The finals for the Chambord Shine Awards were held on Tuesday night in Sydney and I was down there amongst all the glamorous people! It’s been such an honour to be involved in blogging the Shine Awards over the past few months, and to have access to some of Australia’s best fashion design talent. Don’t think I didn’t use my opportunities to enquire as to whether any of these designers would apply their talent to plus size fashion either :P (I am unrelenting! I shall not relent!)

The Strand Arcade on Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall played venue to the Chambord Shine Awards, and Melissa Hoyer was our gracious host. Please excuse my photos, I couldn’t get a good position and my camera is just a lil old point and shoot!! All the awesome photos in the gallery and below are by Karen Watson ;)

I really liked seeing the big, full on ruffly shouldered shtick by Lulu in Chains so I was pleased to see it echoed in their finals design.

Jolet’s peplum detail thrilled me, I could definitely see one of my sisters rocking this gorgeous dress!

Limedrop did a fantastic digital print of a carousel horse on their entry… and what do you know, it paid off! Clea and Nathan were well deserved winners of the Chambord Shine Awards 2010! All of us gasped when Melissa made the announcement, because the digital print was just so different to many of the other traditional spring racing designs.

Congratulations Limedrop! As part of the prize for winning the Chambord Shine Awards, their dress will be worn by Gracie Otto at the Spring Racing Carnival and marie claire will feature the label in a double page spread. Limedrop will also have the opportunity to show their collection at the 2011 L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Bloggers representing! Cheri from Ms. Critique, moi, Matt from Imelda, Lady Melbourne & Fashion Hayley.

I am preeeeeetty sure Matt loves Lady M. They both wear Brisbane label Subfusco too!

Candi from Mother & Father PR, Fashion Henry and Fashion Hayley. I really think Henry ought to start blogging as Fashion Henry, it’d be way too adorable!

For more you can always check out Chambord’s facebook page, or scope out Hayley and Lady M‘s recaps! If you wanna hang around here and cheer me up through my flu, let’s talk about your favourite dresses.

Cue Angry Email Writing Natalie. Pacific Brands own Kayser (hey check out the “Body Slimming” product images on EVERY PAGE!) so I directed my strained rage to their feedback page.

Good afternoon

I’m writing to express my disappointment and distress at finding your Kayser Plus Resilience Pantyhose are neither plus sized or resilient. I bought a pair of these pantyhose to wear to an interstate fashion event tomorrow night, and tried them on to gauge how well they’d suit my outfit and found that not only was the sizing chart drastically incorrect, a long ladder had started to stretch from the thigh downwards.

I’m a plus size fashion blogger at definatalie.com and have long found it hard to find decent, attractive and reliable pantyhose from size 18 upwards, and when I found the Kayser Plus product I was surprised to see that the size range would fit me. Now that I understand the chart is misleading and the product is of very low quality, I’ll be sure to pass this information on to my readership of over 1,000 and my twitter following of over 2,000.

I’d be pleased to work with your buyers and manufacturers to find or develop a hosiery product that actually fits plus size bodies. There’s a market that isn’t just being ignored here – it’s being disenchanted. Right now, Pacific Brands is doing a woefully inadequate job of meeting market demand.

Until then, I’ll be shopping at We Love Colors for all my hosiery. They don’t do sheer pantyhose, but at least they fit and don’t ladder.

Regards
Natalie Perkins
definatalie.com

So let me follow through: Don’t buy Kayser “Plus” pantyhose unless you are under 5’5″ and are partial to the laddered stocking aesthetic. The waistband of these pantyhose rolled down when I managed to yank them up over my butt too. These hosiery are reportedly “Specially designed for the fuller figure” but it certainly seems there’s a limit to the fullness of figure that Kayser cater to.

The most distressing thing is that NONE of the hosiery Myer stock in their “Larger Figures” section will fit me if Kayser Plus don’t fit me. Nope, I checked all the size charts. Voodoo, Levante… um… Kayser… yeh, that was it. I’ll be slapping my keyboard with rage in Myer’s direction shortly too – when we were in the store, one of the staff made a “fatty” gesture when referring to a customer. She actually held her arms out either side of her body to imitate someone a lot fatter than her. One of the benefits of shopping online is never having to encounter douchebag staff like that (and Myer don’t really have a fabulous selection of plus size fashion in Brisbane stores anyway!)

So yep. Bare legs tomorrow night at the Chambord awards, and now you know why.

After simply forever I finally got the t-shirt and dress I bought from the Asos Curve sale weeks and weeks ago. I’ve been sick this week, so it took me a while to try everything on and I can’t say I was very enthused about my purchases. The t-shirt, just a simple long white number, seems too small for the size and the dress is… well, a scandalous length. As you can see right here.

I threw on a bunch of bracelets and necklaces, my beloved pastel mint stockings from We Love Colors, and a pair of Torrid boots from a few years ago and dragged Nick outside to document my Mama Cass-inspired outfit. As a freelancer and blogger, you can bet for damned sure that I take advantage of the non-existent dress code and avail myself of shapeless and comfy clothes; though it’s nice to play dress ups, especially when you’re welcoming a new garment to the wardrobe.

I often struggle with categorising my blog. I am very hesitant to call myself a fashion/ fatshion blogger because it’s not the only thing I care to write about, and at any rate I simply can’t afford to be one! On the other hand, I blog about my outfits (real and ridiculous) because I’m passionate about the visibility of fat bodies. I don’t care if people don’t like what I wear and I don’t care about trends – I blog because fat people are dehumanised and made invisible and if I’ve got a platform and an audience, I’m going to take advantage of it to normalise my body and bodies like mine.

What I’m wearing:
Dress: Asos Curve
Stockings: Pastel mint nylon/ lycra from We Love Colors
Boots: Torrid
Necklaces: Gifts and Diva
Bracelets: City Chic

Bodies like mine usually don’t get to dress up in designer clothes. Instead of “supporting local designers” or collecting pieces from super designers, most of us buy our clothes off the internet from the “high street” stores. The funny thing is, bodies like mine would absolutely consume designer fare if it were made in our size. But it’s not, so fat people remain in a position where they’re portrayed as unfashionable and unattractive, when being fashionable and attractive is rewarded! It’s so frustrating and circular, I’m baffled when people fail to see this cycle.

One of the things that frustrates me the most (because I’m so used to being disenfranchised from actual fashion) is the accessories thing. Fat girls apparently have the best accessories. Except if their limbs are bigger than normal sized limbs. I am big (not necessarily fat) all over, so that means I can’t just trip into a store and pick up some shoes, bangles or rings when I’m feeling sad about being sized out of garments. Wide fitting shoes are very expensive and until City Chic released their range of accessories, my wrists and fingers were pretty much naked. For years I have relied on Evans in the UK for my fill of footware and bling because it simply wasn’t available here. Gratefully, CC have started to fulfill this need but the pickings are still slim. (Pun, um, intended? I don’t know anymore!)

I just can’t treat fashion in a lighthearted way. For many of us, fashion is linked with distress and disappointment. It’s pretty obvious from many conversations I’ve had with local fashion designers, and some straight sized fashion bloggers, that the industry just doesn’t get how plus size bodies are othered by the industry they’re so in love with. Even more disheartening than not fitting into fashion is that lots of industry people are resistant to the idea of inclusion because it subverts a hierarchy that rewards the most normalised and accepted (i.e: middle class, white, slim, able bodied). Because fashion is apparently “aspirational” (it grosses me out how that’s a perfectly acceptable defense of exclusion of different bodies in glossy mags and on catwalks!)

One of the most fabulous and powerful things to happen in the last decade, beside plus size shopping online, has been the fatshion blogging movement. It’s about time fatties were given back their heads and their humanity, along with a glimmer of inspiration and solidarity through community. And that’s why I take photos of my outfits and post bitter diatribes against the fashion industry!

The end.

I’m pretty sure watermelons have the best colour scheme in all of nature AND they taste awesome. I’ve been flat out for the last few weeks, and I’m still yet to do the September desktop, but as soon as I saw this photo I had to bookmark it as a colour inspiration. Perhaps for next month’s design? Time will tell…!

I might be one of the only people in the world who doesn’t read Boing Boing so if you’ve already seen this gorgeous Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Film Test, I apologise! Totally fancy. To read up on one of the earliest surviving pieces of colour film, wander over to Kodak’s A Thousand Words blog post.

Hel Looks released another batch of street style shots during the week, and when I scrolled down to Jussi’s outfit I was in love. I love people who don’t dress to conform, thumbing their nose at the conventions of flattering and gendered dressing. Horah Jussi and Hel Looks!

This photo exemplifies the whimsical fance photography genre, and even though I tire of it, I really love this image. The colours are great, I would love this to be my bedroom. Unfortunately it’s not my bedroom, it’s Lauren Treece’s! Check out Lauren’s flickr for a bunch of great photographs.

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who entered. Thank you for sharing your story. So much of the time in the fat-o-sphere, and indeed in general every day life, it feels like we are reacting to the pervasive and hurtful body policing that puts us down and shames us for living in bodies that sit outside an arbitrary norm. I wanted to create a space where we could share our stories of self acceptance, where we can fluff ourselves up and take up space instead of minimising ourselves and hiding.

If you’ve not yet seen all the amazing stories submitted for the giveaway, I suggest having a read. For me, blogging is as much about finding myself as it is about finding a place to fully express myself and encouraging others to do the same. But when I started blogging about difficult things, like self acceptance and fat acceptance, I didn’t realise how significant community would be. I have been so touched and encouraged by feedback I’ve received from so many people telling me that through my visibility, they’ve been encouraged to advocate for their own visibility (whether that be through commenting on blogs, writing on blogs and advocacy offline). That’s powerful. That’s something that is passed on – something that can not be stopped easily, because we share it like a meme. The notion of acceptance and rejection of body policing starts replicating in the minds of everyone we talk to when we start the conversation. Of course it’s often met with resistance, but it’s like Inception. It’s a seed of an idea that is planted.

I don’t see blogging about fat acceptance as slacktivism. For many fat people standing up to offline shame and bigotry is difficult so having a space for thought and writing is important and precious. We can learn self advocacy skills to take with us in to offline situations so the next time someone treats us poorly we can reject that bigotry with a little more confidence. And it might not even be a confrontation situation, it might be something as simple as turning the channel over when weight loss products are spruiked, or deciding not to buy magazines that promote body shame. Blogging is a part of effective activism because through talking and sharing we make ourselves and our stories visible. In a world where fat bodies are made to feel invisible, this is a powerful thing. And um, if there is a supposed omgbesity epidemic, it seems silly that a purported majority is so invisible and uncatered for! If we’re all SO GODDAMNED FAT, why haven’t airplane seats been made wider? Why aren’t there more options for clothing fat bodies? Why does the weight loss product industry get more and more lucrative? (Could it have something to do with a 90% failure rate!?)

Before I step off this soapbox to get lunch (after that you can bet I’ll be right back!) I need to announce the winner. It was tough. Every story was touching and powerful. What was my criteria when every story answered the question? It became apparent to me that the winner couldn’t be chosen for having the most best story, because they all were. Also, due to blogging giveaway rules, I could not draw the winner out of a hat. So, I chose a story that spoke to the first tentative steps into self acceptance. Those steps are big steps, and they should be encouraged.

So, the winner is… Catie.

I’ll be sending you an email shortly!

And Catie said:
entering this contest is one of the biggest things i have ever done to reclaim the word “fat”. this may not be the best story, but for me just clicking on this comment box was a big first step in accepting my fucking fabulous fat. i am learning to love my body in new & radical ways, no matter what my friends or family say.

Congratulations Catie, and I don’t just mean about winning a necklace ;) I hope you wear this and feel radical. If it’s in public or in private, it doesn’t really matter, because you’re reclaiming a word that is as descriptive as it is powerful. When you reclaim fat, you can move on. You can listen to your body instead of denying it or minimising it in harmful ways.

The fat necklace is now up in my shop, but please be aware that I have only five on chains. I’ll be sourcing more chain for the other two pieces that I have, and if demand is high I’ll be cutting more! It seems like the Big Cartel software won’t stop you from purchasing if I run out of stock, and while I’ll try to be around to take down the necklace if they sell out, I’ll definitely refund your money (or hold it as a pre-order if you so choose) if I run out of stock and your order goes through.

You’re all super rad people. Thanks for being part of this.
<3

Of the issues that most concerned me in the last year, few were more heartbreaking and urgent than the issue of asylum seekers. Lots of Australians have been bitterly disappointed with the amount of fear-mongering and scare tactics bandied about, with little regard given to the human beings who risk their lives to come to our country in search of a future where their freedoms and lives aren’t under threat.

Here’s a list of facts about refugees:

• People who arrive in Australia seeking asylum are not breaking any law. Australia like many other countries believes in the right of individuals to seek asylum from persecution in their home country.
• Over 90% of asylum seekers arriving by boat are recognised as genuine refugees.
  Less than 5% of people seeking asylum in Australia arrived by boat. There is no invasion of “boat people”.
• The vast majority of asylum seekers are not jumping the queue – there is no queue for them to jump. Due to political and social factors only a tiny percentage of refugees and asylum seekers can avail themselves of the United Nations system of resettlement. For the rest there is no way to get in “the queue”.
• Refugees do not receive higher welfare benefits than Australians. The circulating emails and rumours are simply incorrect.

Source: I ain’t afraid of no boats fact card, and Asylum seekers and refugees: what are the facts? Parliament of Australia Department of Parliamentary Services

I gladly contributed a graphic to be used for a grassroots campaign against fear of “boat people”, and on election day a bunch of compassionate folks wore t-shirts and badges to their polling booths to send a message to politicians and the public. We’re not afraid of boats.

Instrumental in this campaign was my friend Rachael, who ordered hundreds of shirts and badges to send all over this big old rusty island. Thank you Rachael, I admire your action and your guts.

I also want to thank the staff at Instant Images Strathpine for printing the t-shirts, and Custom Badges for printing the badges.

I’m hopeful for the short term future because it means that the public might actually be heard. Over the last few days politicians sure have been banging on a lot about being in it for the national interest, and now they have to prove it. I’m going to pledge not to shut up about important social justice issues, that’s for damned sure. Even if it is hard and makes me sad… I just think it’s the decent thing to do.

ETA!

Wanna see an actual queue jumper? Steven Fielding, now THAT’S jumping the queue!

I’m sure I’ve posted the lovely work of Vessels and Wares before but when I saw this adorable cake stand I knew I had to include it in this week’s fance. I love how you can thread your own ribbon through the holes in the stand and match it to your cake decoration!

With the benefit of lots of time distancing me from this era, I can look at this photo and do a little air punch because it’s a pretty rad sight. But in reality, were these women just sideshow spectacles? I can’t find any info on this photograph through Tin Eye so I’m going to recognise the potentially problematic past while still admiring these fabulous women.

Slang from Chaos is one of my new favourite blogs because it’s just a barrage of awesome looking images. This awesome looking image in particular is fabulous because I love old packaging, especially on potions and lotions!

Let’s not tarnish this incredible moment with words. All you need to know is that Ginger Williams created this, for you.

So when I bought these boots from Evans I was envisaging my own 90s revival! It’s hard for me to believe that the decade of my youth is “in vogue” again, especially when it’s just 10 years gone. Oh well, I guess I’d better get used to this aging business!

Slip – from a dress Sonya gave me
Stockings – We Love Colors
Boots – Evans
Cardigan – City Chic
Necklace – WAIT A SECOND……………..

DO YOU LIKE MY NECKLACE? I like it a lot, probably because I designed it. I asked lovely Kim from Cupcakes and Mace if she would cut it into acrylic and Kim, being lovely, did an awesome job of it.

Because I liked it so much I got Kim to cut a very limited number of pieces. You’ll be able to buy one for AUD$25 from my shop in a little while but first I want to give you the chance to WIN A FAT NECKLACE!

In order to enter the giveaway, you don’t have to follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my feed or like me on Facebook… that’s just too much hassle.

How to enter:

1. Decide if you really really like the necklace.
2. Leave a comment below with your email address.
3. Tell me a story about the time you reclaimed the word “fat”.
4. Go about your daily life wondering if I select your story as THE WINNER.
5. Wait until I announce the winner next Tuesday (August 24 2010), sometime in the (Australian) afternoon.

The giveaway is now closed and a winner has been announced! Congratulations Catie!

fancy |ˈfansē|

adjective ( -cier , -ciest )
1. elaborate in structure or decoration : the furniture was very fancy | a fancy computerized system.
• designed to impress : converted fishing boats with fancy new names.
• (esp. of foodstuffs) of high quality : fancy molasses.
• (of flowers) of two or more colors.
• (of an animal) bred to develop particular points of appearance : fancy goldfish.
2. archaic (of a drawing, painting, or sculpture) created from the imagination rather than from life.

verb ( -cies, -cied ) [ trans. ]
1. feel a desire or liking for : do you fancy a drink?
• find sexually attractive : he saw a woman he fancied.
• ( fancy oneself) informal have an unduly high opinion of oneself, or of one’s ability in a particular area : he fancied himself an amateur psychologist.
2. [with clause ] imagine; think : he fancied he could smell the perfume of roses.
• [in imperative ] used to express one’s surprise at something : fancy meeting all those television actors!

noun ( pl. -cies)
1. a feeling of liking or attraction, typically one that is superficial or transient : this does not mean that the law should change with every passing fancy.
2. the faculty of imagination : my research assistant is prone to flights of fancy.
• a thing that one supposes or imagines, typically an unfounded or tentative belief or idea; notion or whim : scientific fads and fancies.
3. (in sixteenth and seventeenth cent. music) a composition for keyboard or strings in free or variation form.

Fancy is a good word. You might have noticed that I use it a lot. Almost every Friday for a while now I’ve been sharing pictures of things that typify my personal version of fanciness; these pixel illustrated forms delight my imagination and demonstrate my aesthetic. I shortened the name from “Fanciful Friday” to “Friday Fance” along the way, probably because I’m Australian and we apparently have a tendency to shorten words (and add “o” to the ends of other words) and since that time the idea of “fance” has been percolating inside of me. People have asked me what it means, and until now I’ve never actually tried to describe it; typically I mumble something about self-expression and imagination, so now I will try to capture exactly what I mean when I talk about fanciness, or fance.

If you refer to the definitions of fancy, you’ll find that it can be a way to refer to stuff created from the imagination. I think imagination isn’t given enough credit. The notions of play and imagining are so tied with childhood that adults who give in to flights of fancy are seen as foolish or irresponsible. That makes me really sad, because the way I see it creativity and progress are linked with imagination, and to dismiss it seems a bit silly.

To fancy something is to be attracted to a thing or a person, or to be human and feel connected. It’s a pleasurable thing, maybe even a little hedonistic at times, and to be deprived of such feelings of attraction, kinship and bond would be a sad thing indeed; an inhuman thing, certainly. I don’t mean to say that wanting material things is human, no, I mean… we all have these touchstones that speak to certain comforting things, and most of us certainly derive pleasure and meaning from connecting with kindred spirits. To fancy is to desire is to be human. To fancy is to teeter on the edge of having and not having, and the not having can be sad, even painful – very much the counterbalancing human experience.

One of my favourite uses for fance is to apply it to very visual things – the ornate, elaborate, overblown and intemperate. I am quite obviously drawn to hedonism and enjoyment of life, you might be noting at this stage, but fanciness need not strictly apply to extravagant things. A fancy thing need only be just a little bit better than average, and the mark of betterness is most personal indeed!

So I guess a thing’s fance can speak to quality, desire and creativity, all self-adjudicated of course, but even though it sounds like a fairly flippant and whimsical idea, for me it strikes right at the heart of what being human is about. My life is very, very short and my fascinations might be inappreciable to most, but to make meaning from the things I see, appreciate and imagine is important because I am a creator of stuff (pictures, words, and things) that become artifacts that are passed around and accepted and rejected. Other people think about these artifacts I send out into the world, perhaps they even discuss them, and if these ideas or things suit the fancy of a person they will send them on. Things that appeal to us, with any degree of fance, are things that get explored, discussed, dissected, elaborated and acted upon.

No one idea of fance is the true idea of fance. We all have vastly different experiences and memories and aesthetics and fascinations. Sometimes the fance that speaks to me doesn’t really speak to anyone else and that’s ok too. There are so many ideas and things in the world that they can’t all inspire creativity in everyone, so we humans play an important role acting as filters as well as processors of thought. Fance is flexible and very married to your identity – to me it’s more about self-awareness and not so much concerned with fad or trend. Admittedly, it’s hard not to buy into faddish things in Western society because escaping trend cycles and advertising and word of mouth is nigh on impossible. The most important part about fance, for me, is finding my own version of delightful, thoughtful and inspiring rather than plugging directly into the newest in-vogue thing. Recording the stuff I come across that appeals to me is a helpful, enjoyable activity that enables my imagination and my creative practice. I highly recommend it!

As you might have seen I finally got my hair cut, and I’ve been playing around with it to see just how many different ways I can style it. Having dead straight, fine hair I love the idea of having curls and it’s nice to be able to play with my hair and make it curly whenever I want – this only takes me half an hour! I suspect us straight-haired folk get the better deal, I know plenty of curly-haired folk who spend a lot of time and money making their hair straight.

I used a mini curling wand, and starting from my part I took very small sections and wrapped each around the wand holding it there for about 20 seconds. To unfurl each curl I slid the hair off the wand gently to form tightly coiled ringlets.

Once every section was curled I used my fingers to gently comb my hair. If you’ve curled each section the same way you’ll find that some sections come together naturally to form thicker ringlets. Spray with lacquer to fix where you want it all to sit!