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Speaking of Curves: Celebrating One Year of Henning with Lauren Chan
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Oct 31, 2024
Heyyyyyy boo! Are you ready for today's latest guest? Well, if you want to talk about all things plus modeling, editorial fashion, and design, then you are in for an UBER treat. Meet Lauren Chan, a plus model-turned editor-turned designer of the upscale and contemporary plus size work wear brand, @Henning, as they celebrate their 1 year anniversary THIS WEEK! Learn about what is next for Henning, how you can support, and what makes today's guest one you should know! So, join us at 12pm EST as we talk about all things plus size fashion in our latest episode of Speaking of Curves!
View Video Transcript
0:06
hello hello hello i am marie janae today i am here with a very special guest
0:11
we're back with our speaking of curves facebook um facebook live series every week
0:16
we are twice a week actually we meet with different designers influencers models producers
0:24
people in the plus size community and it's important that when um that especially during now like
0:30
we're here to support and show love and give back to those like who are
0:35
doing it who are um really helping move plus-sized fashion
0:40
forward so i started this series to introduce you to these designers these business
0:46
owners these influencers these business leaders who are kind of behind the scenes and we're going to talk
0:53
about um the industry talk about their business talk and kind of introduce to you maybe some
0:59
designers that you've never known um and so we've been doing this kind of almost consistently since
1:05
april and i've been having so much fun um and so today's guest i'm really freaking geeked
1:11
about because you've seen her on the runways during new york fashion week
1:16
you've seen her in campaigns but then you probably also read her words um in mainstream
1:23
fashion magazines and now she's all she's this actually thursday she will be
1:29
celebrating one year of her business one year y'all and so um
1:34
her clothing line which if you've been looking for plus size suiting if you've been looking for
1:40
more tailored elevated wear to work options and essentials then you're going
1:45
to be totally in love with this brand and this designer so join me in welcoming miss laura chan
1:52
hello miss lauren hi how are you i'm good thank you so much for joining
1:58
me no thank you for having me and for that incredible intro i mean i feel like that it's you're so
2:04
kind you're too kind you're bordering on two kind not girl like i mean every time i start with you i'll be like hey girl
2:10
like i mean especially because like you know i i was introduced to you with your words when you were at glamour right
2:17
yeah you were one of the editors like glamour and i remember being like who's this woman like okay i see you and then i started
2:24
seeing more of you and you were walking the runways like you were on the cro-max show
2:30
gromack yeah but you've walked some other places like tell these folks if they don't know who
2:36
you are like some of the shows and some of the places and words we could read you well first i feel like i
2:43
you did such a good job explaining it because i've kind of been all over the place for the past 10 years um it it makes sense in a way so i
2:50
started as a plus size model um but what i really wanted to do was be a fashion editor
2:56
so the whole time that i was started out modeling i was writing places like you said and
3:02
then i ended up as a editor at glamour where that's where i spent the bulk of my editorial career um and then after
3:08
glamour when i left i i kind of went back to modeling a little bit as i started my own business so
3:13
um i think fashion week i've done chroma 11 honoree which was an amazing show
3:19
rebecca minkoff again kind of all over the place like independent new york highbrow designers
3:25
um retailers in the plus only spades and then mainstream super american brands as well
3:32
so that's been really that's been a really interesting um experience because i feel like part of
3:38
it part of me feels like i really belong to the quote unquote like fashion with the capital f side of the industry
3:43
but on the same token i've always been the plus-sized girl in the room because when i was largely modeling
3:49
it was not an inclusive space and so i have felt like a part of it but i have
3:54
also felt completely apart from it anyhow and then like i
3:59
said i spent the bulk of my editing career at glamour uh where we got to know each other
4:05
because i had a plus size column and did all that plus size coverage um yeah and then i left oh my gosh
4:11
two years ago and have had my own brand henning which makes luxury women's wear for
4:16
a year on thursday exactly like you said well i mean talk about like a full circle i
4:22
mean like now you're actually writing about the you are now creating
4:28
the pieces that you've been wanting to have like you've literally made it happen like instead of like talking
4:34
about it you're being about it and in this journey for you like i remember reading
4:39
you know part of your journey your frustrations of starting henny penny was when you had all these
4:45
meetings and everyone was wearing suiting like for you you were like okay i'm wearing like maybe like a faux
4:51
three-quarter sleeve jacket that maybe i love it the faux three-quarter sleeve thing
4:57
because sometimes i i i try to explain why the plus size uh suiting market is
5:05
lacking and i'll say something like you know i just could never find a blazer without a three-quarter sleeve
5:10
and some people are just like well what's wrong with that but if you want a real jacket and all you have is a little
5:17
round of food and we're always ruched right here like this why are they rude
5:25
why are they pushed like who'd and it's never a real like three button situation
5:32
it's always like maybe one or it's open it's open it doesn't i love you
5:39
you you get me you understand me but yes to answer your question i was yeah i was in in those meetings
5:45
but way before that even before i was thinking of starting the brand i think a lot of my frustration in shopping came from being
5:53
uh at work in in meetings that anybody would be taking every day and
5:59
like i would be sitting with women who were wearing gorgeous designer fashion and when you
6:05
work in fashion that's super important but also no matter the industry that you work in it just signifies
6:12
your value in a way as a person and what you're able to bring to the table and how you're able to represent yourself and
6:18
how confident you can be and when you're sitting beside someone in mumu and you're in like me quite literally
6:26
pit stained forever 21 like you're just not on the same playing field and you have no way of
6:31
representing yourself to get on the same playing field right and it's and they all serve their
6:37
purposes in different places of life but you know like if you're an executive sitting like and you want right
6:45
someone's talking about like a fully lined jacket or a full you know where they're
6:50
talking about a hidden placket or like a a mandarin collar and you want all of
6:56
and these are what's trending new norm is and you want them in plus and you're like yo
7:02
where are these details for us for sure where are these diesel so for you you
7:08
bring um an elevated contemporary you know eye to um plus size work were
7:15
essentials and i say essentials because you know anytime you mention anytime i talk about
7:21
pieces that you need to have in your closet one of um one of those are always is a is a suit because not just
7:28
like not just the jacket but the matching pants because even when you bring them apart
7:34
you know you can mix and match those with jeans or with different types of blouses but you can bring them together
7:40
and have its own suiting definitely and i think like i don't use particularly the word essentials but i use the word staples
7:47
but to the same point that those words make they're things that make us look timeless and put together
7:54
and sharp and um you know like we believe in investing in
8:01
ourselves really if i like stop as i'm talking with religion do and think about
8:06
the essence of why those types of clothes are important it really becomes about investment in
8:12
value and i think you know to tammy joy's point you will find that when you
8:19
do um you know save a little bit more and spend a little bit more especially on a blazer
8:24
that is that workforce piece for you when you find a great blazer you pair it with everything
8:30
you wear like two or three times a week you wear it with jeans you wear it with a skirt with a matching pant
8:35
with like over a dress or like you mix and match it with so many different things and you need that sucker to fit fit well
8:42
and fit right and when it comes to construction the reason why you find a lot of off the
8:47
rack pieces not fitting is because the construction is very like kind of boxy
8:53
it's not tailored because the tailoring is going to add a couple more dollars tailoring is going
8:59
to add you know you're going to want things to be lined so that it lays and doesn't grab to the
9:04
fabric that you're wearing underneath it right definitely and i think that you feel away when you have something
9:12
like that on and then you behave girl how you feel there are very tangible effects
9:19
would you say can't tell you nothing no when you have a good piece of clothing on that's how
9:24
you should feel and the disadvantage that i grew sick of is it was so hard for me to chase that
9:30
feeling and find it and then apply it to my life and i was watching the people around me have it every day you know walking into rooms like they
9:37
owned them and then maybe their ideas are better received maybe their pitch works you know what i mean like fashion
9:43
is often oops fashion is often seen as frivolous frivolous i think because it's a women's industry
9:50
um point blank but there are really tangible effects yeah like i mean we assign so much of
9:57
our value of our self-worth based off of what we feel in what we're wearing
10:02
access to what we're wearing or what we want to wear because there's you know for the longest time
10:08
there was a like us and then type of preparation i mean yeah it's getting better though
10:16
it is getting better especially over the past 10 years but like more the last couple of five or whatever
10:21
as there are more entrants and there are there is more awareness and you have this ground swell of social
10:28
media that's like allowing for us to challenge brands and um industries with like what it is
10:35
and what it isn't and for you um you know one of the things that i
10:40
appreciated about the debut collection that you had it was like the imagery i
10:46
i appreciated the imagery and the way that you the the badassery you know like boss
10:53
type of feel that came along with your brand and immediately i was like get it i get it because like you you i
11:00
want my plus size theory i want theory and plus
11:06
yep i always wanted that i wanted theory i wanted tibi i wanted joseph i wanted dragonbone
11:12
i wanted vince i want i mean i could go on i could go on and on and on um vince is gonna dip their toe and plus
11:20
i heard little rumors that's a good rumor i haven't heard that i hope so i hope they don't make it
11:33
okay don't kill me i have to plug this into the wall because when i plug my green board in keep it in we don't unplugged my i
11:40
unplugged my charger marie everybody murray was helping me get set up she she helped me put my light in the
11:46
in the right position and all that stuff because i'm terrible at this so anyhow we are we are plugged in again anyways
11:53
uh that's a good rumor about vince i hope that it's true um i hope so i'm like okay
12:03
you don't recall the line mccollum who's one of the founders of vince
12:08
that's her brand so it okay that makes sense it there's i can't figure out
12:16
maybe maybe you can start this website or do something or start a business or help with it with a new series of of a little
12:23
bit more education of what goes on behind the scenes because i feel like there's so much information like that that brands aren't
12:29
like screaming from the rooftops that is super important and especially now when we all as consumers want to support the
12:36
people who have supported us and whom we know as human beings and not corporations but you know what also needs to happen
12:42
though too is that these brands need to get to know the community and also respect the thought leaders and
12:48
acknowledge them because actually when mccall launched they didn't reach out to us i chased them yeah you know
12:57
there's definitely been for a very long time as someone who has kind of sat in the middle of it
13:02
the fashion versus plus-sized fashion not in terms of offering or
13:09
or anything like that but just in terms of outlet and talent and how we hold them
13:16
in terms of how aspirational they are and where we want our pr placements and
13:23
where we want our models from and stuff like that but i do feel like that line is blurring do you you know for me i i find myself often
13:32
i'm the one who knocks and kicks down the door and i'm not afraid to do that anymore i
13:38
think for a while i was a little bit more timid about it but now i'm like listen like hello like
13:44
we're one of the plus-size media platforms that do this like it's like you know often times like if
13:51
someone would share something from mainstream fashion like they would send us the link like hey marie like what's going on with
13:57
this like plus size folks have been trained like only because we've gone without for so
14:02
long like we'll read it mainstream but then come and have this conversation here in our spaces
14:08
and so it's like brands if you want to like understand the plus space you need to be connected to where they
14:13
are honestly the one thing that has always blown my mind and will forever blow my mind is that
14:20
the corporations are just about their dollar right and it just makes business sense for them to
14:26
want to do that and still there's a strong aversion you say they're about their dollar but if that was the case you know how
14:32
other brands would actually be in the plus size space world i mean like real talk like if
14:39
you know i was taught in my mba program it was like drilled into all of our heads the end of the day it's all about the
14:44
dollar and i'm like okay well if that's the case you know we're you know at minimum like it's only 24 billion in the
14:52
plus space scaling and projected to hit 50 billion growing at double the rate of mainstream
14:58
fashion like right yeah and like you it only makes
15:05
sense for them to actually like service so this is where you came in so you were like that's all it is
15:11
i'm gonna create my own line and so you've been giving us pinning now for all you guys who are
15:17
just joining us i want to make sure i welcome because we've got some new arrivals while you guys are joining us i'm here with lauren
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chan she is a model turned editor turned designer you got all these turns girl
15:30
like i love the evolution i'm dizzy i know right for the evolution of pinning so fitting is a contemporary
15:38
elevated size wear to work plus size work wear brand so you're going to get all the suiting
15:44
you're going to get the wool jackets you're going to get the trench coats you're going to get all of it to give you all that like great foundation
15:51
pieces for your work where um what life right and so can you show and share with us
15:59
some of the pieces because i know you have summer is it summer that's out or spring spring season yeah so spring and summer
16:06
is out and i believe you're wearing one of the jackets so i'm wearing the renwick jacket which is our like
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double-breasted terracotta one it's the same as our best-selling glass blazer
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just in a new fabric for spring so this is the best-selling black one where where's my camera see i'm very bad
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at this you're right oh my gosh i can't even figure out my left from my right i mean
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my favorite uh part about these is they all have like a pep talk in the ribbon there oh oh i like that
16:37
yeah so we were really conscious of of course all the construction details but also like the special little things and
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then so this is the last color for spring we did this khaki because i was seeing this
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everywhere all over instagram on all of the straight sized girls whether it was jiji hoodied in british vogue or on
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literally every single runway for the spring um all the street style images and then all of the straight sized
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bloggers were kind of adopting this neutral khaki with bike shorts suiting
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vibe and we just didn't have access to it and as i predicted it has become really the
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dominant like trend and style of the moment and plus is often left out of things that
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are a little more masculine and a little less trendy and a little less colorful and there are a ton of plus-sized women like
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myself who just don't feel like ourselves and don't identify with bright purple flowers um
17:35
and like we were talking about or older situation like okay why was it a thing for
17:43
so long and it still is when you go to something you'd be like why are you still doing
17:48
cold shoulders like this girl like the exaggerated cold shoulders were like you know two springs ago
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and you know before you know it's like i feel like that was like their way of like letting us be sexy
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right it's an acceptable skin right acceptable sexy in a plus-sized body
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like what and it just wasn't like it was it was everyone else was doing completely off the shoulder
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like um and we wouldn't get those because that's too much skin
18:20
you know so anyhow i was just i feel really passionately about giving us
18:26
our community clothes when they're happening on trend with everyone else because we typically get things a few
18:32
seasons later and again like i remember i'm totally sorry
18:38
but i remember very specifically like there was like this trend where the red
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lace off the fuller dress or red lace dresses one um it was like everyone had a
18:50
version of this like red lace type of dress and we legit got it like two seasons
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later and evans the uk brand had done their version of it and we laughed about how like i remember
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having this conversation on twitter about how long it took for us to get an entrepreneur or you know and it's and
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it's always like these brands are scared that
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we're gonna we're that you know they don't know if we're gonna want to show our shoulders like
19:26
yeah i think that there's for some reason still this giant misconception that once you hit
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a size 14 and you lose your sense of style and self and that you don't want to
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participate in the world around you as it's happening um with fashion particularly
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in a bit of defensive ethical children i personally prefer i hear that bando is really really hard
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i can't wear anything bando because my chest will just be on the floor and it's not comfortable
19:56
so i hear you there is some support there but you know like i liked the cold
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shoulder when it was like on trend yes when it was happening what was happening and i think
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um you know for me what i appreciate is that more plus size bra brands are creating
20:14
more comfort more comfortable underpinnings to be able to wear these pieces with
20:20
more confidence whether you know like right now i'm wearing a strapless bra i was going to wear like just totally really cute like um uh what do
20:27
you call this slip dress but then the strap broke and i was like what the hell everyone got that would have been cute i
20:35
know i wanted to be cute for you but the next one there are what did i say as soon as you turn your computer and i was like oh my god you
20:41
look so beautiful i didn't put enough makeup on well like for me i'm wearing like this like
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linen like higher quality linen um situation um from harry potter like you know
20:53
they're like i guess like a complimentary brand to you yeah i would actually wear that with this because the
20:59
blue and the rust go really nicely together yeah i love that danny's hilarious some brands want us
21:06
looking like we are wearing curtains or sofa covers one thing i've really learned as i have
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made clothes more because it's not a trade that i was educated in formally i really learned by
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doing it of course i was a shopper so i knew as much as i could by
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shopping for years and just comparing garments and learning my body and learning them but one thing i have really learned as i have made clothes
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and worked with brands who make clothes is that it's just about saving money because the fit is easier when it's
21:40
tinted and it goes over top of the body it just the shoulders work and then it falls because
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nobody wants to fit a bicep a a bus start a princess seam a double vent it's just
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i mean i can tell you from experience it takes a lot of time and money because you got to get that pattern
21:58
right right and then you have to set the pattern then not only do you have the pattern but the pattern is also indicative of
22:04
your styling aesthetic you know like like for example theory fits fitted so if you go to
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theory you know like you may you know you may want to feel more comfortable going up a size but like
22:18
dvf has a whole different fit from mark mark marked by mike jacobs from vincent so even straight size brands
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have like different variations with their and their fit so with the brand sometimes fit is also part of their
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aesthetic so when you get that down pat it's gonna take a lot more effort into it now
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you are based so hinting is based in new york correct yes you're made there too yes in
22:46
the garment district it's pretty awesome actually because for somebody like me again who
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didn't go to fashion school to design clothes and hasn't been an operations lead at a brand like
22:57
instead of it being made overseas and me just getting the clothes delivered to me when it's done like i wa i have to go get buttons right now
23:03
and i'm get to go walk into the factory and talk to them and see people working and say what's that machine and what's that do and um all of that on
23:10
a trip to get buttons and so it's been really really educational for me and yeah beyond of course all the things
23:16
about it being made here for brand purposes and just the ethical nature of our business decisions but it's been
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really educational i i love it tina said i feel like i've finally found
23:30
my style with fitting come on fan yes secret person i adore her she has so many of the best
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pieces we actually shot uh tina for one of our street style shoots along with you know the influencers and people that
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we wanted to um have modeling the brand when we launched our leather jacket we were like we've
23:50
got to get tina dixon in it i have a question here miss chris oh is it christiane
23:56
or christian um christian i'm gonna say it's christiane
24:01
i'm gonna say that um i have narrow shoulders and end up with that awkward poked in look with a lot of jackets that have shoulder pads
24:08
do the hinting blazers tailor well for those of us who don't have a standard fit size model
24:14
body so when you buy a jacket you should always buy
24:19
for the shoulders because shoulders are one thing that it really isn't possible to alter just
24:25
because of the construction there's a shoulder pad there's fusing it there's a there's a rolled uh sleeve here which goes it's
24:32
really really hard to to fix shoulders essentially it is doable but you would end up
24:38
spending so much money you could probably afford almost the base of
24:43
a custom garment anyhow um so you should always buy for your shoulders and take the rest in whether that looks like you're taking in
24:49
sleeves because really then you've just taken in where's my camera um this seam here can you see the seam
24:56
and then along the back you could take it along along the back seams too so
25:01
um our shoulder pads are pretty pretty standard you can't i mean you could take it out but then
25:06
you would change the shape of the garment as well so for something like that like it's really about and it's not you know
25:12
not always trying to push heading it's like finding the brand that works for your shoulders so if there is a theory
25:18
like 14 i think they make i don't know maybe just a 12 that fits you because it's slender or
25:23
brand you should really go with the brand that the shoulders of the jacket fit yes so for those of you guys who didn't
25:31
catch her question um lauren just gave us some really great tips when it comes to
25:37
finding that perfect blazer for you it's really going to be about um buying and shopping to fit your
25:44
shoulders and then getting other pieces tailored in from there so that you have that bespoke tailored vibe um
25:52
and then you know also to be mindful like one of the other most expensive
25:58
situations is shortening sleeves because they don't just cut it off here y'all
26:03
they have to take it out from this shoulder and raise it up to give you the you know
26:10
so that has the right proportions but i know that you keep your if so our
26:15
blades have functional cuffs so you can actually open this so if you if it was too tight on your wrist we did
26:20
that because it's for a fit thing if you want to push your sleeves up you can actually do that and then
26:25
it will go up but also because it's something that is a a facet of
26:31
bespoke menswear that i had just never seen but i learned after the fact that then yes you cannot alter the
26:38
sleeve from that end because you lose that thing that i've been on set when i'm
26:44
working as a model is on jeans with like a raw hem or a special hem or blazers like that they
26:51
actually just they chop it right out of the middle and then they sew it back up here and they like photoshop it out
26:57
later holy hell i didn't know about that like
27:03
i think when you know one of the things that's you know key is we're mentioning here like tail finding a great tailor finding
27:10
someone who does alterations is going to be your best friend regardless if your plus or your
27:15
straight size it really is an amazing tailor will help you like take a
27:22
200 jacket make it look like a thousand dollar jacket like a 50 jacket making look like a hundred
27:28
dollars just by taking it to a tailor it really is and you know that's something i talked about
27:34
a lot when i was an editor for i i really am passionate about this i have a few things to say
27:40
number one because it should over time if you get in that
27:45
habit reset your brain to seriously absorb and
27:51
acknowledge that it is not you that is the problem there is nothing wrong with your body it is
27:56
a piece of cotton or wool or silk it's an inanimate object and for some reason we have absorbed and
28:03
trained been trained to believe the message that if something doesn't fit us we need to lose the weight or we have
28:08
fat in the wrong places or our curves aren't right it's a piece of clothes y'all cut it up
28:14
so back up that's you know really at the heart of of that message that you're sharing is
28:20
if we think about what we really mean to say is that just fix the clothes
28:25
you don't need to fix yourself so that's why i feel really strongly about that secondly you'll feel better when you're
28:31
in good clothes because of what we talked about earlier your confidence your behavior will change and then when i was at glamour i
28:38
really really realized that no celebrity goes anywhere without
28:44
everything tailored it doesn't even matter if they're like going out to the grocery store and t-shirt and jeans
28:49
that has been fit to them exactly and then compare ourselves to that they they they they tailor t-shirts
28:56
when i i used to work at bloomingdale's for a long time many moons ago and when i saw that people tailor
29:01
t-shirts i was like it didn't even dawn on me that to even
29:06
tailor a t-shirt but people knew it and then we're like
29:12
they they were in our mind because they don't give us that education we're now like searching for that
29:17
t-shirt that looks just like how they fit it but they got it tailored so of course
29:22
this is my point so of course we're not going to find one that fits us perfectly versus somebody who got it tailored and
29:28
then we sit there and feel like hell right totally like with henning we offer
29:33
a hundred dollar credit on tailoring if something doesn't fit um before you return it i
29:40
i ask people to email me directly i want to talk to them about it because one i want the data of why it doesn't fit so that we can change
29:46
our pattern so that it is fitting the people who want to buy from us um and secondly because that's my exact
29:52
point like don't don't worry it's i made the best blazer i could i'm not perfect
29:57
it's just a blazer here's here's some money go cut it up and make yourself feel great in it because that's what
30:02
the goal of the brand and my goal is at the end of the day that's amazing so alicia has a question
30:09
she says i am rusty with a small waist i fit for my chest but then most shirts just hang how do i
30:16
find shirts that fit more shapely go ahead and take this and i'll come on the back end yeah of course i think
30:22
first of like to what we were just speaking to a tailor will help that uh you buy for
30:27
your largest part and you tailor the rest in um or you find brands that fit that way or trends
30:34
that fit that way a site that i use to shop specific um shapes pieces styles that i want is
30:40
shopstyle.com and it's essentially like an aggregate it it existed i think before google
30:47
shopping really took off but i think it's a little more user friendly than google shopping and and populates with less ads
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