Full Figured Fashion Week - Day Three, Part II (Runway Finale)

So there's just this one last post to finish up my coverage of Full Figured Fashion Week in NYC... I almost don't want to write it, because then it will be over! On the Saturday night, all of the Full Figured Fashion Week attendees, over 1000 in total, got together at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan to watch a fashion show featuring a number of plus size fashion's best designers and boutiques. Of course my roomies and I got all dolled up. This was my first fashion show ever, and now I think I'm hooked. I'm definitely planning on going to Toronto's Fashion Week!

When we got back to the hotel after Kmart's Blogger's Brunch and the shopping we did afterwards, we were all exhausted, so we took a moment and just rested, chatting and having a lot of laughs. Seriously, I love my roomies. I miss those girls already! I can't wait until the next Full Figured Fashion Week so we can room together again, but I definitely hope that we get to see each other before then as well. Maybe I'm just going to have to do a road trip to see all of them! So eventually we were able to muster up the energy to get ourselves ready (seriously though, my feet are still recovering from all the walking in heels we did that weekend), and everyone looked gorgeous!

So I thought I would share some of my favourite outfits with you guys, both from the runway, and from the well-dressed women in attendance who were totally rocking fantastic red carpet looks.

Left to Right - Aimee (owner of Madison Plus), Mellie from The Fat Apple, Jessica from Chic in Every City, Allison from Curvy Girl Chic, me, and Neferth from Mode Plus

I love Allison's dress from Damn You Alexis' line for City Chic. I also love my roomy Jessica's Roxanne dress, which is also from City Chic. I really need to start ordering some stuff from there. They look gorgeous. I wish I could tell you where the other beautiful women in this picture got their outfits from too, but I didn't recognize where they were from. It was funny to see a bunch of items I've been admiring while internet window shopping lately all sprinkled throughout the room. I was like, "I know where that dress is from, that one too! I want that one!" LOL. Here's an IGIGI dress I was drooling over on Maximum Woman's website that I saw someone wearing at the event:

I feel so silly, I took her picture, but didn't even get her name. It was pretty hectic there!

Left to right - Tina from T Minus, T Plus, Kimberly from Fab Finds Under $50, and Stiletto Siren

Again, I'm so ashamed I didn't get her name! But she looks stunning. I love this dress. Anyone out there know who designed it?

Aquabah Gonney, Full Figured Model jumpsuit - Mandee's, Hat and belt - Forever 21, Shoes and bag - Jessica Simpson from DSW  

Me and Maddy from Plus Model Mag. They featured me and my outfit as one of the best of their five favourite bloggers!

Me and Gwen Devoe, the event co-ordinator, on the red carpet

Now that you've seen some of the best of the red carpet fashions, I thought I should share some of the best stuff straight off the runway! There were some gorgeous items! Here are some of my favourites. All shots of the runway fashions are courtesy of Alec Turner, photographer extraordinaire for the runway finale.

This is my friend Maxey Day. She's so gorgeous! She totally rocked it up there.

Cacique (by Lane Bryant). This is their new long line leopard print bra. Want!

More Cacique awesomeness.

Remember the trunk show I went to at Re/Dress NYC? These colourful outfits are all Sweetooth Couture designs. Rachel (the collection's designer) is often referred to as the Betsey Johnson of the plus size fashion industry, and you can see why!

Rachel, designer of Sweetooth Couture, left, and a model in one of her fantastic outfits. This skirt brought the house down. Want!

This outfit is something I really must have. Each piece is impeccable, and the styling is just wow. I would wear this outfit exactly as it is. Wouldn't change a thing. Kudos to the stylist who put this together. It's Ashley Stewart, which surprised me, since I didn't realize they sold such fashion-forward pieces. I'll have to give them a second look! I REALLY hope that ALL of this will be available for purchase and was not just for exhibition on the runway!

You all know how much I love pouffy. And this colour? *Drool*

And the show ended with one final sashay down the runway from all of the lovely models who showed off the beautiful clothes. 

And you know what happened as soon as the runway cleared out? You know I hopped on there for some photos. My friend and roomy Sarah from Queen Sized Flava took this shot.

Dress - ASOS Curve/Shoes - Spring Shoes/Bracelets - some from Forever 21 and others borrowed from Diva in Deep Thought/Belt - Re/Dress NYC/Clutch - Express

Once the runway show was over, we headed upstairs to the 46th floor for a great view of NYC, a few drinks, and some conversation about the evening's fashion. Left to right Jessica from Chic in Every City, Paul from Awoque, me, Louise from Upscale (panties for fuller figures) and Thina from Beyond Sizes

After a great night, we all went home and crashed. So tired. The next day, my bus came at 7:30pm, so we had time to sleep in (The Affinia Manhattan gave us a late check out, thank goodness!), pack up, store our luggage for the day, and do some exploring. I was way too exhausted (and didn't really have enough time) to do any of the really touristy stuff, so I decided I would save that for my next trip (which I hope will be really soon!). Sarah and I decided to take the train into Brooklyn to go and use our Lane Bryant gift cards. I wanted to pick up some bras from Cacique (because they're currently having a buy two get four sale), but when I got there, they had almost nothing (and definitely not 4 bras) in the size and style I needed. On Friday there had been a shopping tour organized by Marie Denee from The Curvy Fashionista and they stopped at that Lane Bryant. I'm pretty sure that was why they were low on stock, lol. All the other fashionistas got there first! So I decided to save my gift card and I think I might get that leopard print skirt from my day one post, or perhaps the long line leopard print bra from the runway. What do you guys think?

I took one last picture while we were waiting for the train... Sorry for the weird stink eye expression. I was really, really tired!

Dress and tights- Forever 21+/Purse - Costa Blanca/Shrug - Dots/Flip Flops - Gifted from Kmart

I got back to the Affinia and hopped into a cab headed down to the Port Authority to catch my greyhound bus home. The bus ride home was even worse than the one there. The bus is supposed to have free wifi and power outlets, but it didn't, and the seats were really uncomfortable. A lady came to sit down beside me and she was big too. I was thinking, "why would you choose to sit beside me if we're both big? This makes no sense! Go sit beside a skinny person and we'll both be more comfortable!" Her (extremely hot) bum was touching me the whole way, and since it was warm, we both were wearing tshirts and you get that horrible skin on skin contact with a stranger thing happening. Yuck. And she snored the whole way. At least we didn't have trouble at the border!

Peter came to pick me up from the bus stop with flowers! At 5:30am. So sweet! <3 him! I told him all about my trip and slept until he got home from work because I was so tired. I thought my sleep schedule would be all messed up because of it, but I was still tired, and was able to go to bed at the usual time and woke up at 8am the next day, so I was back on track. Peter said something like "in the past 48 hours, you've slept for 24!" That's just how exhausted I was. But I am not complaining at all! It was all so awesome and so worth how tired I was when I got back. I am definitely going again next year and I hope I'll see a lot of familiar faces. I really had a great time and it was so great to meet everyone, especially people I'd gotten to know online first. I made some truly great friends and had a wonderful trip. Thank you to everyone who made my trip happy and safe and fun. Love you all.

Full Figured Fashion Week - Day One

Hi Everyone!

I sit here at my computer, ready to post, but astonished by the amount of information I have to share with you, and wondering how I can do so without overwhelming you. Sorry it has been so long since I've posted! I planned to blog as I went during Full Figured Fashion Week, but I couldn't get free wi-fi anywhere ($16 a day at the hotel) and I was so crazy busy that it would have been next to impossible to do the events any justice. There is so much to tell you, so I think I am going to break my posts up into days, and over the next four days I will write a post a day about each of the days at Full Figured Fashion Week.

I left on Wednesday, June 15th on the Greyhound from Toronto at about 9:15pm. The bus was supposed to get into NYC at 7:30am on the 16th, but we had problems at the border because one of the passengers didn't have the right documents and we were delayed about two hours. Other than that the bus ride was pretty uneventful, but my seat was broken and wouldn't adjust, and so it stayed stuck in a terribly uncomfortable position for the whole trip :( We got into NYC at about 9:30am and the first event of the trip, the Lane Bryant Bloggers' Conference, started at 10am. I was in a big rush to get there. The bus had dropped me off at the Port Authority, but never having been to NYC before, I thought it was Penn Station, which was a lot closer to the hotel than where I actually was. My GPS wasn't working (because I had no 3G network in the US) and I just tried walking to see if I could find where I was going. No such luck. I hailed a taxi because it was already like 9:50am at this point. I got to the hotel about 5 minutes before the event started. Needless to say, I wasn't looking very pretty after a 12 hour overnight bus trip from Toronto, so I had to change and pretty myself up. I went to use the bathroom at the hotel and performed the fastest make-up application and quick change possible and stored my luggage at the Affinia Manhattan (our hotel and luckily where the event was being held). I snook in quietly and took a seat in the back. The team at Lane Bryant had many things to show and tell us!

They went over their Fall Collection and described some of their major influences. You'll be seeing a lot of knit with sequins (I love sequins!), plum, blueberry, earthy green accents, and other naturally inspired colours. You also be seeing some great graphic patterns such as colouful paisleys, animal print, and floral. Here are some of the looks that Lane Bryant featured from their upcoming Fall 2011 collection.

This last one's my favourite! The people at Lane Bryant were kind enough to give us a gift card to try out some of their latest fashions, and I'm going to wait until this skirt hits stores before I use mine!

After the Fall Fashion preview, Gill Heer, director of the Cacique line (Lane Bryant's lingerie collection), talked to us a bit about upcoming lingerie fashions. I am a big fan. The collection she showed us was fun, flirty, feminine, and vintage inspired. The bras and undies they featured were so luxurious, colourful, and they looked like they would fit impeccably (if Cacique's previous bras are any indication, they will!). Here are some of the gorgeous pieces from the Cacique Fall 2011 collection:

Gorgeous stuff, right?

Lane Bryant also introduced us to a limited edition bra that will be introduced during the holiday season. It is encrusted with genuine Swarovski crystals! Isn't it gorgeous? There are only 31 going into production.

Lane Bryant Runway Glam Bra with Hand-Stitched Swarovski Crystals

Lane Bryant is having a contest for all the bloggers who were there and one will win this bra! We have to get all of our trusty and loyal readers to vote for us, and the blogger with the most votes will win! In addition to this bra, the winner will get a $100 gift card to give away to their readers. So if I win, you guys get a chance to win a $100 Lane Bryant gift card! It takes less than one minute to vote (you just click on Curvy Canadian and submit and you're done!), so please vote now! Click here and you can vote for me: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/redrunwayglambrapoll4

Lane Bryant also introduced a new type of jeans to us at Full Figured Fashion Week called T3. T3 stands for "Tighter Tummy Technology" and these jeans, while comfortable and not at all girdle-y like similar solutions, smooth the stomach and tush. Here are a few pictures of some of the bloggers trying out regular Lane Bryant jeans (top) and T3 jeans (bottom)

Look how cute they all look! I definitely want a pair of these T3 jeans. They also unveiled their upcoming ad campaign for the jeans, which they hope kicks up as much of a stir as their recent Cacique ad, which was banned from broadcast during American Idol (even though Victoria's Secret ads ran during the same timeslot) because it was "too racy" for primetime. 

And the most exciting news I got at the Lane Bryant Bloggers' Conference? Lane Bryant will begin SHIPPING INTERNATIONALLY as of September! SO exciting, don't you think? I made sure to tell them that we're suffering up here from a lack of good options. They said that expansion to Canada is something which has been discussed at length at their head office (one of the top five things they talk about, apparently), and that expanding to Canada with some stores is a priority (though they wouldn't commit to saying there are stores coming soon or anything like that). So what do you think? How eager are you to have Lane Bryant north of the border?

Maybe you'd like to see what I wore to this event as well? I had a few wardrobe malfunctions at a number of Full Figured Fashion Week events, but I tried to (I hope successfully) hide this from other attendees and in pictures. The first of these was at this event. The top two buttons of my blouse kept coming open and letting all the fabulous out! I think I just need to use some safety pins or put a couple of stitches in for the next time I wear it. Everyone was asking me where my skirt was from and gushing over it. I wore a lot of ASOS Curve stuff during the course of the week (in fact, I think almost all of my outfits to the events included a little ASOS...) and everyone loved what I had on. What do you guys think?

Blouse and Belt - Dots/Shoes - Target/Skirt - ASOS Curve/Earrings - Thrifted

Aren't the other lovely ladies in this picture beautiful? I love their style!

After the Lane Bryant Blogger Conference, I was able to check in with my new roomies, fellow bloggers -  Jessica from Chic in Every City, Yoli from Diva in Deep Thought, and another Canadian, Montreal based Sarah from Double XL Queen Sized Flava. Here's our beautiful room! It didn't look so beautiful after 4 fashion gurus got through with it, though! Getting ready for the events was chaos. It was amazingly fun though. I have 3 new besties! 

We all got settled in and started to get ready for Full Figured Fashion Week's welcoming event, a cruise of New York harbour where all of the guests were invited to wear white. It was a beautiful soiree, rivalling the most ultimate of P. Diddy's white parties. Here are some pictures from the event.

From left to right, my roomie Jessica from Chic in Every City, plus size model Maxey Day, and me!

A sea of white on the high seas!

Another of my roomies - Sarah - from Queen Sized Flava Made in Montreal

Me and Ms. Full Figured USA 2011

Do you guys shop at Forever 21+? Denise Bidot, centre, is their model. She's so gorgeous I almost didn't want to post this picture. I don't need to be seen beside her, lol!

This is Fluvia LaCerda. She's the totally gorgeous model who's done work for Monif C. Her curves are amazing!

Me with amazing bloggers Tina from T Minus, T Plus, and Kimberly from Fab Finds Under $50

Me and one of my favourite bloggers ever - Alison from Curvy Girl Chic. My outfit details: Dress - ASOS Curve/Purse and necklace - Thrifted/Earrings - Forever 21/Ring - Ardene/Shoes - Target

So that's it for day one. I pretty much got back to the hotel after this and crashed. It was a crazy day and so much fun! I am so fortunate to have been able to go to such a great event. Stay tuned for day two which I will post tomorrow!