PCA/ACA National Conference 2015

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In addition to this blog, I am actually a design and art history historian as well as a cultural anthropologist. It’s a quite a mouthful I know.  Though much of my academic writing and research has taken a back seat since receiving my masters last spring, I have made some efforts in the final months of last year to expand on some projects I had started in graduate school, including my paper on Target, its designer collaboration collections and plus size blogging– a paper I submitted last October  to be considered as a possible presentation for the Fashion, Style, Appearance, Consumption and Design area of the 2015 Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association’s National Conference.

I was told that once you send in your abstract for consideration it takes approximately  a minimum of two weeks to hear back from the area chair, I heard back in two days. From that day I was in crowd-funding and paper editing mode. It was an intensely stressful time given the the other responsibilities I had to deal with such as work, looking for another job, apartment hunting, eventually moving, and starting this blog. It should come to no surprise then that I did my final edits to the paper and accompanying PowerPoint the week before I was set to present. Yet even with all the anxiety fueled by the craziness that is my life, I was very excited to spend Easter weekend in New Orleans for my first (national) conference.

I think my abstract is the longest in history; there was so much to cover in such a little space.

I arrived the day before I was scheduled to present which gave me a chance to sit in other panels for different academic areas, such as Film Adaption, Fat Studies, Tolkien Studies, Material Culture, as well as Libraries, Archives and Museums, to name a few. Admittedly the experience did shake my confidence as I started to question the significance of my paper as the work by my fellow scholars was not only impressive, but presented in such a way that kept the audience engaged for the entire panel. I was in awe of these scholars who clearly have had much more practice than I. Continue reading →

(Affordable) Prom Picks 2015

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For tips on shopping for your prom dress watch my first YouTube video. Here are my picks for the 2015 Prom season. All of these are within my affordable rules, being less than $200. I made sure to include a variety of retailers, dress lengths, and silhouettes so that everyone has options. I strongly believe that prom is a time to make a statement, which is why I included styles that wouldn’t normally be associated with prom. No matter what you decide, choose what works best for you and more importantly what makes you feel amazing. Happy shopping! ❤ Continue reading →

It Still Fits! : Plus Size Prom Dress Shopping Tips

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I took it upon myself to try on my high school prom dress recently and was pleasantly surprised to find that it still fits! Its been 7 years since my own high school prom and fitting into the dress has gotten me a bit nostalgic. With prom stuck in my brain for the past few days I decided to share my top tips on how to go about shopping for a prom dress. I hope it is not too late since it is April.  I just learned that some people have prom in May but I know in New York prom tends to happen in June so I am hoping anyone watching this still has time to go shopping for their dress. Let me know in the comments below which tip is your favorite and share your prom dress pictures with me on Facebook or Instagram (use #BCTProm). Continue reading →

I Am Not THAT Big!

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For most of my life my family influenced my negative view of my body and my fashion choices. Though I have begun to love my body, I suffered with insecurities linked to my size and body type which stemmed from microaggression. Through no longer direct, they are now akin to passive-aggressive implications than are directed at me via gifts, both store bought and hand made.  Allow me to elaborate with some recent examples.

Back in 2013 I lent my voice for the third time for my church’s rendition of G.F. Handel’s Messiah. The then director decided (at the last minute mind you) in a white top and black ankle length bottoms as the dress code for the night of the performance. As a rule I really didn’t own much white and due to the fact that I am a petite woman I (still) don’t own many things that are too long. I complained to my mother and my aunt, both who were also part of the choir, and said that I would be sitting out this year since I had nothing to wear. They both then took it upon themselves to go shopping for me. Being that I was in my third semester of graduate school and had a crazy finals schedule, I let them. Needless to say I was surprised when one weekend my aunt came over with a measuring tape declaring that she would be making my skirt. The only reason I agreed to this was because the concert was a week away and the fabric was gorgeous.

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This picture does nothing for this skirt but take my word for it, the fabric is beautiful!

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My Two Cents: Target’s Ava & Viv Review

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Yesterday I got to finally see the Ava & Viv line at my neighborhood Target stores. Needless to say I was not impressed. For a company that claims they wish to improve their relationship with plus size customers they have gone about it the wrong way, using the very poor practices that got them negative criticism in the first place.

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To start I was surprised that to find no promotions for the launch of the line save for blog posts by Chastity Garner of  Garnersyle, Nicolette Mason and Gabi Gregg of GabiFresh. To be honest I half expected Target to make the additional effort to air a look book style commercial for the line on television, if not the days leading to the launch at least the day before. Of course, there was nothing. To date there is only one video on the line and its blogger models which is ridiculous if you compare it to the three videos on the 2013 collection by Philip Lim. There was no hype surround the launch before, after or even during.* While I didn’t get a chance to get to Target on Sunday, February 22 to experience this for myself, I haven’t heard or seen anything that contradicts this point. It seems like Target’s new line is not something they are  proud of. Its much like that boyfriend who is dating a plus size girl and is making sure to keep it a secret because he is embarrassed. Sure Target claims it has no qualms with its plus size customers but they won’t associate themselves with us much, they just want to make sure we continue to patronize there stores.

That said let’s take a look at what Target is (currently) offering with this Ava & Viv line. Continue reading →