This is again proven by the beautiful range of plus-size garments from Igigi - USA.
Their "GENEVIEVE" DRESS says it all. (Read their blurb.)
Color: Black/Silver
Material: Poly/Elastane
Material: Poly/Elastane
The original Aussie self-esteem initiative, born 1991, for ALL women.
Monday, January 28, 2013
BLACK is the "NEW" BLACK
Seems that no matter what colour scheme sets the trend for any season, that black is THE major source of inspiration.
This is again proven by the beautiful range of plus-size garments from Igigi - USA.
Their "GENEVIEVE" DRESS says it all. (Read their blurb.)
This is again proven by the beautiful range of plus-size garments from Igigi - USA.
Their "GENEVIEVE" DRESS says it all. (Read their blurb.)
Saturday, January 19, 2013
THE OBESITY DEBATE ...
How times change! Years ago and yes, let's face it, decades ago, life was different. When we were kids we raced around playing games - we run or skipped or jumped at any time, and anywhere. We played outdoor games such as "rounders", baseball (albeit a gentler version than the boys), basketball, tried out tennis and even wanted to be included in the boys' cricket team. We were busy being kids and raced around before school, during play times and at lunch time, and then again after we came home from school.
As young adults, we walked to High School and then later when we found a job we walked to our place of work. At lunch time we either walked around the city window shopping or sat in the park eating a packed lunch and if we had a drink it would be from the water fountain in the park, or else we took a thermos of tea. Yes! We drank tea - soft drinks were only there for special occasions such as a birthday party or a family celebration. Not everyday. If we were meeting with our friends to go to the "pictures" (cinema) or to go dancing on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon, we got there by walking. Even in high heeled shoes and I do admit to wearing high-heels in my youth. But the main thing is that we walked and even though we didn't necessarily attend exercise classes, we certainly got plenty of exercise from doing ordinary every-day things. We even walked to the local telephone box to make important calls. No one had a personal telephone in their homes - they were for companies, places like hospitals and hotels and such.
Becoming older adults, marrying and having children, we still walked everywhere. Who could afford a car back then? Who could afford to catch a taxi? They were very few and far between. Bending, stretching, constantly moving doing housework, spending time in the kitchen preparing meals for a hungry family, getting down on our knees to wash and polish the floors, weekly dusting, and doing the laundry - I even remember my first washing machine some 15 years into my marriage; couldn't afford one before then. We were physically tired each day. Three hours at a gym? We'd never even heard the word gym used to describe attending a social networking, a gym to us had been a part of our school-day when we were younger.
Fast forward a couple or three decades. Public transport made travelling a breeze, even to places of work. Some of us even commuted intrastate or interstate. We could afford to have a personal telephone in every room of the house. Supermarkets had arrived on the scene where you could buy almost anything - of course meat and vegetables were still only available from their respective shops in the beginning but that too, soon changed. We were able to afford, having taken a hire purchase agreement to pay off in regular instalments, a refrigerator. So "modern" after the ice chest that most of us had grown up with. Electrical appliances of all sorts came onto the market, making life easier. Or should I perhaps say, a little lazier?
Women even had the opportunity of buying their own car. What freedom. We could go where we liked, when we liked and we didn't have to ask anyone's permission. We could even seek out a tea shop where we could meet friends and spend time together. But we still walked a lot, and worked a lot around the house, as well as when the opportunity arose, holding down a full time job.
Shopping centres came into being. Big, huge, centres where lots of different shops tempted the pay packet. Little coffee shops sprung up, and it soon became normal to by-pass the friendly local shopping strip and go to the Mall where you could buy everything you needed all at the one stop. Chinese restaurants opened; and then many new and different tantalising exotic foods appeared; we didn't need to travel overseas to enjoy the luxuries of "foreign" foods.
And what does all this have to do with obesity? Well, I'm no health expert, but I am an observer. We became more and more dependent upon the convenience of getting into the car to go down the street to shop or even to visit someone in the back street, rather than walking. If we were running late we caught a taxi - hang the cost. Frozen meals appeared on the supermarket shelves and we took to them like ducks to water. We could save time! We didn't have to slave over the kitchen stove cooking and preparing meals. Laundromats opened - so each week we could take the bedlinen and laundry there and for a couple of dollars get it all done without having to lug it out and hang it up on the clothes line at home. We could pick up the phone and get a local man to come around and cut the grass and clean up the garden. Some career women even had the luxury of having someone in to clean the house each week. Life became easier and it definitely became lazier.
And how to fill in the time that we saved? We could sit in front of the wonderful new "thing" that was taking everybody's interest - a television and then wow! a computer, and spend hours learning new things. We could pick up a small mobile phone and use it not only as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family but also to carry on our business. We turned our homes into our own small offices.
Our eating habits changed along with the change in our life-style (i.e. the energy used in doing everyday chores). Because we were no longer doing physically demanding jobs around the house and workplace, we began to "eat out". It was all very exciting and new. It became "normal" to go to the Mall every day, sit and have a cup of coffee and more often then not a donut or cream cake. No longer were we content with a packed lunch and a piece of fruit - there were too many other things to enjoy. After morning tea we'd go to another restaurant and have lunch. Oh well, after a bit of shopping, why not stop and have another cup of coffee and a small snack. If we were thirsty we could pick and choose between countless soft drinks and if we were very thirsty we'd even have two. We'd smile knowingly when older people spoke about the three meals a day routine - a good breakfast, a light lunch and a wholesome dinner at night - what did they know?
If our clothes became a bit tight, we'd just go and buy a larger size. We could then have our cake and eat it too!
Did we see what was happening to us? In our eagerness to embrace all the many changes that occurred over the decades following the Second World War, we didn't realise that we were doing our bodies immeasurable harm. In recent years we've had to re-learn what is "healthy" food, nutritious food, wholesome food. We've had to learn to eat today's food in moderation and we've had to learn to read labels. And that, my friends, is a debatable point. The labels say a lot, and they don't say enough. They don't say what is really important. We read: no added fat; but that doesn't say mean what it says. Because no we know there are various types of fat - some good and some very, very bad! The word "added" means nothing; "no added sugar"?, but it doesn't say that there are already sugars within that product. Again the words "added sugars" means nothing, because we don't know exactly what is in that product. Nothing seems to be grown naturally or manufactured naturally these days - there's something added, there's something taken away and then of course the "additives" - chemicals, vitamins (if they were grown correctly why should they need vitamins to be added?); minerals, colours, taste enhancers, emulsifiers and on it goes.
Are you aware that a Baskin & Robbins Yoghurt Smoothie contains between 29-31 teaspoons of sugar? Boost Juice's Skinny Minny Melon has 549 kJ (131 calories). I hate counting calories but it do realise the significance of one small glass of juice having 131 calories!
What's the answer? Common sense combined with wanting to do the best for our bodies (and our minds) as we possibly can. We don't need to starve ourselves, or to constantly diet, or to spend hundreds of dollars going to the gym. It comes down to mind over matter and accepting what is, and changing what can be changed to benefit our own personal health.
Me? I admit I'm a plus-size woman. Every woman in my family for at least four generations has been considered plus-size. We're also tall. I enjoy good food; and I read recently that there is no such as "bad" food - it's all food. It's the quantity and the balance that are important. And I guess that says it all.
As young adults, we walked to High School and then later when we found a job we walked to our place of work. At lunch time we either walked around the city window shopping or sat in the park eating a packed lunch and if we had a drink it would be from the water fountain in the park, or else we took a thermos of tea. Yes! We drank tea - soft drinks were only there for special occasions such as a birthday party or a family celebration. Not everyday. If we were meeting with our friends to go to the "pictures" (cinema) or to go dancing on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon, we got there by walking. Even in high heeled shoes and I do admit to wearing high-heels in my youth. But the main thing is that we walked and even though we didn't necessarily attend exercise classes, we certainly got plenty of exercise from doing ordinary every-day things. We even walked to the local telephone box to make important calls. No one had a personal telephone in their homes - they were for companies, places like hospitals and hotels and such.
Becoming older adults, marrying and having children, we still walked everywhere. Who could afford a car back then? Who could afford to catch a taxi? They were very few and far between. Bending, stretching, constantly moving doing housework, spending time in the kitchen preparing meals for a hungry family, getting down on our knees to wash and polish the floors, weekly dusting, and doing the laundry - I even remember my first washing machine some 15 years into my marriage; couldn't afford one before then. We were physically tired each day. Three hours at a gym? We'd never even heard the word gym used to describe attending a social networking, a gym to us had been a part of our school-day when we were younger.
Fast forward a couple or three decades. Public transport made travelling a breeze, even to places of work. Some of us even commuted intrastate or interstate. We could afford to have a personal telephone in every room of the house. Supermarkets had arrived on the scene where you could buy almost anything - of course meat and vegetables were still only available from their respective shops in the beginning but that too, soon changed. We were able to afford, having taken a hire purchase agreement to pay off in regular instalments, a refrigerator. So "modern" after the ice chest that most of us had grown up with. Electrical appliances of all sorts came onto the market, making life easier. Or should I perhaps say, a little lazier?
Women even had the opportunity of buying their own car. What freedom. We could go where we liked, when we liked and we didn't have to ask anyone's permission. We could even seek out a tea shop where we could meet friends and spend time together. But we still walked a lot, and worked a lot around the house, as well as when the opportunity arose, holding down a full time job.
Shopping centres came into being. Big, huge, centres where lots of different shops tempted the pay packet. Little coffee shops sprung up, and it soon became normal to by-pass the friendly local shopping strip and go to the Mall where you could buy everything you needed all at the one stop. Chinese restaurants opened; and then many new and different tantalising exotic foods appeared; we didn't need to travel overseas to enjoy the luxuries of "foreign" foods.
And what does all this have to do with obesity? Well, I'm no health expert, but I am an observer. We became more and more dependent upon the convenience of getting into the car to go down the street to shop or even to visit someone in the back street, rather than walking. If we were running late we caught a taxi - hang the cost. Frozen meals appeared on the supermarket shelves and we took to them like ducks to water. We could save time! We didn't have to slave over the kitchen stove cooking and preparing meals. Laundromats opened - so each week we could take the bedlinen and laundry there and for a couple of dollars get it all done without having to lug it out and hang it up on the clothes line at home. We could pick up the phone and get a local man to come around and cut the grass and clean up the garden. Some career women even had the luxury of having someone in to clean the house each week. Life became easier and it definitely became lazier.
And how to fill in the time that we saved? We could sit in front of the wonderful new "thing" that was taking everybody's interest - a television and then wow! a computer, and spend hours learning new things. We could pick up a small mobile phone and use it not only as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family but also to carry on our business. We turned our homes into our own small offices.
Our eating habits changed along with the change in our life-style (i.e. the energy used in doing everyday chores). Because we were no longer doing physically demanding jobs around the house and workplace, we began to "eat out". It was all very exciting and new. It became "normal" to go to the Mall every day, sit and have a cup of coffee and more often then not a donut or cream cake. No longer were we content with a packed lunch and a piece of fruit - there were too many other things to enjoy. After morning tea we'd go to another restaurant and have lunch. Oh well, after a bit of shopping, why not stop and have another cup of coffee and a small snack. If we were thirsty we could pick and choose between countless soft drinks and if we were very thirsty we'd even have two. We'd smile knowingly when older people spoke about the three meals a day routine - a good breakfast, a light lunch and a wholesome dinner at night - what did they know?
If our clothes became a bit tight, we'd just go and buy a larger size. We could then have our cake and eat it too!
Did we see what was happening to us? In our eagerness to embrace all the many changes that occurred over the decades following the Second World War, we didn't realise that we were doing our bodies immeasurable harm. In recent years we've had to re-learn what is "healthy" food, nutritious food, wholesome food. We've had to learn to eat today's food in moderation and we've had to learn to read labels. And that, my friends, is a debatable point. The labels say a lot, and they don't say enough. They don't say what is really important. We read: no added fat; but that doesn't say mean what it says. Because no we know there are various types of fat - some good and some very, very bad! The word "added" means nothing; "no added sugar"?, but it doesn't say that there are already sugars within that product. Again the words "added sugars" means nothing, because we don't know exactly what is in that product. Nothing seems to be grown naturally or manufactured naturally these days - there's something added, there's something taken away and then of course the "additives" - chemicals, vitamins (if they were grown correctly why should they need vitamins to be added?); minerals, colours, taste enhancers, emulsifiers and on it goes.
Are you aware that a Baskin & Robbins Yoghurt Smoothie contains between 29-31 teaspoons of sugar? Boost Juice's Skinny Minny Melon has 549 kJ (131 calories). I hate counting calories but it do realise the significance of one small glass of juice having 131 calories!
What's the answer? Common sense combined with wanting to do the best for our bodies (and our minds) as we possibly can. We don't need to starve ourselves, or to constantly diet, or to spend hundreds of dollars going to the gym. It comes down to mind over matter and accepting what is, and changing what can be changed to benefit our own personal health.
Me? I admit I'm a plus-size woman. Every woman in my family for at least four generations has been considered plus-size. We're also tall. I enjoy good food; and I read recently that there is no such as "bad" food - it's all food. It's the quantity and the balance that are important. And I guess that says it all.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
THIS IS STARTING TO BE ......
A GREAT YEAR when it comes to beautiful clothing for the more curvaceous woman.
There are a number of American companies who come up trumps over and over again with their definitions of some of the older classics. Igigi has done it again with their version of the Minnelli Skirt, which they pair with their Raisa Top.
The skirt is slimming and seductive, up to size 30/32, while the wrap around top is flattering to a woman with curves.
Black is always smart and it looks as though Black is back In vogue as the colour "most likely". One could say the colour most of us love. This twosome certainly bears that out.
Please satisfy my curiosity - where, oh where, is there fashion such as this, available and made here in Australia? And at equivalent prices!! Let me know and I'll gladly shout it from the rooftops.
Monday, January 7, 2013
IS THAT ALL THERE IS? (with apologies to Leiber & Stoller)
I read a fascinating article yesterday by Judith Rasband (and which was originally written some 15 years ago I am led to believe) that states the US is going down the tube (here in Oz we use the term down the gurgler) as far as fashion is concerned because of its obsession with tee shirts and jeans. I think the writer has hit the nail on the head, and of course it's not only the US that has fallen into this mode of dress - it's obviously the same in Australia, and I suspect similar in the UK?
Tee shirts and jeans have their place - don't get me wrong. I've been on this particular soapbox for a long while now, and yes I do wear jeans and I do have some cami tops that are made from tee shirt fabric, but I mix and match a lot whether it be colours, or style of dress. But why is it taking so long for "fashion" to catch up with what seems to be an apathy against trying something different?
This trend of tee shirts and jeans for "any"occasion (read "ALL" for many women) reinforces my observations gained some years back, and reiterated by Judith in her article where she says:
"With a wide range of affordable, attractive, and comfortable clothing choices available, Americans' choice of dress has descended to the level of T-shirt and jeans or sweats. Americans now own more T-shirts and jeans than ever before.
Levi Strauss and Company has called the casual dress movement "the most significant apparel trend of the century." What is most notable, however, is that decline in standards of dress goes hand in hand with cultural decline, manifested in productivity and participation, personal identity, manners, and ultimately, morals—with casual dress being both cause and symptom. In short, America is going down the tube in a T-shirt!
By productivity and participation, I refer to personal effort and output. Personal identity means individuality, personality, character, and independence of thought. For centuries, including the present one, manners has meant common social courtesies and traditional standards of etiquette. By morals, I mean self-control, respect, and discipline—social and sexual."
She goes on:
"Personal Identity
Dressed in the androgynous look of T-shirt and jeans, we all look alike. When we look alike, we begin to feel and act alike. We lose variety, individuality, and personal style. Many become dependent on looking like everyone else–unable to cope with the thought of standing out in a crowd."
I would recommend the reading of Judith Rasband's article - as pertinent today as when it was written. In fact even moreso, because we've become so used to not thinking about changing our choices, that the tee shirt and jeans phenomona has become ingrained and doesn't want to step aside.
Here's a photograph I took of a window display at a leading (?) menswear store in suburban Melbourne earlier last year. The price tag on the jeans was $180. Worth it? Obviously someone would buy them and boast about them being the "latest"!!!!
Tee shirts and jeans have their place - don't get me wrong. I've been on this particular soapbox for a long while now, and yes I do wear jeans and I do have some cami tops that are made from tee shirt fabric, but I mix and match a lot whether it be colours, or style of dress. But why is it taking so long for "fashion" to catch up with what seems to be an apathy against trying something different?
This trend of tee shirts and jeans for "any"occasion (read "ALL" for many women) reinforces my observations gained some years back, and reiterated by Judith in her article where she says:
"With a wide range of affordable, attractive, and comfortable clothing choices available, Americans' choice of dress has descended to the level of T-shirt and jeans or sweats. Americans now own more T-shirts and jeans than ever before.
Levi Strauss and Company has called the casual dress movement "the most significant apparel trend of the century." What is most notable, however, is that decline in standards of dress goes hand in hand with cultural decline, manifested in productivity and participation, personal identity, manners, and ultimately, morals—with casual dress being both cause and symptom. In short, America is going down the tube in a T-shirt!
By productivity and participation, I refer to personal effort and output. Personal identity means individuality, personality, character, and independence of thought. For centuries, including the present one, manners has meant common social courtesies and traditional standards of etiquette. By morals, I mean self-control, respect, and discipline—social and sexual."
She goes on:
"Personal Identity
Dressed in the androgynous look of T-shirt and jeans, we all look alike. When we look alike, we begin to feel and act alike. We lose variety, individuality, and personal style. Many become dependent on looking like everyone else–unable to cope with the thought of standing out in a crowd."
I would recommend the reading of Judith Rasband's article - as pertinent today as when it was written. In fact even moreso, because we've become so used to not thinking about changing our choices, that the tee shirt and jeans phenomona has become ingrained and doesn't want to step aside.
Here's a photograph I took of a window display at a leading (?) menswear store in suburban Melbourne earlier last year. The price tag on the jeans was $180. Worth it? Obviously someone would buy them and boast about them being the "latest"!!!!
Photo copyright © ZuzuGreen
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
"Fashion. Fashion?"
HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!
I've been around for a while - get the joke? ("a-round"?) But seriously in recent times I'm not sure what the word "fashion" means any more.
According to the various dictionaries the word itself can cover a whole array of different meanings, from "habits", to a signature, to how something is done or happens. As far as women's national and international magazines are concerned, then fashion more or less depicts the latest and most admired style in clothes and cosmetics.
Remember (oh, what memories!) Bambi Shmith (nee Patricia Harewood), Diane Masters, Janice Wakely, June Dally-Watkins, Jeanette Elphick (who changed her name when she went to Hollywood to Victoria Shaw)? Perhaps I haven't kept up with the times. Because those models were VERY different to today's models - in many ways, * (and I'll talk more about this in a later post). But in a nutshell fashion to me equals "style" - not only in the garments that are modelled, but the models themselves.
The mannequins of the 1950s and 1960s modelled garments which accentuated the female form; they gave a sensual motion of femininity in their walk and posture and created an ongoing illusion of fantasy/reality for the simple reason that copies of the garments they wore were soon to be seen in our corner "emporiums" and affordable to all - even if it meant layby-ing said garments for six months or more. Many of us actually went to "deportment classes" - remember the Mannequin's Academy in Melbourne?, where we were taught to speak correctly; walk and sit correctly; and to be as lady-like as we could be. Some of us weren't too sure whether "girls from the western suburbs" (read - the wrong side of the Yarra River!) could ever be called "ladies" but we sure had fun mixing with those girls from Toorak and South Yarra who went to the classes with us. I guess we "hoped" that the lady-like characteristics would rub off on us. I'd like to think so.
But I'm digressing, as I am wont to do occasionally. Maggie Alderson, a leading Fashion Stylist, who writes for a leading women's magazine and also has her own blog Style Notes, was asked during a recent interview "are you offended at what you see today as being fashion, compared with that of 20 years ago?" With any hesitation she answered no. In her opinion, fashion is really the style a woman feels comfortable with, and if she wishes to follow the seasonal trends then that is her prerogative. If she remains constant in her choice of clothing, then that is her right as well. Fashion in Maggie's view, as indeed mine, is that it is constantly growing and finding new ways of expressing itself, as indeed do you and I.
I've been of the opinion for a long time that when a woman finds her own style - whether it be conservative, sophisticated, goth, feminine, romantic, classic, vintage, serious or casual, then it's wise to stay with that style. Although, with that said, and I do contradict myself at times, it's nice sometimes to "break out" and do something really startling which surprises everyone, including you!
And combined with style, when a woman discovers the colours that suit her, then a whole new world opens. Take Sheila Scotter for instance - that lovely lady only ever wore black and white (and tones of the same). She always looked stunning.
This is where sometimes "fashion" or the stores through which we buy our fashion, let us down. Stores would be wise to occasionally take note of what their customers tell them. Many women prefer certain colours, in fact if they wear the "wrong" colour to suit them, then everybody knows it. Including the wearer. How often have you bought yourself something that looked good in the store, looked good on the clothes hanger, looked good when you stood in front of the store mirror, only to find when you got it home that it made you look - bulky, ungainly, frumpy, showed up your imperfections including making your skin look sallow or too red? Another frustration is when you simply want something like pants in black, and the colour of the season is brown or navy. Infuriating!
But if you feel terrible in a garment that you thought looked nice in the store and it isn't, then it's not you at fault. It's not the fault of the garment either, it's just that the garment in question doesn't suit YOU, whereas on someone else it will look terrific. Too often though that store, and all those around, don't stock that style in a colour that suits you.
But learn to look at your body, at whatever age, size or shape, as a beautiful thing on which you should enhance its every asset. Finding your "style" or choice of dressing and your colours will instil in you a feeling of specialness. For whatever may have been said about you in the past, you must always remember, that you are unique. And that you should never be compared with any other person. That means that we must never compare ourselves to each other either, for each of us brings a different perspective to the essence of womanhood.
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