Manolo for the Big Girl

Renowned hottie Pierce Brosnan –most famous for having starred in the James Bond franchise and several of my more face-reddening middle school dreams– was recently photographed on vacation with his wife, Keely Shaye Smith. Keely, a beautiful big girl and mother of the goofily-but-literately named Dylan Thomas Brosnan and Paris Beckett Brosnan, decided to shun the conventional one-piece wisdom and bust out the bikini. Now, as far as I’m concerned anyone who goes home at the end of the day and bangs James Bond can wear whatever they darn well please because obviously girlfriend is doing something right, but I’m just not convinced it was the best possible look.

With that in mind, Francesca and Plumcake want to know what are your thoughts on a big girl in a two piece?

Here we have the lovely pear-shaped “Reclining Woman With Flowers” by Rachel Deacon.

Francesca asks: What is this woman looking at and what is she thinking?

(A poster print of this painting is available from the superfantastic Barewalls.com here!)

Lookie! The New York Times has an article about our internet friends in the Fatosphere!

Blogs written by fat people — and it’s fine to use the word, they say — have multiplied in recent months, filling a virtual soapbox known as the fatosphere, where bloggers calling for fat acceptance challenge just about everything conventional medical wisdom has to say about obesity.

Smart, sassy and irreverent, bloggers with names like Big Fat Deal, FatChicksRule and Fatgrrl (“Now with 50 percent more fat!”) buck anti-obesity sentiment. They celebrate their full figures and call on readers to accept their bodies, quit dieting and get on with life.

The message from the fatosphere is not just that big is beautiful. Many of the bloggers dismiss the “obesity epidemic” as hysteria. They argue that Americans are not that much larger than they used to be and that being fat in and of itself is not necessarily bad for you.

And they reject a core belief that many Americans, including overweight ones, hold dear: that all a fat person needs to do to be thin is exercise more and eat less.

Francesca loves this quote from the fat male blogger, Red No. 3: “See, I don’t have a problem with fat. My body is simply adorned, and I’ll take that.”

Congratulations to all who were linked in the Times! You are superfantastic!

Be sure to scroll down to Francesca’s previous (and prophetic) post, which links to many superfantastic fat blogs.

xoxo!

Fabulous posts from around the world of fat blogging . . .

Kate Harding: That’s a lovely straw fatty you’ve constructed there

Big Fat Blog: Not being able to put an armrest down doesn’t equal a disability.

Big Fat Deal: Am I crazy to think that unconditional and true love still exists?

Chewing the Fatz: No one stopped the traffic and accused me of committing atrocities against the human race.

The Rotund: accepting that BMI is crap does not need to come with a fat-shame rider attached.

Loving My Belly: It really isn’t difficult for me to see fat as a genetic variation rather than a personal failure or a lack of moral character.

Feed Me!: These three little sentences are about as radical as the Declaration of Independence was 225+ years ago.

Today America celebrates Dr Martin Luther King Jr day. Your mission this week is to pluck up the courage to stand up for what you think is right and the grace to do it with the elegance of Dr King. Say something when you see someone beating the crap out of their kid in the produce section of the grocery store. Say something the next time one of your relatives who’s just “a product of a different generation” makes a racist joke. Caucus and rally for a political cause you believe in, without resorting to ugliness and ad hominem attacks.

If you’ve never listened to Dr King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in its entirety, do it now, and, because this is a style blog after all, check out all those narrow ties. Remind your gentlemen friends that a narrow black tie and a sharp white shirt is always a cool choice.

According to the Associated Press (e.g. reprinted here), the staff of a Congressional candidate in Plumcake’s home state sent out a flier showing said candidate looking, er, slightly less portly than he is in reality:

Congressional candidate Dean Hrbacek appears slimmer than usual in a new campaign brochure because a photo of his head was affixed to the image of a different body.

While the mailer sent to voters this week by the former Sugar Land mayor says “Dean’s record speaks for itself,” his physique clearly does not.

The picture, presented as a true image of the candidate, is a computerized composite of Hrbacek’s face and someone else’s slimmer figure, in suit and tie, from neck to kneecaps.

Hrbacek, a tax lawyer and accountant, did not immediately return a call placed to his campaign headquarters Friday by The Associated Press. He’s among 10 Republicans seeking the nomination to run against U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford.

Campaign manager Scott Broschart acknowledged the image is a fake. Hrbacek has been so busy meeting voters that he had no time to take a full-length, genuine photo for the political mailing, Broschart said.

So Hrbacek’s campaign put the headless body with the candidate’s head.

“He may appreciate that we took a few pounds off him,” Broschart said. “I think the voters … are more concerned with the issues as opposed to pretty photo shoots.”

Republican political consultant Allen Blakemore of Houston, who has no client in the congressional race, said there’s no law against the practice “other than the laws of gravity — the negative effect on your polling numbers and popularity when you do such things.”

What say you, ladies?

Do you believe that the candidate had no time to get dressed up for a proper photo shoot? Do you think that the choice of a slimmer body for the Photoshop job is a coincidence? Or do you think that they think that voters don’t like to see fat candidates? Do you think that a candidate is more likely to win if thin? Should weight matter in politics? Does it matter to you? Do you think a candidate is justified in Photoshopping his body? Do you think this Photoshopping “scandal” matters? Does it make the candidate untrustworthy, or do you really only care what a candidate has to say about “the issues” such as Iraq, the economy, abortion, etc?

Ah, how I love a good evening bag! If one chooses well, it can remain an active part of your accessory wardrobe for decades, whatever the vagaries of Dame Fashion or your personal figure changes. The key is to choose something you truly love that can stand the test of that time in both construction and design.

I can think of nothing that passes (and possibly surpasses) both tests for me as well as a mesh evening bag. The subtle shimmer of the metal, the cool elegance, the strength, and the way they have been admired for well over a hundred years by people of taste mean this is an investment well worth making when you find one that calls to you in a siren song of desire.

(more…)

Francesca is amused when Plumcake refers to her as being “the always fragrant Francesca.”

Indeed Francesca has not left the house without first dabbing on a teeny bit of Chanel No. 5 for the last 7 years.

However! Francesca is nothing if not adventurous, and after being inspired by two recent posts by the ever powerful (if sometimes preposterous!) Plumcake, she went out and tested different perfumes to see if anything felt like home.

Francesca is now the proud owner of a beautiful bottle of the luscious Euphoria by Calvin Klein.

Euphoria perfume by Calvin Klein is about sexiness, fantasy, and being captivating. Sexy and sensual, Euphoria perfume speaks to the woman who has the urge to break free from everyday life - to provocatively be part of an exciting world filled with pleasure, surprise, and temptation. Her fragrance is a contrast between exotic fruits and seductive florals, for a rich, creamy, seductive signature. Notes include Pomegranate, Persimmon, Green Notes, Black Orchid, Lotus Blossom, Champacca Flower, Liquid Amber, Mahogany Wood, Black Violet, Cream Accord.

It is so true. Francesca sprayed, and sniffed, and felt so sexy and, well, immediately horny that she spent the rest of the day thinking “I am the best-smelling and most confident, sensual lover in the entire universe. If I were a man, I would do anything to have me.” Clearly, this would be an important feeling to spritz on, well, pretty much every day.

And it is available at Perfume Emporium for a very forgiving price.

I never watched Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Not once. I have no idea whether the information offered was good, bad or indifferent. I just couldn’t get past the Queer Guys themselves. I admit this freely. One commercial was enough to send my brain into a fetal position and make me long for a Luddite existence sans television. I don’t know why they bugged me so much, and I certainly can’t say anything against them as individuals, but I just couldn’t wrap my brains around them.

Since - for some reason I can’t begin to explain - Carson Kressley was the only one I could identify by name, he came to annoy me the most. This was in no way something I’ve ever been proud of. It was prejudice, pure and simple, and I’m deeply ashamed of it. I am, however, big enough to admit my flaws.So, in the name of fair play and an effort to make myself a better person, I decided last night while my menfolk were gone and not going to scream if they walked into the room while it was playing, to try out How to Look Good Naked. With two episodes playing back-to-back, I figured either I would get over my Carsonfear or it would be permanently ingrained because of actual reasons rather than random gut reaction. In other words, I knew it would be Good For Me, so I bit the bullet and went for it.

(more…)

Let me clarify. I am not against knee socks with pants. I am not against knee socks in age-appropriate arenas if you are, in fact, age-appropriate for knee-socks. If your first experience of rock and roll was watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan that is a) awesome b)a perfect excuse to take off the mutton/lamb gear and buy yourself some Prada. However, if all you do is hike up your trouser socks, call it a look and then expect me to let you handle my portfolio let me tell you friend, you have another think coming.

Also, while I’m on the subject, let me talk about gaucho pants. Are you ready? Here we go, the Plumcake Patented Speech on All Things Gaucho Pants.

No.

No. Not at work, not at the gym, not running to Starbucks or the grocery store or to take the dog for a walk. Not even in the privacy of your own home at three in the morning, huddled under the blankets with a flashlight and your illicit dog-eared copy of Unflattering Pants Monthly.

Harsh? Perhaps. But I think about clothes the same way I think about children and just like children, there are just some things too ugly to love.