Manolo for the Big Girl

Internet friend Chris wrote to us:

Oh style and fashion Guru Francesca-

Can you help a girl find a cute/fun/fashionable trench coat, about 3/4 length, for a birthday trip to the big city (NYC) at the end of April? The only style seen in the capital city (DC) is run of the mill “London Fog” type.

Francesca is happy to recommend several styles from the superfantastic plus-size offerings at the Nordstrom! Nothing “foggy” here in any way!

Leopard print by Jones New York

Iridescent ruffled coat by the Calvin Klein! Francesca likes!

Coat with faux-leather piping by Gallery Track.

Satin trench coat by DKNY. Francesca likes!

Remember that silk taffeta skirt I fell madly in love with? Well, even though I had it on hold, it was sold right from under my pointy nose!  How could I have fallen for such a rookie mistake? Let that be a lesson to you. If you love it, buy it. Right then, right there. Don’t wait. Putting an item on hold is about as effective as the rhythm method and twice as annoying when it fails (I mean seriously, you can sell children, you cannot will a last-season skirt to come magically back into existence.)

Our internet friend “m” has pointed us to a wonderful site which sells 50’s-style dresses.

You know, the 1950’s, when the ideal woman looked like a woman, not like a “waif.”

All of their dresses go up to X-large, and many many go up to 3x!

Happy shopping!

UPDATE:

Pah! And pah again!

A 37″ waist constitutes a 3X?

Francesca says: Bait and switch!

Pah!

We will not speak of this site again.

Francesca apologizes for her oversight and agrees, the sizing here is ridiculous!

Pah!

Although there is nothing particularly splashy or unique about it, this dress is Francesca’s favorite. She cannot explain why. It simply speaks to her heart.

xoxo

As a fat woman, I’m often admonished by my television, my newspaper, the local clothing stores that don’t carry my size, and even random people on the street that I should be ashamed of myself for wanting to eat. Bad Twistie! Don’t I know that eating food made me fat and therefore less than a person?

Yeah, because it couldn’t have anything to do with genetics, such as the fact that both of my parents were fat, too. And it probably is all about the fact that people haven’t told me I’m fat, therefore since I don’t have any mirrors and I never look down to my own belly, it’s clear that I simply don’t know I’m fat. Thank you to everyone who has bravely pointed out this incredibly useful information to me. I’ll get right on hating myself for eating.

Or maybe I won’t.

Maybe I’ll take some time today and love me some food.

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Do you see how the overlay skims lightly over the tummy in an inverted V, starting from somewhat below the bust?

This style works quite well for many Appley girls!  Particularly, if you have a poochie-front-tummy but not too much in the way of love handles (which would be accentuated, usually, by the gathers on the side), this dress could be excellent for you!

Francesca loves this dress for the modest or religious or socially conservative girl.

It is the dress perfectly blending the fashion with the modesty. It has long, generous sleeves; it has a neckline which does not reveal too much (and could even take a pretty shell to no ill effect); it is long and translucent and not too skin-skimming. And yet it has a twist, literally. It is not boring or shapeless. It is conscious of the trends without pandering to them.

It may be a wee bit over-grownup, but with one’s hair up off the neck and pretty jewelry, one would look stunning and regal in this!

Not everyone wishes to look sexy-sexy at her prom. One does not have to look sexual to be beautiful - especially at the tender age of 17. This dress is pricey, but for the girl who wishes to hide many lumpy-squishies, or who wishes the more modest dress for religious or cultural reasons, this is the best dress. Francesca likes!

Francesca likes it better in Navy Blue, which is more jewel-ly and less conservative (we are speaking of the 17-year-old, after all), but alas, the link to that image is not available. Go check out the blue!

Once in a while an artist creates something that touches me on such a deep and profound level that my life suddenly has a great jagged rift of before and after smack dab in the spot where I saw that piece. Once in a while a book comes along that turns my world upside down, much to my eternal joy. I was introduced to just such a book of just such art this week and I want to share it with all you superfantastic ladies out there. This does include links to sites with pictures that may not be work safe, so be aware of that before checking them out.

Roseanne Olson is a photographer. She’s also an anorexia survivor. When a woman with breast cancer asked for a nude portrait of her pre-surgery body, and her photography class had an assignment of ‘Naked Truth’, Olson had an inspiration. Over the course of the next six years, she interviewed nearly sixty women about their bodies and did nude photographs of them. The women were close friends, women she met at parties, even complete strangers who heard about the project and offered themselves as subjects. None of the women were professional models. Only one had been photographed in the nude before. Sadly, many of them had little good to say about their bodies.

The result, however, is a powerful celebration of the female body in its most basic form. The quotes that are negative stand in stark contrast to the beauty we can easily see in these same women. The women who accept, love and celebrate their physical forms are inspirational.

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I could almost hear the sales assistant stretch out her arms as she said it.

Earlier today I’d called Neiman’s Last Call to ask them if they still had this fabulous full Saint John party skirt I’d fallen in love with a few days earlier but was foolish enough not to buy, even though it was marked down from $750 to practically nothing. I won’t torture you with the details, but rest assured this skirt is EPIC and at a vanity-sized 16 it allllmost zipped up.
I was filled with loathing at the idea of someone else buying my skirt before I had the chance to strap on William Shatner (there’s a sentence I never expected to get paid for. WS is, of course, the name of my corset) and see if the thing would zip up once I moved my innards around. If it didn’t fit then, I’d pass, but just to be safe, I called the store to ask them to hold it for me.

When the sales bunny told me “they only came in really big sizes” I got excited. If the 16 almost zipped up, surely the 18 would fit like a dream! Did St. John really make 18’s?

I paused and she continued, “yeah, I mean, they’re big… like…I saw a TWELVE.”

Speaking of 12’s, here are my latest loves, the Miu Miu Patent Double-Strap Mary Janes in Antico, a dusky nude rose.

Available up to a size 42 for $450 at Neiman’s.

Hey, compared to yesterday’s Valentino’s (Which clocked in at $1595 plus tax. Yowch.) they’re positively reasonable!

Have a superfantastic weekend everybody!

It is silver lame for the prom! Wow, says Francesca! Wow, says Sydney’s Closet! Wow, says everyone at the prom!