Wednesday Fa(t)shion Inspirations, 10/29/14: fall colors and neutrals

My Foxy Fatshion

And I Get Dressed

Sunday links, 10/26/14

Fa(t)shion
-Californians, check out the +Market by Domino Dollhouse featuring Tess Munster. It sounds amazing and I wish I could be there!
-Vivi writes about why she’s taking a break from Gwynnie Bee.
-These photos from Bombsheller’s fitting party are awesome, and I can’t wait until their leggings are available in plus sizes.
-New Yorkers, keep an eye out for Lockwood Style, a new clothing boutique in Astoria that will be one-third plus sizes.
-Chubby Cartwheels’ Little Black Dress Collection is out!
-I love Rae’s Halloween costumes featuring Hips & Curves items, especially the witch.
–12 all black plus size picks for fall.
-Sheri rounds up gorgeous dark floral pieces.
–An awesome plus size show at Portland Fashion Week.
-I love this plus size fashion illustration blog!
–Major fashion labels attack blogger for not conforming to gender roles.
-I’ve never been to a horse race and have no particular desire to do so, but I love the style of dresses and fascinators that women wear to them. Everything in City Chic’s Day at the Races roundup is gorgeous. I wish they had credited the sources for the shoes and accessories, though.

Fat Acceptance
-I have somewhat mixed feelings about #4, but otherwise I agree with this completely: 5 reasons why we need to stop thinking of skinny-shaming as “reverse discrimination.”
–On being liked better after losing weight.
-If you’ve heard that sleep apnea is caused by fat, did you know that belief is based on research that was found to have been falsified?
–Good intentions only go so far in making HAES more inclusive.
–Fatphobia: 5 facts and a guide for the disbeliever.
–Apple’s health app: where’s the power?
–When is weight a symptom?
-Australian dance company Force Majeure has put out a call for fat dancers to audition for a groundbreaking new dance theater project.
-I’ve been watching Parks & Recreation, and I want to love it, but there are so many things that bother me about the show–including the fatphobic treatment of Jerry and the portrayal of Donna as the stereotypical sassy fat black woman. This series of posts makes the important point that Donna often talks about her sexual activities, but is never seen with a love interest. It broke my heart a bit when I read this list of 29 reasons Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt are the most perfect fictional couple around, and realized: this is exactly what fat women, and black women, and especially fat black women, don’t get in the media. We/they don’t get to see ourselves portrayed as worthy of love, and that needs to change.

Wednesday Fa(t)shion Inspirations, 10/22/14: dark mori/witchy goth edition

c4tbus

Gentlemonster’s Quarterly

OOTD: Adventures in an enchanted forest

On Saturday I went hiking with a few friends through the spectacular mid-October foliage. Since I’ve been so into dark mori and witchy goth looks lately, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to dress up in dark layers. (No, I didn’t stay dressed up for the whole hike–it was unseasonably warm, so I ended up taking off both my skirts and most of my jewelry and just hiking around in shorts. I also brought sneakers to change into.)

Top and cardigan: thrifted, gray skirt: Target, black skirt and belt: ASOS Curve, socks: Domino Dollhouse, shoes: LL Bean, flower crown and bat clips: Crown & Glory, crystal necklace: from my great-grandmother, gray necklace: from a clothing swap, bangles: Torrid and Deb, spike wristband: Hot Topic, studded wristband: Macy’s, skull ring: Torrid, rose ring and earrings: really old

OOTD: Pink leopard, rainbows, and hearts

This is what I wore for my second day at Disney. I spent half the day in the pool, which was wonderful, and when I finally dragged myself out of the water, I had another colorful and comfortable outfit planned out.

Top: Cacique by Lane Bryant, skirt: Dots via The Big Thrifty, shoes: Brooks via Zappos, watch: Amazon, pink wristband: “Magic Band” for hotel and theme park access, rainbow bracelet: a store at Disney, necklace: Betsey Johnson via eBay, earrings: Forever 21, hairclip: Crown & Glory

Sunday links, 10/19/14

Fa(t)shion
–Fashion & feminism: Mateo Guadalupe of Leather Coven.
-I love Maria’s reflections on fashion rules and goals.
–Why I refuse to straighten my hair.
–A series of interviews with alt-fatshion bloggers.
-Courtney’s hot pink mermaid fatkini is everything.
-Style Vanity interviews Luanne of Weesha’s World.
–Instead of banning yoga pants, schools should crack down on harassment.
-I wish I could be in Ohio for Re/Dress’ plus size modeling workshop!
–7 badass ladies of Buffy and the Halloween costumes they inspire.
-My new favorite indie clothing shop: LovelyMsLevecks.

Fat Acceptance
-Leah has a great rant about the bullshit phrase “promoting obesity.”
–Let’s broaden the talk about thin privilege to include the ways it intersects with race and other identities.
–“I’m only talking about myself!” isn’t a good excuse for fat-shaming.
–It’s time for a ceasefire in the war on “childhood obesity.”
–Jenny Trout and Michelle Landriault interview each other about fatkinis, their co-appearance on The Steve Harvey Show, and body positivity.
-Ragen offers tips for dealing with the anger of fatphobia.
–Yoga and body diversity: five ways to be inclusive when teaching or practicing.

Climate and Sustainability
–Money, death, and danger in North Dakota’s fracking capital.
–Why waste coffee grounds when you can use them to grow mushrooms?

OOTD: Rocking my giant bow at Disney

I picked this giant bow for my trip to Disney both because I will take any opportunity to wear huge things on my head, and because it was the closest thing to the Disney aesthetic I could think of while staying true to my own style. The dress I picked because it’s comfortable, fun, and perfect for hot weather.

Dress: ASOS Curve, bow: the Velvet Village, necklace: Tarina Tarantino via eBay, earrings: a small shop in Paris, watch: Amazon, sneakers: Brooks via Zappos, purse: LeSportSac via eBay, wristband: the “Magic Band” that got us into our hotel rooms and the theme parks

Craving the darkness

Lately I’ve been drawn to black and gray layers: to the borders between dark mori, lagenlook, and witchy goth. I’ve been drawn to lace, velvet, zippers, asymmetric lines, balloon hems, crinkle fabric, mixed textures. To earth tones, quiet greens and browns. To amethysts and moonstones. To long, flowy skirts and dresses perfect for twirling in forests.

Click each image for details; yes, all the clothes are plus sized. They’re mostly from the expensive European shops that I spend way too much time drooling over, but there’s some ModCloth and Torrid in there too.

’90s purple witch by lrock212 featuring a zipper pouch

Green and brown woodland fairy chic by lrock212 featuring platform shoes

Huzzah for pink plus size coats!

As someone who’s nearly always worn black coats (with the exception of the awesome faux-leopard coat my mom thrifted for me), I’ve been really excited to see the recent proliferation of pink plus size outerwear. Winter is so much more fun when you can go out in bright colors that stand out against the snow, slush, and darkness.

Here are a few of my favorites–click the image for details:

 

Pink plus size coats by lrock212 featuring womens plus coats

A trip to a very cartoony alternate universe

This sunset was so Disney-esque I almost wondered if it was real.

This past weekend, Steve and I went to DisneyWorld. His company was recently bought by another company that gives its employees an annual trip to Disney, so even though I had no particular desire to go there, I figured I might as well because it was free.

Well, I won’t be doing that again. There were a few things I enjoyed–like spending half a day bumming around the pool at our resort–but I just couldn’t shake the saccharine, sanitized, scripted soullessness of it all. The aggressive cheerfulness. The lack of any opportunity for the surprises and serendipities of travel. The constant insistence that this was “the most magical place on earth.” (Pro tip: places that are truly magical don’t need to announce it every five minutes.)

And worst of all: the bland, fake, horrifically depressing caricatures of places I love. Ironically enough, we stayed in a “New England-style” “beach” resort–whose “beach” was a thin strip of perfectly-raked sand, in which was planted a “No Swimming” sign, along the edge of a man-made lake.

The view from our balcony

From restaurants named “Martha’s Vineyard” and “The Cape May Café” to nautical décor, the resort tried hard to imitate the beach towns of my childhood summers–and succeeded only in inspiring a queasy mix of attraction, revulsion and homesickness. I kept thinking, “This is so pretty! But it’s a soulless cartoonified version of everything I love! But it’s so pretty!” and my head would spin.

The worst part was the “boardwalk” connecting our resort to another resort: a veritable Potemkin Atlantic City. There’s something uniquely disheartening about strolling the wide, non-splintery planks of a spirit-less boardwalk on an artificial beach.