I took the opportunity to speak with Michele Weston, Author of Learning Curves: Living Your Life in Full and with Style, and I'm glad that I get to share with you the ins and outs of working in the plus-size industry.
Q: How would you like to sum up your professional experience?
Michele: I entered the world of fashion and magazine publishing and media because I wanted to change the definition of what is considered beautiful about a woman. Over the past years, I've come to realize that each of us is an original, our own "work of art" and, the more women I meet over the years, the more I see that there is no one way to be.
Q: What advice do you have for plus-size women out there?
Michele:The best approach to changing the world's vision of beauty is to honor ourselves with our differences, and I can make a difference with women sharing my thoughts and knowledge on creating style without size. That happened when I began to accept and honor my personal beauty and share my own take on "owning personal style", not someone else's "ideal" but my own true "self."
Q: Tell me more about your book, [u]Learning Curves: Living Your Life in Full and With Style.[/u]
Michele: I think women are at a crossroads in their struggle to redefine body image in a more positive, realistic way. This is evidenced the manner in which the fashion designer market is wooing consumers with more choices now, and shift in advertising campaigns to include women of all shapes and sizes, and full-figured female celebrities taking on highly visible roles, from talk show hosts to actors. With these first steps, I felt it was time to help women permanently discard the negative thinking about our bodies that we have embraced for so long. It was time for women to learn how to step up and own their confidence, to be strong, sexy, and proud for each of us to find our own true style.
The hardcover version has not been reprinted, but I am currently revising the book for a paperback version, and adding some additions with places, people and designer to check out and adding a journal type workbook at the end as well.
Q: Who are your target readers for your book & plus-size fashion projects with SellingStyle?
Michele: My target readers are women struggling with body image. Seriously, on my book tour years ago, I realized we all struggled with the same thing and that is the need to control our bodies, and if we could love ourselves as we are, what a relief it would be and a huge burden would be lifted for following generations.
SellingStyle provides the curvy consumer with the shopping experience she deserves by working closely with designers and retailers. We also work with stores to create workshops and fashion events that lead to a greater sense of "inclusiveness" in the overall fashion buying experience for the curvy consumer.
Q: Do you ever collaborate with other fashion writers & editors?
Michele: Yes, I'm frequently am called upon, as one of the "Plus-Size Authorities" for quotes and to help with columns and "where to find" great new designer lines and stores. My theory is, information is only as good as the ability to share it. I have believed this since my first days at Mademoiselle and I think have stayed in touch with the editors in the biz for this reason.
Q: What's a major concern with writing and working with the plus-size market?
Michele: Since most media doesn't account for the reality of women's bodies, there's a need for fashion & style experts with the ability to deliver real women's advice for the curvy woman! Being the expert and being the audience at a size 16/18 has been a really important part of helping me to deliver the message in words and in voice--Beauty has no size.
That's why I developed MJWStyle Media, which let's me wear lots of different hats. For example: writing articles for magazines like FIGURE for January/February Issue on fear of hitting the gym, being a columnist on websites like DivineCaroline.
I also frequently commentate media tours to national (think Today Show) affiliate TV stations (like Great Day Houston or Philadelphia 10!) across the country.
Q: Some would like to know about what it takes to be a Fashion Editor. What's your advice for those headed in that direction, using your experience with Mode, Mademoiselle, and other magazines?
Michele: Being a Fashion Editor. . . interesting question on what it takes. It takes the ability to voice your opinion after watching tons of fashion shows, being in dozens of fashion showrooms looking for the next "big" trend for your audience. With a curvier figure, you need to be even more "buttoned up"; after all, being thrown into the ocean of fashionistas out there is a challenge.
Q: What reading essentials would you recommend for plus-size women? Are there any fashion "bibles" that you recommend?
Michele: I love the book Dress Your Best from Stacey London and Clinton Kelly for TLC's "What Not to Wear." I also worked with Stacey at Mademoiselle, and she really walks the walk and talks the talk!
The Budget Fashionista from Kathryn Finney is super for shopping and hints from an expert as well. I interviewed her for AmaZeMagazine.com and we have stayed in touch.
For all curvy girls, please read for the best in body image point of view, my dear friend Wendy Shanker's book The Fat Girls' Guide to Life. With her lovely sense of humour and take on living in a curvy body, this is one sane woman, all right!
Rachel Caplin's I'm Beautiful Dammit: Waging Your Own Curvolution [is another] because this book is about empowering women and girls to love their bodies now. It's a new feminism movement that I really think speaks to us all and can make positive life shifts in how we feel about our bodies and who we are today!
Michele Weston's MJW Style Media site can be checked out here.
