'Big Sexy,' a full plate, perhaps too full - Media Life Magazine
full plate, perhaps too full
TLC series about plus-size models and their lives is engaging
Aug 29, 2011
Certain subjects pop up again and again in feature journalism, almost always written as if they had never been reported before: There's the story about the inner-city school that is turning kids' lives around, the news that London is no longer a culinary backwater, and the trend of older women dating younger men.
One of the hardiest perennials is the question whether fashion will ever embrace overweight women, which is now the subject of TLC's new reality series "Big Sexy." Following the adventures of five plus-size women trying to make a living in New York's fashion industry, the show will feel old to people familiar with the clothing and modeling businesses, but the insights into the hearts and minds of big women are enough to hold our interest, at least for the first hour.
In the premiere, airing tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 30, at 10 p.m., the women attend a show during New York's Fashion Week, try to attend a party afterwards, do speed dating and put on a plus-size fashion show of their own. Generally, the less the action has to do with fashion, the more interesting it is.
The women continually tell the camera that they've learned to accept themselves. This appears to be true, to varying degrees. But other people, and not just fashionistas, prove to be far less accepting.
At the speed-dating party, Tiffany, a 29-year-old aspiring plus-size model, meets a guy who tells her that he's slept with overweight women, but only when he's drunk. Her friends don't do much better.
The women then attend a BBW, or "big beautiful women," party. They say that the men seem to be "chubby chasers," whom Leslie, who works in retail fashion, says are men who like big women a little too much. They're hit on by a guy doing card tricks and then watch a "thunder thighs" competition before they leave in disgust.
After the fashion show, the women receive a lot of attention from the paparazzi, probably because of the garish outfit and makeup worn by Audrey, a 6-foot-3-inch, 335-pound makeup artist from Indiana who wants to be a designer. She tells us that she's often mistaken for a tranvestite, even by transvestites.
When the women approach the bouncer working the velvet rope at the after party, he gives them a lot of attitude. They wind up stomping off after asking him if the club has an official weight limit. (They should know that New York nightclubs tend to reject lots of skinny people too.)
Heather, 35, a fashion stylist who's starting a business making lingerie and bathing suits for big women, wisely decides to skip the club, knowing what would happen.
Many of the slights are less direct. The Fashion Week show has no plus-size models, and all of the cast members agree that none of the looks would work for them. Tiffany manages to meet with the designer and asks her if she would ever use plus-size models. The designer, who is skinny as a rail on a diet, gestures toward her own hips and says, "Yes, because I would love to walk the runway."
"Honey," Tiffany says, "you are half of my thigh."
While planning the fashion show, Leslie tries to make it sound as if she were doing something revolutionary because it won't be a "big-girl circus or a freak show," even though plus-size-clothing manufacturers routinely have runway exhibitions. The models, however, tend to be on the smaller end of the plus-size spectrum, which goes down to the hardly fat size 12.
If Leslie's show is different because she's using actually overweight models or because she's featuring mainstream designers, that's not made clear.
The fifth friend, Nikki, a 33-year-old plus-size model, is one of the most vocal about having learned to accept herself as she is, and she talks happily about her boyfriend. But she still panics at the thought of wearing a bathing suit on the runway.
Tiffany, meanwhile, is nervous because her mother, a former model who was always critical of Tiffany's weight, is going to attend.
The episode builds to a conclusion that's perhaps too satisfying. Despite all the upbeat talk, it seems unlikely that the fashion world is going to change. The issues of romance, self-image and self-acceptance are well covered.
The hour is worth watching, but it won't leave viewers curious to see what happens next week. More may in fact be more, but more of the same isn't.
One of the hardiest perennials is the question whether fashion will ever embrace overweight women, which is now the subject of TLC's new reality series "Big Sexy." Following the adventures of five plus-size women trying to make a living in New York's fashion industry, the show will feel old to people familiar with the clothing and modeling businesses, but the insights into the hearts and minds of big women are enough to hold our interest, at least for the first hour.
In the premiere, airing tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 30, at 10 p.m., the women attend a show during New York's Fashion Week, try to attend a party afterwards, do speed dating and put on a plus-size fashion show of their own. Generally, the less the action has to do with fashion, the more interesting it is.
The women continually tell the camera that they've learned to accept themselves. This appears to be true, to varying degrees. But other people, and not just fashionistas, prove to be far less accepting.
At the speed-dating party, Tiffany, a 29-year-old aspiring plus-size model, meets a guy who tells her that he's slept with overweight women, but only when he's drunk. Her friends don't do much better.
The women then attend a BBW, or "big beautiful women," party. They say that the men seem to be "chubby chasers," whom Leslie, who works in retail fashion, says are men who like big women a little too much. They're hit on by a guy doing card tricks and then watch a "thunder thighs" competition before they leave in disgust.
After the fashion show, the women receive a lot of attention from the paparazzi, probably because of the garish outfit and makeup worn by Audrey, a 6-foot-3-inch, 335-pound makeup artist from Indiana who wants to be a designer. She tells us that she's often mistaken for a tranvestite, even by transvestites.
When the women approach the bouncer working the velvet rope at the after party, he gives them a lot of attitude. They wind up stomping off after asking him if the club has an official weight limit. (They should know that New York nightclubs tend to reject lots of skinny people too.)
Heather, 35, a fashion stylist who's starting a business making lingerie and bathing suits for big women, wisely decides to skip the club, knowing what would happen.
Many of the slights are less direct. The Fashion Week show has no plus-size models, and all of the cast members agree that none of the looks would work for them. Tiffany manages to meet with the designer and asks her if she would ever use plus-size models. The designer, who is skinny as a rail on a diet, gestures toward her own hips and says, "Yes, because I would love to walk the runway."
"Honey," Tiffany says, "you are half of my thigh."
While planning the fashion show, Leslie tries to make it sound as if she were doing something revolutionary because it won't be a "big-girl circus or a freak show," even though plus-size-clothing manufacturers routinely have runway exhibitions. The models, however, tend to be on the smaller end of the plus-size spectrum, which goes down to the hardly fat size 12.
If Leslie's show is different because she's using actually overweight models or because she's featuring mainstream designers, that's not made clear.
The fifth friend, Nikki, a 33-year-old plus-size model, is one of the most vocal about having learned to accept herself as she is, and she talks happily about her boyfriend. But she still panics at the thought of wearing a bathing suit on the runway.
Tiffany, meanwhile, is nervous because her mother, a former model who was always critical of Tiffany's weight, is going to attend.
The episode builds to a conclusion that's perhaps too satisfying. Despite all the upbeat talk, it seems unlikely that the fashion world is going to change. The issues of romance, self-image and self-acceptance are well covered.
The hour is worth watching, but it won't leave viewers curious to see what happens next week. More may in fact be more, but more of the same isn't.
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Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFnK6pDlbRo7fXylHtpyjE2gXWmJg&url=http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/TV_Reviews_21/-Big-Sexy-a-full-plate-perhaps-too-full.asp
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