Australian retailer Crossroads is putting their spin on plus size dresses. Offering trendy styles in bright colors, they’ve got some cute pieces that would work for a night on the town, a daytime date or a special occasion. Crossroads offers plus size dresses in the same styles that they make for their smaller/straight sizes.

The range goes up to an XXL or dress size 22, so I’d recommend taking a look at their size chart and the cut of the dresses you like before purchasing, but once again its nice to know we’ve got more options. Below are some of the stand out dresses from their site… check them out at crossroads.com.au

Sometimes I forget that I’ve never dated anyone as long as I’ve dated Robert. Going on a few dates with lots of guys has given me a many experiences (both good and bad) but there’s a lot of new territory that comes with dating the same person for an extended period of time and that’s what I’m navigating these days.

One of Robert’s old coworkers got married recently and he invited me to go with him. Instead of buying a whole new outfit, I wore one of my favorite dresses from LucieLu (I reviewed it a while back here), I purchased some beige heels from Avenue on sale and beige hair accessories from Old Navy, I think I spent like $25 total:

Anyway, It wasn’t until halfway through the night that I realized I’d never been invited to a wedding as someone’s date before. It was kind of a big deal for me. It made me feel… like a “grown up” a little bit! It also became a little bit of a milestone, relationship-wise… it made me feel like Robert and I are in a good place.

As I’ve mentioned before, because Robert and I are in the “slow and steady” lane, its easy for me to look at other relationships zipping by and get ansy. But at the wedding I made sure to just enjoy where he and I are, there were a lot of older couples at our table who had the stresses of life/kids/babysitters/putting gas in the car on their shoulders. Robert and I spent the night laughing, dancing and enjoying each other. Going to the wedding with him was a reminder to just rock out with what we’ve got going and keep looking out for new “firsts”.

Do you follow “PlusSizePrincess” on Instagram? If you don’t, here’s what you missed:

First of all I’m having the best time transitioning my Foxcroft Denim Shirt into the fall. I came up with two new ways to rock it one look was for dinner, the other for brunch.

(skirt: Rachel Pally, Leather moto jacket: Avenue, Infinity scarf: H&M, Mini skirt: Rainbow)

Lets see… what else?

I was on Huffington post Live (twice!) you can see the first segment here.

Two of the post talented people I know are producing a play, so I went to support them and help raise money… you can learn about their production of Dog Opera here and get tix here.

I had a cute girls dinner in Harlem with Kellie from fatshioninsider, Nadia Abhoulson, and Beck from Manfattan and a few other bloggers.

I also got to spend some time with Luvvie and +size designer Monif C. at the Focus100 symposium. There are women of color doing amazing things in technology, don’t sleep!

Have a good weekend!

xoxo

“If I wear purple, I’ll look like Barney, the dinosaur!”

“If I wear red, I’ll look like the Kool-aid man!”

How many times have you heard a Plus Size Princess say something like that? … how many times have you said it yourself?

I don’t think its possible to be a PSP and not think twice about bright colors. For the longest time, I’d get all of my nice clothes in dark colors. If I had an event or a party, I would look for blacks and/or navy blue dresses. If I was going out to the club, I was looking for dark wash denim and black sexy tops.

I’m not quite sure why I stopped avoiding bright colors, but I remember the first bright piece I bought. It was a yellow trench coat and I loved it! The first time I wore it, a girlfriend of mine (who was probably a 12/14 at the time) complimented my on the coat. Then she confessed that she had talked her plus size sorority sister out of buying a yellow top because of her size. “Maybe, I shouldn’t have talked her out of it after all…” she said, wistfully.

At the time she thought she was doing her soror a favor, based on the fashion rules that we all grow up with, but seeing a PSP in yellow made her think twice.

Did any of you watch the Jennifer Hudson interview with Oprah a few days ago? When she took the cameras into her closet, she said that color was the biggest addition to her wardrobe since she’s lost weight. I think a lot of us have the same mindset, that we have to slim down before we can rock the bright colors that turn heads and make women shine. All women are trained to believe that black is slimming, so of course anything else must be… fattening? As a big girl I was holding onto those rules twice as hard as the next girl.

As I’ve said before, “you can’t hide the fat“! I am a big girl and dark colors wont change that… If I took off my black dress and changed into a red one no one would be like “whoa! I thought you were a size 10!!! that black dress really fooled me!!”

Today I am wearing a bright orange dress from Rachel Pally. Even though I wholeheartedly believe that Plus Size Princesses can and should wear bright colors, I had a small moment of “wait-am I going to look like a pumpkin in this dress?” when I got dressed this morning. I put the dress on anyway and I’ve been getting compliments all day. (I even snuck a bathroom pic to show you!)

So… do you wear bright colors?

Tell me in the comments section of todays post or chime in during my #CurvyConvo twitter chat today (Wednesday) at 3pm…

Greetings from Los Angeles!

So, I got on the plane in NYC and was able to click the seat belt closed with no extender! Then just as I was applauding myself for my weight loss acomplishments, I changed flights in Chicago and the seatbelt was *this* close to fitting, but it wouldn’t and I had to ask the flight attendant for an extender afterall (womp womp!). Goes to show, that its not always us… sometimes its the plane, so we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves when we have to do the oh so embarrassing extender request.

I’m in my home state for a friends wedding. I’m not in the wedding and Robert had to stay behind for a family wedding of his own, so my main goal for this trip is to relax! I’m going to be by the pool and/or on the beach as much as possible starting tomorrow, so I tried really hard not to overpack. I’ve made some discoveries over the past few weeks that made my packing a lot more simple. So I thought I’d share!

First off, I revamped my travel outfit for the summer- remember when I wrote about plane comfy clothes for Plus Size Princesses? Well you can see that post come to life in this picture. The lip gloss I’m wearing is from the See & Be Seen makeup kit by Anastasia. I love the pink color and it pops on my brown skin, which is sometimes hard to find in a lip gloss.

Next, FullBeauty.com has done something I’ve been wanting a swimline to do for a long time… they’re making swimsuits with underwire in them! I always buy at least one halter swimsuit, but for a girl like me with DDD’s, that knot starts to dig into the base of my neck after a while and its not comfortable. Underwire in this vintage swimsuit cut is going to make my time by the pool perfect. Follow me on Instagram (PlusSizePrincess) and I’ll be posting pictures through the weekend. FullBeauty also has a great sheer swimdress that I like- I know everyone is doing the fatkini thing, but I’m just not ready, so these suits work well for me.

Lastly, Ms. Kathryn Finney from TheBudgetFashionista turned me on to the new Crocs… its not those crazy moon shoes anymore, they’re making cute little ballet flats with great support and the size 11w’s fit like a glove. I’m wearing them in the photo linked above!

Anyway, this is what I’ll be rocking all weekend until I have to put on real clothes for the wedding… I’ll post pics of that on my tumblr.

I really need to write about the experience of modeling in the BlogHer fashion show, but I’m not quite ready. I think I’m in shock. I do have a few highlights though: Follow my new Plus Size Princess tumblr to see what I wore. Follow “PlusSizePrincess” on Instagram to see my amazing makeup, backstage scenes and… check out my feature on the ELLE magazine website to hear more details on how my look came together.

Okay now, lets do a giveaway!

I’m often so focused on getting cute dresses that I forget to invest in clothes I can just “veg” in. Giant Pants is a new brand of pajamas that are designed to give women of all sizes comfy PJs!

Giant Pants was a life saver to me during BlogHer. After running around all day, meeting people, taking classes and dragging my stuff around. I would come home, light candles, take a long shower and then slip into my comfy cozy pants. The fabric is light enough that I wasn’t too hot and soft enough that I fell right asleep.

Back in the day, I can remember buying the biggest size flannel pants I could find, but they were never baggy like I wanted them to be. Tight pajama pants are just silly, but when you’re already plus size, finding a loose fit is hard too. Giant Pants are cut so that they fit perfectly in the waist and crotch, while being perfectly loose in the leg.

I’ve got five pair of Giant Pants to give away, the rules to enter are below:

1.) Follow @thebiggirlblog on twitter
2.) follow @GiantPants on twitter
3.) tweet: @thebiggirlblog & @giantpants are giving away 5 sets of LUXE Pajamas! http://su.pr/89TTGS (Follow them & RT to win!) all sizes can enter

Yesterday I attended a lunch with some of my blogger pals, to take a peek at what SimplyBe.com has in store for the fall.

For those of you who don’t know, SimplyBe is a European brand that is branching into the US market (they’re also available in Germany). Their clothes range from sizes 10-28 which I love, because Plus Size Princesses on both ends of the spectrum can find things that fit.

Here are a few of the things I really liked from the preview. I’ll be placing orders soon so I can tell you how everything fits!

P.S. that little heart detail is the elbow patch on the gray sweater… so cute, right?

Someone left a comment on my thigh chaffing/chub rub post asking how to prevent chaffing while working out in the pool. As I continue to explore the best swim suit options for Plus Size Princesses, I’m happy to say that there is a brand for that active PSP who loves the water.

HydroChic is athletic wear for the water. Its lightweight and perfect for those of us who do more than lie on the beach. After trying on a set, I can say that its super light weight. HydroChics line is also designed to resist chlorine and dry quickly which means the HydroChic pieces will last longer and wont stay wet all night. This is a huge perk if you do water aerobics or laps on a daily basis, because your suits will be ready to toss into your gym bag even if you were swimming a few hours before.

I also consider HydroChic to be anti-chaffing swimwear because of the way their pieces are cut. The arm holes create a barrier so that your arms don’t rub too much, the skirts have invisible shorts underneath them that prevent your thighs from touching.

As you can see, they also have swimwear that’s almost designed like yoga pants which is cool for PSPs who don’t like to show a lot of skin or need more ant-chaffing coverage than the “skorts” provide.

Have any of you tried HydroChic before?