OoTD No. 20 – No pants

After my last post, I got a few comments saying that casual need not be limited to jeans, especially considering the tendency of pants to either a) fall down or b) choke organs. It’s a fair point, and the jeans I was wearing in my last post do reveal my butt crack more often than I’d like. The only reason they made it into my wardrobe is because they’re electric turbo-salmon (thanks, James). For the most part, this Venn diagram really speaks to me:

So here’s my pants-free take on casual.

The tshirt is Lazy Oaf. They don’t carry plus sizes, so deathfatz don’t get to play (yet again). Their roomiest gear would probably be their single size ‘slob’ tees, which I reckon could fit up to an Australian size 20.

This ‘oversized’ tee (size M/L) is actually a bit small, especially in the arm holes, but I’ve been forcing it on every weekend since I bought it so the cotton has yielded a little. My fat takes no prisoners.

BEST NECKLACE IN THE HISTORY OF FOREVER. If I never buy a piece of jewellery again, I will be ok because I have this necklace. It’s a garish representation of the People’s Princess, Lady Di. I’m no monarchist and I’ll be very happy when we get the Union Jack off our flag, but I always always make an exception for kitsch.

 You can get this beauty from Phillip Normal’s shop, The Happy Shack, in Camden or, if you ask him very nicely on his facebook page, he may send you one in the post (like he very kindly did for me).

Tshirt: Lazy Oaf
Skirt: Supre
Sneakers: Nike Dunk High Supreme Spark from Hype DC (I think)
Necklace: Phillip Normal
Bag: Broadway Betty

PS. My second post for Cosmo went up last week. I can’t tell you how awesome it feels to be writing about fat acceptance for a mainstream audience AND that a magazine like Cosmo has been so keen to get behind it.

OoTD No. 19 – Colour vomit

I’ve noticed that the fatosphere doesn’t really like to show casual outfits. Most fatshion blogs I read (and my own, I admit) show off their special occasion outfits, where their accessories and their make-up are just so. I feel like this does us all a disservice because casual can be an incredibly difficult style to master.

I think that our collective reluctance may have something to do with an issue Marianne touched on on her tumblr:

…what I hear in my head is a Greek chorus of voices from all sorts of different sources saying jeans always look sloppy on a woman of my size. That women as large as I am should never just wear t-shirts.

I worked at Lane Bryant for three years and, in many ways, they were proto-fat acceptance years for me. There was this rule, though, that you could never just wear, for example, a pair of pants and a top. That was just clothing. No, you needed three pieces to make an OUTFIT.

Maybe that’s lingering in my head … because without [accessories] I’m just dressed and that’s some kind of violation of the Fat Code.

I’m a smaller fat, so I doubt that I feel this as acutely as someone the size of Marianne, but I do get it. A tshirt and jeans on a fat person seems sloppy and unfinished, whereas on someone far smaller it’s classic. Even this post, despite not wearing any jewellery (which is pretty rare for me), I’m wearing colour vomit to make my tshirt-jeans-kicks combo more interesting.

I don’t think I’ll ever be a white shirt and blue denim girl.

I don’t usually wear pants but I could hardly pass up these. My mum cringed when she first saw these pants, that’s how good they are. Apparently their colour is ‘Blood Orange’ but I’ve been calling is ‘Fluorescent Salmon’ as it seems more accurate. Still not perfect, though. Care to help me come up with a name for this colour? (Edit: They’re more orange than they appear in these photos.)

Tshirt: Vintage from SHAG
Jacket: Jibri
Jeans: Jay Jays
Sneakers: Nike Terminator Hi Quickstrike from Sneakerology

These photos were taken in one of my favourite parts of Sydney: the succulent garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Me and my links

My planned takeover of the internet is progressing steadily…

1. @FatStigma

Dr Samantha Thomas, Elizabeth of Spilt Milk (blog and tumblr) and Brian of Red No. 3 have a new twitter: @FatStigma. Here’s a post explaining the purpose of the twitter. Basically we’ll be keeping an eye on stigmatising articles, obesity campaigns and reports etc. If you want to send articles our way, tweet us, use the hashtag #fatstigma or email us at fatstigma@gmail.com.

2. Cosmopolitan Australia

I’m doing some blogging for Cosmopolitan magazine (Australia) about their Say No to Fat Talk campaign.

I know that similar campaigns, like Fat Talk Free Week, have copped some criticism in the fatosphere because it’s seen to further demonise the word ‘fat’ and shut down useful discussions about what’s it’s like to live in society with a fat body. That’s why I’m doing this. I want the fat perspective included. I want to recognise that there is a difference between feeling fat and being fat, and I want that difference to be recognised by others.

Click here for my introductory post and, if you’re so inclined, leave a comment! Over the coming weeks I’ll be writing about things like health, sex, fatshion, stigma… I’m pretty excited.

3. Like me!

I’ve finally set up a facebook page for Corpulent (/Hey Fat Chick!/All Bodies): http://www.facebook.com/corpulent.blog. Like me! And once you do, don’t be a stranger – I want the page to actually be interesting to youse, so say something.