I remember the first time I picked up a fashion magazine. I was 7 years old. I can’t remember which magazine it was – I think it was Red Book (telling my age) but whichever one it was, I was touched by the Fashion gods at that very moment! I saw a spread with Oscar De La Renta and one by Christian Dior and fell in love. Oscar has been my favorite designer ever since with his romantic styles and his obvious love for a woman’s curves. That was the first time I looked at fashion as an art and not just something to buy and wear.
I started sketching at that point; tracing at first, then learning to create my own lines. As a kid I drew figures as sticks or shapes but after getting bitten by the fashion bug, I was serious about drawing figures the way I saw them in that magazine. Thankfully my mother saw I was fixated with this and chucked me off to art classes and camps. I think back on how my sketches were always of curvy figures. I liked hour glass shapes and hippy figures for my designs. And now here I am designing for all sizes.
One of my current models moved me into plus size designing. Most in my field do not feel plus size anything is fashionable. It isn’t taken seriously and if it is, it is done so by a small amount in comparison to the mainstream. Some embrace it as gimmick or money maker. It seems like fashion show organizers who once told plus size models in the past that they were only looking for “standard” size models are now trying to get those same models to be a part of their events, create agencies just for them as if they’ve had some sort of epiphany. The same doors that never opened for me when I first started are opening – well now I have my own house complete with doors, windows and a runway so my desire to come in their house has since diminished. Not to say I won’t feature in anyone else’s events, I am just extremely selective. I can’t deal with the over rated – out dated stigma that models have to look a certain way to grace a runway when the people who buy my designs are those who can’t find what they need in the stores or on the runway due to this mentality. The thing is this isn’t a marketing ploy or gimmick to me – this is what I do what I am passionate about. I take issue with people who feel they should now do the plus sized ladies a favor by representing for them when their intent is not to redefine how people view fashion and plus size models but for personal gain. I’m not encouraging unhealthy habits or obesity but I am speaking up for those that will never – not even with all the exercise and liposuction in the world – be a size 2. However, Tim Gunn of Project Runway even said that the current fashion industry and clothing market does plus size women zero justice:
"Have you seen most of the plus-size sections out there? It's horrifying”. AMEN. I truly, wholeheartedly feel every woman should have legitimately fashionable apparel – because fashion should never be too exclusive or elusive.
Personally speaking, I have some health conditions that catapulted my weight. I’ve been dealing with things off and on for several years. I have since controlled it but I had to face the reality that I’d never be the size I was in high school – and I don’t want to be that size because I was a skinny, stressed out child going through the worst time of my life (i.e. moving to a new state with people I barely knew that constantly judged me based on things they had no idea about, losing my mother to cancer, mental and health issues all relating to stress) – I don’t want any part of THAT life back. But when the doctors told me what I’d be facing – hormone treatments, steroid injections, etc – for a lengthy amount of time, I had to come to grips that I would have to look past the negatives and love myself no matter what and no matter what size. I just want to live and love the people in my life. And I plan to look fabulous doing it and making others look/ feel the same –
Nope – I never went to school to study design but I can go toe to toe with anyone that has. I know my fashion history and the art of merchandising. And I’m mean with my draping. Matter of fact when I design for my girls, I don’t even have to measure them – I see their shape in the fabric before I even cut it. Sounds weird, I know but sometimes I just see them in the fabric and know that it was meant for them. I’ve never proclaimed to be the best but to be the best at anything is to know that you can always do better. This hobby of mine is a learning experience as well as my means of self-expression. Fashion allows me to let off some steam, some anger, some fears, some frustration, some sadness, some self-doubt, some insecurity – hell I can just be me. I tell it like it is and so does my designs. As I change, it changes. It is simply an extension of who I am. I’m not afraid of that and I tend to laugh at those that try to tell me I’m not a “real” designer because of who I design for and how I design.
You would think that since I’ve expanded my sizing that I’d be obsessed with those labeled as plus size designers. But my favorites are still Dior, De La Renta, Von Furstenberg, Galliano, Ford, Johnson, Jacobs, Kors, Mizrahi , Herrera and Valentino. I miss the rock star of fashion – McQueen and I love the edgy yet feminine nature of Gaultier. I take inspiration from them all because when I design I am not thinking of what size I am designing, I am thinking of the woman I am designing for. When I am in my zone, I am trying to figure out how to combine my concepts with new trends and make it look comfortable, wearable and fun and not like a tent. Either plus size fashion looks dated or is over styled or it is too draped as if they want to completely cover the woman or it is inappropriately too fitted-- as if the tighter it is the more it will “suck in” the woman’s unflattering areas when it in fact that accentuates it. Woman come in all shapes and sizes – some are tall and thick – some are short and pear-shaped – some are thin with some va-va-voom and some are disproportionate and all are perfect. Real women have curves and real designers embrace that.
(www.nilanjo617.com)
I remember the first time I picked up a fashion magazine. I was 7 years old. I can’t remember which magazine it was – I think it was Red Book (telling my age) but whichever one it was, I was touched by the Fashion gods at that very moment! I saw a spread with Oscar De La Renta and one by Christian Dior and fell in love. Oscar has been my favorite designer ever since with his romantic styles and his obvious love for a woman’s curves. That was the first time I looked at fashion as an art and not just something to buy and wear.
I started sketching at that point; tracing at first, then learning to create my own lines. As a kid I drew figures as sticks or shapes but after getting bitten by the fashion bug, I was serious about drawing figures the way I saw them in that magazine. Thankfully my mother saw I was fixated with this and chucked me off to art classes and camps. I think back on how my sketches were always of curvy figures. I liked hour glass shapes and hippy figures for my designs. And now here I am designing for all sizes.
One of my current models moved me into plus size designing. Most in my field do not feel plus size anything is fashionable. It isn’t taken seriously and if it is, it is done so by a small amount in comparison to the mainstream. Some embrace it as gimmick or money maker. It seems like fashion show organizers who once told plus size models in the past that they were only looking for “standard” size models are now trying to get those same models to be a part of their events, create agencies just for them as if they’ve had some sort of epiphany. The same doors that never opened for me when I first started are opening – well now I have my own house complete with doors, windows and a runway so my desire to come in their house has since diminished. Not to say I won’t feature in anyone else’s events, I am just extremely selective. I can’t deal with the over rated – out dated stigma that models have to look a certain way to grace a runway when the people who buy my designs are those who can’t find what they need in the stores or on the runway due to this mentality. The thing is this isn’t a marketing ploy or gimmick to me – this is what I do what I am passionate about. I take issue with people who feel they should now do the plus sized ladies a favor by representing for them when their intent is not to redefine how people view fashion and plus size models but for personal gain. I’m not encouraging unhealthy habits or obesity but I am speaking up for those that will never – not even with all the exercise and liposuction in the world – be a size 2. However, Tim Gunn of Project Runway even said that the current fashion industry and clothing market does plus size women zero justice: "Have you seen most of the plus-size sections out there? It's horrifying”. AMEN. I truly, wholeheartedly feel every woman should have legitimately fashionable apparel – because fashion should never be too exclusive or elusive.
Personally speaking, I have some health conditions that catapulted my weight. I’ve been dealing with things off and on for several years. I have since controlled it but I had to face the reality that I’d never be the size I was in high school – and I don’t want to be that size because I was a skinny, stressed out child going through the worst time of my life (i.e. moving to a new state with people I barely knew that constantly judged me based on things they had no idea about, losing my mother to cancer, mental and health issues all relating to stress) – I don’t want any part of THAT life back. But when the doctors told me what I’d be facing – hormone treatments, steroid injections, etc – for a lengthy amount of time, I had to come to grips that I would have to look past the negatives and love myself no matter what and no matter what size. I just want to live and love the people in my life. And I plan to look fabulous doing it and making others look/ feel the same –
Nope – I never went to school to study design but I can go toe to toe with anyone that has. I know my fashion history and the art of merchandising. And I’m mean with my draping. Matter of fact when I design for my girls, I don’t even have to measure them – I see their shape in the fabric before I even cut it. Sounds weird, I know but sometimes I just see them in the fabric and know that it was meant for them. I’ve never proclaimed to be the best but to be the best at anything is to know that you can always do better. This hobby of mine is a learning experience as well as my means of self-expression. Fashion allows me to let off some steam, some anger, some fears, some frustration, some sadness, some self-doubt, some insecurity – hell I can just be me. I tell it like it is and so does my designs. As I change, it changes. It is simply an extension of who I am. I’m not afraid of that and I tend to laugh at those that try to tell me I’m not a “real” designer because of who I design for and how I design.
You would think that since I’ve expanded my sizing that I’d be obsessed with those labeled as plus size designers. But my favorites are still Dior, De La Renta, Von Furstenberg, Galliano, Ford, Johnson, Jacobs, Kors, Mizrahi , Herrera and Valentino. I miss the rock star of fashion – McQueen and I love the edgy yet feminine nature of Gaultier. I take inspiration from them all because when I design I am not thinking of what size I am designing, I am thinking of the woman I am designing for. When I am in my zone, I am trying to figure out how to combine my concepts with new trends and make it look comfortable, wearable and fun and not like a tent. Either plus size fashion looks dated or is over styled or it is too draped as if they want to completely cover the woman or it is inappropriately too fitted-- as if the tighter it is the more it will “suck in” the woman’s unflattering areas when it in fact that accentuates it. Woman come in all shapes and sizes – some are tall and thick – some are short and pear-shaped – some are thin with some va-va-voom and some are disproportionate and all are perfect. Real women have curves and real designers embrace that.
(www.nilanjo617.com)
