanky models pout and strut. I love the fantasy world created by theatrics and expensive fabric. I love the swag bags. And honestly, I have never felt upset about not seeing plus size models on the runway because I just enjoyed the show.

I do hate the extra mid-town traffic during fashion week, the (even more impossible) impossibility of getting a reservation at my favorite New York City restaurants, the photographers everywhere crowding sidewalks.

I arrived at the One Stop Plus show a bit late and while I would like to blame it on traffic, the truth is I left the house about an hour late. I believe that time actually moves faster when I am fretting about what to wear and what not to wear. I would like a phycisist to research my theory. Call me, ok?

Sadly I missed the champagne reception before the show but I was very pleased with the delightful staff who found my name on the list and got me to my seat. Thank you One Stop Plus for the excellent seat with a perfect view of all the models and right across from all the celebs.

I was directly across the runway and oh-so-close to KayCee Stroh of High School Musical (A movie I have seen several times because Zac Efron is dreamy. Yeah, I said it), Tyra’s Pick and America’s Next Top Model Whitney Thompson, the lovely and talented model (and quite frankly one of my personal style icons) Emme, the adorable and talented Nikki Blonsky, and the extremely talented Gabourey Sidibe.

Click on each pic to see larger version.

I will admit that I was a bit nervous that this was going to be a train wreck, and while I won’t go that far the best I can say is that One Stop Plus pulled off an entertaining runway show, which is truly an accomplishment. I can not say that One Stop Plus presented a fashion-forward collection but they did present a cohesive on-trend collection that featured cute separates and some evening wear.

The separates in the collection offered cute tops with shiny embellishments, while the pants shown on the runway had a lot of variety from fitted to draped fabric. Some of the evening wear was actually quite lovely. Many of the dresses featured goddess draped fabric, working the ancient Greek look without becoming too cheesy. Every outfit was perfectly accessorized and the models were gorgeous. From now on I will miss the presence of fuller figures in other runway shows.

One Stop Plus famously owns several plus size clothing companies while exclusively featuring size 0 and 2 models on their websites and in their catalogs. Seeing the amount of publicity gained I would say that this is a huge success for One Stop Plus. Whether or nor this is also an achievement for plus size fashion will only be clear in time. I am eager to see what happens over the next couple of seasons but I am feeling more optimisitic about seeing fuller figures on a runway, and having more designers include plus sizes, than I’ve ever been before.

One Stop Plus Fashion Show in the News:
People
InStyle.com
One Stop Plus Facebook page for the professional photos:
Photos from One Stop Plus Facebook page

The Best Dress Review I Have Ever Read by my friend Jessica

Today I am pleased to present a dress review of the Igigi “Modena” gown. Igigi sent me this dress this past March to wear to a weekend party and I promised to provide a product review. They sent the wrong size for me but the perfect size for my sister Greek chick Jessica, and thank goodness it worked out this way because I love her writing. So witty! So descriptive! And so pretty in her new dress! Please take a moment and leave a comment for Jessica (by clicking the word “comments”) after reading and wish her a Happy Birthday while you’re at it.

My Horribly Overdue Dress Review by Jessica

Igigi “Modena” Gown

I guess it is every girl’s dream that eventually, one day, she’ll be Cinderella. A fairy godmother shows up, gives you an awesome dress and shoes, and lets you blow your house-cleaning responsibilities for a night of kicking it with Prince Charming. I never thought that at 31, I’d be a living version of Cinderella with TWO fairy godmothers and my big ball being bar-hopping until the wee hours of the morning in Green Bay in the dead of winter, but I also never dreamed that MySpace would become completely irrelevant.

I guess my story is one of being at the right place at the right time. The Tribe, as we call ourselves, was preparing for our BIG NIGHT OUT at the Bad Bar. Now that I’ve officially donned the title “Old Married Lady” for almost a year, I had resigned myself to wearing a fantastically low-cut sweater, tight jeans, and boots; gone were the days of Friday Night Fuck Me Pants and barely-there tops. I noticed a bunch of lovely ladies donning these gorgeous gowns (I had missed the e-mail to order one, it seemed), and I had a twinge of jealousy, but at least I would be snuggly and warm and non-descript as I guzzled my Schlitz.

Corinna was dashing down the hallway with this pretty dress in her arms looking for Mo. I couldn’t help but notice the ooh-ahh inducing royal blue color, the way the dress swayed in the plastic wrap, and I commented on it. Her eyes opened as she said, “WHAT SIZE ARE YOU?!?!”

Oh God. Because if there’s anything us women of heft don’t want to admit out loud, let alone to ourselves, is our weight and size. Corinna is the non-judgemental type, though, so I said “Um, 22ish.”

“Great! Take this! Have it!”

What? I am not the person who gets stuff for free. I was the girl on the college campus filling out credit card requests only to be told that today’s t-shirt/bobblehead/fleece blanket has been sold out, but would I finish my application anyway please? To have a gorgeous gown (“Look at this fabric,” murmured Corinna as she showed me the dress) handed to me was something I was admittedly skeptical of since I knew it wasn’t going to fit. It couldn’t fit. Could it?

My husband’s wolf whistle sealed the deal. “Wow, babe! You look amazing!” Indeed, the dress fit and looked pretty darn good. That is the magic of this dress, ladies.

I will say initially I was not a fan of the fabric; it’s a polyesterish blend. I thought for sure that I would sweat right through it leaving unsightly stains and even worse odor. Not only did I NOT sweat through this dress, but like Under Armour, it wicked the sweat away from my body! Magic!

Need further proof that this fabric is magic? Since I went out bar-hopping in this dress (I KNOW), I happened to be sitting on a table that an enthusiastic and drunk young man decided to stand atop of to lead everyone in inebriated song. You can see where this is heading: the entire contents of the booze-fueled table spilled and soaked my skirt. After a bit, I noticed there wasn’t a stain on my gown. Amazing!

About the fit: the dress is fantastic for the pear shaped among us who are not built like linebackers in the shoulder department but definitely are not lacking in the hip-butt-thigh area. The wrap top perfectly accents cleavage without constant nervous adjustment and embarrassing gaps. The skirt hides the flaws and accentuates the good parts of curves, without looking deliberately like it is trying to hide anything. I also had a very drunk lesbian loudly hit on me at breakfast at three in the morning, so win-win!

As for the negatives, if you are in the 5’6” range or shorter (like me), you will most definitely need this puppy altered. It dragged on the floor for the majority of the evening, despite me wearing super-high heels (courtesty of my second fairy godmother, Susan) and my best efforts to not let it hit the bathroom floor (gross). I found the sleeve-length to be flattering, but annoying. The dress also has a slight itch factor to it; I suppose the magic fabric cannot be perfect. All in all, I’m definitely looking forward to wearing this dress again, but not to bar hop in.

Recommended for: making your high school boyfriend jealous at your reunion, going to an opera, attending an awards banquet in your honor, hot role-play with the hubby wherein you play the famous Oscar-winning actress and he’s your bodyguard, fall/winter evening wedding.

Not Recommended for: a graduation party, (despite its ability to combat errant beer and booze spills) bar-hopping in Wisconsin, wearing to sporting events, spring/summer weddings.

**Since this dress is hanging in my closet, this counts as a compensated review. Thanks to the good folks at Igigi and The Tribe, and especially my fairy godmothers for making me oh-so-pretty!

Plus Size Bras – Playtex and Me

Here is my video of my day at Playtex. Please leave a comment and share your bra shopping stories. Go and get your boobies a proper brassiere fitting and remember – point ‘em up and out to God!

Winner of Playtex Bra Giveaway

Jennifer June you have really truly won a free bra from Playtex and A Celebration of Curves.

A great thing about being able to give things away is that it is really so much fun for me. Giving you free stuff makes me feel like a rich bitch. Another great thing is that I get to meet so many wonderful interesting people, some of whom are writing awesome blogs.

People you should go go go and read read read the witty writings of Jennifer June at her blog, The Lady’s Lounge.

So here is the bra dealio…the nice bra lady at Playtex asks that Jennifer June go to a store and get a free fitting. This means trying everything on. Because getting the right fit mean trying things on. There is a theme here (I think you can see it developing) involving JJ going to a store and trying on bras.

When she has a style and size that makes her happy and lifts her boobies up in that perfect shape that she has long dreamed of, she’ll let me know what she wants and she shall receive her free bra in the mail soon.

OK Lounge Lady – go get fitted.

Congrats and thanks for reading A Celebration of Curves, at least long enough to leave a comment and get yourself a free bra. Hey, that’s all it takes.

More contests coming soon!

My visit to the Playtex Bra HQ. I meet a bra expert and a bra giveaway for you!

Yesterday I went to the Playtex HQ in midtown Manhattan. A few months ago Playtex asked women to write in and say why they would want to win a bra makeover. 10 women from around the U.S. have been flown to New York City and this week they have been filming their “webisodes” showing them being fitted for their new bra wardrobe.

I was invited by Playtex to share their experience. The pic you see above is the contents of the goodie bag that I was given as a gift for participating.

Years ago I wrote off Playtex bras because I just didn’t think that they had anything for me. Yesterday I found out that Playtex in NOT your grandmother’s bra anymore. The fabric is very pretty but more importantly, gone are the bullet boobs.

Mary, the Playtex fit consultant (AKA “boobie expert”) worked with me for over an hour. We tried on lots of bras and working with the inventory that they had in the showroom, I found three styles that worked for me. There may be more Playtex bras that I could wear and I’ll go to Macy’s or Penney’s to try on more. Also, I am a 38 or 40 DDD depending on the style of bra because just like any other item of clothing, they are all cut differently.

Next week I’ll be posting a video of my time spent with Mary and we’ll share some important information on fit, style, and comfort. I even get fitted right on camera to show you exactly where to place the measuring tape. Until then, here is a video on their website to help get you started on the path to perfectly fitted bras.

And now for another giveaway! Please leave a comment below saying why you need a new bra. Winner will be chosen by a random method and posted here one day next week, probably next Thursday but sometimes I’m a day or so late with these things.

You can get fitted for a Playtex bra and Shop for Plus Size Women’s clothing at macys.com

Announcing Igigi Gift Certificate Winner and a Summer of Contests

Congratulations to commenter lucky 13 – rishabree has won the $100 gift certificate to Igigi. She has generously agreed to send in pics when her shopping arrives. I am looking forward to seeing her new outfit.

This is officially now the Summer of Contests! Another contest will be announced tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone who played along and posted a comment and a link. There will be many more chances to win something so stay tuned.

Dinner, drinks, and the DMV

What a (mostly) fun week this has been! If you read my last post, Visiting the House of Igigi and a Contest, then you know I had dinner plans with plus-size fashion industry leaders, Lisa and Jim Dolan from Lee Lee’s Valise, and Yuliya and her right-arm, Ozlem from Lee Lee’s Valise. We ate a fabulous meal at Print restaurant, which is midtown on Manhattan’s west side.

As an aside at this point I want to say that I have received no compensation for telling you that I love eating at Print and I highly recommend it!

I consider myself very fortunate to have been a part of a wonderful evening of conversation. Professionaly, it is always a pleasure to spend time with business owners who care about the consumer. As a member of the plus size fashion industry, it is especially delightful to spend time with those who are dedicated to providing their customers with quality apparel, and an exceptional shopping experience.

When I left the restaurant I found that my car had been towed, even thought I had parked in a legal spot. New York City is a very exciting place and sometimes our Department of Motor Vehicles gets a bit over eager. I sat in the DMV impound lot from 1:00 a.m. until my husband could take a 6:00 a.m. train from Westchester to come into the city. He arrived at the lot a little after 7:00 a.m. Thankfully, he was very sweet about the whole thing even though he had to take a day off and make an unexpected early morning trip to NYC. I thanked him for rescuing me and he took me to breakfast. By the way, if you are married you might want to check and see if both your names are on the registration. It will affect who the car gets released to if ever impounded. I learned the hard way.

Yesterday I got back to having fun when, Yuliya Raquel and her business associate Ozlem Arpaci from Igigi visited Lee Lee’s Valise for the first time. Our day together was fun and educational. We discussed the plus size industry from our different backgrounds and business models.

After lunch, Lisa and I had the opportunity to give a very appreciative Yuliya some honest feedback about her clothes – giving her detailed information about what we like and what we felt could be improved.

I was even asked to model some of Igigi’s items so that Lisa and Yuliya could check how different cuts and styles worked on my body type.

My Igigi friends fly back home to San Francisco early Sunday morning and I will really miss them. Thank you ladies for a lively visit.

Visiting the House of Igigi and a Contest

Tonight I am having dinner with my friends Yuliya Raquel and Ozlem Arpaci from Igigi, and Lisa and Jim Dolan who own Lee Lee’s Valise. It is sure to be a fun filled evening and I will post a report tomorrow.

Remember that contest that I promised you a couple of weeks ago? It all started when I visited the Igigi showroom. Contest details at the bottom, after my report of my day at Igigi.

When I was in San Francisco last month I was fortunate to meet Yuliya Raquel, the design talent behind the House of Igigi. My appointment to tour the studio was with Ozlem, Yuliya’s confidant, business manager and sargeant-at-arms.

I am a big fan of Yuliya’s design talents and I was thrilled when I learned that she would be joining Ozlem and I for lunch. But lunch would be later in the afternoon and first, I got to try on clothes.

This is the Floral Creme Brulee Dress. When I came out of the dressing room I told Yuliya and Ozlem that this dress is a miracle, and it absolutely is. Yes, I know that my lacy black bra is much too revealed and I would never leave the house like that, but I wanted you to see how it looked on my body shape. I am your virtual mannequin!

I am 5’7″ and I have a rack of doom (38DDD), so there is probably enough fabric to cover your tata’s, while I must wear a cami. But I decided that the dress is worth it. I am wearing a size 12 because the 14 was too big for me.

There are so many incredible design touches that I can not rave about this dress enough. There is a bit of ribbon on the sleeve that compliments detail on the neckline. The dress is designed to wrap, with the attached belt wrapping inside the dress and through the side, so the belt wraps around to tie in front. There is enough fabric to cover you (there was too much fabric in the 14 for my shape and that’s why I chose the 12), and most importantly the quality of the fabric is luscious. It floats beautifully, doesn’t cling, shines like silk…and for $112.00? I told Yuliya she should charge more so I suggest you get this dress before I talk her into it.

This is the Francesca dress in amethyst, size 12. I don’t think I need to say much here. A cut above the basic low cut cocktail dress and it is simply gorgeous. The fabric is a good medium weight, is fully lined, and glides around my legs as I walk.

I absolutely love this dress. I think it works best as an evening dress and I don’t think that I would wear this to the office. Perfect for dinner out, going to hear live music and dancing, etc. I would even wear this to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on evenings when they open galleries with a bar cart and a jazz combo.

They have things like that where you live, right?

This is the Breezy Morning Dress in size 12 I should have tried the 14. I am posting this pic of myself, your virtual mannequin, because I wanted you to see what it looks like to wear something that is too small. You’re welcome.

The top of the dress is a similar knit to the Francesca dress, and the bottom is similar fabric to the Creme Brulee. The reason the dress fits so differently is because of the differences in the two fabrics and the style of the dress. This is not a wrap dress (there is a zipper on the left side), and so there is no extra fabric to adjust to your shape. I suggest you order one size larger.

Friendly faces at Igigi:

AND NOW FOR THE CONTEST

Please post a comment (you click on the word “comment” beneath this post) with a link to something that you would get from the Igigi website and where you would wear it. Next Tuesday, June 22nd, I will be choosing by random number generator a winner for a $100 Igigi gift certifiate.

Cocktails at the museum? Best friend’s wedding? Someone planning on proposing to you? Your kid is graduating from college? Your kid is finally moving out? Be dressed for the occasion, or any occasion. Be ready for those moments when people take out their cameras. Igigi offers fashion, real fashion with a real design sensibility. The quality of the fabrics and the stitching is outstanding. I would say that their clothes are worth every penny so good luck in winning that $100!

San Francisco Web 2.0 Conference

Hey everyone. I know I promised a giveaway and I got stuff to give you – just not today. I am attending the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. I am learning very important tech stuff that I will use to improve the etail shopping experience that I offer over at This Lush Life.

I’ve got great stuff to give you. A goodie bag filled with delightful fashionable items. But I just have too much going on here at this conference to put together a proper blog post with pics.

I hope to have the Giveaway posted this Friday.

Until then, any restaurant recommendations?