Fatinthecity – PPMeow!

What began as a simple blogger-hosted “Shop-Their-Closets” sale in the summer of 2013, has evolved into an annual celebration of body positive and environmentally sustainable fashion.

Big Deal Toronto is an annual gathering of plus size women in the city – for one day only! Where the general public can shop from the closets of their favourite fashion bloggers who are vending their indie merch & selling their rarely/barely worn clothes and accessories.

I attended last year BBB (before I became a blogger) and found a few gems that I still wear today and continue to get complimented on. This was the first year where I year I opened up MY CLOSET for sale 🙂

PPMeow Big Deal Toronto — After doing a massive purge of my closet, I had three bins of lovely plus size pieces to sell 🙂

Toronto Bloggers who opened up their closets to the general public to shop from included: Clothes and Shit, Sheena Snively, Jessica Biffi, Flaws of Couture, Curves & Curls, FatintheCity, Candi Apple Couture, Cloud14+, myself Petite Plus, Meow, Erica Exposed, Big Hips Red Lips, Geek with Style, Ursa Major +, Ruby Nite,SexyPlus Clothing, Peonies & Paper Dolls, Ginger Won’t Snap, Round Raglan Road.

The MANY T-dot Bloggers who were in attendance

Each blogger was equipped with a fabulous sign for their rack created by the owners of Your Big Sister’s closet, sponsors of the event. Isn’t my board great? 🙂

I even printed up a few LIMITED EDITION tees for sale …. in 100% pre-shurnk cotton these v-neck MEOW tees are pretty great! Click here to see how me and other readers have created looks wearing their own MEOW tee 🙂

Meow! tee shirts — There are a few limited edition ***MEOW! tees*** still available for sale – $20! They are a very generous fit – I’m wearing a Large for fit comparison if you’re considering getting yourself one. (FYI: S soldout; M two in each colour remain; L & XL only white tees remain)

I was responsible for managing “Team Change Room” 🙂 And at the end of the day I realized I didn’t take too many pictures myself to blog with later. Lucky for me ladies like Jessica and Sheena were on-top of it… capturing some fun via Instagram below.

I was very good about limiting my shopping at this event – working the Change Room was the perfect spot for me, as I got to SEE all of the best pieces being tried on. And got to try on those items that didn’t make the cut by shoppers before they were returned to the floor 🙂

My BIG Deal shopping haul included:

Sheer collared dress – $25 – I just loved the pelted tricolour skirt! Some alterations needed to happened to the arm-holes as it was bit too big, but otherwise I really, really like it.

This fabulous cropped stripped open blazer – click here for blogpost on this outfit.

And this top-hat fascinator for $5!

After the event, I pulled out all of the ‘office wear’ appropriate pieces and was able to donated 6 bags of useable clothing to Dress for Success, which included 9 full two-pc suits, plus tons of separates including blouses, dress pants and skirts, ranging in sizes 14-20.

If you’ve got similar items that are cluttering up your closet…please consider donating to this worthy charity ❤️.

I believe they do donation tax receipts as well … I’ve inquired, but yet to hear back.

Thank you Annika, of Candi Apple Couture, for creating the awareness and for organizing donation pickups! 👍

Are you a fan of these types of Pop-Up Sales? Did you attend this one? What did you score? Post your finds on my Facebook Fan Page…would love to see how you styled something new-to-you found at this sale!

Have you LIKE’d the Petite Plus, Meow’s Facebook Page yet?

LIKE. Comment. Share. 🙂

September 9th is known as the International Day of Beauty — it was created by the International Committee of Aesthetics and Cosmetology (CIDESCO) and was adopted by the World Congress in 1995. What better day to celebrate body confidence, education, health and community empowerment!

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the 2nd annual Body Confidence Canada Awards – A Toast To Curves held at Panorama. The BCCAs created and run by the amazing Aisha Fairclough and Jill Andrew, of Fat In The City, to celebrate “champions of body confidence, positivity and body diversity in Canada”.Body Confidence Canada acknowledges Canadian based recipients who actively fight against stereotypes that attempt to label marginalized bodies (i.e., fat, radicalized, dis/abled, etc.) as unhealthy, uninspired, and underachieving. Looking around the room that night, there was something incredibly refreshing and empowering being among so many beautiful, confident women of all shapes and sizes. 🙂

BCCA 2014 — The Hosts: Aisha Fairclough and Jill Andrew, of Fat In The City

The evening began with cocktails and incredible views of the city …followed by inspiring speeches from guest speakers and the winning nominees.

The 2014 BCCAward winners included: Ophilia Alleyne, Jewel Kats (absent from photo below), Stefanie Augusteijn of SexyPlus Clothing and Cindy Baker. A honourary award was also given to Dr. Carla Rice, one of the esteemed guest speakers . Each recipient shared a touching experience, who’s words were not only uplifting but resonated with nearly every woman in the room.

For a sample of one of the speeches click here by Miss Stefanie Augusteijn …and her message and spirit of collaboration in the plus community 🙂

10606382_10152359099214087_3824836105238679289_n — The Winners of The 2014 BCCAwards

A huge congratulations to all the winners from Petite Plus, Meow!

And now… a few fun snaps of all the fun had by me and the other lovelies in the room…

10658561_730153790373432_805130899124149515_o — Me with THE sensational, inspiring, well-spoken Jill Andrews. If you haven’t seen her in action…click here for her TEDx Talk: **Fat Shaming and the Thin Epidemic**

Me with THE sensational, inspiring, well-spoken Jill Andrews. If you haven’t seen her in action…click here for her TEDx Talk: **Fat Shaming and the Thin Epidemic**

10480109_730153730373438_8689559779164084496_o — What I wore: Captain’s Bodycon dress from SexyPlus Clothing with peep toed platform heels from *Diesel*

Events like this help support the body positive movement. If you want to help build this event, please nominate someone that embodies what the BCCAs are all about by heading to the website and nominating someone for 2015.

“EveryBODY has a story” – let’s celebrate them!