Manolo for the Big Girl

I’m worried about your eyebrows.

Well, not your eyebrows in particular, which I’m sure are gorgeous and not at all like mine which currently look like two lovelorn caterpillars yearning to become one, but the state of eyebrows in general and on big girls, especially young ones, in particular.

They seem to be going away and that concerns me. Everywhere I turn it seems that women are plucking their eyebrows into tiny squiggles that look like –and I’m sure you’ll pardon my indelicacy– the “boy” part of the boy-meets-girl part of the fertilization story. Not alluring.

What’s the story? Why are women giving themselves the facial version of The Lower Lindsay? It’s a puzzlement.

Here’s the thing about eyebrows. There are few prettier ways to frame a face than with groomed but healthy brow, arched outside and ending in an elegant taper. Think Liz Taylor or Marilyn Monroe.

Eyebrow pencil –or powder if you’re not as clumsy as I am– can clean up and define a brow in a heartbeat. Just one hint though, unless you want to look like you spend your days with some short man in a trench coat coming up with creative ways to murder Moose and Squirrel, use a pencil lighter than your natural hair color.

The best part? It’s totally okay to buy a cheap eyebrow pencil. I’ve used the Chanel pencil and I’ve used the Wet n’ Wild cheapies. They work the same.

And because we at Manolo for the Big Girl CARE about your needs, here is a brief guide to eyebrows:

Yes:

Yes (if you’re a Fright Queen, otherwise No):

Yes:

No (but bitchin’):

Oh, my goodness! Can you believe this blog has been going for 9 months? It feels like yesterday that Plumcake and I dove into the wonderful, wide world of plus-size clothing here at the Manolo network. And what a superfantastic trip it has been!

This means that it has been 9 months since Francesca reminded you to consider carefully whether it is time for you to replace your bras. Much can happen in 9 months! If a baby can gestate in 9 months, that is plenty of time for your bras to stretch out, sag, and gap. It is enough time for you to gain or lose a few pounds and now need a new size.

So, start shopping!

If you are racktastic and need a hard-to-find bra size, Francesca recommends that you start with BiggerBras.com and Bravissimo.

Of course there is also the Cacique line at Lane Bryant, the ONEsexy bra collection at Avenue, and the full-figure department at Frederick’s of Hollywood! Mmmm!

And now — hat tip to our internet friend Carol for bringing this to our attention — Big Singer Jill Scott has created a bra brand of her own in partnership with Ashley Stewart. The “Butterfly Bra” not only has wide, gel-filled shoulder straps but also two support bands in the back and — Francesca’s favorite feature — underwires filled with gel. No more underwires cutting into the delicate flesh of the Big Girl! Hallelujah!

Take care of those girls!

xoxo

Our internet friend Shannon turned our attention to a delightful fashion-related article in an online publication called “The Smart Set.” Writer Jessa Crispin reviews various books about fashion . . . .

Instead of alleviating our body fears, however, so many books advising what to wear do nothing but exaggerate them. The entire structure of Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine’s book What Not to Wear is built to help you define your particular version of body dysmorphic disorder. Do you think you have short legs? A big butt? Big arms? There’s a chapter telling you how to dress around each perceived flaw. It’s hard to walk out the door feeling hot and feisty when your entire dressing process has been focused on your main source of anxiety. If I tried to dress to hide all the parts of my body I have ever been self-conscious about, the only thing left to wear would be a hazmat suit.

. . . . and ultimately recommends The Meaning of Sunglasses: And a Guide to Almost All Things Fashionable by Hadley Freeman.

If more fashion writing was done in the tone of smartypants Freeman, we could avoid the fear that caring about our appearance makes us a vain fool or a victim. A work colleague recently took one look at the four-inch peep toe heels I was wearing and snarled, “Don’t you know why men invented high heels?” I doubted anything I said would deflect what was coming next, so I just shrugged. “So you can’t run away when they want to rape you.” I understand. I used to be a humorless feminist, too, complete with shaved head and my father’s combat boots. Then I discovered Charles David heels and got over it. If only The Meaning of Sunglasses had existed sooner, I could have spent less time being a self-righteous twit.

Francesca says: It is possible to be intellectual and feminist and fashion-conscious!

You know the rules: I post a picture, you send in your best captions, and next saturday I declare a winner. And here’s the image for this round:

Ready…set…snark!

I love a good sale. There’s nothing like getting something great at a ridiculously low price. One of the best things about the internet, in my not so humble opinion, is the sheer number and scope of deals to be found in cyberspace.

So today I thought I’d share a few of the deals currently out there for us Big Girls.

SWAK offers 10% off for all first time customers with code NEW10. I particularly liked this top:

Be sure to double-check on sizing, because some things on their site seem to run pretty small. This top, however, went up to a size 5X and seemed pretty close to the mark.

(more…)

Oh slingbacks. You are so pretty, but so evil…it’s like me in shoe form. You have thin soles, I have no soul at all. We’re like twins.

Yet I have avoided you, as many of us with the Flinstonian feets do, because it’s just so hard to get you to fit right. Oh how I’ve suffered with slingbacks. If they’re wide enough in the toe box, they’re too big in the back and if they’re juuust snug enough to ensure your foot won’t slip down in front, the ding dong (as Style Spy would say) back won’t get up over your heel without a threat, a bribe and three broken nails.

It’s a heartache to be certain.

But Plumcake is here to save you! Last week, inspired by a beautiful pair of Saks Fifth Avenue-brand croc print peep-toe slingbacks –very much an homage to the beloved Louboutin design shown below– I had what can only be described as a remarkably rare fit of brilliance.

These little lovelies fit beautifully in the toe and I knew if I could just get the sling back in appropriate position they would be mine forever. First I tried tugging them up with my finger in the band. No joy. Then I tried coaching them up with my nails. No luck there either, and I broke two nails. All the while a velvet ribbon I was wearing to keep my hair back kept flopping into my eyes. Out of frustration I tore off the stupid ribbon and then a beautiful leather-soled light bulb popped on above my head.

I put the shoe on as far as I could, looped the ribbon around the pesky elastic so I was holding the back of the shoe in a sort of sling, and just pulled up. It slid onto my foot bee-yoo-tifully and the slingbacks, ribbon and I have lived happily ever after.

The End.

Internet friend Jennifer wrote:

I was wondering if any of your readers had any experience with using Mystic Tan as a big girl.  Regular tanning beds work fine, but for those of us that want a little color without the damaging UV rays I was wondering if there was any advice.

Francesca had never heard of Mystic Tan before receiving this letter, and she is of two minds about it.

As the ultra-fair girl in a high risk category for the unsuperfantastic skin cancer, Francesca is quite intrigued by the possibility of an even, non-UV tan.

On the other hand, Francesca thinks it is somewhat ridiculous that tans are considered, somehow, more attractive than the clean, soft, untanned skin.  Why should those of us whose skin burns like sweet-potato french fries be pressured to have anything other than the creamy, porcelain skin we were born with?

On the third hand, if you want a tan, who is Francesca to stop you?

So, if you have any experience with this Mystic Tan establishment, please share your thoughts.

And, Francesca wants to know: Is a girl with a tummy roll meant to lift it for the spray? Or does she tan on the outside and have a white line under the tummy? Inquiring minds want to know.

I’m not going to say I live a good life, at least not the way the Greeks would have it (oh what? You think just because I write about shoes for a living I can’t go all pre-Socratic on you? I have depth y’all. Don’t call it a comeback, Anaximander’s been here for years.) Anyway, I haven’t lived absolutely the most respectable life but for some reason the powers that be have seen fit to give me a gift from Heaven.

…and by Heaven I mean Paris.

Some years back they cancelled my beloved Chanel “Passion” which was my perfect red lip color. It was deep and true and I loved it with a love that was more than a love. Sure it would pop up on eBay from time to time, but I never felt quite right about buying non-hermetically sealed make-up because you can never be completely sure that the seller didn’t try it and thereby turn my beloved glossimer into Coldsore Central. I am willing to suffer a lot for beauty, but I draw the line somewhere distinctly before The Face Herp.

Anyhoodle, I’ve been on the hunt for a red to replace my long lost Passion and although I’ve run into plenty that are “a’ight” and even a few that were “good” I’ve never really found another that twirled my tassels in quite the same way.

Until now.

Meet Ruby Lite, a bright, deep, true red with a hint of glimmer (no giant sparklies though. We are not in junior high any more.) I don’t know how Chanel gets that much depth of color into their products, but they do and it makes other lesser brands pale in comparison.

She’s been around for a while as part of Chanel’s Double Intensity line of long wearing lip color (an example is posted for your viewing pleasure, but I don’t believe that it’s Ruby Lite in the tube.) The application is your basic one-two punch of color and polish although with my go-to neutral, Rose Garnet (also from that line) I often skip the gloss and just use my trusty Burts Bees over it.

If you’re hunting for a real knock-out red (and every girl should have one) take Ruby out for a spin and be sure to report back!

Francesca has been reading the famous book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by the economist Steven D. Levitt and the journalist Stephen J. Dubner.

It is entertaining, and fascinating, and easy to read. Francesca likes!

Oh Lord. We all have that friend, the one who just doesn’t have very good taste. Her favorite skirt that is just way too short or she doesn’t  seem to get that a curly she-mullet isn’t quite the follicular rage it once was.  Maybe her perfume  –Eau de Headshop– breaks you out in hives.  But how do you say anything?

Francesca and Plumcake want to know “how do you (or DO you) broach delicate sartorial subjects with a friend?”

I can tell you personally I was once gently pulled aside and told that whatever perfume I was wearing made me “smell like barn.”  It was my new decant of Chanel’s Cuir de Russie and although I loved the scent for its complexity, I had to admit that she probablyhad a point.