Full Figured Fashion Week Recap
Posted on June 29, 2009 by Glen L Johnson
Trying to condense all of the historical events of the last four days of the first ever Full Figured Fashion Week would be impossible, therefore I am not going to try. I will talk about each of the individual events that I was a part of in separate posts meaning you will have to say tuned for that. What I can say though being a gentleman from the South as I was called on a few occasions I witnessed the largest collection of sexy, voluptuous, curvy, confident, gorgeous women ever in the history of curvy fashion. The workshops and a runway show represented the curvy community in an unprecedented way creating a ripple affect large enough to be felt for many years beyond this past weekend!
From the moment I met the other members of the Curvy Collective, Full Figure Plus readers, Gwen Devoe, Sharon Quinn, FFF Week Cover Model Teslyn Butler, models and other supporters I knew that I was in a special place with special people. The highlight of my personal involvement was speaking on the State of the Curvy Community discussion. Hearing the words of ladies that I have wrote about on many occasions was awesome to say the least.
The shopping party on Saturday was great it introduced me to designers that dedicate all of their creative juices to the curvy woman as well as accessory designers selling plenty of jewelry to compliment all of the great clothes on hand. To the young lady, she knows who she is, who was in charge of organizing the shopping soiree everything went great. Ladies shopped, their was plenty of positive buzz in the room meaning everyone including me had a good time.
The runway finale hosted by Kim Coles almost left me speechless. The clothes shown were fabulous as well as the ladies that modeled them. From a plus size bloggers stand point of view witnessing the events was the equivalent to hitting the lottery. I knew before I left that the events would be over the top I just had no idea of the level of professionalism and elegance destined to unfold before my eyes. My words do not even come close to doing justice to what Gwen Devoe and all of those behind the scenes people presented to those in attendance. I can believe this event was two years in the making additionally, I feel this will be an ongoing event.
For the most part everything I will have to say about Full Figured Fashion Week will be positive. Being a realist I have to speak on the media representation or lack there of during this ground breaking event. Of the press represented in attendance there was in my opinion absolutely NO coverage from mainstream media. I heard rumor that one of the photographers was from traditional media but that was it. There was an article in the Daily Beast but, I have to be honest the article seemed to dance around talking about the actual week and discuss more unrelated things, maybe I am just to sensitive. I can only hope that the independant photographers have relationships with the right people to get them pictures and let them know what really went on. There was a lot of “if I had known” conversations going around when I spoke to media reps which disappointed me because between myself and the other members of the Curvy Collective we blasted the Internet and other social networking communities with announcements of Full Figured Fashion Week events for weeks.
To the world outside of the curvy community let me tell you that you missed history. Whatever excuse you have for not attending honestly, if you had wanted to be there you would have, but on the other hand we don’t need you for validation. As long as blogs like Full Figure Plus exist featuring ladies I had the pleasure of meeting like Rocky Grate this weeks plus size beauty of the week there is no need for mainstream media to muddy up the waters reporting something you know nothing about.
Full Figured Fashion Week IS a force of nature. It will move on its own without regard to those in its path. For those that bore witness when the revolution begins you will be able to tell everyone where you were on June 25-27, 2009. Those not in attendance what you missed was the equivalent to snow in July. In other words it was really special. As I stated earlier I will break down each of the events that I was personally involved with and end with giving my predictions for the future of the curvy community and all of its individual niches.
Bottomline, Full Figured Fashion Week forever changed my viewpoint of fashion for plus size women. I thank everyone that allowed me to be a part of these ground breaking events! Even after 5 years of reporting I see that I still have a lot to learn about things. Stay tuned for more recaps of the week that made curvy history!
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