Michelle Fonville speaking out about her treatment at the nail salon reminds me of another form of speaking out: writing a letter of complaint. Recently(ish), BFD reader cb wrote in to share part of a survey she’d filled out after shopping at the Gap’s online store, and the response she received. She rated her online [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Fashion, Old Navy | 23 Comments »

The days are growing shorter and the air smells like freshly-sharpened pencils. After Labor Day, bare legs are verboten if you adhere to Miss Manners, so what’s a girl to do? Tights, baby. Tights. Finding a decent pair of plus size tights is a bit of a challenge. Sometimes tight purveyors make gigantically long tights [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Fat Positive, Weetabix | 24 Comments »

Cubicalgirl in the comments alerted us to the existence of this shirt, saying: It’s got the universal man/woman icons on it, only the woman is bigger and it says “Team Player” underneath, the implication being that the guy wearing the shirt will “take one for the team” and chat up the fat friend so his [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Humor, Sex & Romance | 19 Comments »

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 [...]

Filed under: Advertising, Fashion | 6 Comments »

A review of Hanes Just My Size is behind the jump. If clothing reviews are your thing, than click on through!

Filed under: BlogHerOff, Fashion, Review | 20 Comments »

This seems to be the week for celebrity women to advocate for body positivity—or at least, it’s the week I found all these links! First off, from Becky on Twitter comes this story about Penelope Cruz, who says you don’t have to be thin to be pretty. “I would close down all those teenage magazines [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Gossip, Hayley Hasselhoff, Huge, International, Kids, Magazines, TV | 7 Comments »

In case you’re not familiar with eShakti, they have an amazing concept. They will customize their garments to your exact specifications. You break out the measuring tape, you tell them exactly what to do so their clothes will fit your body, and they will do it. It’s like magic, especially if you are hard to [...]

Filed under: Advertising, Fashion, Personal, Review | 15 Comments »

The picture of an old-timey Lane Bryant ad came from Roger Ebert on Twitter, who described it tongue-in-cheekily as a picture of a “tragically fat young woman.” And speaking of Lane Bryant, my dear friend Pippit sent in a link to an article about Full Figured Fashion Week that ran in her local paper, the [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Old Timey, Video | 53 Comments »

What are people searching for that brings them to Big Fat Deal? And how can we help them? Let’s dig into the Sitemeter and find out! what is the most ridiculous diet of all time My nominees are the Tapeworm Diet, the ever-popular Baby Food Diet, and the Intravenous Diet. But I’m sure someone will [...]

Filed under: Celebrities, Fashion, Humor, Jennifer Aniston, Meta | 14 Comments »

1. Some reviews of Huge! Or as The Frisky put it, “Fat People Were On TV And, Whaddya Know, The World Didn’t End.” Entertainment Weekly L.A. Times ABC News MTV STLToday New York Times The Frisky 2. An awesome 18-year-old spent a month following Seventeen magazine dictates and blogging about it, calling it the Seventeen Magazine Project. Her intent [...]

Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Fashion, Fat Positive, Gabby Sidibe, Huge, Magazines, Media, TV | 5 Comments »

1. Stella Ellis, of BettyConfidential.com, put together a story all about how to stay hot when you’re hot (via Shine). It’s a beauty and fashion round-up that’s got a ton of gorgeous dresses I covet, and some very cheering words about being comfortable in your skin and whatever you put on it. The important thing is [...]

Filed under: Advertising, Advocacy, Celebrities, Fashion, Fat Positive, Humor, International, Media, Photoshop | 2 Comments »

So, let’s talk about “real women.” We hear this phrase a lot, often in the sense that “real women have curves” and that, by extension, skinny women are somehow not “real.” And this article from the Sydney Morning Herald articulates the problem: Women have been caught in a pointless feedback loop as we debate what [...]

Filed under: Advertising, Celebrities, Fashion, Feminism, International, Race & Ethnicity | 30 Comments »

1. We talked about April Flores, the plus-size pinup and adult film star awhile back. She’s in the news again, criticizing the ridiculous American Apparel for their sizing prejudices, and talking about her work, body confidence, and fat prejudice. As if you needed more evidence that she’s both gorgeous and awesome. I now know that [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Art, Beth Ditto, Celebrities, Comics, Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Humor, Media | 11 Comments »

It’s summertime, and the living’s easy. And our Barbie series continues with this e-mail from Blair! I was wondering if you would consider doing an entry about swimsuits for plus sizes. I really enjoy your fashion entries. I’m not really a fashion girl myself, but I’m always looking for entries about basics like jeans, etc. [...]

Filed under: Fashion | 18 Comments »

The folks at Urban Outfitters (those owl-pushers) are now selling a shirt with the words “Eat Less” scrawled across the front—modeled, of course, by a very thin model. And it is pissing people off. People like Stephanie Hayes: It’s just mean, scary and damaging to all the poor innocent girls who ALREADY feel like Shamu [...]

Filed under: Advertising, Eating Disorders, Fashion, Fatism, Humor | 43 Comments »

For Feel-Good Friday, a picture that made me feel good. Check out that insane eye makeup and lipstick! The awesome shape of that dress, which breaks all the fat-girl muumuu rules! The ruffly crazy thing! The color! The attitude. Makes me want to pack something wacky to wear to Forbidden Zone this weekend. Beth Ditto, [...]

Filed under: Beth Ditto, Celebrities, Fashion, Feel Good Friday, Tidbit | 6 Comments »

1. It doesn’t “make economic sense” to make clothes in many different styles for fat people. So, if fat people just stuck to wearing muumuus, that would be great, then? I would ask why are thin women allowed to want different kinds of clothing and fat women are not? I’m pretty sure all of the [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Fashion, Health, Humor, Kids | 9 Comments »

I’ve been feeling the need to find some new blogs to squeeze into my already overfull Google reader! So I figured, it’s Friday, let’s chat about our favorite stops on the Internet these days! For Fatosphere stuff, I read the Notes from the Fatosphere feed, as well as the Alltop Fatosphere listing, and of course [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Fat Positive, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Gossip, Meta, Question | 11 Comments »

This post at Racialicious (originally posted at Red Vinyl Shoes) is about black plus-size models in mainstream fashion, but the part that really struck me was this (bolding mine): A popular (white) misconception is that fat is more acceptable in the black community. This is patently untrue. Hip-hop culture is often pointed to when one [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Fashion, Fatism, Gabby Sidibe, Question, Race & Ethnicity | 7 Comments »

In the tradition of Wedding Barbie, Pregnant Barbie, and Sexy Barbie, here’s Man Barbie! Where should BFDudes do their shopping? Jez writes in: So, I have been trying to help my similarly-weighty fiance to find clothes and I found it even more difficult to find interesting, fashion-forward clothing options for him than I’ve ever experienced [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Question, Tidbit | 20 Comments »

Chinese reader Maya sends along a link to photos of an “obesity competition” held in a shopping mall in China’s Shenyang, Liaoning province. Maya adds: What do you think? Aside from the fact that those dresses are FANTASTIC, I feel like this is really exploititive and just a way to make the general population laugh. [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Fat Positive, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, International | 7 Comments »

I got an email this morning about a controversy brewing at ABC, who is refusing to air a lingerie ad for Lane Bryant that features a plus-sized model. Specifically, “a pleasantly plump model [who] gracefully shows off her curves before the camera in a slew of sexy poses.” (Because she’s sexy she gets to be [...]

Filed under: Advertising, American Idol, Celebrities, Fashion, Fatism, Question, Sex & Romance, TV, Video | 50 Comments »

You can click the “Links” category for our previous links roundups, which so far have a different name each time. Maybe one of these days I’ll do a poll! Okay, let’s not go crazy. But anyway, here are some links! 1. Celebrity gossip and internet drama, two of my favorite things! But seriously, an interesting [...]

Filed under: Celebrities, Christina Hendricks, Fashion, Health, Jennifer Hudson, Links, Mad Men, Meta, Race & Ethnicity, TV | 6 Comments »

Trabb’s Boy suggested this title in our previous links roundup. I can’t decide if it’s cute, scientific, or terroristy! In the meantime, here are some links for you, and a picture of cute animals, after the jump.

Filed under: Advocacy, Fashion, Fat Positive, Food, Links, Meta | 15 Comments »

Those of us who attended Weetacon this year were asked if we’d like to snag ourselves some Igigi outfits and then do little writeups of them. Of course, remembering how well that worked out for us last time, I was on board! I chose the Cosenza dress, with its asymmetrical neckline and its sparkly business. [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Feel Good Friday, Meta, Personal, Review | 18 Comments »