Darlings, I’ve had just the teensiest personal crisis involving a very small (totally accidental) fire. Everyone and thing is okay –although I do have smoke in my lungs and I haven’t unclenched a muscle in days– but I’m taking the next day or so off to gather myself. Rest assured when I return we will have a special Hotness session featuring firefighters and dish will be spilled.
Gin and Tonics,
Plummy
As anyone who was paying attention yesterday knows, through the end of today you can get any of the beautiful plus-size prom, wedding, cocktail, and other formal dresses from Sydney’s Closet at 30% off, with code THANKS09 (for orders of $99 or more).
In general the whole site is a “yes,” depending on your style and the occasion. Francesca only wishes that their site for “modest prom dresses” did not mean “we have added itty bitty sleeves. Buy formal gloves.” Some girls (and women) wish for the longer sleeves!
Anyhow, for today’s “Yes, No, Maybe,” Francesca is assuming you are a 17-18 year-old girl who seeks a floor-length gown.
YES
Francesca likes the Art Deco bodice and the unusual bronze color, for the stately girl who wishes for a mature look.
Simple and elegant, this style will flatter any figure. (Please, do your hair up and wear beautiful jewelry!)
For the young girl attracted to the Princess options. The deep hues of this dress keep it just this side of sickly-sweet toilet-paper-cover territory. Francesca loves this rich garnet color (but stay away from the Tea Rose).
NO
There is a wonderful time for this dress, and it is at the Renaissance Faire, not at the prom. EXCEPTION: If you are the superfantastic Goth Girl of Irony, and you wear this dress in black (it comes in 7 colors), because your mother insisted on a bouffant skirt, Francesca will smile at your stamp of the individuality and adherance to the letter of the law.
The yellow dress is fine, but the safari print? Just no. On an 18-year-old, this dress will look either skanky or too “out there” for the prom.
GENERAL NO: Any dress that requires constant tugging to remain on you. Strapless gowns should fit perfectly; the yanking action every five minutes is not good. When in doubt, buy a dress with straps, or sew on pretty ones yourself.
MAYBE
Francesca can imagine this dress doing well on the superfantastic shorter girl with the very sweet personality, somone who can fill it with all the happiness and cuteness it evokes. But on the taller girl, or the more somber girl, it will just seem too 80′s.
Have a superfantastic time planning for your prom! xoxo
You are reading this in your pajamas, no, after eating way too much yesterday? You don’t REALLY wish to leave the house, do you? Have no fear, online sales are here. (And in-store, too, at the bottom.)
CLOTHES
Alight is having a Thanksgiving Sale. (Francesca doesn’t love the clothes, but to each her own.)
Catherines is having a Holiday Madness sale, through December 1. Francesca’s picks: Border print dress she highlighted earlier this week, and this cute velevet bucket cap (not necessarily together).
Chico’s will take 20% off your order with code 6755 through November 29.
Evans has taken 20% off all items through Monday. (It is a British store! Oh, the irony!)
Figleaves will take 25% off the price of select shapewear through Monday with code SHAPE. Qualifying brands include the popular Spanx, Body Wrap, and Miracle Suit. What Francesca uses.
Igigi has put everything on sale through Monday. Practically the whole site is a Francesca’s pick.
La Grande Dame has nighties at 50% off, while supplies last.
Roaman’s will take 25% off your order through November 29 with code RDTHANKS.
Silhouettes is having some sort of Silhouettes Special Black Friday event. Francesca does not know what it is, only that it is happening (she is writing this on Wednesday – that’s why she doesn’t know).
Sydney’s Closet will take 30% off your entire order of $99 or higher, with code THANKS09, through December 1st. Get your WEDDING DRESS 30% off. Prom dresses here. Francesca’s pick.
SWAK Designs has two codes for you, good through Tuesday: BF35 will take 35% off regularly-priced items, and BFSALE25 will take 25% off sale and clearance items. Their pashminas make a nice gift.
FRANCESCA SAYS: Auuuugh! The WordPress keeps cutting off my post at this point! The Manolo Post-Saver Team is working mightily to make the rest of the post go live. Check again soon!
According to the most healthy-seeming, reputable weight charts, at 5’1″ Francesca is “supposed” to weight between 106 – 132 pounds. At 132 pounds, her BMI would be exactly 25, the most which is considered “healthy” before moving into “overweight.”
For years Francesca has been trying to remember when she last weighed 132 pounds. She knew it was before college, because she remembers, in her first year of university, doing a Jane Fonda tape every day and being very excited to go down from 153 to 145 pounds. (When she graduated from college she weighed 162, and in the 14 years since has gone well over the 200-pound mark.)
Lo and behold, when Francesca visited her dear parents a few months ago, Mamman — who had been busily working on clearing the old home of unnecessary papers — handed Francesca a stack of old school report cards and lovingly asked Francesca to please remove them from the premises. Francesca dutifully took them home and filed them under “Nostalgia.”
This past weekend Francesca went through the report cards, and among them found copies of the school health records as well (proofs of immunizations, that sort of thing). According to the doctor’s report of 1987, Francesca at that point weighed 60 kilograms: exactly 132 pounds.
In other words, at the age of 37, Francesca is expected by her doctor, Weight Watchers, etc to recreate the body she had in tenth grade.
Society is full of people who wish they could fit into their prom dress, and the answer is usually that women are expected to gain weight as they age. The last time Francesca weighed 132 pounds, prom dresses looked like this:
Francesca is intellectually honest. She knows she could take better care of herself — exercise 4-5 times per week instead of 1-2 times, eat more fruits and vegetables, drink more water — and that if she did these things she would be much, much healthier (which is the point) and perhaps lose 10, 20, maybe even 30 pounds (which is beside the point). She would be stronger and better fortified, and still obese at 170-180 pounds. That would be plenty fine with her.
Go down to 132 pounds? Really? Who are we kidding? (Not Francesca, obviously.)
When people ask me what I’m doing for Thanksgiving, I usually answer “not a damn thing. I’m going to watch movies in bed then I’m going to go to the Driskill, have a Manhattan, read some Tennyson and enjoy having the entire city to myself.”
The envy is palpable.
So here’s my question. If everyone’s so jealous of my Thanksgivings –which are admittedly awesome– then why am I the only one spending them the way I see fit?
See, I’m pretty meh on the whole Turkey Day thing and I’d certainly rather hopscotch Hell than partake in yet another episode of Disordered Eating Theatre.
Of Thanksgivings in the house where I grew up, I don’t honestly remember a single happy one.
What I DO remember were the eyes on my plate, silently –or not so silently– measuring how much I was taking of each thing. If I wanted second helpings or put too much of one thing on my plate, eyebrows would arch or my grandmother (Madame Food Issues herself) would ask “do you really need that extra roll?” while my naturally whip-thin brother pretty much had a feed bag attached to his ears.
Now, I’m not what you might call “naturally predisposed to shame” but that’ll do a number on a girl, even in the best of weather.
And you know, it’s not like it still keeps me up at night but at this point they’re not going to change and I’m Too Damn Old to put up with that nonsense. So I don’t go.
Sometimes I spend the day alone, just enjoying how quiet everything is. Sometimes I gather with my friends –collectively known as The Misfit Toys– and celebrate with them.
This year I’m going to dine with a couple at their snazzy little boîte -which serves the best pork confit this side of Les Deux Magots and the best Ruby Manhattans anywhere– and then waddle off to The Driskill where I will partake of a Gibson in honor of my beloved Grandfather, who would’ve turned 81 today.
The moral of the story is the filthy separatist heretics noble pilgrims blew that green and pleasant popsicle stand because they wanted to live life the way they saw fit, even though it probably upset their parents.
So why on earth –especially at Thanksgiving– shouldn’t we do the same thing?
Gobble gobble y’all. I’ll see you on Friday.
Francesca wishes to apologize for the technical difficulties sometimes present in her posts, such as dropped words, links that go to the wrong attire, etc. Rest assured that she and the rest of the Manolo team are working on smoothing out these quirks. Meanwhile, if there is something confusing you wish Francesca to clarify, please write to her at francesca@shoeblogs.com and she will try to respond in a timely fashion either by email or with an update in the post.
Liz Claiborne has new markdowns. Click here to go straight to plus sizes
. Snakeskin lovers: Elsie Python Leather Bag
is about 70% off.
Avenue is selling select jeans and denim capris while supplies last. Free shipping on orders of $75 or more with code AV91140, through December 10.
Catherines is having a Buy Two, Get One Free sale in stores and online through Tuesday. Buy any two items, and get any third (for equal or lesser value) for free.
Zaftique is having a sale on select items through Tuesday. Many pretty dresses and shirts.
Figleaves is enjoying its first mention on Manolo for the Big Girl. a purveyor of lingerie for the large-chested girl, and located in the UK, they will ship to other countries for a flat rate of 5.50 BP (1 BP currently is 1.68 dollars). Through Monday evening (England time), they have taken 20% off the prices of select items by Pour Moi
, and other various designers
(note: things like robes and nightshirts do not necessarily come in plus sizes).
Torrid introduces their True Romance collection. Black Sequined Leggings
! Chanel your inner Liza!
Ivory and Black Paisley Lace Tube Top! Oh, to be in her 20′s again.
Old Navy will give you 15% off purchases of $75, or 25% off purchases of $100, through Tuesday, with code ONSAVE15. Also, through December 15, free shipping on any purchase of $50 or more. Click here to go straight to plus sizes
.
Junonia has taken Shop30% off outerwear through Sunday. They are based in Minnesota so they know of what they speak.
Talbots has new arrivals. Click here to go straight to Woman sizes, here for Woman Petites.
Ashley Stewart has taken 30% off all sale items, for a limited time.
Igigi has added new items to their sale rack.
And in accessories/makeup news:
Perfumania will take 20% off your next order, through Sunday, with code ERENOV. Perfume makes a great gift if you know what she wears.
Shoe Mall is having a huge sale, and offers free shipping as always.
Happy shopping and happy weekend. xoxo
