Dragons’ Den Auditions: Your Big Sister’s Closet

My friend and fellow blogger, Karen Ward aka The Curvy Canadian, is also the shop owner of Your Big Sister’s Closet  – a lovely little plus sized botique in The Junction (Dundas/Keele area of Toronto).  She and her husband, Peter, are hoping to meet The Dragons in The Den!

Dragons Den is a CBC TV show where where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts and products to a panel of Canadian business moguls who have the cash and the know-how to make it happen.  Launching a business is no small task. No matter how big an idea you think you have, it still takes a lot of work and a ton of cash. It takes more than passion to convince these boardroom giants that your idea is worth their attention.  The Dragons are ruthless and rightly so – it’s their own personal money on the line.

Your Big Sister’s Closet’s first audition was this past Saturday – March 1st. This audition is preliminary – meaning it was with the show’s producers – these are the people who determine if we are a good fit for the show and pitching to the Dragons.  Karen and Peter auditioned last year, but were not selected for the show.  This time around they were prepared to blow this audition out of the water by bringing them a gorgeous fashion show – something really visual that will translate well for TV and will really WOW them!   That’s where ME, along with several other plus sized beauties come in 😉

Karen & Peter needed models to show off their botique’s lovely clothes and walk in a runway-style show for the audition.  We each needed to come into the store once before the audition for a fitting to determine what we’d be wearing.   A simple request right?  Right.  Now, how could I visit this lovely botique ofnunique-pieces-of-fabulous and not do a bit of shopping?   C’mon…ya’ll know I didn’t leave that shop empty handed!

Here’s my mini-haul from Your Big Sister’s Closet:

I fell in love with this purse and giant pearl necklace immediately upon seeing it in the Curvy Canadian’s recent blog post! I lost a night’s sleep knowing I wouldn’t be able to visit the shop until later that week…so I left a blog comment and  FB messaged Karen & Peter demanding that they hold these pieces for me STAT!  And today…they’ve come home with me!  Yaya!

Then during my sytle appointment, I found this Pin Up Perfection Hi-Waisted Pencil Skirt — I wore the bow in the front, but I think it would look great off to the side or even buttoned up in the back – super cute!  I’ve been coveting this skirt for many moons… it was actually one of the first things in pinned in my Pintrest closet, and now it’s in my ACTUAL closet!  Below pics are just me trying it on in the change room … I think when I do wear it out-out it’ll be with a loud-splash-of-colour top, like hot pink or fire engine red.  Huh…thoughts?

        

Ok…back to Saturday and the Dragons’ Den Auditions!  We – the curvy models – were each styled by the lovely Karen at her boutique prior to Saturday. My outfit choice was narrowed down to two lovely looks:

1.  Professional Business Woman – this black and white houndstooth peplum dress with a lovely black tweet blazer with a single silver studded accent down the shoulders  (a safe look I often create myself for the office with a bit of an edge),

OR

2. This Lady-Like Purple Lace …. with a ton of girlie girl accessories including the lovely giant pearls and giant pink facinator!

On the actual audition day, we met bright and early in the atrium of the CBC building downtown (250 Front Street West, at John Street) for 9am with our hair and make-up done as we usually do it.  They brought our planned outfits and we changed there via a clever pop-up changing tent they brought along. (Brilliant!)   Part of the WOW-factor to keep this audition memorable to the producers was that we were going to carry body positive picket signs that said things like “Plus Size and Proud”, “Curvy and Confident”, etc.   Similar to the #BoPo Art Installation I was apart of in February for the store’s 1st year Anniversary Party.

I arrived at the CBC Studio a little before 9am, half-asleep with a Starbucks and  post-wedding hair (was a bridesmaid in a gf’s wedding the night before – stay tuned for blog post about that fabulous night), to find Karen and Peter just unloading their car with all our lovely outfits.  They gave me the important task: Sign them in for the auditions and report back!  We were lucky #21 on the list.  As you can see (above pic)…there were a ton of entrepreneurial hopefuls who got there hella early all with the same wish: to be selected to pitch to The Dragons on the show.

This was my first time “cat-walking”. I mean, I strut down the street all the time, buuuut I was terrified with a fear of falling onto my face whilst a giant #BoPo picket sign fell on top of my head.  Dun dun dunnnnn…   Happily, we all strutted our stuff to perfection  once in front of the producers.

The camera crew really seemed to LOVE our little possy of plus-sized lovelies!  They got tons of footage of us practice our strutting choreography as directed by Peter, whist Karen rehearsed her pitch for the Dragons.   They even asked us to do several cheering clips – so much so that I can still faintly hear us chanting “Dragons’ Den! Dragons’ Den!” for much of the afternoon.

       

 

What a fantastic way to kick of the month of March!  The morning was spent with such a great group of women – some of whom I’ve met before and others, meeting for the first time.  Shout outs to my new blogger sistas: Alex of  Not Afraid To Wear Heels and fellow WordPress-er Hanna of Classically Curvy.

Fingers crossed Your Big Sister’s Closet gets selected for the show….weee!  You can count on a follow-up blog post from moi if we do! 🙂

How I got The Look:

EVERYTHING is from Your Big Sister’s Closet – 3126 Dundas Street West in Toronto

My watch is Michael Kors and the ponty-toed nude pumps with mint toe are from The Hudson Bay Company (Queen & Yonge Sts)