Directory – Curvasian

Women’s Plus Size Work Clothes / Workwear

September 29, 2015April 14, 2016 Bertha C

Hey There!

I just learned about this new brand called Universal Standard, seems like a beautiful collection of higher quality products. The coat above and its little red detail tell it all (although the campaign is a little too subtle and dark, I cannot really take a good look at the overall craftsmanship of the collection) , but you can be the judge and below is the rest of the collection.

Talking about work clothes for plus size women, just like any other plus size fashion or clothing, there aren’t too many choices out there, but of course you still have some options and it’s not like you won’t find clothes to wear 😉

Carmakoma

The best established brand goes to Carmakoma from Denmark for it’s elegant design that fits properly on plus size women.

Violeta by Mango

The spanish brand was one of the first to use a plus size model in their campaign back in 2007 ( I still have the hard copy booklet!), but not until last year, they launch the plus size line Violeta. Just like Mango, it covers all segment for plus size women – casual wear, party wear and also included workwear.

There are also other brands which are not as minimalist as could be, but good options for the formal dressing needs.

Bonmarche.co.uk

Evans

Nordstrom.com

Lane Bryant

Top 10 Plus size sportswear / activewear

August 12, 2015April 14, 2016 Bertha C

In my last post, I talked about Sportluxe – high fashion workout gear for straight size and some XLs for inbetweenies, therefore I have not focused on plus size brands. There are now many brands out there available for plus size women and I need to have a separate post just for it 🙂

Personally I have not tried any of these brands fit, because my heart is on the sportluxe brands (now I am working towards being able to squeez into them)!

I want to point out that, appearance of sportswear is as important as its function, it has to be both! So, invest in some higher quality pieces. Especially nowadays we have more options as ever before, of course you want to choose the best among all that last long, functional and makes you look good.

Material is really important, we don’t have the same body size or shape as slim women and there are many things in plus size activewear design that needs to pay more attention to.

For example, the inner thigh area, most of us has chub rub because of our thick thighs, therefore the fabric use on the jogging pants need more resistant than usual.

We also have different size of legs, some big girls have lean long legs and some like me have shorter and strong, thick limbs.

Last but not least, most of us have larger breasts than slim girls, due to fat distribution of course! Therefore the tops we wear should be more supportive with good coverage.

For big boobes girls, I would suggest you to look for bratop or vest that has built in layer, put them on after wearing your sportbras.

Then it comes to design, nowadays we don’t want baggy outfit that is shapeless, having the style add to our fitness outfit will definitely boost the motivation for us to go get some exercise!

Here below are the activewear brands that offer plus size for your browsing pleasure!

2XU

Function and sport design, no fashion elements but offers high tech compression wear, comes in S- XXL

Lane Bryant

Fashion over sport as seems that the material used is more for leisure than intensive sport

Zella

Sporty and fashionable active wear

Just My Size

C9 By Champion

Kohls.com -Fila

Surprisingly extensive range of plus size active wear by Fila

Lineagewear

S-XXXL

Just Curves

Size 0-28

“I know the pain of trying to find sexy, fashionable plus size activewear, which is why I started Just Curves” – Yolanda Williams, founder of Just curves

Personal Record

Designer Becca manufatures her own fun fashionable leggings for plus size girls

Katie K Active

Dedicate to plus size fitness! #definebrave

Contemporary and High Fashion for Plus size girls

March 7, 2014August 4, 2017 curvasian

I have a dream, one day I will be able to wear Plus size contemporary / High Fashion clothing from many talented designers like how straight size girls do.I see high fashion as art and I have always wanted to unite with my
favorite art form (for dreaming). If you are into fashion designs, you should feel the
butterflies in your stomach whenever you see the latest fashion show from spectacular designers.I always ask why? Why can’t innovative fashion labels make clothes for bigger girls? I know it’s not easy for such business to get funded for one, since we still haven’t shown them enough buying power at the moment but it’s getting there,and I know many of us are still not comfortable enough to put it out there, but WE WILL get there.

I want all kind of designs in plus size fashion so bad, that I wish for it to happen almost everyday and that’s one of my goal in life. We will then have a very very different world and the creativity these designers would bring into plus size clothing will be so great, as all the tailoring will be so different than making smaller clothes. There might even be this specific subject to be studied in fashion design school, too. We will be able to see some NEW art form then.

I want to see things like these on plus size women

Viktor & Rolf


There are of course certain contemporary “plus size” clothes in the market at the moment, like Carmakoma and Jibri, but most labels will only choose “safe” designs to blow up to certain sizes, and it will take some years before we get plus size brands to design clothes similar to above.

So for now, let me take you through the list of high fashion design label which carry clothes up to certain plus sizes, which most of us in-betweenies can be benefited.

Moschino

My favorite brand. Moschino integrates with pop art, every season there are fun loving items that makes people smile! They carry UK size 14 for most styles, and up to size UK20(US16-18) sometimes. Affordable items available with their Love Moschino Line.

Valentino

The most romantic Italian brand in history with their signature red which I wish to be donning on plus size women. Most styles up to UK16(US14).

Etro

One of the very few high fashion brands that carries size UK18 (US16), Bohemian style.

McQ Alexander Mcqueen

Street Style, Mcq do random XXL (UK16/US14) so you need to keep checking it out if you love this brand

Jean-Paul Gaultier

JPG is well known for using plus size models on his runway. Funny how these clothes are not really on sale in real life! 😉 Well You will find stretchy XXL (US14) dresses from his collections.

Roksanda Ilincic

I always leave the best to the last so you know next time.

Roksanda Ilincic is by far the best brand I have seen when it comes to their style and tailoring available on offer at size UK 16(US12). Not all online store carry this size and so far I have only seen it from ModaOperandi.com if you pre-order thier AW14 collection. Let me now dream.

Can you imagine the world with plus size clothes like this?

You can shop these items online at

www.moschino.com
www.mytheresa.com
www.modaoperandi.com

www.bergdorfgoodman.com

Top 5 Plus size Fashion Magazine

December 19, 2013January 9, 2017 curvasian

I have started reading fashion magazines since I was around 13 years old, and I have been a chubby girl since I was 10. Reading all these Fashion magazines like Vogue, Marie Claire, then i-D, Dazed and confused with almost always Size 00 models in there, was obviously not good for my mental health.Well of course after years of confidence building, I don’t really care about body size now. I believe every size could be beautiful, because beauty starts from your feeling within. If you were born with fast metabolism, never had to care what you eat because you can easily stay slim, you may not have to go through as much as we do, nonetheless, we all have image/body issues, confidence issues periodically. I have learned that, one must feel comfortable in thier own skin before one can feel comfortable enhancing their natural beauty with fashion statements. Just remember, you don’t have look like a model to feel beautiful and have confidence in yourself. Appearance is only a part of who we are.

With E-magazines being ever so popular nowadays, it’s fairly easy to get our hands on some Plus size Fashion Magazines where you can relate to easier; compare to all the magazines out there which don’t even mention where you can get that cool jacket in your size, these are the best for us plump ladies! Plus all the features about body&mind confidence, positive lessons in life, it’d certainly serve as a healthy potion every month for your brain.

Here are my top 5 picks.

Manik Mag – www.Manikmag.com #lifethrowscurves

A plus size community. This is a place to come to if you want to participate, discuss about different issues as a plus size lady. I love this community and I love the women featured in it. They are such a happy, positive bunch that you would want to have around in your cyber space. Apart from reading their e-mag. Follow their instagram and tag your photos with #lifethrowscurves. You will feel like you have an additional family

Dare Magazine – www.daremag.ca

My favorite plus size mag as of now. I have always wanted to read a glossy that is exactly like Glamour UK, full of fun, high street style which should be more of my signature at the moment, and I see this potential in them! Seeing they have only been published 3 season, this mag certainly has great potential and space to grow.

Plus Model Magazine – www.plus-model-mag.com #pmmlook

The name says it, you want to know how beautiful a plus size model could look after being dolled up? you could totally use the styling ideas and do the same! A rather mature mag I’d say, glamourous is their staple – for the sophisticated ladies who like sequin, one piece shift dresses. Also, don’t miss Dec ’13 issue if you are are inspired by strong independent woman, as they have loads of interviews with people in the plus size industry sharing their stories in this issue.

Skorch Magazine www.skorchmagazine.com #skorchmagazine

Skorch Mag is the resource of #bodypositivity and street style fashion. One of the main reason you will want to read it every month is their #Honormycurves Column by Honor Curves. Our favorite heroine Honorine, hand-pick these strong, positive women who are being themselves in every fashion to be featured in it.
I was honored to be one of them in the Jan 2013 issue as that’s when I have finally overcome my shyness and built up confidence to start showing my own face publicly, for the love of plus size fashion styling. On the left is my fellow ig friend – plus size model/ plus advocate Miss Ava Sfez instagram.com/avassfez) 🙂

The Curvy Fashionista www.thecurvyfashionista.com #tcfstyle

Last but not least, TCF is the most informative plus size fashion website. You can find all the latest plus size fashion resources you need up here. Marie Denee is for sure one of the hardest working woman I see in the plus size industry, she must be working around the clock as you can see feeds, news, updates, tweets, press release publishing all the time on her website/FB/Twitter page.
If you are seeking a plus size crash course? look no further.

The Honor mention
Slink Magazine http://www.slinkmagazine.com

They don’t have a flip book so it’s not easy to read through their site, and also they are charging 3.95 pound per issue so I have not really read it before, hence I cannot put in my top 5 pick.
I have to say they have the most awesome fashion editorials among all, and they also cover a lot of different categories which most of the other mags lack of.

Plus size Fashion online shopping tips and Brand Directory

November 13, 2013January 9, 2017 curvasian

Here is a page where I put together all the Plus size brands with online retail I find decent.

Online Shopping is getting so easy nowadays, all you need to know is how the brand fits you by getting to know their clientele base; very simple theory.

How to choose the brand suitable for your style

One of the most useful tips is – if you are not familiar with shopping online; find things that contains the material LYCRA®. It stretches so it’s comfortable, it’s thicker than just putting elastin in the fabric and of it’s higher quality. If you have chosen the right size with correct measurement, they will always fit because of the stretch. Otherwise having elastin in the fabric would help a lot too so check the material they mention on the page. Although with LYCRA® or Elastin, the fit will be more figure hugging, and designed to be more sensual or at times revealing (wrap dress, low cut, cut out, crop details); but they are absolutely flattering.

Unless you are ready for fashion forward clothing, as most of the time
you will be wearing clothes that has no stretch, tighter fit, do go for comfort first.

I think Fashion styling is a journey in fashion itself, so no one can really tell you what to wear. All you need to do is keep being adventurous and try different things. Go to a store where they sell plus size, try as many as you want in the changing room to learn what’s best for you. Also watch and learn from various bloggers on how to match their outfits, get inspired.

I will simply put these brands into different 5 categories

Fashion Labels ($$$-$$$$), Elegant ($$-$$$), Street Style ($$-$$$) multiple brands ($-$$$$) and High Street Fashion ($-$$$)

Designer labels