Being plus size and a huge Disney, Harry Potter, Anime, J-rock, and Marvel fangirl is really not easy. For one thing, when it comes to shopping for geek/nerdy tees, and cosplay apparel it is rare to find pieces in sizes larger than an XL for women. Then there is the expectation that one should only choose characters that are of your same race. As I mentioned before in an earlier post, cosplaying is often seen as something that should only be done by those that “can truly emulate a character as depicted in comics, film and video games.” This obviously leaves people of color as well as plus size women like myself out or at risk of getting highly criticized by the geek community.
For this reason, when it came time to order my Little Petal convertible dress, I had originally chose the Korra dress because I figured that that was a character I could get away with cosplaying, but when I started communicating with designer, Danielle Ward I changed my mind. As a body positive designer and business owner, she doesn’t believe in things like size limiting who you can dress up as, rather you should think of who you see yourself as. For me that made the decision easy – Esmeralda from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
New York Comic Con 2014. I was determined to be one of the first people to get this limited edition Sailor Moon t-shirt that had been announced by Viz Media on Twitter a few days before. During my more than two hour wait in line for the con to officially open, I decided to put on some lip stick and I was approached by this beautiful young woman who asked to use my compact to touch up her make up. We talked about make up, the con and of course her cosplay. She was wearing this interesting dress which she changed three times while we were on line. Later that same day as I walked the show-floor I bumped into this young woman again at a booth covered with pictures of women in dresses like the one she was wearing and she introduced me to the designer, Danielle Ward. Owner of Little Petal, she designs and creates custom convertible dresses that are comfy and sophisticated. These dresses are unique recreations of characters from comics, manga, anime, film and even video games. As someone who, at the time, hadn’t cosplayed but wanted to, I was stunned by the concept. One dress, multiple styles. I put down my deposit immediately. Danielle is so amazingly creative and talented that I just had to find out more about her.
Check out my talk with Danielle below!
Disclaimer: Responses have been edited for clarity and length.
Leanna (Little Petal’s Webmaster) and Danielle at Megacon.
Its been a while since my last installment of the +Size Matters series. I know I promised the internet that I would be posting regular videos, that clearly has not been a thing I could actually do. So while I am not going to promise anything else, I am just going to do my best to post videos when I can. Another promise I had made was that my next video was going to be a +Size Matters review of Shrek and that’s turned out to be very difficult because of what I want to present with that video but it is in the works. I am still editing and trying to find usable footage so keep a look out for that because it will hopefully be done by the end of the summer.
If you follow me on Instagram you know that I’ve been talking about Faith for a while. I have been happy and excited about it since it was announced last year. I even went as far as visiting the Valiant Booth at NYCC last year for some Faith news and possibly merch. Until this point I didn’t see a plus size superhero unless it was on deviant-art. It is highly unlikely that Faith will be the first and the last plus size superhero. Faith is probably not going to be the last plus sized super hero. While most people don’t see the need for such a hero, I do. I grew up watching X-men the Animated Series, and as much as I loved the characters Jubliee and Rogue, I would have liked someone in the cast be someone that looked like me. I have never been hourglass and thin like those characters were so to see someone with a more realistic body shape would have been very empowering. I am more of a Marvel fan and I hadn’t heard about Valiant until recently, though considering the fact that they announced that Faith is getting a full story run beginning in July, they definitely have a new fan. Check out my review below!
Disclaimer: I don’t give much of a plot summary because I wanted to make sure that this review was spoiler free for those who haven’t had the chance to read the mini-series, but basically the series follows Faith as she tries to have a life away from her former crime fighting team while saving the innocent when a new threat arrives. The series does reference the Harbingers comics, though just enough to remind the reader where this character is from and where Faith’s story began.
I am very happy to announce that this video includes my first giveaway ever! To learn more about it, watch until the end of the video. Originally i was going to hold off on this giveaway and video because I wanted to get these signed at comic con but for the first time in six years I will not be able to go because I can’t afford a ticket. (Those are the realities of being unemployed.)
Visit my Rafflecopter page here for a chance to win this complete set of comics. Winner will be announced on Wednesday, June 15th at 12 pm EST. Good luck!
Big City, Curvy Girl, Thin Wallet 