Leandra Medine's Blog, page 570

Plaidurday, Oh Plaidurday

The only day of the week better than Saturday is one that technically does not fall on the calendar. Or the Gregorian one, at least. And this day is called Plaidurday. It occurs every year at least a month after Christmas and prompts that you click through a slideshow of beautiful people and things, not while hungover but rather, just because. You are also expected to sing through the bravura of Vampire Weekend’s “Holiday,” constantly replacing the word “holiday” with “plaidurday” until you’ve sung it so many times you have completely lost sense of tonal appropriation.

On the day, you are further expected to dress up in as many layers of the ubiquitous kind-of tartan (often manipulated, replicated, but never successfully duplicated) pattern that your closet currently boasts. Then you are to do a stock check.

How many layers are you wearing? If it is upward of six, you’ve done the print decently proud. If it is less, however, you might want to spend more time watching Jared Leto as Jordan Catalano, or Alexander McQueen as himself and his mental objects (the ones that are revealed as laudable runway models) to determine the manifold additional ways that you too, shall wear thee tartan.

After you’ve completed the math portion of your day, you’re expected to run around yelling, “Where the fuck is your plaid?” at any uninformed pedestrians who appear to have missed the memo on the historic jour de many checks.

Of course, we would not expect you to celebrate a day (especially one that proposes you demonize the ignorant) that you know nothing about so here is the brief telling of its past events that put the history in the anterior historic:

First, there were the Scots. And then? Then there were the hipsters.

The end. Drops mic. Wear your plaid, send a selfie, call the Man Repeller hotline and break.

Still in the process of discovering plaid? Come join us! And check out plaid pants that make a girl feel like a Saint Laurent skater. 

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Monocycle: Episode 9

One of the reasons I am particularly energized by hosting this podcast has little to do with the soap box I’ve elected for myself and everything to do with real time.

Often when you’re given advice, that wisdom is provided reflectively: I’ve been through a journey, I’m out of a journey, and here are the findings. And that’s great — the model makes sense, but isn’t there some value, too, in learning from experience while said experience is in motion?

This week’s episode tackles vulnerability using the shadow of infertility and the subsequent numbing mechanisms we assume to survive as a cheap literary device.

I would apologize in advance for the abundant use of several dim words, but I’m trying to stop being so self-deprecating. So take a listen and then let’s chat.

Happy Friday,

Leandra

Intro song: “The Show Must Be Go” by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 License.  Logo illustration by Kelly Shami; background image photographed by Mark Pillai for Elle Italia 2013.

Monocycle is edited by Nicholas Quazzy Alexander.

Feature photographed by Norman Parkinson.

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Life Lessons According to Spring 16 Men’s Fashion Week Street Style

Men’s fashion week always comes just in the nick of time — when it’s been too long since a real burst of sartorial inspiration was let in through the window, when it feels as though women’s fashion week will never arrive (no matter how imminent it may be!), when you really need something to re-jigger the puzzle pieces that are floating around in your head but just not connecting. Because that’s the thing: those pieces are in our head.

They’re just a little bit too far to the lower right-hand corner. Sometimes they’re on an annoying-to-reach shelf. But what good does any of that do when you’re standing with both of your arms outstretched before a wardrobe of clothes that are laughing in your face. It’s like playing peek-a-boo with a kindergartner who sucks at hiding: you know they’re there. You see them, but you pretend like you don’t for the sake of the game.

It’s exactly where the street-styled show-goers of Spring 2016 Men’s Fashion Week come in — right into the center of the playground, tapping your hidden creativity or inspiration or blazer-that-you-forgot-about on the shoulder and whispering, “Psst. FOUND YOU.”

But everything’s easier with a breakdown, right? let’s begin.

1. You need gloves. They add texture and save your skin.

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2. Get a proper umbrella. One with a hook that will latch over your forearm like a steadying hand, with the kind of circumference to offer real coverage. Bonus: excellent accessory for the dapper human.

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3. Turns out that the fedora isn’t douche-y if make it weird. A shock of orange with an otherwise “classic” outfit, for example. Painted-on pineapples over straw with a turtleneck, for another.

4. Suede and shearling are sticking around. Don’t throw them out just yet. Do wear them with a less 70s-literal spin. You know what’s a good state to channel, here? Montana. Make Montana proud.

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5. Layer. Layer colors and fabrics and textures. Trust no one who regurgitates quotes about taking one thing off before you leave the house, because they clearly didn’t live somewhere with a true, lip-blue winter.

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6. Don’t let your outerwear dictate your outfit. That makes getting dressed so much harder. Rather, stick with your gut picks, then add the coat. Stuff your hands in your pocks and walk like it’s intentional, because if it’s keeping you warm or dry then honestly, it is.

7. Flip your lenses, roll deep, roll your sleeves. If your sleeves are cropped, flaunt a dramatic forearm and really make the most of that punctuating real estate.

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8. Find a scarf long enough that it will knock you on your knees.

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9. If you’re going to go monochrome, go green.

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10. And while it’s really important to be yourself in your clothes and you do you and I’ll do me, let’s allllll take a collective moment to agree that this is also who we’d like to be:

Ah, yeah. Feeling better already.

Photographed by Dan Roberts for Vogue.com unless otherwise noted.

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MR Round Table: Plus Size Women in Fashion

Amelia Diamond: We’re here today to talk about the lack of size diversity in fashion — that for so long the industry has promoted one body type. The New York Times ran an article titled, “In Fashion, Fat Is Still a Taboo” about an art exhibit called Beyond Measure: Fashion and the Plus-Size Woman. The author writes about society’s size-exclusionary history, how it’s come a long way and yet, how in fashion, “progress has been halting.”

Just as with the lack of racial diversity in this industry, fashion’s size issue isn’t solely apparent on the runway; there’s a very real lack of size acceptance in the actual stores, on the consumer level. When Katie Sturino and I are gathering looks for her shoots, we have a hard time finding items — actual pieces to buy, not just samples — in both high fashion and high street stores.

Katie Sturino, fashion blogger at The 12ish Style and MR model: One of the big things is that making something “plus” (or even any size extended past a ten) is considered to be a special project for a brand, or like a big “You’re welcome.” In reality, it should be the norm because that’s the average size of a woman. What are we saying about women if we’re making it so hard for them to find clothes in stores?

Kellie Brown, fashion blogger at And I Get Dressed: It’s like a “risk” to the companies. It’s not something that they feel is worth spending the money on. They’re not sure how it’s going to turn out. And then I feel like — and I’ve worked for so many brands,  too — that everyone treats the “plus size customer” like one person. In straight size fashion, you can be edgy, you can be preppy, you can be into retro stuff. You can be really fashion-forward, you can be sporty, whatever your personal style is. But people address plus size customers as one person. We don’t all want fit and flare. I want a giant Margiela sack! That’s what I want.

You’re talking about millions of women all with individual personalities, sensibilities, personal style, taste.

Katie: Isn’t the assumption that the plus size customer won’t shop? Won’t spend money?

Kellie: Totally!

Katie: I don’t understand why that is.

Kellie: I think that the difference is that we have so few options to spend money on. Straight size women, or anyone who is below a size 10, if you don’t want to spend a ton of money, you still have a bajillion options. You can go to all of those really accessible brands.

Those accessible brands that do sell plus size clothing almost set it up to fail. First of all, there’s only, like, three basic t-shirts and sweatpants in a store full of cool stuff. They don’t promote it. If you make it and don’t tell anyone, you can’t then say, “It didn’t do well, it didn’t sell out,” because no one knew, there were no marketing dollars behind it.

Amelia: And a lot of stores that do carry plus sizes don’t carry it in the brick and mortar store. They only carry it online.

Emily Zirimis, graphic designer at Man Repeller: When they do carry it in the store, they corral everyone into a certain area. That’s really messed up. I was at a department store recently and I was looking for a coat. Women’s was on the first floor and plus size women’s was on the third floor, all the way in the back corner past children’s. And I was like, what message is that sending me as the buyer? Why are we hiding the plus sizes?  Why not integrate all of the sizes into one clothing rack. Why not say a size 2 to 28 in the same style. 

Kellie: That’s easier if everything comes in plus — especially when you’re in a store and you know that they have plus, but only in certain pieces. Do you really want to scour through every rack? If a store has everything in all sizes, that would totally make sense, but when only seventeen skews out of four hundred and eighty come in plus sizes, how can you shop? You have to literally look through everything and hope that the rack you’re guessing at has your size. To the stores who do invest in creating plus size options — especially the mass retailers — we want the same stuff. Don’t just make little special collections. If you’re going to cut it, cut it all. I don’t think that will ever happen, to be honest.

Emily: Where’s the J.Crew and the Madewell for plus size? You know? Basic pieces. Like a great pair of jeans, a nice sweater. Old Navy is the closest? But it’s not quality.

Kellie: J.Crew in plus would kill. It’s basics, but it’s fashion forward. It would be such a dream. Zara in plus!

Emily: I find myself basing my style, whatever that is, off of what’s available. It’s almost like I don’t know my style because the options aren’t there. It’s like, Okay, I’m going to get this pink shirt because it’s in my size. But maybe I don’t even want a pink shirt.

Katie: I don’t even know what it’s like to walk into a store to pick what I want instead of just what’s going to fit.

Kellie: That’s such a crazy point. A friend of mine just made that, too. She said, “I dress how I dress but I don’t even know what my aesthetic is because it’s not really an option.” You’re making do with what you have. If you could pick anything, would you even own any of this stuff?

Amelia: Where do you go for inspiration?

Kellie: I look at fashion and I adapt it to what’s available to me. I go to extreme lengths because I want to look how I want to look. I’m one of those people, though, that if I have a true dream and I needed to have something, I will get it made. I will figure it out. But that’s really extreme and not fair.

Amelia: Well, for the girl who doesn’t have that inherent sense of what she definitely wants to wear…

Kellie: We all work in fashion and have a fashionable sense, but I look at what’s happening in the same places that you look. I look in magazines, I look at other style blogger — not necessarily plus size bloggers. Most of the blogs I read aren’t. I look at my friends because I like to see what they’re doing. But in terms of inspiration, it’s the same for me as anything.

Katie: And then figuring out how to make it work for you. That’s the same thing for me.

Kellie: Being on the constant hunt: Googling your ass off for a jacket. Oh my god. It took me two years to find a coat!

Amelia: Especially in an age where seemingly everyone has access to fast fashion. You see a trend on the runway, you know you’re going to find it the next day. To have to be on the hunt for it longer…

Kellie: You miss a lot of stuff.

Katie: I find that brands aren’t interested or don’t care about having you included in a trend. When I call in clothes from a straight size brand for a shoot, they’re just not interested in loaning, because even though the audience may be big, they don’t care about promoting that size. Even though they make that size!

Kellie: All of the time. So many of my friends who work in publishing or at major magazines and write for plus, even though the designers make it, they will not give them samples because they don’t want that featured.

Amelia: That’s just insane to me. I don’t understand from a marketing standpoint why you wouldn’t.

Kellie: It’s the dumbest thing. We spend so much money — we have to! — but you don’t have the option.

Katie: Wasn’t that the point of that New York Times article? That fashion doesn’t want “fat?”

Emily: “Fashion’s job is to exclude.” That’s what the exhibit’s curator told the author.

Kellie: But is it all of the mass retailers’ jobs? If you’re looking at the new Céline collection or you’re looking at Chanel and you’re like, ok, they didn’t send it down a runway, that’s fine — I mean it’s not fine — but why can’t you make it, Mr. Mass Retailer Brand? You’re copying all of this. The trickle down. It starts at the top of the pyramid, yet even as it trickles down, we’re still being ignored. And we really do want to be part of the consumer process.

Emily: It’s hard to be interested in fashion when they don’t respect you as a buyer. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten less interested when there’s a sample sale or a runway show. I’m just like, “Why am I going to respect an industry that doesn’t respect me?” All of these big brands, it’s hard to even look. It’s torturous. You can’t buy it, you can’t fit in it.

Katie: Where do you find that you shop?

Emily: ASOS, H&M, Forever21….I can’t seem to find the basic pieces that I want elsewhere.

Kellie: There’s nothing in the middle.

Katie: Dolce & Gabbana, Chloé, Stella McCartney, they all go up to a European size 50. I shop on Net-a-Porter. I’ll buy their 48s and 50s. But that’s rare. It is.

Leandra Medine: Back to what Emily said about not knowing your style — I know this is probably going to sound really trite because I have a fairly small frame, but I’ve been taking hormone shots for the past two weeks because I am prepping my body for IVF, and my stomach has just ballooned. None of my pants actually fit me anymore. I know that it’s trivial and I still fit into a size 4 or 6 and therefore it doesn’t make such a big difference, but I’m not used to this new body, so the outfits that I put together in my head don’t translate the way they used to. I feel like I’m going through a really similar identity crisis, obviously on a different level — and I’m a little annoyed at myself that I keep saying, “Obviously it’s not the same, it’s not the same!” but whatever mental lament you’re experiencing, I’m experiencing, too, you know what I mean?

Kellie: This is a good time to shoot some outfits for the site if you’re having a tummy-conscious moment, then.

Leandra: I’ve been wearing a ton of robes. I’ve been wearing a shit ton of robes.

Kellie: Robes are great! I saw your winter caftan and I was very into that.

Leandra: Yeah winter caftans, big sweaters that cover waist lines because all my pants are open right now. I was actually Gchatting Amelia on Monday — I was looking at Net-a-Porter and I was like, “I need to figure out what I can put on my person. I need to get dressed for the next X amount of months, because if all goes well and I get pregnant, this is going to last for another year.” It’s disheartening how few things are out there for different body types.

Kellie: I love getting dressed and I care about my aesthetic and I don’t want what’s typically offered to me, so I’m in this battle to get dressed. It should be a lot more simple than that.

Amelia: It shouldn’t be a daily struggle.

Leandra: Opening your closet shouldn’t feel like you’re entering a war zone, like you’re going to battle.

Kellie: That’s why being a blogger, it’s so awesome to get emails from girls who feel inspired. I love when someone is like, “I care about fashion now because you’ve inspired me to be invested,” or, “I can find things!” You don’t have to search the Internet because I’m already doing it, so here is the info. People want to care, but if you feel like this thing you spend money on, that you’re interested in and read about in magazines, you look at during shows –if you feel like this industry doesn’t care about you, then why should you care?

But in the end, that mentality hurts you because then you don’t get what you want.

Amelia: All of us work in fashion, which is a difficult and scary industry to come into as is. There’s a consistent fear that maybe you don’t fit in, so how could you get in. I have a few friends who thought that there was no way they’d ever get a job in fashion if they weren’t skinny, so they lost weight. Got skinny for the sake of an internship or job. And now there’s still that underlying fear that they’re going to gain weight and be “found out,” get kicked out of the club. We’ve all felt like that in some way, but how did you get over it?

Katie: I have always felt like the biggest girl. I remember being 23-years-old and working at Dolce & Gabbana, just feeling like a fucking cow. I felt that. They gave me clothes and were so nice, but I felt like a lost cause there. I really think that I didn’t feel comfortable in this industry until my Man Repeller story, which I’ve said before and I’ll say it again and I’m screaming into this microphone. By saying out loud that it was okay to have my body, and it was okay to have cellulite, and it’s okay to want to wear shorts, and it’s okay that like, my thighs not only touch but actually chafe — to say those things to people out loud, and then have women in the comments say, “Me too!,” that was a first for me. That’s the thing that social media has provided me: I’m able to provide an option for girls that have previously had a hard time finding one. They like the look but can’t adapt it to their own bodies because they can’t see it on their own bodies…

Kellie: There’s so much fucked up shit that happens in the plus size world, like they hire a model who’s undersized for her market, pad her up…

Emily: She always has a great face, great jaw line.

Katie: But they don’t want her to have the body she has. There’s all this trickery happening.

Kellie: It’s super convoluted. I feel the same way as you, Katie, especially in fashion. I’m always the biggest girl in the room, even when I’m smaller. And the whole, “How did you get over it?” moment, I think that when it came time to enter this realm, I left that at the door. The minute I said that this is what I’m going to do — working in PR a million years ago, I was like, I’m the biggest girl here, so you’re welcome everybody. Ok? Cool? Alright, it’s over.

What I don’t like is when people compliment my outfit as though it’s a pat on the head: “Look at you, little fashionista!” I’m like, did you say that to blogger X over there? “Congratulations! You don’t look like a disaster!”

Amelia: People always say that to me when I walk into the office.

Leandra: Well it’s also a celebration, Amelia, because you usually come in like a hurricane.

Kellie: It’s like they think that somehow, because I’m a bigger person, my brain doesn’t understand colors and proportions and textures. If I was an interior designer and I was doing your house, you wouldn’t think I couldn’t make a room look beautiful because I’m fat. Yet somehow I shouldn’t understand those same elements to get dressed?

Not only are you the biggest person in the room and you have to get over it, but people like to remind you. Even if it’s in a backhanded compliment.

Emily: I’m tired of being made to feel less-than because of my size.

Amelia: Do you feel like that predominantly in the industry, or in general? Or where does that feel most prevalent for you?

Emily: Just…everywhere. I’m made to feel lesser-than just because of my size. Or maybe it’s in my head. I’m not sure. But even in high school and in college, I always felt like I needed to push myself in other ways to make up for my lesser-than-ness of weight. I wasn’t the pretty, thin girl so I had to be smart.

Leandra: You’re only ever forced to cultivate personality and identity when you have to numb something else. I was thirty pounds overweight until I was in tenth grade in high school and I think that’s why I’m so outgoing and extraverted: because I felt like I had to be.

Emily: You have to be the funny girl, too. That’s another thing.

Kellie: I feel like I have this super contrary attitude toward all of that in terms of what I’m going to accept. Like, whatever you’ve decided about me, I’m not going to accept that. I’m going to excel. Even in the thing you think I’m not good at. Whatever you’re projecting onto me, I’m literally rejecting it. I feel like that’s my personality.

Katie: That’s the attitude of a lot of plus size bloggers now. Like GabiFresh or Nadia Aboulhosn, they’re like, “Fuck you, I look so good. Everyone’s talking about my ass in a good way.” And that, I find, while it’s not me, it’s very inspirational. Like okay, alright, great!

Kellie: It’s refreshing. When people tell me, “Oh, that would be so great if you belted it…” I want to have a public belt-burning session. I’m not cinching my fucking waist! I’m not doing it! Shut up.

Yes, there are acceptable belts. But I’m talking about a belt for the express purpose of cinching your waist because you’re “supposed to” show off that you have one small part of you, but it doesn’t go with the outfit or it’s terrible, it’s elastic.

Amelia: Semi-off-topic, but when Instagram banned the hashtag “curvy,” Margaret Boykin wrote about how the elimination of that body positive word implied there was something vulgar about being curvy, about exposing skin and flesh if you’re over a certain size. But I see a lot of plus size bloggers refusing to give in to that. Plus size bloggers show tons of skin: shorts, crop tops, swimsuits. Just as much as anyone else. They are proving that there’s nothing vulgar about having more.

Katie: I posted a picture of myself in a cat suit the other day and I felt like Khloe Kardashian and I’ve never felt better about myself.

Leandra: That’s an important question I think: when do you feel like the best version of yourself?

Katie: Oh. Probably not in a cat suit. But I do like a cat suit.

Amelia: You love a bathing suit. Your bathing suit shoot for us was dialed up.

Kellie: I feel most comfortable when I’ve pulled off what’s in my mind. It’s like, I’ve executed this outfit the way I saw it. Size is no issue.

Leandra: What about you, Emily?

Emily: I was going to say almost the exact same thing: when things fit and when I don’t have to compromise for my size. When I go into the store and I have an outfit in mind and I don’t have to sacrifice my idea. As far as showing skin, I don’t. I’m just not that type of person to show skin. But the fact that plus size bloggers are makes me feel great inside. I mean, I’m not gonna post a bathing suit photo, but it’s great that they are and I respect that.

Kellie: I think it’s hard, though. Because there’s fat, there’s acceptable fat, and then there’s not acceptable fat. Acceptable fat is tall, lean, not roll-y, not soft, more of an hour glass. But if you’re bigger in the middle or top heavy or whatever…like, I’m 5’10,” I’m not an hourglass, and I post pictures of myself in a bathing suit.

If you feel confident and you want to wear something, go crazy, have fun. But the fashion side of me, if it doesn’t look fashionable, then I won’t like it.

Katie: Do you get comments when you post photos in a bathing suit?

Kellie: Always, but they’re almost never negative. I’ve been super blessed because there is a lot of slut shaming online, and a lot of, “You’re so fat, you’re disgusting.”

Tumblr comments are usually where it’s specific. I think it’s because I’m not “a little fat.” I am all the way plus size. It’s not like, “You could lose a little.” I am clearly a larger person, so maybe they don’t feel the need to say, “You’re fat,” because it’s like, “Duh, I know. I’m aware. I’m tall, I’m black, I’m me.” But what they say is that I’m promoting obesity. “I’m loving this outfit but don’t you feel like you’re promoting obesity?” And it’s like, “How? Because you like what I’m wearing, you think that I’m saying you have to gain weight in order to wear this?” I don’t understand the relation.

Amelia: The logic is not there.

Kellie: It’s not real. Right? So, should I not get dressed? Another thing that’s big among plus size bloggers is that if we post pictures where we’re working out, people will say not to lose weight, that that’s selling out. Others will say, “Oh good, you’re finally losing weight.” And it’s like, Will you like these outfit posts better then? It’s gonna be the same style, same aesthetic.

You can love yourself at any size, on any given day. At your highest weight, at your lowest weight, at your weight that’s good for you. Whatever it is.

Amelia: That’s so hard, to embrace yourself as you are and not let yourself sit in fashion purgatory. I know that feeling so well, where you hate all your jeans because you gained weight but you don’t want to buy new jeans because you want to lose the weight — so you can’t wear any jeans and you feel like crap. It’s a bad feeling.

Leandra: I think that on a baseline level, fashion’s purpose is to make us feel like the best versions of ourselves. No woman, or man, frankly, is not motivated by feeling good about him or herself. And so by default, fashion plays an important role in everybody’s life. What I am finding is that people who are unable to participate force themselves to opt out because they have no other choice. It’s unfair.

We are platitudinously taught that what we look like on the outside doesn’t matter, that it’s all about what’s inside. But so much of what’s inside is informed by what happens on the outside.

When you guys were talking about when you feel your best, you all mentioned occasions where whatever was going on inside reflected what was going on outside. When I ask myself when I feel my best, it almost never actually has to do with what I’m wearing. When you ask me when I feel my worst, that’s always about what I look like.

Something I want to know is, what sort of advice would you give to your former self? If you were talking to the 12-year-old version of yourself and you could actually affect the psychological events that would happen in the subsequent 10 years, what would you say to her?

Kellie: It’s so funny because I don’t know that it would be about my body size. I think I’d say, “Listen to your mom, she knows what she’s talking about. Cherish family.” It would be more profound than: Your future fatness.

When we were talking about getting into fashion, and Amelia mentioned young women who thought they had to lose weight to get into the industry, when I was younger, I didn’t think I couldn’t do it because I was bigger, I thought I couldn’t do it because I was brown.

I thought, “There are no people who look like me.” Then one day I was watching one of those old Style Network shows and I saw André Leon Talley. I didn’t know who he was but he seemed super important, and I was like, “He’s big and black. I could be the girl version of him!” That made me think, “There are people who look like me.” That was more “the thing” than size.

When you don’t see yourself anywhere during that 12-year-old age, it’s kind of a mind-fuck.

Katie: I would say to my 12-year-old self, “You’re okay as you.” I think I spent the past 20 years pressed against the “skinny glass,” trying to get in and never getting in. This is the same body I’ve had since I was literally 12, and I’ve never felt comfortable in my body until probably now.

You walk into a room full of editors who are all zeros and you can’t find the clothes and you can’t buy the thing that everyone has and there’s always some road block — and so many of those blocks are mental. I finally exhaled and just said, “This is my body. This is who I am.” And I felt okay in a way that I never have before.

I think if I could lose all of that time where I was skipping a lunch and being obsessive or feeling like shit or leaving a party early because I wasn’t in a crop top and everyone else was in a crop top…those kinds of body moments: fuck them. And just worry about some other shit.

Worry about so many more important and valuable things for yourself than your weight or your body shape.

Emily: What I’d say is that things get better. Where I grew up, if you weren’t blonde, you weren’t thin, you weren’t tan: forget it.

Leandra: What’s making you happy now?

Emily: I like the change that’s happening. I see it happening in TV, with plus size fashion bloggers. And I like that at least more clothing is available. When I was a kid, nothing was available.

Amelia: There needs to be, across the board, a way for everyone to feel as though they can participate, and to not to be boxed into one category like you said earlier, Kellie. I don’t know how to make that happen. You have to hope that a loud demand for it will help.

In the meantime, I think women sharing stories of how they knocked down doors allows others to say to themselves, “Fine. I’m just gonna do it. I’m gonna move to New York City and enroll in FIT and be the one to design those clothes.”

Emily: Like Ashley [Nell Tipton] who won Project Runway. She’s plus size, and she won as a plus size designer, and the clothes are great. Anyone would want to wear them.

Amelia: Hopefully because of her, there are going to be more and more people designing cool clothes for all sizes.

Emily: It’s going to happen.

Check out Katie Sturino’s website, The 12ish Style, and follow on Instagram here. Check out Kellie Brown’s website, And I Get Dressed, the And I Get Dressed Instagram, and her personal Instagram here. Meanwhile, if you haven’t met Emily Zirimis yet, you may recognize her from making this incredible Bieber gif. She’s our graphic designer and has a sweet Instagram, too.

Photographed by Krista Anna Lewis; Styled by Elizabeth Tamkin; Creative Direction by Emily Zirimis.

The post MR Round Table: Plus Size Women in Fashion appeared first on Man Repeller.

What Your Afternoon Snack Says About You

Everyone’s blood sugar starts to crash sometime between lunch and dinner, but we don’t all reach for the same thing. We’re individuals, of course, and how you react says a lot about you. Who needs a therapist’s couch when your midday Twix directly correlates with your childhood after school special? Who needs a Myers Briggs test when your preference for protein checks all the personality boxes you could ever put forward? Who needs a whole list of snacks that explains your most inner-self if you can’t even eat it? Oh…you answered “me” to that last one? Better get to it then:

Your body is a temple and what goes inside is mostly green. Your gateway drug was probably a kale Caesar salad, but now you more or less spend all of your disposable income and calorie consumption on green juice. You even found a dessert with kale in it. You might be vegan. You have been Paleo. Either way, you care more about “getting your veggies” than a Nick Jr. PSA and know that snack time is the right time to slip in nature’s candy.

Around 3 p.m. you probably reach for an apple, an Eat Pops green ice pop or some of those “cheesy” yeast kale chips. You’ve been known to get crazy, though, spicing life up with new products you discover while taking part in your favorite pastime: strolling leisurely through your local heath food store, dabbing on the essential oils and making double laps past the sample gal.

Why eat for great taste when you could eat lots and lots and lots of something that tastes okay? You don’t understand those people who take one bite of something really indulgent and then stop. They might be aliens. The CIA should really look into it. Anyway, you are a quantity person. From your large bag of air popped chips to your frozen yogurt that basically has negative calories, you want to get at least 30 hand-or-spoon-fulls from your afternoon pick me up. At the end of the day, nothing tastes as good as an extended snack time feels.

From shakes to bars to a pound of plain grilled chicken in the middle of the day, you are all about that protein. You don’t fool around when it comes to amino acids, and you think one of the greatest innovations of the 21st century is that food companies have the ability to fit 24 grams of protein into those teeny, tiny bars.

You’re starving by the time 3 p.m. comes around and rightfully so: you finish your [insert crazy intense cardio and strength training type workout here] before most people brush their teeth in the morning. In your world, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing when that good thing is protein.

Low blood sugar is a totally reasonable excuse to eat the kind of candy usually reserved for 5-year-olds on Halloween. Sour Patch Kids? Yes please. The Sour Patch watermelons? Uh, yea. Old fashioned jelly beans? An underrated food group.

You spot candy where others might pass by without thinking twice: one lollipop from the reception desk here, another handful of Tootsie Rolls from your coworker’s office there. Not all candy is created equal — there are definitely things you would rather put in a make-your-own bag at Dylan’s candy bar — but when all is said and done, you’ve never met a bite size piece of sugar that you didn’t love.

Your energy starts to dip, so you take out a bar of high end chocolate from your temperature-controlled desk drawer, break off a tiny square to nibble on, and, Ahhhh, so much better. If it’s been a particularly stressful day or you had a light lunch, maybe you’ll go in for a second piece. Then you put your chocolate bar right back from where you got it and resume the latter part of your day.

“All I need is a taste” is your motto, which your friends pretend to understand but absolutely do not. You’re willing to spend an exorbitant amount on any given chocolate item because it lasts you for so damn long. In fact, you can’t remember the last time you had to actually go buy a snack since you’ve been nibbling on that bar of 72% dark chocolate with sea salt for at least a couple of weeks.

You are neither proud nor ashamed: it’s a fact that you need your daily chocolate fix. Some days you down it, other days it lasts you a whole afternoon, but as as soon as those paper and aluminum layers come off: GAME ON. It doesn’t matter if the bar you’re working on is 85% cacao or Hershey’s from CVS — you are very open minded. Just like a parent tries not to pick favorites, you see the good in all of your chocolate options. Even if that means white chocolate in times of desperation.

 

You pretend to be the nibbler. You want to be the nibbler. Sometimes you act like the nibbler and succeed. But deep down you are a devourer.

If you’ve already eaten lunch, dinner is nowhere in site, and there is free food around, chances are it will end up in your belly. You are still super confused about how repulsed your colleague was when you ate that half-eaten slice of pizza that was just lying around your office after a team meeting. Beggars can’t be choosy and they certainly can’t specify whether they prefer sweet or savory, so every day is an adventure for you.

Whether or not you like office parties, you always show up for the snacks, often taking full plates back to your office to save for another time. There may or may not be reserves in your desk drawers because why not stock up when you have the chance?

…Did anyone else just get weirdly hungry? What kind of snacker are you?

Illustrations by Alessandra Olanow; go follow her on Instagram! Shop featured Eat Pops and follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

The post What Your Afternoon Snack Says About You appeared first on Man Repeller.

MR Writers Club: Write Your Own Obituary

Write your own obituary: I know how morbid that sounds. It sounds like: “Hey! Pretend you’re dead, then write about it.”

What happened to the glass of sass being half full, my friends? There’s nothing but a bright side to this prompt, especially if you’re a bit of a perfectionist.

You see, a very scientific fact about humans is that when asked what kind of super power they would choose, the answers always are split 50/50 between the Ability to Fly and Be a Fly on a Wall, also known as Invisibility.

Those who want to fly have wanderlust and lofty arm goals. I understand the draw of being able to rise above traffic, or course, but imagine being able to know exactly what people are saying about you without them knowing you heard!

…Ok. That’s terrifying. Instead, imagine being able to edit what people are saying about you so that only the best you is represented, like an Instagram account but without the pictures.

That’s exactly what the opportunity to write your own obituary presents. It’s a blank canvas of all your intended accomplishments, your hopes turned into reality and a billion reasons why people love you. Your obituary is the shorthand of your dream biography. Imagine if the next Oscar-winning movie was based on the story of your life! It very well could be if only you were allowed to write it.

So go ahead. Pen the obituary that you’d like to have printed so that when the time comes and you’re no longer able to edit (in a billion years, okay?) you’ll know that even without a cloak of invisibility, they said exactly what you had hoped.

And wouldn’t you know it? They even threw in your favorite joke.

Deadline (zing!): Thurs, Jan 28 at 12:00 noon. Submit it to write@manrepeller.com with “my fake obituary” in the subject line.

The post MR Writers Club: Write Your Own Obituary appeared first on Man Repeller.

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Alexa Chung

There’s so much you already know about Alexa Chung: She never met a pair of overalls she didn’t like. Overalls feel the same way about her. Her perpetually undone hair never seems to flop in the wrong direction, or tuft in an awkward way. She loves a collar. Cat eyeliner is her thing.

But are you hungry to learn more? Always.

To sate your appetite, here are five fascinating pieces of lesser known AC trivia — straight from our latest Oh Boy Podcast featuring the model/designer/TV personality/professional awesome person — to impress your internal fact-bank.

1. None of her goals involve a squad.

Why not? “[Taylor Swift] has already got it sewn up — she stole everyone!” However, she’s intrigued by a new app called “Squad,” which is like Tinder for making friends. As of now she hasn’t downloaded it, but not to worry! Her two main friendship requirements are 1) laugh at her jokes and 2) be available to meet her at the pub after work. Easy. Done. Who’s in?

2. She is three-eighths Asian.

The daughter of a British mother and father who’s three-fourths Chinese, Alexa’s used to fielding confused questions about her heritage. “People still now will tweet, ‘Are you Chinese or something?’ and I’m like, ‘No, definitely, I am!’ And at the airport, if [the pick up car] says ‘Chung,’ when I approach, they ask for ID.”

3. All she wants is a spaghetti strap tank top, but hates “going out tops.”

Even if they are coming back in! “There’s something about [the look] that upsets me. I went into Isabel Marant yesterday and I saw this nice red blouse — but then it was so, like, You wear that with jeans. I want to make things look interesting together and not be so spelled out.” (Spoiler: She still bought the shirt.)

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4. But she loves pale yellow mohair cardigans.

That is, if she can ever find one. “I’m trying to manifest it into being. It has to be a combination of Kurt Cobain, that MTV Unplugged thing, this Miu Miu cardigan I saw once that was lemon yellow, and fluffiness.”

5. When it comes to surviving the winter glooms, she has a good trick.

“I start fantasizing about summer outfits — yesterday I started assembling bikinis. I just really like the idea of what I’d wear somewhere sunny.”

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Congratulations! You’re now an Alexa Chung expert. Go buy some fuzzy citrus-colored knitwear to celebrate.

The post 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Alexa Chung appeared first on Man Repeller.

Social Media Code of Conduct

Remember back in the day when our sole method of communication was the telephone? Everyone expected to be contacted via one technological apparatus and the only information you were attempting to glean was whether or not your friend was home yet from a piano lesson.

Plain and simple.

It wasn’t strange at all to use the phone to call someone. You just had to be prepared to speak to a parent, first.

Then AIM and email came along, multiplied like rabbits, and here we are, with more ways than the NSA to not only get in touch but collect information about each other.

So where are the boundaries?

My own overanalyzing of this topic leads to second-guessing myself, which leads to uncertainty, and before I know it, I’ve missed the 1st Ave stop on the L train, all because I was deeply contemplating whether the person I requested on Gchat earlier will think that I’m weird or if I’m about to get reprimanded because I texted a co-worker instead of emailing.

But I know it’s not just me…

You go to follow a person you recently met but their account is private:

Gut-check your creep level. If you don’t care, get in there. If the embarrassment stakes are too high, DON’T DO IT.

A reminder: you’re essentially saying, “We hardly know each other but I’m about to scroll through the past 178 weeks of your life.” If your personal constitution can withstand a pending request for days or a non-reciprocated follow, be my guest. (Mine cannot.) Otherwise, save yourself.

How soon is too soon to add someone on Facebook?

We can universally agree that if you don’t do it in moment with the person present (“Adding you!”) you 100% risk looking like a stalker if you do it three weeks later.

But also, sometimes it’s necessary to figure out if your new friend went to summer camp with your college roommate’s brother and you take the aforementioned risk in the name of a Jewish geography victory. I think Facebook figured this out, hence why they added “people you may know.” Thanks for thinking of us, FB. It makes us look less weird.

Email? Or text?

We might as well be debating the chicken and the egg.

If you start off a relationship texting, is it weird to all of a sudden email?

If you start off emailing, what topics get shifted to text?

It’s safe to say that if your typical text looks like a newspaper column, email. If you’re just letting someone know you saw his or her doppelgänger at Chipotle, text.

Adding someone on Gchat:

Gchat feels wholly essential and completely unnecessary at the same time.

It’s the perfect place for imperative conversations about nothing with friends where face-to-face conversations require a plane ride or more days in the week.

However, unless your job requires it, no one needs to stack that list with extraneous contacts. This isn’t AIM and no one has time for “nmu?” Keep the edit tight.

General conversing via telephone:

I limit using my phone as an actual phone for grandmothers and checking on my Seamless order.

Meanwhile, I’ve been known to deliver some rather large life news to important people via email because the thought of talking on the phone is more overwhelming than the news itself.

Though I’m getting better with the select group of phone-talkers in my life, I’d rather break my thumbs arduously hashing out why you’re mad at me via text. Still, many women and men I know find it polite when their date calls regarding plans, so…fair game here — up to you.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a lawless place. It is perfectly acceptable to watch and send snaps to people we’d probably avoid saying hi to on the street.

120 seconds of an acquaintance-at-best swimming around in a fish bowl or fixing her face under a pair of kitten ears? Yes, I’d love to experience that, thank you.

And what are the rules when it comes to people you work with?

Old bosses? Current bosses? Co-workers?

I know HR said something about keeping your personal life separate from your work life, but if Brittany in Finance is following that chic girl from Marketing on Instagram, then I’m hoping on board, too.

That being said, if your quasi-manager adds you, are you obligated to follow back and like the photos of her new cat?

…The answer is probably yes. Time to back-stalk yourself and delete anything “funny at the time.”

Social media is a tricky game with ample opportunities for embarrassment and bad form. But your fate is in your own hands. And at the end of the day, as with life, no one knows what they’re doing anyway.

Collages by Emily Zirimis

The post Social Media Code of Conduct appeared first on Man Repeller.

The Revenge of the Upper Arm

When I first started seeing women’s exposed upper arms on the runway, I rejoiced. Here was a part of the body so often associated with masculine strength, arm wrestling and the Jersey Shore.

And women were owning it.

Upper arms have long united women in collective shame. In the UK, flabby triceps are known as “bingo wings” after those arms that wave twice during a big Bingo win. Pashminas cover the “trouble zone” at weddings. Personal trainers advise chair dips. Madonna and Michelle Obama are of the few women who seem to have actually succeeded in taming the natural fat below the shoulder.

But recently, women starting lopping big holes out of the arms of their sweaters and exposing this much maligned zone. My friends weren’t just showing their biceps, they were actively flaunting them, serving them up as a museum piece by covering the rest of the body. No breasts, this trend smirks, no leg for you. Just straight, unadulterated…arm. The look is a modern rewriting of the old “We Can Do It!” poster, produced when women were encouraged to step into stereotypically-male roles, working on the land and in in factories to make up for the absence of young men during World War II.

When I saw this trend spring up on the runway at Proenza Schouler, Prabal Gurung, Céline, Wes Gordon and Erdem, I was tempted to imagine this unveiling of the upper arm as an act of unbridled anger, a loud roar that demanded women decide what skin should and shouldn’t be exposed. It seemed to be the perfect female response to the testosterone-fueled, “Do you even lift, bro?” Lift or not, our upper arms were invited to the gun show.

But before we flex our exposed triceps to pop open the champagne, I’d like to take a moment to pause. Celebrating a new part of the body as sexy is refreshing. It removes, at least momentarily, the pressure to get bigger breasts or a tighter tush. It’s a sneakily seductive way of exposing flesh without flashing the parts people most want to see. But what if the strategically-placed arm hole trend doesn’t actually mark a new dawn for the upper arm? After all, when the crop top woke up from its 90s hangover and crawled back into our wardrobes, it failed to usher in a self-acceptance movement. For every article that said anyone could wear a crop top, ten “rock that crop top!” workouts popped up on YouTube and in magazines promising toned abs for the sake of fashion credentials.

And so I fear for the upper arm. Because while we mere mortals might be exposing our upper arms in all their plump, skinny or slack glory, the A List body is morphing into something alarmingly sinewy. Slim upper arms that have submitted to gruelling gym routines are the new hallmark of female success: look at Victoria Beckham, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Aniston, Ciara. To have rock hard biceps is to reach the pinnacle of sculpted femininity.

The spring catwalks warned us of upper armageddon. I give it six months for the bicep workouts and tricep toning tips to dilute the power of this trend. Unless, of course, we refuse to let another style turn into a reason to hate our bodies or a new garment become the sole motivation for grueling gym workouts. It is possible to keep our upper arms ventilated without needing to sculpt them into some ideal shape? What would Rosie the Riveter say? Likely: To hell with it — bingo wings or not.

Runway images via Vogue Runway; collage by Elizabeth Tamkin.

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The Birds, the Bees and the Snoop Dogg TBTs

In 2015, Snoop Dogg confirmed that animals are confusing when he began narrating Planet Earth. He had a hard time telling frogs from geckos, goats from reindeer and pigeons from a wide assortment of birds. Perhaps most notably, he didn’t know whether or not these were beavers.

And honestly, who does?

No one. Animals proved further confusing when I came across my new favorite Twitter account, We Rate Dogs.

The judges are pretty fair and tend to rate higher/more positively than your average Yelp user…

This is Tyrone. He’s a leaf wizard. Self-motivated. No eyes (tragic). Inspirational af. 11/10 enthusiasm is tangible pic.twitter.com/pRp1Npucbz

— WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) January 13, 2016

But sometimes it seems that they don’t always know what is and isn’t a dog.

Army of water dogs here. None of them know where they’re going. Have no real purpose. Aggressive barks. 5/10 for all pic.twitter.com/A88x73TwMN — WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) January 13, 2016

But it also begs the question: do we really have to be so limiting? When it comes to canines and canaries, aren’t we all a part of the same animal kingdom?

We normally don’t rate birds but I feel bad cos this one forgot to fly south for the winter. 9/10 just wants a bath pic.twitter.com/o47yitCn9N — WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) January 18, 2016

Was it not Carrie Bradshaw herself who came up with the “some women aren’t meant to be tamed” thing while standing next to an appaloosa carriage horse?

Did this post just waste the exact amount of time that you were hoping for?

Don’t some sentences just read better as questions?

Do you remember this song?

Do you miss this fashion-animal-themed slideshow? (It’s so good)

Do you need to kill me because I’m still going, or do you need to kill a few more minutes in your procrastination break? Whatever opportunity arises first? Cool, same. (To the latter.) Let’s shop.

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Feature image of Snoop Dogg via Dour Festival 2015

The post The Birds, the Bees and the Snoop Dogg TBTs appeared first on Man Repeller.