LOOKS FOR LESS

High-tops Aren't Just for Kids Anymore!

Okay, let’s face it: the new synonym for college is broke. Broke as a JOKE. So as we all venture on this 4 year (or probably longer because let’s face it we aren’t all going to strike it rich anytime soon...or at least I won’t be!) journey of just barely getting by and “making it work”, I’ve decided to step in and try to make things as easy as possible on everyone’s wallet! Here I’ll share with you the DIY’s and looks for less that I deem necessary for survival in this struggle I like to call “life”.

So to make it clear, I am all for saving whenever I can and spending as little as possible on everything I buy. I’ve become quite the savvy shopper and ebay-er and I look for a deal even when there usually isn’t one. So, I am happy to present to you all a flurry of DIY’s that are actually worth your time and many a look for less so we are all able to be just as stylish as when we didn’t actually have real bills to pay.

The Look: Olivia Palermo , street-style

For Less:

Since I work at Forever 21, I'm usually pretty up to date on the stock we receive, what we get a lot of and what sells out fast. So, naturally, this is the store I turn to first when I'm shopping because it's convenient and affordable. So just to start out, most of this outfit is from Forever 21, but I'll try to focus on a different store for each outfit.

So, it is my pleasure to present this lovely look to you, the complete package, the whole she-bang, for under $150!

1. Forever 21 Cropped Knit Blazer, $29.80 in Navy

2. Forever 21 Oversize V-Neck Tee, $9.80 in Cream

3. Forever 21 Cuffed Cotton Capri w/ Belt, $22.80 in Light Olive

4. Forever 21 Contrast High Top Sneakers, $14.50 in Navy

5. Forever 21 Anchor Chain Bracelet, $10.80 in Gold

6. Aldo "Teem" Tote, $55.00 in Cognac

Your Total Cost: $142.70

Olivia’s Cost for her Hermes Birkin Bag at the discounted OUTLET price: still $589 (with the regular price ranging anywhere from $9,000 - $150,000 according to the materials used).

– AMANDA KWASNIEWICZ

American Apparel had their chance to be cool, and blew it

In August 2011, American Apparel (AA) launched a plus size model search called The Next BIG Thing. Women were asked to submit their photos and the public would vote for the new face of their plus size division.

It all sounded pretty cool to begin with. I was excited... AA is finally branching out to plus size women? Hooray! But then I read the call for models. As you might expect from AA, the call made use of predictable and somewhat demeaning language.

Calling curvy ladies everywhere! Our best-selling Disco Pant (and around 10 other sexy styles) are now available in size XL, for those of us who need a little extra wiggle room where it counts. We’re looking for fresh faces (and curvaceous bods) to fill these babies out. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be the next XLent model, send us photos of you and your junk to back it up.

A couple of problems with their call out:

1. Wait - they’re only making 10 styles in size XL? That’s not very many. Also, what exactly is “XL”? According to the AA size chart, XL is a size 12/14, also known as the AVERAGE size of American women.
2. Your language is ridiculous. Extra wiggle room? Curvaceous bods? Your junk? Why does everything related to plus size women need to come packaged in stupid language like “booty-licious”? 

Well, their call for models didn’t just seem awkward and offensive to me. It caught the attention of Nancy Upton, a size 12 gal from Dallas, Texas. She entered the contest as a protest, submitting pictures of herself in alluring poses while eating chicken, chocolate, pie and even bathing in a tub of ranch dressing. Her submission simply said, “I’m a size 12. I just can’t stop eating.”

The public loved Nancy. When the contest was over, she won the popular vote by far. But American Apparel didn’t like that the winner was mocking their contest. So AA’s Creative Director, Iris Alonzo, wrote a letter to Nancy which included the following ridiculous sentences:

It’s a shame that your project attempts to discredit the positive intentions of our challenge based on your personal distaste for our use of light-hearted language, and that “bootylicous” was too much for you to handle.  

Oh — and regarding winning the contest, while you were clearly the popular choice, we have decided to award the prizes to other contestants that we feel truly exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out, and whom we will be proud to have representing our company.

Hot damn! We love Nancy!

So Nancy was shot down by American Apparel. Big surprise. But then something interesting happened. Nancy posted the harsh letter from Iris onto her blog and it went viral. American Apparel was suddenly swimming in bad press and Iris had some serious back-pedaling to do to.

Iris apologized to Nancy and offered to fly her and a friend out to LA to tour the company headquarters and discuss how AA could better market to plus size women. Once again, I had a glimmer of hope that maybe AA could be kinda cool.

Nancy and her friend met with the creative team who organized The Next BIG Thing contest and had an interesting discussion about marketing to plus size women. American Apparel exec’s fed the girls cream puffs (the irony of which was not lost on Nancy), and Iris even took Nancy and her friend out drinking. Things were looking up. “I had a REALLY good feeling about where the company would go after my trip,” wrote Nancy on her blog.

Over the next few days, Nancy and Iris exchanged a few more emails, and then Iris fucked it all up again.

On October 4, Iris wrote:

Marsha and I were trying to remember what we even talked about, and amidst all of the late night fun and cream puffs (compounded by the fact that we couldn’t re-watch the video of the meeting), we can hardly remember what was said at all.

I think Nancy summarizes my feelings about that email pretty well. On her blog she wrote:

This company spent thousands of dollars flying Shannon and I to LA, to meet with their team and they can’t even remember what we discussed. Nor do they care to. They want me to write something happy go-lucky about how positive our meeting was for women everywhere, and then they want to sign off on it, you know, in case I forget anything.

As it stands today, this whole debacle is SO TOTALLY OVER to Nancy. She is done with AA, writing “[Those] three sentences of that email tell more truth about what went on in this bizarro adventure than anything I saw in that factory or those offices.”

So, American Apparel had numerous chances to do something cool here, and they blew it every time. They insulted plus size women in their call to models, they shunned the popular winner of their contest and then insulted her in an email, tried to make it up to her only to flub it all again.

American Apparel, you clearly need advice, so I’m going to offer you a suggestion: Don’t be afraid of change. Or fat girls.

AA: Don't fear fat girls with chicken!

Your stocks are in the crapper, your CEO is dealing with multiple sexual harassment lawsuits, nobody likes your ugly hipster clothes anymore, and everyone’s sick of your sexist advertisements. Clearly, your company is in need of a shake-up. SOMETHING needs to change and I’m not going to pretend I know what that is, but maybe this whole thing with Nancy could have been exactly the change you need.

When your company is already down pretty low, you have nothing to lose by trying something new. Who knows, maybe you could have captured the hearts of North American women sized 12 and up, opening your store to millions of new customers. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and other stores like Forever 21 and Target have already realized that the “fattening of America is a big business opportunity.”

In light of this whole debacle with Nancy, I fear that American Apparel’s destiny is to fade away as soon as hipster style falls out of fashion. But I’m OK with that, because time and time again AA has proved themselves to be a company that only cares about making clothing for slim, young, beautiful hipster women. Good luck making a profit each year with such a tiny demographic.

Lessons in nudity from the Swedish

I recently had the pleasure of visiting my friend Linn in Sweden. While staying with her we attended a couple of fitness classes at her gym. After my first Yoga class in Swedish, we headed to the locker room to grab our runners and hoodies. When I looked up from tying my shoe lace, I realized I was sitting amongst a sea of naked bottoms. All the ladies had stripped down and stood around chatting in the buff while doing their hair.

Two days later we went to another class, and the same thing happened. After class, there was noticeably more nakedness than in a typical Canadian locker room. Friends disrobed in front of one another, chatted about plans for the weekend and generally carried on as if their most intimate parts weren’t on display. And maybe that’s simply because for the Swedes, and many folks outside of North America, the naked body is no big deal.

As we walked home that night, Linn and I compared “locker room etiquette” in Canada and Sweden. At her high school, everyone hit the showers after gym class. As a result, she’s seen all her peers naked over the course of many years.

My high school gym experience was completely different. We never showered after class – there wasn’t time, it wasn’t encouraged and nobody did it. Sure, there were showers in the locker room, but they were used exclusively by the volleyball and basketball teams. Since I never played on any sports teams, I never showered with my peers. In fact, to this day I have never seen any of my friends in the nude.

In Calgary, nudity in the locker room is pretty mixed. Whether you strut your stuff or hide in a change room typically depends on your age, cultural background, and your level of I-don’t-give-a-shit-ness. Generally though, younger women shy away from all-out nudity and prefer to change in locker rooms or shimmy their knickers on with one hand while holding a towel around them with the other. It seems that the older you get, the less you care, and so with age comes nudity.

I’ve decided that I like the European style of locker room etiquette. I believe that the more naked bodies we see, (and I mean REAL naked bodies, not Photoshop plastic bodies) the more comfortable we become with our own body. We get to see the amazing variety in the human body, and we realize that it’s all normal: scars, hair in weird places, saggy boobs, varicose veins, stretch marks, cellulite-dimpled bottoms, the incredible variety of nipple size and colour, and so much more.

I think it’s important that we see naked bodies of all ages in non-sexual contexts. We’ll have more realistic expectations for our own bodies when we see what other people look like. It’s harder to hate your own body when you see your “flaws” in everyone else too. Hiding our bodies from each other breeds insecurity and feelings of abnormality. I hope us Canadians can eventually move to a more European level of comfort with nudity. It doesn’t have to be sexual… it’s just natural and normal.