Target – Pure Energy Plus Size A-line Skirt

I am always excited when a new plus size brand enter’s the mix, specially a junior line. Now you can shop the newest plus size brand Loop 18 for all the newest young and curvy fashions. Loop 18 is avalible in sizes 13-27, and features a collection of graphic tees, fashion denim, and some trendy jackets.

Loop 18 is exclusivity available online from Sonsi and as of July 23rd in Lane Bryant outlet and retail locations.

What do you think of Loop 18?

The Girl Scouts of America has teamed up with Wilhelmina’s W Curve models for a PSA promoting self-esteem. The series is called “The Changing Face of Fashion, which is part of a new initiative to improve female representation in the media”. Plus size models Leona Palmer, Julie Henderson, Anansa Sims, and Lizzie Miller all created their own videos highlighting their personal stories of growing up as young girls to their lives today. The videos not only catch the energy and beauty of Leona, Julie, Anansa, and Lizzie, but they show to their young audience what self-esteem and body image is all about.

Read more about “Girl Scouts Enlists Plus-Size Models for Body Image PSA” on the Stylist.com.

What do you think about these plus models working with the Girl Scouts?

Saks Fifth Avenue has always had one of the best online shops for plus sizes and in my opinion has always had one of the best merchandised floors in the world of plus. So naturally I am excited and pleased to hear that they will be now offering designer brands like Cavalli, Oscar De La Renta, Chanel, YSL, Escada and many more in sizes 14-20 at their NYC flagship store on 5th Avenue.

Of course as with most things related to plus fashion there is a small hitch, for many years most of these brands have offered up to sizes 14-20 but they are in European sizes which translates on average two sizes smaller meaning a European size 14 is closer to a US size 10. On top of this Saks will only be stocking a few of those sizes in their NYC store, so if you ladies want to continue to shop these designers at Saks its time hit the 5th Avenue store!

For those of you who don’t live in the NYC area, I will be sure to check out the collection and let you know what I think.

Read more at The Huffington Post.

Curvacious Christina Hendricks recently wore a black lace Dolce and Gabbana dress to her Hollywood screening of Mad Men. Christina showed just the right amount of skin and feminine touches with the dress length and lace sleeves. Madison Plus loved the look and found you the perfect little lacy number!

Torrid – Black Short-Sleeved Lace Ruffle Dress

Zappos – Promiscuous Ryan Pumps

Shop Tracie’s Look:

Macys – Spence Plus Size Sleeveless Faux Wrap

Zappos – Diba Dance With Me Wedge

ChickDownTown – Gold Tycoon Necklace

SimplyBe – Malissa J Adeline Plus Size Belt

What do you think of Tracie’s look?

If the first video from City Chic was not enough for you, here is another. Love the styling of the shoot!

I have to go to yoga. I need to be calm and breathe. I haven’t been in a week, in a month, in six months. Ah! Yoga!

Things I have to do go on the to-do list. And when “yoga” doesn’t get crossed off, I am disappointed and judge myself for being lazy and not making an effort. I felt this last Friday night. Exhausted from the week, I chose not to go, and rather came home, opened a bottle of wine and relaxed.

When we practice yoga, we bring consciousness and awareness into the body and mind. By choosing not to go to yoga, we can indeed practice some of the same philosophies as if we were on the mat. We can practice Pranayama: our breathing, balancing our life force. We can practice our compassion for ourselves.

So next time your to-do list says, “Yoga @ 6:30”, and your body says “Season Finale of Bachelorette” try to find some place in the middle. Lavender is proven to invoke a calming and soothing affect when inhaled. Perhaps light a lavender scented candle:

and practice forward folds during commercials or head to that yoga class with some lavender scented wipes cleanse your mat before class.

Whichever you choose, be conscious, aware, and present in the moment, and don’t worry about evaluating until after, or perhaps not at all. Namaste.

Curious about yoga? Submit your questions to emiliahallquist@gmail.com don’t forget to follow Emilia on Twitter.

We were so excited to meet Tonya at the Ford+ office, she is one of Lane Bryant’s main ladies and has amazing sense of style. Tonya swears by tailoring, which she does to almost all items she buys. She told us about all the adjustments she made to the All Saints dress she is wearing, which included adjusting the placket, and hemming the length of the dress. We encourage you to take some of your favorite clothes to the tailors for a nip and tuck too!

Shop Tonya’s Look:

Torrid – Plus Size Plaid Pin Up Dress

Piperlime – Wanted Prauge Boot

Amazon – Hue Cable Knee Socks

Whether it’s New York’s Dos Caminos, DC’s Cactus Cantina, or London’s Crazy Hommies, fashionistas everywhere have a favorite gringa haunt where the atmosphere is festive, the margaritas  strong, and the guacamole to die for. But did you know this decadently delicious chip-topper tops the list of healthiest foods?

Although there are dozens of varieties, the California-grown Haas avocados are among the most popular. Loaded with fiber, potassium, vitamins, and heart-healthy fats, this fancy fruit should star in more dishes than guacamole. Eat it plain drizzled with lime-scented olive oil, toss into salads, add to corn salsas and black beans, pair with fish, garnish omelets or scrambled eggs.

The possibilities are endless, but here are a few easy tips to get you started:

Breakfast Spreads – Rather than butter or cream cheese, spread 1/5 of a ripe avocado on whole grain toast or an English muffin for a heart-healthy breakfast.

Sandwich Toppers – Swap the cheese out for a few slices of avocado on a roast turkey wrap or sandwich. Add squirts of honey and Dijon mustard, for a surprising flavor boost.

Surprising Snacks – Sure, avocado is great on crackers, but try it cubed with fresh mango and a squeeze of lime juice as a refreshing mid-day snack.

Check out the California Avocado Commission to find hundreds of recipes, from creative takes on guacamole to avocado daiquiris, plus tips for selecting and storing the mighty avocado.

To find out more about Caroline and her tips, visit her blog Mental Kitchen and follow her on Twitter.

Shop Jessica’s Look:

Dorothy Perkins – Dress
Zappos – Clarks Spa Black Leather
Fashion Bug – Plus Size Crochet Shrug

What do you think of Jessica’s look?

Also, people asked us what Ashley’s favorite accessory was.  Her favorite accessory is a simple gold necklace that, when she spins it, spells out love.  How sweet is that! To see a picture of her necklace, check out our “Ashley Graham Engaged” post.

What kind of campaign would you like to see Ashley do next?

Why plus size modeling? What do you enjoy about it? What are you learning about the plus industry?

I started plus size modeling for two reasons.  First, I’ve always been a creative soul, having started in acting, moved to dancing and now modeling.  For me, modeling allows me to be a different character and tell a story, using the clothes, my eyes, body movement and facial expressions.  I actually find it more challenging than acting because we have less mechanisms to tell a story.  But that is also why I love it more.
Second, I wanted to be part of the movement that is helping women love their body, no matter if they are a size 2 or size 20. I know personally I’ve struggled throughout the years with accepting my body the way it is, having seen only skinny models being deemed as beautiful.  The more we infiltrate the media, the louder we are and the more lives we change.
I’ve learned plus modeling is ever changing! You have to stay on top of what is current and what is happening in the curvy world in order to stay part of it.

How are you practicing your modeling skills? Do you draw from any specific inspiration?

Because modeling is a creative outlet for me, I’m constantly doing TF shoots to practice being in front of the camera and experiment with new characters.  I draw inspiration from several plus models – Crystal Renn, Fluvia Lacerda, Nicole Lebris, Kate Dillon, Tara Lynn and the list goes on. I always love seeing their new work as it inspires me to keep pressing forward because I want to be where they are one day.  I also draw inspiration from my family and best friend Javonne.  They are more then supportive of my dreams and seeing the pride in their faces with each of my little successes drives me everyday.

When your not modeling, what do you keep busy with?

I love working out. I think it’s important to be healthy and take care of your body, at any size, so you can be around for a long time. I also love volunteering with animal and human rights organizations, and traveling. Having spent part of my childhood overseas in England and Germany, I caught the travel bug at an early age!

What is your must have summer item? How do you define your style?

All I wear in the summer are light, cute dresses.  I don’t think I even wear pants from June-August!
As far as my style, it’s really all over the place!  It depends on my mood, but one day I may wear skinny jeans with a tank top and necklace, another day I’ll wear a sexy little dress.  I will say Beyonce is my idol, in about everything in life, so I tend to be inspired by her when it comes to my fashion!

What does Madison Plus mean to you?

Madison Plus is where I go to find all the latest news and trends in the plus modeling world.  It’s a way for me to stay current and I especially love reading the interviews/articles about other plus models.

Finish The Sentence:

Always…fight for what you want until you can’t fight anymore.

Never…say never because you could be the one that changes everything.

To work with Kamari please contact her modeling agencies Brigitte Models, and Reinhard Models.

Do you want to be our next Fresh Face Model? If so, email us your professional photos to info@madisonplus.com

We are creating a new section at Madison Plus: MP Fresh Look! We wanted to showcase all of the amazing women (and men, we are looking for you too!) that are empowered, fashionable, creative, intelligent, established, and MP worthy to feature on the site! To kick this section off we had to go to Nicolette Mason. Nicolette lives in Brooklyn and is a design strategist, lifestyle blogger, Parsons grad, style leader, photographer, and Vogue Curvy star.  We just love her blog and wanted to learn more about the amazing woman behind it all!

Check out our interview with Nicolette Mason!

1) When and why did you start your blog?

I started the current incarnation of my blog November 2008, after some demands by some of my close friends to have a forum to share all the cool designed objects I was finding. In the last couple of years my blog has evolved a lot, from being a round-up of cool design around the world to being very lifestyle oriented – travel, fashion, art, food, etc.

2) You are originally from LA, what led you to move to New York?

I moved to NYC after spending a summer during high school taking classes at Parsons, the New School for Design. I had never felt more at home in any city – and having traveled quite a bit, that’s saying a lot! I returned to NYC to start school in September of 2004, and I haven’t left yet.

3) You have been featured on Italian Vogue’s Vogue Curvy website where they mentioned that you started a career as a Design Strategist after graduating from Parsons’ Design and Management Program. Your career sounds fascinating, could you tell us a little more about what you do?

A lot of people think that “design strategy” is a lofty, made-up term, but it’s actually a really exciting, transdisciplinary field. I get to work with designers across all fields – from fashion designers, to architects, to graphic designers – and I work on lots of up-front strategy, concept design, and research. It’s really amazing to see a project from its earliest forms, sometimes nothing more than an idea, to a finished product – whether it be a book or a brick-and-mortar store. I love being able to work with so many different creative people.

4) What is your personal style like? You wear some great designer clothing (Miu Miu, Phillip Lim, Chanel), where do you shop for your clothing at?

It’s funny, Refinery29 recently did a feature on personal style and defined two caps – the good girl and the bad girl. I think I’m a little bit manic in that I oscillate between the two. I love black, metal hardware, leather – and at the same time I love floral prints and pink and feminine embellishments. It really depends on my mood! It’s a little bit of uptown glamour, and a little bit of downtown edge.

As for shopping, I don’t really limit myself to anything or any one designer or even size range. I just gravitate towards things I like! I might have a few pieces from Chanel, but I’ve also bought lots of clothing at Target – especially with their recent designer collaborations (I really loved the Rodarte collection). I do tend to be drawn towards statement pieces that I can use to build upon basics.

5) Where do you find inspiration for your blog?

My everyday life is my inspiration. I’m really lucky in that unbelievably talented friends and coworkers constantly surround me. That paired with one of the best cities in the world? I’m hardly starving for things to inspire me!

6) I have to ask, because I love your pictures, what kind of camera do you use?

I go between two primary cameras: a Leica D-Lux 4 that I take with me everywhere, and a Canon 5D DSLR that I use when I know I’m going to be shooting pictures and feel motivated to carry it around with me! I also love playing with toy cameras from Lomography.

7) What does Madison Plus mean to you?

I think Madison Plus is about revealing that little secret that you don’t have to be a size 2 – or even a size 8 – to be fashionable and achieve the look or style you want. I want more people to feel inspired to love themselves at any size – hips or no hips, fat or skinny, flat or busty – and everything in between.

Pictures of Nicolette Mason are by Lizz Kuehl (pictures #1-2, 9-11, 15-19) and Marissa Manning (pictures #3-8, 12-14)

Check out Nicolette’s blog here- NicoletteMason.com.

Check out Lizz Kuehl’s blog here- LizzKuehl.com.

Check out Marissa Manning’s website here- Balance.net/MarissaManning

Crystal Renn has been ranked in the Top 50 Women Models on Models.com! Crystal came in on the list at #36 and is the only model that is above the standard model size of 0/2 to make the ranking. This is a defining moment in not only her career but for all models. Models.com introduced her on the Top 50 list with the following summary…

“With back to back issues of Vogue Paris, serious rotation in V magazine, a Gaultier campaign this season and runway presence for Gaultier and Chanel the message is clear. Crystal Renn is simply put, an extraordinarily good model.”

Check out Crystal Renn on Models.com here.

What do you think of Crystal ranking on the Top 50? Do you agree with ranking #36?

The lovely Ford+ plus model Candice stopped by our office to say hello and to show off her summer style. We chatted about her style and her love of her black blazer, which we totally agree with her that it is a closet must have.  Candice’s summer style is the prefect combo of feminine and edgy, the edge coming from her mixed metal necklaces and the feminine is definitely being played up by her shoes.

Check out her video, and get to know Candice.

Shop Candice’s Look:

Yours Clothing – Plus Size Boyfriend Jacket

Torrid – Plus Size Lace Back Tank

Shopbop – Alex and Ani Multi Chain Necklace

Evans – Plus Size Brown Hip Belt

Shopbop – 7 For All Mankind Radley Sandals with Ankle Tie

Torrid – Mix Metal Bracelets

Beauty.com – Nars Orgasm Lip Gloss

JCrew – 5″ Chino Short

Candice Huffine poses with her famous shot from V Magazine!

The Madison Plus team with Candice!  Left to Right- Erica Young, Aimee Cheshire, Candice Huffine, and Kari Hansbarger.

Kate Dillon is really experiencing a ‘life in full’ and finding herself giving into temptation much more often now that she is four months pregnant with a boy! She tells Liz Brody from Shine Yahoo! that she is adjusting to some new cravings “In general, though, I give into temptation – pizza, French fries, dessert, – a few times a week, and basically follow a high fruit and vegetable, mostly whole-grain diet”.

She also shares some snippets into her life at various weights, from being 120lbs and thinking “I was very much one of the up-and-coming girls,” she says. “And I was never thin enough. I only weighed 120lbs, but was always being told to loose weight” and now at her current weight she realized that she can make a difference, “Suddenly, I just knew my job was to go out and prove that you could be happy, and healthy, and sexy with out being like this” (meaning skinny).

Given all her experience in the world of modeling, and body image she is the perfect person to ask the question: Should plus-sized models be required to to exceed certain measurements?

Read Kate Dillon’s answer at Shine Yahoo!

Tell us what you think?

MP friend, Jennie Mancinone, struggled with shopping for clothing online. Just for us, she is talking about her struggle to shop online and how her thoughts on it have evolved. Enjoy and let us know your thoughts! Did you go through the same struggle?

In an effort to be more proactive about my fashion choices, I’ve decided to start shopping online. But Jennie, you’re a computer savvy gal, why haven’t you been shopping online all along? you may very well be asking yourself. I am, it’s true, and yet I don’t. My central argument has always been, How can I know if something’s going to look right without trying it on first? And I think it’s a fair question, I try on tons of stuff when I go shopping but usually only end up getting a few things.

Looking back from the distance of wizened experience and out of desperation for options beyond Walmart (don’t get me wrong, sometimes Walmart has cute stuff, but a girl needs variety when she shops!), I think my resistance has mostly been based on stubbornness. OK, so I can’t try stuff on when I shop online. But if I’m willing to fork over the dough in the first place, why not just buy it and see if it fits? If it’s not right, send it back for another size or a different piece or a refund. Yes, it’s a different way to shop, I might be out a few bucks for shipping & handling, and it requires some effort on my part, but I’ll take that over the time, gas and effort required to rummage through slim department store pickings, frustrated, sweaty and miserable.

How is it that I’ve never seen online shopping as the solution to all my dressing room woes? Not only is there near infinite variety as only the web can provide, there’s accessibility to stores where I would probably never shop because they aren’t anywhere near me. I’m much more likely to browse higher-end clothing lines online than if I had to seek out a Nordstrom’s or Bergdorf’s. And I would love to shop at Torrid but I’ve never even seen one in a mall. Why haven’t I been shopping online for years??

Seriously, why haven’t I embraced the autonomy internet shopping provides? The more I think about it, the more I think it’s actually a deep-seated issue, rooted in all the dressing room melt downs and fights with my mother and all around miserable feeling-bad-about-myself-edness that went down long before there was an internet to shop. The trauma that began at age 12, trying to find age-appropriate plus size clothes in 1988, is still being felt over 20 years later, to the point where I haven’t even recognized the opportunities staring me in the face for almost just as long. What it comes down to is that at this point in my life, I’d rather ship a few things back and forth a few times and end up with clothes I love in the style I want, than run myself ragged trying to make do with the little I can find. I’m finally willing to change the way I shop if it means I can shop on my own terms. - Jennie

What do you think? Who wore it better: America Ferrera or Maria Menounos?

Crystal Renn has been all over the web recentley about the controversial photoshopped images from the “Fashion for Passion” campaign as well as her new campaign with Gaultier. In defense of her weight and figure, Crystal has been interviewed with Glamour Magazine as well as AOL’s stylist. During the stylist interview, Crystal talk about what she plans to do in the future, which includes a potentially designing her own plus size line.

“I would love to design a plus-size line. Having spent many years working with different stylists and models with different body types, and seeing different fabrics and silhouettes on those different body types, I feel a project like that would be a natural next step for me. “

Check out the full interview from AOL Stylist here.

We want to hear from you! What do you think about Crystal Renn designing her own line?

Which brand/designer should be partner up with for a line?

Ultimo went from advertising with Peaches Geldof and Kelly Brook in their lingerie line to now “real women” in their first ever Ultimo Couture line! The campaign showcases 14 unairbrushed images of women ranging in age from 20 to 53 and sizes ranging from 8 t0 18. The women were chosen from a facebook contest.

Ultimo founder Michelle Mone says “Ultimo Couture dresses are designed for real women, so it made complete sense for us to feature real women in the brand’s first campaign. It is all about championing different shapes and sizes”.

What do you think of the real women campaign for Ultimo?