1. Found in my referral logs, this Ask Moxie thread has suggestions for places to shop for professional workplace attire if you’re plus-sized. Lots of links in the comments.

I may be fat, but I don’t want to look frumpy too. If you or any of your contributors know of good places (aside from Lane Bryant) to find nice plus-size professional clothes, I’d appreciate any and all suggestions.

(And if you’re coming from there, you may want to try our fashion category, or Jenfu’s most recent shopping roundup. Welcome!)

2. Living 400 Lbs is a blog that I’ve really been enjoying lately, written by a frequent commenter of this blog, whose comments I also enjoy. Hi! I liked this piece about not buying clothes (kind of the antithesis of the above). A really good read.

New clothes often come with the promise that they’ll make the wearer different in some way, or look better than before. If the new item fits better or has a better color, this makes sense…but often this promise is unfulfilled. Often I’ve bought clothes that looked great but were for someone else’s life. Over time, I found that not worrying about new clothes meant I had a better acceptance and appreciation of myself as I am, instead of searching for the “slimming” new piece that would emphasize the approved parts of my body and downplay the rest.

3. You may have already heard about the “put your pants on” Gap ad that’s creating a stir, but in case you haven’t, Feministing has a good post on it. Thanks to Nonk for the heads up!

Gap is explicitly using shame about having a body that does not conform to mainstream beauty standards to sell products. I’m disturbed the company would choose to do this, but I’m also bothered that it’s an idea for an ad that would work at all.

4. The New York Times Sunday section had an article called The Plus-Size Wars (which quotes Marianne Kirby and Kate Harding, among others) and Manolo for the Big Girl has a writeup.

“The market for plus-size clothes is effectively a Catch-22: women purchase less than they might because what they see on the racks doesn’t appeal to them; manufacturers and retailers cite poor sales figures as evidence of low demand and retrench, failing to provide the supply that might meet changing tastes.”

Kind of reminds you of our Lane Bryant discussion, huh?

5. Finally, for those of you still interested in trying out eShakti, the promo code piegirl123 will continue to give you 10% off through the end of August.

Happy Friday!

Posted by mo pie

Filed under: Advertising, Fashion