Questions for Erika!

I know, I know. We last posted in March, no one's reading any more (and we don't blame you - feel free to flee to more post-y blogs) and now we ask a favour...

Plus-size lingerie specialist Simply Yours is filming an interview soon with the very beautiful Erika Elfwencrona, and they want questions from YOU!

If there's anyone left out there who doesn't hate me and Miss J for selling out and concentrating on our mainstream fashion day-jobs (there's a crunch! We gotta pay rent!) and forgetting about the blog, please comment with your questions - is there enough work out there or are there not enough plus-size labels? Has she ever been asked to lose weight? Has she got any fab style tips?

Y'all can come up with better questions than that, I'm sure. My brain is on epic Andy-Roddick-at-the-second-set-tie-break-whoops-let's-just-choke fail today. (Sorry. Poor A.Rod.)

Here's the lovely Erika:




Best questions will be used in a 'So-and-so who reads TFFF wants to know…' type format and selections from the interview will go online over the next few months. Ready, set, comment - keep it clean, keep it non-mean, etc.

PS. We do love you guys and I'm sorry for our non post-y-ness. I really am. I tried and we're trying, but it may be the case that TFFF was just a few glorious months of bloggy goodness. We'll leave our archives up for as long as Blogger is in existence, basically, but more posts… never say never, and all that, but, um, yeah. Mea culpa. There are FANTASTIC plus-size blogs out there, share amongst yourselves, go forth and multiply their readerships. We'll put the word out if we come back for good. x

Lame or Lane?

Miss J has talked before on this site about LB and its plus-sized selection, a post which generated a lot of comment.

I have to say, I don't think the new spring/summer collection is half bad. Yes, there are some of the usual iffy suspects. But there are a few cute pieces to be had, and I think there's definitely been an improvement somewhere along the line. Though maybe I am just being swayed by better styling?



It's been so long since I was a teenager I don't know whether teenage girls these days still go through the tie-dye, joss sticks, hairband on the forehead, hippy phase? If they do the long red-pink ombre maxi-skirt is totally cute, and I love the styling with the little jacket, belt and bangles.

The colour on the periwinkle ruffle top is maybe a little too garish for me, but online there are a ton of examples of feminine ruffled tops in colours that are a little more "fashion", deep jewels, plums and teals, for example. And I love that model's haircut.

I'm also totally digging this dress:

Maybe it's just because that's the loose, sexy silhouette I'm into right now; but the pleats! The bang-on-the-knee finish! The way it skims!

So what do we think? Have you guys seen a (slight) improvement, are my eyes playing tricks, or are we seeing the usual seasonal trend, wherein spring/summer looks are always better than autumn/winter ones in the plus-sized fashion world? (I'm sorry, but it's true: sexy tanks, sweet dresses, cute v-necks, etc, always seem to be better than the winter offerings, which are inevitably dowdy.)

Lane Bryant
Toll-free telephone: 866.886.4731
lanebryant.com

Drive-by posting

As soon as London Fashion Week dies down a bit*, we'll do a round-up of Oscars fashion (Winners: Mickey Rourke's dead doggie necklace; Losers: Kate Winslet's helmet hair, Heidi Klum's gelled hair, Zac Ephron's gelled hair. Gel was a theme. And not a good one). In the meantime, Oscars fash coverage is obviously all over the web, but I'd be remiss not to salute my colleagues' sterling work and suggest you head to:

In Style!

Oh, and Nicholas Hoult from Skins = very tall, while Lydia Hearst = could fit in my handbag. She's like 3ft tall.

*I SRSLY need a CrackBerry to keep up with blogging. That, or one of those time-travel necklace things what Hermione Granger has in Prisoner of Azkaban. Or a souped-up DeLorean.

Happy Monday, all!

Quick hits

The first issue of LOVE magazine, featuring TFFF-favourite Beth Ditto on the cover, is out today!


For more, see Love Magazine or Love Magazine Blog.

Thoughts? (Bear in mind the colours on the picture above seem to have gone somewhat awry. Click the links for a better vers.)

I think she looks f***ing fantastic.

EDIT: Links should be fixed now, sorry!!

And ruffles have ridges

This spring, fashion's going GIRLIE! We've had quite a few autumn/winter seasons now with grey, navy and black as the predominant colours; with strong tailoring and ladylike chic the top trends. Which, sure, chic is as chic does. Who didn't love Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's Première Madame Dior ensembles on her state visit to England last year?

But also... yawn. Just a little bit. Unless you - sans clothes and styling - are naturally chic and ladylike, ladylike chic tends to look a little, well, dull. If you have a tendency, a la me, towards ladders in your tights, holes in your jumpers, scuffs on your shoes, voomph-y hair and a bosom, yer mid-calf-length skirts, flat ballet shoes and gamine jumpers just look mousy.

I like my fashion like I like my cereal: with a little SNAP! CRACKLE! POP! And one of my favourite trends for spring/summer 2009 is the girlie trend, which encompasses ruffles, embellishments, florals, sweet detailing such as lace, ribbons and bows, and blush-colours.

First up, let's look at ruffles. For the curvy girl, ruffles can be a little tricky, as they will accentuate and enlarge wherever they adorn. We all know there's nothing wrong with looking bigger, but some bigger just isn't flattering. Think of how unflattering large boobs look with a high-neck or turtleneck jumper; all matronly and, frankly, sow-like. Whereas a fitted v-neck flatters and is actually way more demure.

Similarly, ruffles adorning a bosom that nature was already quite generous to? You will look like a big meringue cake. Or Glenda the Good Witch of the North.

Equally, ruffles on more slender areas can be counter-intuitive: if you have an hourglass shape, for instance, a ruffle diagonally across the middle as on many dresses will just hide your waist, making you look squat.

Obviously there are exceptions (check out our picks, below), and it does all depend on the size and the 'fall' of the ruffle; i.e. is it made from a stiff fabric with many layers to stick straight up, or is it just a loose, bias-cut flimsy layer (clue: you want the latter)?

If you're nervous about the sheer volume that ruffles can bring to the party, or you actually prefer a more chic, streamlined look, check out the myriad ruffled and sculptured accessories on offer and use these to give a nod to the trend instead.

The Too Fat For Fashion Edit
Click to shop!




TOP ROW Blue umbrella, £9.50, Marks & Spencer; turquoise bag, £79, Boden; navy blue ballet flat, £138, Lanvin
MIDDLE ROW Black dress, $29.99, Target (up to US22); Navy dress, £125, Coast (up to UK18); blue gloves, £42, Sara Berman
BOTTOM ROW Pink dress, £85, Monsoon (up to UK22); red wallet, £100, Felix Rey; red watch, £74, Betsey Johnson

Let's do it for our country, for the red, white and the blue!

Okay, so we're over a week late for an "Inauguration Fashion Fever!" post, but whatever. It takes a girl some time to recover from swooningly handsome men taking charge all sexy-like. But enough about my personal life, let's talk Obama! Ahahahaha.

Let's celebrate with some patriotic accessories! (The Union Flag colour-scheme means this works for Brits too, though our PM is rather less debonair. Unless you like dour, nail-bitten Scots who look like they were born wearing an ill-fitting suit. It might be a thing.)


Gold metal dollar-sign necklace, GirlProps
Acrylic Hope brooch, Gilbert & George at Tatty Devine
Cotton and nylon star-print socks, Topshop
Leather star sandals, Marc by Marc Jacobs at Net-a-Porter
Fabric and wood nautical sandals, Stella McCartney at Net-a-Porter

untitled no. 1

O hai there! We're back! Let's blame... OMG, lookit over there! ::ducks and runs::

Anyhoo. Before we get into some trend predictions and credit-crunch-a-riffic fashion (and I mean thrifty - screw Vogue et al with their "a £2,000 shoe is an investment item! Buy two, stimulate the economy!" so-called thriftiness), let's have a quick post and run, and a call to arms for our little TFFF community.

Every week in the G2 section of The Grauniad is a feature called Private Lives, which is essentially a Dear Deidre problem page type jobby, only you, the middle-class bearded lentil-eating sandal-wearing composting hippie do-gooder reader, provide the solutions! Linda Blair (the psychologist, not Regan the devil child) then gives the profesh view.

Take a look at the archives, if you will, to see what sort of probs and answers come up, then ponder next week's question:

My 23-year-old sister is seriously overweight. It's not a matter of education or lack of knowledge about nutrition - she knows what good, healthy food looks like - and would naturally opt for a salad rather than a plate of chips. However, her portion sizes are very big and she eats more often than she needs to. It is a habit she has got into over the years - she says she still feels hungry if she eats the same amount as I do. I think she has come to associate food with love; she seems to feel that eating to excess generates good feelings, even if the results have the opposite effect on her self-esteem. As a family, we are passionate about food; we all enjoy cooking and regularly have great family meals together.

My sister doesn't complain about her weight, she dresses well and looks good.

However, she sometimes mentions that she is larger than she would like to be. The rest of my family are naturally fairly thin, which makes it harder to say anything. I have broached the subject as subtly as possible in the past and she got very upset. I believe she would prefer to be thinner and doesn't like the fact that I'm reminding her of that. Despite this, as far as I'm aware, she's never been on a diet. Our family is close and my sister has a supportive partner, who also likes his food.

How do I get through to her, without damaging our relationship, that she will be happier if she eats less and exercises more?

If you've got a view or a response, you can email private.lives@guardian.co.uk by Tuesday morning (UK time); or just have at it in the comments section here and we'll have our own discussion.

Then I promise soon we'll have some proper fashion content and try to once more be a bit more frequent with posting. It's not my fault that UFO abducted me.