Full Figured Fashion Week Day 4 - The Retailers' and Boutiques' Runway Show and Awards Show Finale

Hey Guys,

Day four was the last day of Full Figured Fashion Week, and I was a bit sad since it always means having to say bye to all the fabulous new friends you've made. The only comfort was the fantastic dress lent to me by Jovani, a designer who has dressed all sorts of fabulous celebrities from Paris Hilton to Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, even Selena Gomez. I was super excited when I found out they would be dressing me for this event!!! 

The morning of the finale, I went to go get my hair done, but the curls proceeded to fall right out and they didn't make an appearance at the event, d'oh. My hair is just too heavy, and it clearly won't hold a curl, but that doesn't stop me from trying! I wanted to go with a vintage deep pin curl look, but by the time the event rolled around, only the ends were just curled under, lol. After that, I went to grab some jewels at one of the many shops in the 6th Avenue/36th Street area. Man, I wish we had cool stores like that in Toronto! After picking up my bling, I went to meet Jess at the hotel and we got ready together!

She looked totally stellar, and once we were ready to go, we hoped in a taxi down to the Broad Street Ballroom for the Runway Finale and Awards Show. 

We got to walk the red carpet and socialize with lots of the designers who showed their clothes the night before, as well as some other fashionable ladies in the industry. 

The red carpet...

Beck, Meaghan, and Monique

Sarah looking fabulous!!!

Fashion Front members Ty and Caitlin hard at work, tweeting all about FFFWeek

Reconnecting with Full Figured Fashion Week's model of the year, Ashley Graham

Me with Madeleine Figueroa Jones, Editor in Chief of Plus Model Mag

I love this pic of me and Olivia from Wait Until the Sunset - she is such a fun, positive, outgoing, person! And she's the one that got engaged on the white cruise! <3

Two babes I've been wanting to meet for a looooong time - Nicole from A Well Rounded Venture, and Rebecca from The Plus Side of Me

A few members of the Fashion Front

Rikke and I 

The fashions featured at this show were all from boutiques and retailers, instead of individual designers. Here are a few of my favourite looks from the evening. Once again, thank you so much to Danimezza for these beautiful shots!

Evans

Sonsi

By Monif C. 

The Monif C. Espana Ruffle Swimsuit (also available in red)

Evie Foster

Mynt 1792

Lane Bryant/Cacique

After the show and awards, Ashley Graham invited me and Peter out for dinner with her, her hubby Justin, and Marcy Guevara from HelloStyle Channel and the Marie Claire column "Big Girl in a Skinny World." We ended up sipping wine, chatting, and nibbling on pizza out on a patio of a restaurant along Stone Street. I had a really fantastic time hanging out with them! Ashley's husband Justin is also really cool. Very charming and dapper!

Aww... So cute!!! A really lovely couple. 

Ashley let me hold her Alexander McQueen for a little while... I didn't want to give it back!!!

You're Invited! Curvy Girls' Shopping Trip from Toronto to Buffalo, NY!!!

Hey Guys,

Ever since the bloggers' trip I organized with Lane Bryant back in November, I've been thinking that it would be amazing if there was a curvy girls' tour of all the awesome places to shop that are just across the border. Well now, I am actually planning it myself! So excited!

The bus tour, scheduled for April 21st, will include pick-up locations in both Toronto (at a central location that is easy to get to, to be determined) and either Mississauga or east Oakville (location also to be determined), and transportation to and from all shopping destinations. We'll be departing Toronto at around 8am, and leaving Buffalo for Toronto at about 10pm that night. While we can't make it to all the places I'd like to bring you (since it is only a one-day trip), here are some of the places we'll certainly get to:

Walden Galleria Mall
-which has: Lane Bryant/Cacique, Torrid, Forever 21 (with a HUGE, well stocked, plus size section - though not after we're done with it, lol!) Macy's, Lord and Taylor, JC Penney, Cheesecake Factory (yum), H&M (which now has a small selection of plus size stuff in US stores), Sears, loads of places to pick up jewellery, accessories, and shoes, and many others.

Target

Dots

Rainbow

And one out of these two places. Maybe we can take a vote!

Boulevard Mall/Northtown Plaza
-Boulevard Mall has most of the same stuff as Walden Galleria, but Northtown Plaza has a T.J Maxx and an Avenue.

Fashion Outlets of Niagara
-They don't have all that much here that caters to the plus size shopper, but there is a pretty awesome Marshalls, and if you love discounted designer stuff, there's Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Coach, Burberry, and Saks Off Fifth Avenue. There's also a Gap here, and a Dress Barn (not my favourite store, but to each their own!).

There will also be time to stop for lunch, (maybe at the end of our time at Walden Galleria) and I'll make a reservation for us somewhere for dinner. Again, I am open to suggestions, but Olive Garden is one of my all-time favourites.

The trip will cost $50 (+ a 3% PayPal transaction fee). In order for the trip to be 100% confirmed, I need at least 25 people to sign up for it. If the trip does not go ahead, you will receive a full refund. This trip is limited to 50 participants. Hurry and book your spot now so you won't be disappointed!

Just click the button below to pay and reserve your spot. PayPal takes all major credit cards, and you can even set it up so you can pay from your bank account if you prefer. I hope to finally meet lots and lots of you on this trip!

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.