Archive for May, 2009:
Skinny Jeans may cause nerve damage and other wonders from the World Wide Web
Some things I found this week on the web that I really enjoyed. Have a great weekend!
JoGeek I wish you could have met my seamstress grandmother! She would have grabbed you right around the middle, said “Oy! So zaftig! You should have many babies!” And then she would have poured you a shot of scotch while spending hours looking at your sewing patterns.
Harriet, I love you. I have your book Feed Me!: Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight, and Body Image
Seriously, Deb is hard core. She takes wrestle naps with Mrs. Wilson next door (you always suspected, didn’t you?) and is pretty much a genius. But I don’t want you to know because she is my precious and I refuse to share. So don’t buy her book called 5 Ways to {blank} Your Blog, which is all about your blog, how to write one, how to get people to read it, how to make purple frogs rain from the skies…ok maybe not that last one. That one is all me.
Edited Saturday morning before coffee: OK I just realized I put in the wrong bathing suit link. Whoops! Here is the one I covet! And for $24? Well…come to mama!
Fat Poets Society Audio Interview
The Fat Poets’ Society was created after a poetry writing workshop during the 2006 annual convention of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), a civil rights organization. The authors are donating the royalties from Fat Poets Speak to NAAFA.
Listen to and/or download the Fat Poets’ Society Pearlsong Conversation mp3 recording here. We each read one of our poems so you get a preview! You can click the link and listen to the audio in your browser window or right click on the link and “save as” to download.
I hope you enjoy it!
Fat Poets Society – They wrote about our book in my local paper!
Thank you Putnam County Courier (est. 1841) for having the good sense to write about our lovely fat positive book of lovely poems, Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets’ Society
If you click on the image you will be taken to my Flickr account where you can increase the size to make it easier to read.
Wednesday party at Katra in New York City
All photos can be viewed in my Flickr Stream
Last night I put on my black dress and headed down to the Lower East for a cocktail party thrown by my dear friend Gwen Devoe, Owner of Devoe Events, Inc.. Gwen is a former plus model who now specializes in plus model training, development and management. Gwen has been a long time advocate and supporter of increasing the visibility of fuller figures on fashion runways.
We are working together to organize the first Full Figured Fashion Week in New York City, June 25-27, 2009. I’ll be posting more pics of events and I really hope you can come and see the fashion shows, dance at the parties and do some shopping.
Fashion week is about so much more than the runway shows. During fashion week is when buyers and designers have an opportunity to meet and get business done. Because plus size fashion is not usually included in the shows, designers and retailers suffer. I am very excited to be a part of Full Figured Fashion Week, and I know that it will be mean good things for the industry and for all women interested in buying fashionable clothes.
Links à la Mode : May 21st
Recommended fashion reading from independent fashion bloggers.
Wardrobe Workout
Edited by Dramatis Personae
Welcome to another wonderful round up of Links a La Mode! This week we have a wonderful selection of posts to help refine, define, and challenge your wardrobe. From Agent Lover and Style Symmetry, we’ve got the spectrum covered when it comes to hosting and attending Clothing Swaps. Clutch22 shares with us how to negotiate price matching at retailers, and Krislyn Diaries challenges us to try out great summer up-do’s. Decline Designs conceptualizes personal style, while Dirty Laundry helps us refine our self portraits. All in all, our lovely bloggers help you get your wardrobe and personal style fit and in shape for the upcoming Summer season!
Links à la Mode : May 21st
- 39thandbroadway.com – Bringing an End to Fashion Knock-offs– Finally!
- Agent Dreamer – Designers I Heart: The Dark, Majestic Femme
- Agent Lover – How to Throw a Swap Party
- Awakened Aesthetic – An Instant Classic: Black & White
- Breakfast at Saks – Erika Hendrix – An Urban Romance
- BRICK MY LANE – Mrs Obama and fashion = respect
- Clutch 22 – How to negotiate a price-match including a video experiment at Nordstrom.
- Decline Designs – Defining Your Personal Style, Part One: the Concept
- Dirty Laundry – How to Refine Your Self-Portraiture
- dramatis personae – Developing Your Wardrobe Palette {part 4}
- Felicia Sullivan – Step aside, Kerastase. Phyto is the new reigning queen of haircare
- Hong Kong Fashion Geek – Fashion Geek’s tips to scoring big at warehouse sales.
- Independent Fashion Bloggers – The New IFB is Here!
- Krislyn Diaries – DIY: cool summertime do’s
- Mystery Creature – how to follow fashion with a vintage twist
- Retro Chick – Do’s & Don’ts for the Perfect Wedding Guest Outfit
- Style Symmetry – How to be a Guest at a Clothing Swap Party
- THE COVETED – shu uemura is in the Pink
- The Demoiselles – Fat or Thin… You’re Still Getting Old
- The Recessionista’s Blog – Choosing a Swimsuit: Summer Style Tips
- Work Chic – You still can still be a chic mom to be in the summer heat!
My Social Calendar – Last night a film screening, an important cause, fashion, and a celebrity
Last night I attended a screening of a new documentary by Joe Pantoliano called “No Kidding? Me too!” about the stigma and shame associated with mental illness and Joe’s own personal struggle with depression and his escape from shame with the help of his family and medical treatment.
I can tell you that the film is inspirational and very well made. Joe is currently shopping the film around to film festivals and is looking for a distributor. This is a very important project and I believe it can do a lot of good in the world. I recommend you get a copy from the website and I am pretty sure it can be rented.
After the film was a Q&A with Joe and Jordan, a young man who tried to commit suicide by jumping out of his bedroom window from his 9th story apartment building just a year ago. He is an eloquent and thoughtful young man, walking with crutches while healing from his injuries. He is going to college and speaking to high school and college students about depression. He says that his goal is for young people to talk about mental illness as comfortably as they would talk about acne. He is incredibly brave as are his parents who were there last night. I hugged his mom and dad at the end of the night and we all cried a bit. They are incredibly supportive of Jordan and encourage him to talk about what happened in the hopes that it will help in his healing as well as help others.
I also bought a copy of Canvas, a film Joe made with Marsha Gay Harden about a family struggling with a mother’s paranoid schizophrenia. I look forward to watching it this week and I’ll tell you all about it.
After the Q&A, I had an opportunity to tell Joe how much I enjoyed the film and that I believed it would do a lot of good. He is a very personable man and when I asked him if he would pose for a picture with me he immediately and enthusiastically said yes, put his arm around me, grabbed my camera and took the above pic. Now you know why I look a bit startled…and fabulous.
My camera died immediately after the pic was taken so instead of giving you a full body shot of my outfit, here are links to what I wore:
Kiyonna
Stretch Poplin Wrap Blouse – $ 68.00
We have taken the classic cotton work shirt and given it a cut made to flatter your curves. Fashioned from cotton infused with just the right amount of stretch, this style ensures a comfortable fit every time. An adjustable tie, extended French cuffs and smart tailoring create a polished shirt, sure to become a wardrobe staple.Kiyonna
Kiyonna
Sateen City Trouser – $ 68.00
Chic yet versatile, these are the pants you’ll want to wear every day. A streamlined silhouette and clean lines mean these pants can transition you effortlessly, from a day at the office to an evening on the town.
Zappos – still free shipping both ways!
Links à la Mode : May 15th
Links offered this week by the Independent Fashion Bloggers.
Edited by STYLEMOM
The Fashion life cycle is ever evolving. Trends come and go faster than ever propelled by the information stream of online and social media. With each change comes a new perspective and new creative ideas flourish. Human survival demands that you must adapt and change with your environment in order to survive and this is also true of fashion.. Even old ideas sometimes are reinvented and come full circle creating an impact on the latest trends. This week’s links include everything from DIY and recycled style, to new discoveries and changes in the fashion industry, representing a testament to the constant evolution of fashion.
Voices of the Fat Poets’ Society – our first interview!
Five women contributed poetry about our experience of life as fat women to this amazing book, and I am very proud to say that I am one of them. On Wednesday, May 13th we will be featured on a teleconference hosted by Peggy Elam, Ph.D, of Pearlsong Press.
Here is how you can listen and participate in the Pearlsong Conversation beginning TODAY at Noon Eastern / 11:00 a.m. Central
Dial: 712-775-7000
Access Code: 555092# It’s important to use the pound sign after the access code!
I would also recommend Peggy’s online radio show, Health at Every Size, that takes place Mondays from 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Central Time for weekly conversations about HAES, with great music and fun conversation. The show is on WRFN 98.9 lpfm in Pasquo, TN and can be heard via live streaming audio at Radio Free Nashville.
Update: There will be an audio link to the teleconference and as soon as it is available I will post a link. Thank you to everyone who called in and asked questions. Thank you for your compliments. Most of all I am so glad that you are enjoying our fat liberation poetry.
Indian Tunic Collage: Summer of Love 2009
I love boho chic. There is a part of me that will always be a Dead Head (even though I have become a capitalist) so I am thrilled that Indian print tunics are back in full force.
Grateful Dead Live at Fillmore East on September 19, 1970: Sugar Magnolia > Tuning, Dark Star, St. Stephen > Not Fade Away > Darkness Jam > China Cat Jam > Not Fade Away > Turn On Your Lovelight, Youngbloods: Get Together… > Phil and Pigpen speak > Youngbloods: …Get Together
These tunics are just the thing for any casual Friday, weekend picnic, or dare I say even a first date? Worn with stylish natural tone leather wedge sandals, a brown leather handbag and some simple gold earrings, I can still satisfy my inner hippie and Turn on my Lovelight while paying the mortgage.
OneStopPlus: Red Stamp Print Taj Tunic Now: $15.00 Almost sold out! Available in 26/28 and 30/32.
Keyhole Tie Neck Embroidered Tunic for $24.90 Available in Twilight (shown) in 14/16, 18/20, and 30/32 and also Chocolate in 14/16, 18/20, 22/24 and 30/32.
Sealed with a Kiss Designs Haley skirt available from 1x to 6x $37.00
Clarks – Erda (Peanut) – Footwear
$90.00 Also available in Red, Green, Dk. Brown and Black in Standard, Narrow and Wide up to size 12.
Women's handbags: Lucky Brand Ripple – Bourbon $149 and also available in blue for $99
Myra’s Square Print Hoop Clip-On Earrings $18.95 from emitations.
UGG – Raffia Stripe Sun Hat (Natural) – Hats
15% off (was $99.00) $ 83.25
The Fat Poets’ Society book is here! Officially published today!
“Fat Poets Speak: Voices of the Fat Poets’ Society” is now available at Amazon, Powells, Barnes & Noble and I’ve been ego-searching myself on every search engine all freaking morning!
I can not even begin to tell you how absolutely thrilling this is and to see my name on the cover of a published book is beyond the beyond. I have had the enormous privilege of working with very talented women to bring this together. Frannie Zellman – who led the poetry writing workshop at the NAAFA convention where we all met, Kathy Barron, Anne S. Kaplan, Leleigh Owen (L.A. Chapter President of NAAFA), and a special warm thank you to Mary Ray Worley who inspired it all.
I also want to thank Peggy Elam, Ph.D., the President & Publisher of Pearlsong Press for her commitment to this project.
Today is International No Diet Day. How fitting that our book is published today? A day to relax about your shape, a day to love the skin you’re in. The same week as “Lessons From the Fat-o-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body,” the new book from Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby.
I have (quite thoughtfully) provided links to both books in the far right column. See? Over there >>>>> Yes, that’s it. So celebrate you body electric, celebrate Mother’s Day, celebrate your birthday — and have I mentioned that my book is published?
You can read our first author interviews on the new website More of Me to Love.
And the poetry? Well I can leave you with our first review, from author and illustrator of “More to Love” (unrelated to the More of Me to Love website) Elizabeth Patch:
Thank you for conducting this in-depth and insightful interview! I recently read “Fat Poet’s Speak” and found it to express the full range of emotions: longing and loneliness, anger and hurt, pride and attitude, sensuality and sexuality. It’s interesting to read a bit more about the influences and motivations of the Fat Poets, as well as their dreams and hopes for the future of size acceptance. Art can be an incredibly powerful force for change! It acts in a different, more emotional and intuitive way than just facts & figures, and it lingers in the mind longer. I hope that the art form of poetry helps spread the transformational ideas that every one of these women embrace.
Please visit this link to listen to a recent Pearlsong Press – Haes podcast. Peggy reads some of our poems!
Oh and have I mentioned that my book is out?!
