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Plus Model raises the question of whether size 18s will ever be allowed to step up to the runway.

South Bronx tops an obesity and a hunger survey. It was figured out years ago you CAN be both overweight AND malnourished. Empty calories isn’t just a euphemistic term.

More stores in the UK are offering K-Cup bras.

Yours Clothing has launched the AllisonK plus size line.

A great post on Jezebel about playing a plus sized love interest.

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Fox Entertainment decides to delve into why Gabby Sidibe only gets “off the rack” clothing. Given that Sidibe’s goal profession is in psychology, NOT in entertainment, perhaps it’s simply that she’s just fine with “off the rack.” That’s where most of us live, after all.

OneStopPlus/RedCats has premiered its own plus size fashion week. I consider this an Epic Fail of the Possibly Well Intended variety  – a fashion week features designers, not necessarily brands. This looks to be one of many such brand platforms I’ve seen companies attempt since I started this blog. And it doesn’t work, because I know it’ s nothing more than an in-house advertising event. Now if multiple designers, brands, and independent houses got their stuff together underneath a few tents, then I might even find the wherewithal to scrounge up tickets. But mostly I’d root for you guys to have it in Minneapolis. I’m also going to be kind and not mention the videos that feature a distinctly not plus sized model kicking up her legs in hose I’d never wear in a manner that makes me want to smack her.

Mo’nique got the Oscar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s a great international women’s day present, US version.

Debra Bass delves, but not particularly innovatively, into the plus models “trend.” I’ve been blogging on this topic long enough that I’m getting really picky about what merits thought on the plus size end; I hold this up as an example of the seriously overdone. I know there are a few people with rattled realities over this whole “fat ≠ bad” thing but I along with many others who have been fat forever are past it. Catch up!

It’s International Women’s Day. The Huffington Post steps up the attention, actually pretty well on this one.

Gawker has a semi-satirical post on the obesity fear.

Jezebel handles the new “plus size heroine” book trend.

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I love Glee. LOVE IT. And one of my favorite things about it is Mercedes Jones, played by Amber Riley. Yes, this show has its faults, and even at its denoument moments of patronizing self congratulation, I still love it. I know it’s just the music making grin ear to ear, but it’s also the characters. Especially Mercedes.

Mercedes gets to go where no fat girl has gone on primetime TV before: she gets to be the cast’s fashionista. While she and, as Gawker puts it, BabyGay Kurt are both brought together by love of fashion, music and the law of stereotypes¹ they both get a chance to be beyond them. Mercedes can be the voice of reason or the voice of challenge. While we may someday be treated to her crazy side again -I still think her reaction to Kurt’s romantic rejection was way out of line with her personality- for now, I nominate her as a focal point of awesome. And we should watch her for some really cute styling in general.

Best exchange:
Kurt: You look like a technicolor zebra!
Mercedes: Don’t be a hater!

I am so looking forward to April.

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1. fat girl goes with gay boy on the high school social status version of Noah’s Arc

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Has anyone noticed that the VERY FIRST THING recommended to the plus size audience by this over-hailed and over-credited fashion franchise is A MUMU?

Yes, it’s followed by clothing slightly less awful that was in fashion among fatshionistas three years ago. But still – a mumu. If that doesn’t completely reveal the total actual attitude of Vogue towards the audience it must get to right the sinking ship of the magazine, then spinach tainted with botulism will make me a super strong and violent cartoon sailor.

The young woman who got the gig as the Curvy Blogger there seems like a sweet kid. This is an awesome, high profile gig for her and I’m happy for her success.

But I’m deeply concerned at the approval-seeking thinking behind anyone engaging with an enterprise that even a year ago routinely posted fat-phobic and fat-hate based articles routinely between its maddeningly boring American edition pages. Shaking off the need for approval from the likes of someone as soulless and uncreative as Anna Wintour is what started the fatshion movement to begin with.

One of the things that has made “plus size fashion” such a target of greed and financial interest has been us – the bloggers, the actual fat people, and the designers who are also plus size themselves. We’ve gone from a silently judged non-minority to people that talk back – more and more of us are recognizing our own economic power¹ as unsustainable market models are causing publishers like Conde’ Naste among other companies to drown.

Part of that talking back has been taking design into our own hands. It’s one of the many reasons I try to focus on consumer fashion over runway chasing. It’s a combination of realizing that the real innovation and fashion is happening on the consumer level – Livejournal is filled with creative women doing what is best termed “clothes hacks” to make flattering, fashionable and unique plus size outfits – and there are lots of women starting up their own shops on their own terms, and while some of it as a miss, a good portion of the clothing is awesome. Why is it awesome? Because we, the people who wear the clothes are coming up with these looks and having them adopted by the larger commercial ventures.

Yes, looking at pictures of beautiful clothes is fun. And I wish I could wear some of it. But I’m seeing a growing secondary movement of plus size women who are chasing brand…instead of making brand chase them.  Sure I love Marc Jacobs, but I’m not going to let Vogue con me into dieting down to “plus size model” size (about a ten or twelve) just to wear his so-called “plus” brand should he create one. I’ll wear something that fits me now, costs less and looks just as awesome. This is assuming what he creates for plus sizes is actually awesome; just as Mark Fast misses the point design-wise by putting plus women in sample-size clothing cut for sample shaped skeletons, so does whoever picked the above mumu, which is the emblem of contempt for the woman who wears it. This tendency of brand chasing needs to stop – something is not good just because it says Gaultier. If it’s good, it’s good – and it might happen to be Gaultier, but that should always rate last. After last year, when Juicy Couture oh-so-condescendingly made plus size sweat suits so we could all be equally tacky, I think most of us realized that high-end fashion still has no genuine intention of taking us seriously. I already hated Juicy Couture, but now it’s personal.

DO NOT let Vogue or any other fashion enterprise con you into letting them lead you in whether plus size is embraceable. Vogue, by creating this blog, is trying to make plus size “in” even as the vast majority of its models are not remotely true plus. And by making us “in” they can make us “out” – and if we fall into the trap of it, then Vogue among other fashion pseudo-leaders can con us once again into loosening the grip over the power we’ve claimed by creating or own type of fashion.

For further perspective: Fat Chic clothing search has 1078 active clothiers listed, and it grows weekly. WE are in charge. Not Vogue. Not any brand name designer. And while brand name design is fine, making it a raison detre is ultimately destructive to us all.

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1. more on this, too, down the line

The Tubridy show on RTE’ in Ireland did some very entertaining coverage of plus size models, and made some distinctions that made me cheer. For one: a real live professional made the distinction that commercial plus size clothing starts at 16, and in commercial land size 14 does not qualify as plus sized. And a few things that made me want to hug the guests and talk to them about body judgment. DO YOU HEAR THAT?

NPR Pop culture Podcast on February 21st covers some of the same ground – and, as a bonus, has a bit for those of us loving the new wave of vampire novels. I’m not finding an easy link to it on the NPR website. A little help?

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This Monday cranky news roundup is brought to you by Di with a little help from Google and her occasional curmudgeon tendencies.

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There’s no overt financial incentive for me to do this. I’ve decided to drop all but one or two affiliate programs as they make it an outright nightmare to blog authentically. I can blog to sell, which is an understandable practice among other bloggers, or I can blog to share my passion. For me these two things have turned out to be incompatible. So while I do bring in some income through Fat Chic clothing search and advertising, and while I’m strict about what I allow in comments, I am doing these use things for you, the reader and user.

No blog will ever be perfect, and I am no perfectionist. But this is one part of a considerable project I am taking on to make plus size shopping easier for all plus women – and hopefully, for myself.

So over the next few weeks you will start seeing “links” posts that just show links of various shops. Comments on these posts will likely be turned off, as they are for catalog purposes only. You will still be free to discuss on other posts under the comment guidelines, no worries!

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Found some coverage by both the Daily Telegraph/Belfast Telegraph about Evan’s of London including size 16 mannequins in their store.¹ It seems as though the coverage in the London Daily Telegraph is a bit different. A much bigger squabble over a much smaller article.

Charla Krupp wrote exactly what most of us in fat fashionland have been saying over and over. She just said it in the Huffington Post.

Hayley Morley, a size 14 (so size 12 US??? I get those mixed up) took the runway at London Fashion Week.

Pretty Pear found a denial that Lane Bryant is retiring Right Fit jeans. It’s on Lane Bryant’s Facebook page. I will say that I have stopped seeing them altogether at my local Lane Bryant stores; however, other CharmingShoppes stores (Catherin’s and Fashion Bug) now carry them locally and online.

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1. Are these different papers same owner, or entirely different papers?