A Fresh Perspective on Plus Size Dresses by Fashion Students

 When Beth Glascock of the Fairy Godmother Project (helping needy High School teens get dresses for Prom) needed plus size prom gowns,  she asked the students at the O'Moore College of Design in Nashville, TN for help.  They quickly took on the project to create new dresses using material from old ones.

The Fashion Team at Sydney's Closet thinks it is such a great idea to have design students make plus size Prom dresses that we just had to share it in hopes other communities could do the same to help curvy teens in their local high school get a Prom dress of their dreams.

China Trip Fall 2011 - Fashion, Seafood and Budweiser

A  highlight of the Fashion Team’s visits to China is always feasting on authentic Cantonese cuisine.  Chaozhou, the city in Guangdong Province where we spend most of our time, is known worldwide for seafood caught fresh from the nearby China Sea and vegetables just hours from the garden.  

Entrance Chaozhou Restaurant

No need for a menu at a seafood restaurant in Chaozhou where customers select from the day's fresh catch.

 

At the hotel breakfast, we pass on the cauldron bubbling with “porridge with 1,000-year-old eggs”. We join the locals as they peel a whole baked sweet potato, wrap it in their hands and bite into it like a candy bar.    

After a morning and afternoon designing in the factory showroom, it is customary for the owners to invite us to a local restaurant.  Many American customers ask to eat more familiar fast food like KFC and McDonald’s now available in Chaozhou - although very expensive.  But the Fashion Team bites (bad pun!) at culinary adventures that give us the chance to sample dishes  foreign to menus back home:  

-          Blood red clams steamed in fish stock

-          Oysters fried with eggs and bamboo

-          Papaya baked with honey

-          Lotus root stuffed with rice

-          Egg yolks baked into sliced pork

-      Rice rolled into a log with peanuts and vegetables then sliced

-          Whole fried fish in the original sweet and sour sauce

We order ice cold Tsing Tao beer to wash down the spicy foods and have to laugh when it is always served in small juice-size glasses with the “Budweiser” logo in red.

Our "Jersey Girl" mani's extended plus-size family is growing!

"Edinburgh College of Art has become the first fashion school in the UK to introduce size 18 mannequins to train the designers of the future."  In May, 2011 plus-size mannequins started appearing in Australia's Myer Department Store.

Along with the rise in need for plus-size clothing, the industry realizes the need to make sure the clothing is designed to fit properly.  As with many clothing when it's designed, a mannequin is very beneficial. However, most female mannequins are a made for a Size 6, with some going up to a size 10-12. 

At Sydney’s Closet we drape and design our plus size dresses on a fit mannequin that conforms perfectly to a Size 18 from on our size chart.  We call her “Jersey Girl” because we bought her from a company in New Jersey and shipped her to our headquarters in St. Louis.  She even has arms, so when we design dresses with sleeves or jackets we can be sure to get a great fit.

Not only is it important for the designing aspect, the true plus-size mannequins should also be used in shops that sell plus-size clothing, so the clothing is displayed properly, and not draped on then pinned back on a smaller mannequin.   

Rock-on Jersey Girl!