While the fashion industry has come to accept and embrace the plus-size community, it can still be tough to find designer plus-size clothing offered at discount retail outlet, but thanks to the newest online fashion sales site, Clique To Know, women sizes 10 and up will be able to find beautiful clothes from designers such as Melissa Masse, Kevan Hall, Arnold Zimberg, Lafayette 148, Z from Zenobia, Earnest Sewn and more at 50-80% off the original retail price!

As a curvy girl, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve found a designer piece online that I wanted only to see my size is either sold out or completely unavailable. I was psyched to learn that site membership is 100% FREE and anyone who signs up early will receive a $10 giftcard and the chance to participate in the first ever Clique To Know sale!

Seriously, if you’re looking for clothes that fit your body AND your price range, Clique to know may be just what you need!

Got something awesome everyone needs to know about? A really rad singer? A wicked new book? The secret to perfect, frizz free hair!? Email your “The Know” ideas to Jill@collegecandy.com or tweet me and I’ll pass them along to everyone right here, every week. Make your kindergarten teacher proud and share!

If you love fashion, you know what it’s like to count down to Fashion Week, excited to watch the trends for next year come parading down the runway and trying to envision how you’re going to interpret the style and make it your own. And then you look forward to said new trends hitting the shelves, combing through the racks and trying them on.

Until they don’t fit.

Because, let’s face it, most of this country cannot fit into the small sizes designers produce. Even more, it seems that sizes are getting smaller and smaller and what once fit you as a size ten, you can no longer even pull up over your legs!

But that may not be the case much longer. Much like fashion magazines, it looks like designers are starting to get the hint. (Let me take a moment to say MAZEL TOV! What took you so long?!) Starting this fall, Saks is going to start carrying extended sizes from designer faves like Chanel, YSL, Dolce & Gabanna, Fendi, Roberto Cavalli and Alexander McQueen. (Sizes will range from a 14 up to a size 20 depending on the line). OK, so most of us can’t afford those pricey labels, but we all know trickle down theory: what top designers do, the rest of the fashion industry does soon after. That means more fierce fashion in a range of sizes that will fit every woman, not just the size zero celebrities walking the red carpet.

And what’s more, it looks like Marc Jacobs may be joining the plus-size party in about a year! Marc’s business partner Robert Duffy Tweeted over the weekend saying:

“Your right. We gotta do larger sizes. I’m with you. As soon as I get back to NY. I’m on it! It will take me about a year. But stay with us”

Despite the fact that Robert’s grammar is a bit off (you’d think a businessman would know the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’), this is most definitely something worth knowing about. And celebrating! FINALLY designers are getting the memo that the majority of us who pour over their designs season after season can’t even wear them without looking like a sausage casing. But not for long, ladies! Pretty soon girls of all sizes can rock a Chanel frock or a Marc Jacobs trench!

It’s about damn time.

Lane Bryant has turned away from the days when they “called all chubbies” into the store.  While they still make fashionable clothes for full-figured women, they are also introducing a hip new line for plus-size teens.  Err…did I just say hip?  I meant hideous! Way to miss the mark, LB.

On the bright side, at least buxom babes of all ages can find fabulously frills bras and panties from some sexy, curve-loving labels.  Va-va-voom!

Here at College Candy, we too love some curvy ladies…but do you guys?  Seems like the room is divided when it comes to understanding the negative backlash.

We recently ran a series that everyone here at the CollegeCandy offices thought would be an awesome way to give our usually pro-body-acceptance readers a self-esteem boost. But instead Celebrating Celebrity “Flaws” turned into a body-bashing he-man-woman-hater’s club. We didn’t see that coming. We were just trying to celebrate our differences that everyone, from the media to our friends, is telling us are wrong and ugly. Instead the very people we wanted to celebrate (you!), cut each other down.

How are we ever going to learn to love our bodies, if we can’t even talk positively about differences?

The conversation about flat celebrities wasn’t about the pressure to have big boobs (and of course a skinny frame), but rather about how all skinny, flat woman “obviously” have eating disorders. The conversation about big noses and bushy eyebrows wasn’t about the pressure to have petite/adorable facial features, but instead about how these women didn’t have big enough noses, or weird enough noses, or bushy enough eyebrows.  It’s as if you’re saying that it has to be one or the other. A small nose or a huge nose; groomed eyebrows or a unibrow. There’s no middle ground.

While we were pretty disappointed by all the body-bashing in the first 3 posts, we seemed to touch on some real issues in the curvy girls post and we were really interested by what we read. There was tons of backlash about who we chose — and a lot of people were upset that we included people like Monique, Nikki Blonsky, and Gabourey Sidibe. Apparently there’s a line between curvy and fat; and we crossed it. Not were we unaware of that line, but we were also pretty surprised that so many people defined “curvy” so differently.

So we wanted to open up these questions to everyone and find out what our readers really think. Read More »

I did the most daring thing today. I purchased my very first bikini since I was 6. For many of you, this sounds like nothing worth merit; but for me it means a lot.

I’ve always been The Fat Kid who was constantly teased because my thighs were bigger than everyone else’s.

Even after puberty blessed me with hips and boobs to help evenly distribute my weight (thank you, puberty!), my big girl classification never left. In fact, it still dangles over my head as a constant reminder that I’ll never be small. I still never feel 100% comfortable in anything I wear and – despite having several flings and one serious boyfriend – the thought of talking to a guy makes my throat close up and my heart beat like crazy.

Instead of obssesing over my weight, I recently decided to learn to live with my curves and stop cursing them (even though I would like to change some things about my body for health reasons). While putting away clothes at my job at a retail giant I came across a gorgeous solid indigo bikini with with crystal accents. I couldn’t put it down. I just had. to. have. it.

So, I did. Read More »