These shoes are so bold and have such a wonderful blend of the conservative with the sexy and the d, Francesca cannot help but love them. They are stylish and forward, attention-grabbing without looking like they are trying to be attention-grabbing. Francesca approves!
Happy shopping and happy weekend!
xoxo,
Francesca
Francesca recently received a press release from Igigi, announcing that our favorite young Big Girl, the superfantastic Nikki Blonsky, wore an Igigi dress, the “Marianna,” when she received her Best Young Actress award at the Critic’s Choice ceremony:
Does not Miss Blonsky indeed look superfantastic and superfantastically happy? Francesca was glad to hear of her award, and acknowledged kudos to Igigi for their continued success in dressing her.
But you can trust Francesca always to dig one level deeper! How is it, Francesca wondered, that the height-challenged Miss Blonsky can wear the Marianna and that the sleeves fit her and the dress does not come to the floor? It would not be fair to suggest that the petite womens can wear the Marianna if in fact the sleeves and hem were specially made for her diminutive height.
So Francesca inquired of the Igigi, and they insist that the dress has not been altered, though Miss Blonskly is only about 4′9.”
Francesca admits that the best way to confirm this would be to contact the representatives of the Nikki, but after all, this blogging gig is only a part-time job.
However, a hint that perhaps this information is for real was found by Francesca the very next day, when she pulled her Igigi blouse (a model no longer available) from her closet to wear for the first time and realized that indeed the full-length sleeves fit perfectly, even though Francesca is hardly taller than Miss Blonsky and has quite stubby arms.
Francesca does not understand why these sleeves fit her. Igigi does not have a Petite line, and when it comes to hems Francesca has already found that their long dresses are very, very, very long for someone still short enough to enjoy some kiddie rides at Great Adventure. But for some reason the sleeves work.
Does this mean that the sleeves are too short for a woman of greater stature? How can sleeves be appropriate for both regular sizes and petite womens? If the dress was not altered in that photo, why is it not dragging on the floor? Is it meant to be the mini-dress on the woman who is 5′8″?
It is a mystery!
Ach, perhaps Francesca will contact the Blonsky reps after all. She will report back when she gets an answer.
Francesca is in Tel Aviv on a business trip, and in honor of her visit and her hosts and the pleasant weather, she will recommend five very different books by the Israeli writers! (Francesca thanks our internet friend Sarah for recommending these books to the Francesca, who enjoyed them very much.)
First we start with the Amos Oz and his memoir of life in Jerusalem in the 1940’s and 50’s, A Tale of Love and Darkness. His autobiographical account traces his family history from Ukraine to Palestine, through World War II and the 1948 War for Independence, Oz’s mother’s suicide when he was 12, and his decision to leave Jerusalem for the fresh air and freedom on a kibbutz. Oz was born in 1939, and the book weaves the story of his life’s beginnings with the beginnings of his nascent country. It is a stark and lovely work.
Francesca loves the exquisite and painful beauty of the poems by Yehuda Amichai and sincerely wishes she could read them in the original Hebrew. But when a translation must suffice, one turns to The Selected Poetry Of Yehuda Amichai, Newly Revised and Expanded edition.
Moving along chronologically, we come to an opportunity to include a female voice. Savyon Liebrecht enjoyed her heyday as a short-story writer in the 1980’s, but one can still purchase this nice collection of some of her best work from that period: Apples from the Desert: Selected Stories . The stories are not subtle, but Francesca finds that in their exploration of family conflicts (especially between mothers and daughters, and mothers and daughters-in-law), sexuality, and relationships between men and women, Jews and Arabs, the stories contain perspectives that can only be provided by a woman.
In the “easy reading” category is David Grossman’s The Zig Zag Kid. This is a coming-of-age story frequently taught in Israeli junior high schools; readers of Manolo for the Big Girl can finish this amusing story on a cozy Saturday afternoon in bed with hot cocoa. If you are looking for any deep messages about Israeli or Jewish culture or the regional conflict, you will be disappointed. Rather, this is a madcap tale of a bar-mitzvah boy, the son of a police officer, who is whisked away by a seasoned criminal to steal the near-mythical purple scarf of a famous actress. Along the way, the title character must decide where his allegiance lies: With his straight-laced police-officer father? or with his new criminal mentor? He goes back and forth, trying to reconcile the warring forces within himself (hence the idea that he “zig zags”). The story is crazy and a bit surreal, and Francesca is convinced that the title character has ADHD. The descriptions of his heroic efforts to control himself are funny and moving. Come to think of it, this book would be a great gift for a kid with ADHD, or a the parent of someone with ADHD.
Coming up to more recent years, the most “in” writer among Israel’s younger generation of literati is Etgar Keret, whose warped, somewhat bizarre, but frequently thought-provoking short stories have made Francesca both scratch her head sometimes and nod knowingly at others. Here is his first book: The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories.
Happy reading!
xoxo,
Francesca
So I’m a bit concerned.
Yesterday I saw three Full Grown Women –good looking gals in their late 30’s and presumably employed in the financial district where I was meeting a friend for lunch. This in itself is not extraordinary. Seeing three women in the course of an afternoon lunch is not a big deal unless you happen to be a resident of one of this nation’s many splendored jails, incarceration facilities and/or hoosegows.
The reason I’m writing this, and you are no doubt breathlessly reading it, is that these full grown woman, by all accounts women who are Old Enough to Know Better were wearing solid, non-descript sweaters, solid, non-descript knee-length skirts and –get ready for it– KNEE SOCKS.
KNEE SOCKS! I almost died. In fact, since I live in Texas I “liketa” died. And it’s not like these three women were together! No, there were three separate women who all looked into their closet full of boring Talbot-ery (sorry Fran) put on their work-appropriate clothes and instead of tying on a fabulous scarf or wearing a say-something necklace decided “let me just yank these trouser socks allll the way up and pretend they’re boots” put on their loafers and called it an outfit.
The first one I could kinda give a pass. I mean, it’s been really cold here recently and Texans are not notorious for having a lot of winter wear. I thought maybe she didn’t have any tights or tall boots, and all her pants got eaten by a band of marauding trouser badgers. You know, that sort of thing. But when I saw a second and then a THIRD well…I almost broke my rule about not drinking after noon.
Ladies, please. Please do not wear knee socks in a professional setting. Yes they’re cute in a sort-of-tired-because-Reality-Bites-was-a-really-long-time-ago-and-why-don’t-people-just-get-over-it-seriously-I-mean-it-enough-with-the-lunchboxes way if you’re youngish and have an alterna-girl bent but seriously, SERIOUSLY, unless you are women’s field hockey player, bagpiper or a practitioner of the stripperly arts there is no conceivable reason for it.
Except for the badgers, of course.
When Francesca was a young girl of 17 or 18, and wore a size 14-16, she pitied herself because most stores with fashions for the young girls stopped at size 12. Oh to be thin, Francesca often wished, so that I could shop at regular stores!
My, my how times have changed!
Recently, Francesca attended a workshop on how to use guided imagery to lose weight. Hold on! Before you berate Francesca for fraternizing with the enemy, allow her to say two things: 1) Just as Francesca is interested in fashion, she is also interested in the world of health and diet and thinness and fatness, and the world of what people are saying about thinness and fatness, and she was curious to see what would happen at such a workshop, who would show up, what would be said, and what messages would be imparted. She was there not as a person desiring to wear a size 2, but rather more as a spy. 2) Although Francesca does not feel a need to be thin, she does want to be healthier, which is not compatible with her current penchant for eating a box of cookies every single day. Especially since Francesca is in a high-risk categories for diabetes. Francesca can stay at size 24 for the rest of her life for all she cares, but if guided imagery can help her eat more fish and fruit and fewer Entenmann’s cupcakes, it might prevent her from having to give herself insulin shots down the road. Francesca has a great fear of the insulin shots. It is her conscious choice to try to avoid them.
Anyhow, there were many, many superfantastic Big Girls at this workshop, extremely accomplished and attractive women! Francesca was somewhat appalled by some of the things said by the presenters, who equated gaining weight with “being in big trouble” and did not allow for the idea that choosing to eat more and choosing not to lose weight at a particular time is a legitimate option for an intelligent woman who understands the implications of her decisions. Ayyyy! Enough with the thin-centric assumptions!
However, Francesca did indeed learn much about herself from the guided imagery.
In one exercise, we were instructed to imagine ourselves looking into a mirror, seeing ourselves as we are. Our fat, our clothes, our hair, everything we like and everything we dislike about our bodies. (Francesca could write a whole book about that last line alone, but she will move on for now.)
Then, we were told to imagine ourselves looking into another mirror, and imagining ourselves as we’d like to be.
Francesca imagined herself only slightly more lean and fit for doing more exercise and laying off the cookies - and with happy, happy insulin!
But the epiphany was: In both mirrors, Francesca was wearing exactly the same outfit!
With a wardrobe full of beautiful clothes from Igigi and Talbots and Saks and Nordstrom and Avenue, who needs to fantasize everything different?
Francesca’s dream body was wearing exactly the outfit she was wearing at the workshop.
Happy, happy day. One less reason to “need” to be a “normal” size!
So we all know it’s easy to have a great big fun night out when you spend great big amounts of money, but for those of us who are pinching our pennies until Mr Lincoln’s ears meet in the back of his head, there is something to be said for a cheap night out. That being said.
Francesca and Plumcake want to know:
What is your best cheap night out? Inspire we temporarily poor girls to fabulousity!
Our internet friend Nicole writes:
I am expecting my first child in August. I have just started searching for maternity clothes and I’m getting a little frustrated. There seems to be very little for the Superfantastic Pregnant Woman. Of the many retailers you often feature, only Lane Bryant offers maternity (and only online). Their selection is somewhat limited. During my seventh month I will graduate from my residency program in Anesthesia and need to have an evening dress to wear to my graduation. I would appreciate any help you can provide.
Francesca wishes congratulations and best wishes to the superfantastic Nicole, both for the impending baby and the impending graduation! I assume that Nicole is a Big Girl and that therein lies the difficulty in searching for superfantastic maternity wear.
Luckily, Francesca has already researched this conundrum. You can see her previous post about plus-size maternity here. The news is not so good, but hopefully Francesca has been helpful. Be sure to read the comments for the many helpful tips from other readers.
Francesca has the feeling that, what with the cold weather driving everyone indoors, there will soon be many new pregnancies to drive the Big Girls to the maternity post!
As for evening gowns, Francesca’s first-stop site for plus-size maternity, Maternity Clothing Fashions, offers a wide variety. Here are two of Francesca’s favorites for the intelligent, sophisticated, and reliable anesthesiologist who wears up to a size 3XL. (Do not worry, they also offer knee-length fancy dresses. But Francesca always veers to the formal when she has the teeniest opening to do so.)
Lace gown. They also have something similar in a strapless version, in several colors.
A pink summer evening gown (below), for the prettiest doctor in the room. Francesca recommends this dress if you have dark coloring, so that you can go for the “Catherine Zeta Jones being strong enough to get away with pink” look, rather than the “Calista Flockhart looking a little too cute” look.
Francesca also appreciates –for the right person– the daring nature of this very dramatic peacock-themed dress, but feels that looking like a peacock might not be the best idea when attempting to fit in with medical professionals.
Monif C is having a winter clearance sale, with many items deeply, deeply discounted. The silk halter top pictured is 75% off!
In other news, Talbots is still having their semi-annual clearance sale, with items up to 70% off. Woman sizes here, Woman Petite here.
For our readers whose “sexy” includes bohemian/Victorian/ Renaissance styles, we have a “hit” from our “hit and miss” store, Roamans: This velvet tunic, available in sizes 12W-32W, in purple, black, pink, and chocolate colors, for under $30.
Francesca knows that some of you like to diss Coldwater Creek, but she also knows what it is like to be the poor Big Girl, so poor and so big that one must stitch together the pintucked blouse from the used tissues thrown at one by the mean Alpha Girls in seventh grade. It is therefore valuable to know that Coldwater Creek, too, is having a clearance sale. Here we have a very pretty skirt with the ladylike gores, discounted from $90 to just $30.
The dead of winter is the best time to buy a swimsuit, due to laws of supply and demand! Swimsuits for All is having a big sale, with many of their most expensive items discounted 40-90% off. Be sure to click through from their ad on this blog on the right, and use the coupon code listed there for another $5 off.
And here is the winter clearance page for Liz Claiborne’s Women’s department! Look, this silk scoop-neck blouse, so nice for Pears, is 25% off. Remember, now is the time to purchase your sleeveless clothing for the spring, while prices are low.
Happy, happy shopping and happy, happy saving!
xoxo, Francesca
In the immortal words of Tammy Wynette, “Sometimes it’s hard being a woman.” and by gum it’s true. If we’re not waxing, shaving, plucking, painting, polishing, moisturizing, exfoliating, injecting, suctioning, lifting, separating or hydrodermabrasing one damn thing or another we’re either being held captive by the type of people who think Burning Man is a good idea or, more likely, we are dead.
Plus there’s the shoes, the clothes, the job, the family and friends, the pets, the elusive search for “personal fulfillment” and all manner of medications and clinically trained professionals we use just so we don’t lose our everloving minds, buy something best described as “semi-automatic” and take out the entire canned food section of a local Piggly Wiggly.
Life is hard. What we forget, is that life is good.
Your mission this week is to spread the love. You don’t have to fly to Southern Malawi to help build a hospital although that’s certainly one way to do it. No, the mission is much simpler. Say something nice to a coworker you normally don’t talk to. Pay a toll for someone else. Send a “checking in” email with friends you haven’t talked to in a while just to let them know you’re thinking about them.
Try –and this is a tough one for me– to go an entire day without making a joke at someone else’s expense.
Yes, this post is sentimental but what can I say? Beneath my hardened, Scotch-soaked exterior is the gooey nougat center of a person who truly believes people are generally and inherently good.
So spread the love and if you’ve got any ideas to inspire your fellow readers, be sure to leave a comment.
You guys, I am completely floored. Last week I hit you with this image:
and you came right back at me with more than twenty fabulous captions! You really made choosing a winner hard on me this time. Because of that, I’m going to give the superhero who finally won an entourage of helpful friends and sidekicks.
