May the Odds be in Your Favor...

IGIGI, This wonderful site is out of San Francisco, California.

'I have had a wonderful time viewing her designs. I do believe that there is not one piece that I would not enjoy wearing. They are vibrant, carefree, sexy and feel ?good? type of clothing.

Yuliya?s design to cater to size 12-32.

What is IGIGI? This is a direct quote from their website, ?IGIGI is the premiere brand of contemporary collections designed to

fulfill the lifestyle of the beautiful, voluptuous, and confident woman. Named after an ancient goddess embodying vitality,

charm, and intelligence, IGIGI strives to provide women of curves with smart, stylish and sophisticated collections that

accentuate and celebrate their bodies.

IGIGI wants to make women look and feel sensational. Our goal is to inspire the full-figured woman to love, respect and

treasure herself by accepting her body and learning to dress it for a fabulous look and an incredible inner feeling. We employ

innovative techniques that create a great fit for the individual shape leading to a visually appeasing appearance. We provide

the tools through myshape section to educate our customers about their individual body shape and tricks of the trade to dress

it for the ultimate flattery.

by Dr. Robyn

Photo Retouching: Take another little piece of my…

Dr. Robyn Silverman

Retouching by J. Pimentel

As we continue to discuss, photo retouching is the norm in a society that values flawlessness.  Even though they’re muttering “be yourself” out of one side of their mouths, they are ready with digital diet pills in the other.  Who wants “normal” when you can have perfect or so called perfection in the form of rail thin stick figure with itty bitty...?

I asked one of my good friends, who is a graphic designer as well as a beautiful vivacious plus size woman, to take us through the process of what professionals are asked to do when pairing down models to the “perfect size.”

(1) What specific areas of the picture did you concentrate on– can you talk us through it a bit?

    Let me first point out that the original picture was taken and produced by a professional photographer. In all likeliness it already had been significantly modified before I even touched it. Notice that there are no blemishes, cellulite or folds in here skin whatsoever. As a result, there was virtually nothing done to her bust and face at all. I contoured her jaw line a little but this was a relatively minor adjustment.

    Most of the edits were done on her body, in particular the waist, arms and hips. These parts were edited to look much slimmer than they actually are. It would be the real-life equivalent of taking 8? off her waist and 2-3? off each arm. The hips were contoured as well, smoothing out the line between where her skin ends and the bathing suit begins. Shadows and highlights were added to imitate how light would cast off and on her body if it were to have appeared that way naturally.

(2) Would the retouched version still be considered “plus size?”

    Plus sized models, also referred to as Woman models, run generally from sizes 12-18. Depending on the agency a size 10 may also marketed as plus size. Crazy right? Ironically, the modified version of this picture would likely edit her right out of both categories; too small to be a woman model, too big to be a misses model.

(3) Would the un-retouched picture ever make it to print without being downsized to the revised version?

    In this case yes but only because this person is being marketed as a plus size/ woman model and the picture had already been modified. A regular misses layout would use a models size 0-4. In fashion and retail, very infrequently is there ever a picture that is taken and put into print without modification of some sort. This is most evident on the cover shots of magazines and other publications. The changes I made to this picture are dramatic. She essentially went from a size 16 to a size 6/8. If a designer had to make this many changes to a photograph they would just hire another model.

(4) What are some insider bits you can tell us about what you do?

    As a designer we are trained to look for even the slightest flaw and correct it. The digitalization of the industry (move from photographs to digital images) has afforded us the ability to modify EVERY ASPECT of a picture. The most insidious edits are the subtle ones, the ones that imply flawlessness. They are the most believable and therefore the most unrealistic and damaging in my opinion. The better people like me get at our jobs, the more desensitized the observer becomes to how unrealistic the images really are.

So much for positive body image…Give me a BBW Empress any day

Do you prefer voluptuous/BBW or slim/skinny women? Let me place my unequivocal vote for the Voluptuos/BBW Empress out there.

Ms. Marilynn M was once a size 16 but usually a 12. She's revered as one of the most beautiful woman. A size L in the 50's is now a Medium.. Woman have been misled, made to think they are fat and feel horrible about themselves because they're lives revolved around numbers. The scale!?!?! Size 6 is considered a plus size model.

This is Americas Next Top model winner..FYI Perfection IMHO

She was the only PLUS SIZE model to win... she's a size 14... is she fat? If you think she is i don't want to know you...nevetheless I digress

Here is an example of the alternative SO CALLED definition of beauty fashion...Somebody get this lady a sandwich ASAP