Pop Up Plus! For the Curvy Fashionista!

Just what I needed, a jamming DJ, cocktails and…. fabulous clothes! Where did all this happen you may ask? Why the Pop Up Plus shop of course! If you haven’t heard of the Pop Up Plus shops they are exactly what they sound like! They are shops that “pop up” in various locations for a few days that feature fab fashions for curvy girls (at affordable prices!)

I went to the Pop Up Plus in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where I saw some great fall fashions from well known designers like Michael Kors, and Kenneth Cole to independent fashion houses like Curvysta and Sweetooth Couture. They had everything from casual looks, styles for work, and fly gear for a night on the town! They also included a fun array of accessories.

I picked up these earrings. (They’re a little Basketball Wives, but still cute! LOL!) I also tried on some “fascinators”, (I call this one, Black Butterfly!)

But I couldn’t pull them off like my blogger pal and stylist, Meghan of little Lime Dress!

Check out her site here!

And here is me trying a Michael Kors faux fur vest and what I call a "Faith Evans look" from back in the day! LOL!

All in all it was a great night! I’m so happy I decided to brave the rain and help celebrate a wonderful idea and a great woman, Camy Newman who created Pop Up Plus. She was also the 2011 winner of the Brooklyn Business Plan Competition!

Pop Up Plus will be at 439 Metropolitan Ave in Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn: Friday, September 23rd 6pm-11pm. September 24th and 25th, 10 am-8pm, September 30th - October 2nd 10am-8pm For more information about where Pop Up Plus will be next click here ! And follow them on Twitter @popupplusny
 

Check out more pics below!

 Shoppers checkout fab accessories. (Lucky I got my earrings when I did!)

This is Ms. Cuteness herself, Meghan of little Lime Dress! I was eyeballing this top all night!

Here goes Meaghan wearing a headband and feather earrings all-in-one!

Models wearing Curvysta, and the designer herself, Jovanna! (in the middle)

And here is Camy Newman, the brains and beauty behind Pop Up Plus rocking a fab fascinator!


Would you visit a "pop up" shop? Or have you already? If so, what do you think of them?

The New Landscape of Television-The End of 'All My Children' and the Daytime Soap Opera Genre

My second post in "The New Landscape of Television" series

All My Children is in its last week! Can you believe it? This beloved soap opera has been on the air for 41 years! And as of this Friday, September 23, it will be no more. (Well word on the street is that it will be reincarnated online with webisodes, but without Susan Lucci as the iconic Erica Kane, it just won’t be the same.) When the cancellation of AMC was first announced back in April it came as a major shock to not only fans of the show, but to those who believed AMC, being so popular would definitely outlast the trend of doing away with the daytime soap opera genre.

Many other soaps including ABC’s One Life to Live and Port Charles have also been cancelled. Passions, my favorite As The World Turns, (nooooo!) that taped right here in Brooklyn, Another World and Guiding Light, which started out on radio and was on for seventy two years all got the axe! But I think we all thought the demise of the uber popular AMC would be a long time off. And as we have begun the new fall television season, it’s clear, as Sarah Michelle Gellar, who portrayed Erica Kane’s daughter, Kendall Hart Lang on AMC pointed out, nothing the networks are coming up with will last that long. Well said! (I mean really, The Chew?)

Even if you didn’t watch AMC you know someone who does or has. And regarding soaps in general, we all have somebody, a friend, sister, Auntie, cousin, or Grandmother who we knew not to bother when her (and his) “stories” were on. Soap operas have been a major daytime pastime for over seven decades serving as “water cooler” fodder and more. Fans form bonds with their favorite characters they see every day and become emotionally invested, mentally adopting them as family and friends. It’s hilarious when you overhear two people talking about scandalous people and turns out they’re discussing soap opera characters!

The soap opera format offers an experience that is as unique as the unfathomable plot lines themselves! And that experience also brings people together. I know I’ve connected with people only after we found out that we loved the same soap! LOL! The other thing I love about soap operas is that they’ve always been cutting edge and took risks before many primetime shows dared to. Daytime television has always been more open to diversity in characters and storylines. And AMC demonstrated this well.

AMC was the first soap opera to feature a black “super couple”, Angie Baxter and Jessie Hubbard, gay characters, characters with AIDS, and more. AMC, or should I say Agnes Nixon, the show’s creator, was unafraid to take the taboo out of taboo subjects. Yes, black folks fall in love. Yes we do!!!

So with the demise of the soap opera genre, what will happen to actors who would otherwise not be able to find work? Not every actor is necessarily “primetime” material, but is perfect for daytime shows. And not every actor sees being on soaps as merely a jumping off point, but as a career. Even James Franco who’s well established in film found significance in appearing on General Hospital crediting his experience on the soap for making him a better actor. “Because I had just done General Hospital, where I was doing 77 pages a day, I can memorize like that,” he said, referring to his preparation for his audition for the film 127 Hours.

The landscape of television is definitely transforming. I’m happy with some of the change, but sad about quite a bit of it. I for one have missed my daily fix of my favorite soap and the anticipation of what will happen next. As we say goodbye to All My Children and the residents of Pine Valley this Friday, (I am "DVR'ing" all last epidoses!) we thank them and all soap opera characters for the joy, laughs, and intrigue that only a juicy soap can deliver!!!

Will you miss All My Children or the genre of soaps in general?

The New Landscape of Television (A Series)-The Fascination With the 60's Era

As we enter the new fall season of television I find myself underwhelmed at the offerings. There’s not one show that makes me feel like, “Oooh, I’m definitely going to check that out.” I’m also noticing some disturbing trends. I was going to write one piece on what I’m liking/not liking about the direction of modern television. But in the interest of other folks like me with a short attention span, I decided to do a series of posts on the topic of the current landscape of television.
 

I’m a self proclaimed television freak! And once upon a time there were many shows I loved, but that’s not exactly the case anymore. The days of Alias/Felicity/ Frasier/Gilmore Girls and the fabulousness of Ugly Betty are over. (I know Ugly Betty was expensive to produce, but ABC made a huge mistake in cancelling this show too soon!) These types of shows were funny, smart, engaging and actually very deftly incorporated multicultural casting. (Yep, even Frasier finally got some brown folks on the show. For example remember when Martin Crane (the father) dated a black woman? And my twitter bud, Kim Coles appeared as the hilarious Dr. Mary. (“Okay? Okay!”)

But it would appear that at least in network television there is still a huge lack of brown folks in leading roles. Yeah NBC tried with Undercovers. But did they really try? It just didn’t work. Conceptually it was a great idea; a chocolate covered Hart to Hart, love it! But coming from J.J. Abrams, I was expecting a lot better-better casting (Gugu and Boris had zero chemistry) and frankly a better script. He got Alias right so I have no idea what happened.

Then NBC also tried with The Event. (Sigh) I couldn’t even figure out what the hell was going on. And by the time I kinda did, I didn’t care. And why was Blair Underwood Cuban? That detail seemed totally extraneous to me. Why couldn’t he have been plain ol’ black? Was him being Afro-Cuban central to the plot of his character? This was an example of diversity gone wrong, and made me wanna tell NBC to, “Keep it simple stupid.”

Okay, so we got past those disasters and now, as I predicted I think networks are taking those flops to justify not having any more black folks or other people of color in lead roles, giving us the old okeydoke. And now, seems networks have not only decided not to gamble on people of color in lead roles but to go back to creating programming that’s either completely obliterating people of color or casting them in obligatory token parts, like the upcoming Fox show, New Girl. This brings us to the latest trend in TV.

60’s Era Programming

Okay so we’ve done the vampires and other mystical creatures and now, there’s a fascination with the 60’s era. It began with Mad Men, which I don’t like. I tried watching it and thought, “Jeez would something happen already!” And for the fans, it’s not that I don’t get Mad Men, I don’t like it. Yeah it’s beautifully shot and the clothes are fab. So what? Who cares? Pretty much every character on that show is reprehensible or annoying in some way. I’m not invested and that is what draws me into a show. That’s what draws most people into the shows they love. We know that in Hollywood copycat is the name of the game. So in light of the fascination of Mad Men, we now have ABC’s Pan Am and NBC’s The Playboy Club.

I’m not on board with shows set in the 60’s. Hmmm… why? It wasn’t exactly the best of times for people of color. Even Julia Stiles, who starred in the NBC mini-series, The 60’s was aware of that when she reminded Carson Daly that the 60’s were very oppressive to black people when he said the 60’seemed like a fun era.

And if black actors are featured in these shows, they’re usually in socio/economically oppressed roles, something America seems to be comfortable with given the success of the movie, The Help. If a network is going to do a show in the 60’s I don’t see it as impossible to create one about a family of color who were in fact living the best lives possible. I think it would be interesting.

Okay Naturi Naughton was cast in The Playboy Club, so I guess that means something, but what? I’m not necessarily expecting her character to be treated the same way as the white bunnies, which would be an authentic portrayal. And I would appreciate that, if in fact the show will be making a statement about the times. To bring up race in the show just to be controversial will be cheap.

I wasn’t even sure that there were in fact black playboy bunnies, but an article in the Grio about the first black woman to “grace” the cover of Playboy proves there were. Okay, great. I would give NBC, a network that’s been overtly struggling with diversity ever since The Cosby Show went off the air, credit for incorporating an African American character on a show set in the 60’s. But then I saw Naughton’s bio for The Playboy Club on the NBC site:

“Naturi Naughton stars as Brenda, the beautiful African American Playboy Bunny with big aspirations, in NBC's provocative drama "The Playboy Club."

First of all the punctuation is wrong. (The period should be outside the quotes of the show.) And secondly, um, NBC, do we need you to tell us Naughton is black? If her race is a central aspect of her character’s experience on the show, then expound upon that, otherwise I think it can obviously be omitted. The bios for the show don’t identify other actors as white, and doesn’t need to.

And ABC’s Pan Am has no characters of color-none that I could find anyway. In 2011 are we still living in a world where it’s okay to have only white people cast in a show? I’m not okay with it. And I’m not okay with 60’s era shows that serve as an excuse to obliterate people of color, exploit our socio/economic position in that time for entertainment, or treat us as obligatory scenery without allowing full explorations/expositions of ourselves as human beings. (And it's funny that when I went to ABC's site, there's an ad for President Obama's 2012 campaign! Conflicting messages?)

So I may check out Pan Am and The Playboy Club out of curiosity. And I’ll be looking to see how Naughton’s character is portrayed and treated. But overall I’m not a fan of shows set in times where it was legal to discriminate against people of color that leave us completely out of the picture or just include us for decoration.

What do you think about this 60’s era trend?

photos courtesy of ABC and NBC

Lane Bryant and Cacique Launch New Line of Body Products!

Lane Bryant, the most recognizable name in plus size fashion and Cacique have launched a new line of body products, Caciquebody. The folks at LB were kind enough to send me some to sample. Now I was already familiar with one of the products, the “You Butter Believe It” body butter in the Citrusfresh fragrance. I was treated to a jar at the Lane Bryant blogger event for Full Figured Fashion Week. I loved it!

I wasn’t sure I would because often body products created by companies who don’t specialize in body care aren’t great. They can be too “perfume-y” and drying. And frequently the scents aren’t that appealing. (We won’t name any names!) So I was very pleasantly surprised when I used the body butter and found it to be a good rich cream that did in fact moisturize. The clean and light scent was great, and it wasn’t too greasy. I was given an opportunity to sample Lane Bryant’s “Firm Believer" body lotion, “Good as New” body wash, and “Spray it Again” body mist, all in the Night Blossom scent, as well as the “Shimmer Time” body lotion.

I enjoy the body mist because it’s not drying and the fragrance lasts a pretty long time, though I am one who typically reapplies throughout the day. I love the Night Blossom scent. It’s a sexy fragrance but as a mist, it’s not heavy and overbearing. Lane Bryant describes the scent as, “Made for the sexy diva, (that's me! LOL!) sensual and warm; it blends plum orchid, bergamot and vanilla cashmere.” I wore it to a meeting and the first thing the woman said was that I smelled good! And I made my dance teacher smell me! LOL! And she said, ”This smells like you, your scent!” Can’t get a better endorsement than that!

I also like the “Firm Believer” body lotion that’s formulated to smooth the skin because it has a good creamy consistency that left my skin feeling soft. (I haven’t used it long enough to say if my skin feels any more toned.)

I wasn’t crazy about the “Good as New” body wash because personally, I like lather. And though this promises suds, it doesn’t deliver. This is more of a shower cream with exfoliating beads. Also, I’m also not big on body glitter, so the “Shimmer Time” body lotion wasn’t for me.

Now though I really like several of the products, and know they are comparably priced, I do think they are a bit expensive. For instance spending eighteen dollars on less than seven ounces of body lotion in my opinion is too much, even if it does offer special benefits. I think Lane Bryant should consider revising the price point.

But overall I think Lane Bryant did an excellent job and produced some quality items, particularly for a company that doesn’t specialize in body care products. I would definitely buy the body mist! I’ve been wearing it all week and it’s been the perfect pick me up in all this New York rain!

And I will be wearing my Night Blossom body mist to the Lane Bryant Fashion Night Out event, September 8! So I’ll smell cute, and hopefully I’ll look cute too! : )

For more information on the Caciquebody line click here !

If you have checked out Lane Bryant's new line of body products, what do you think? If not, do you think you'll give it a try? (You don't have to be a curvy girl to smell pretty!)