If you are interested in a chance to win a round trip ticket to New York City during Full Figured Fashion Week 2010, an opportunity to host the red carpet VIP reception and gain online and local media exposure, visit FFFWeek for details on how to enter!

You can click here to register to be a contestant. Otherwise to vote for your favorite contestant click here.

Contest ends on Thursday, 29th April, 2010. Good luck to all who enter!

Here is some other essential info you need to be aware of before applying. You must have professional runway skills to apply, no exceptions. If you live out state (i.e. outside of NY, NJ, CT, etc.) and you submit an application, you must read the directions on the application and send FFFWeek a link to a small video clip of your runway skills. It does not have to be you in a fashion show, it could be something as simple as a friend recording your walk (in heels, etc.). Please read the info on the application very carefully before submitting. If you live out of town and you do not send FFFWeek a link to the videoclip, your application will be automatically voided. FFFWeek is doing this because they realize the costs associated with traveling to NY to audition and they want to be sure you realize that they are looking for the best of the best. So, please read the info on the application very carefully!

If FFFWeek are interested in seeing you, they will contact you directly to attend their closed casting which will be held in April.

If you have any questions email models@fffweek.com. Good luck to all!

The Alison Hammond range at Yours Clothing is due to be launched at the end of March and Alison is currently recruiting real plus size women who can help her to model her range once launched.

If you think you could model the Alison Hammond range then send a photograph of yourself to press@yoursclothing.co.uk or to the following mailing address: Yours Clothing Press Office, 1184 Lincoln Road, Werrington, Peterborough, Cambs, PE4 6LA.

The closing date for entries is Friday, 26th March at 5p.m. Three winners will be chosen by
Alison Hammond herself and will receive an all expenses paid trip to the exclusive launch. They will also receive items from the range that they can personally select!

What are you waiting for girls? Send in your photo! Good luck to all.

Executive producer, Gwen Devoe and the whole team at FFFWeek are firm believers in equal runway opportunity for all and this year, they want men involved!

So here are the casting details:

Tuesday, March 23rd – 6:30 PM
Ripley Grier Studios
520 8th Avenue (bet. 36th and 37th Streets)
10th Floor, Studio10A
New York, NY

All interested need to bring a full length photo and a headshot. It does not have to be professional but your have to be prepared to leave the photos with the FFFWeek team. And, be prepared to walk for their panel.

RSVP is not necessary but if you want to send your photos in advance you can to: bklyngurl@gmail.com.

Interested, but out of state? Send your photos to bklyngurl@gmail.com.

Torrid, has selected the seven winners of the 2009 Torrid House of Dreams Model Search, the world’s largest plus-size modeling contest. The winners were selected from over 5,000 entries from all over the US. Finalists were chosen based on beauty, style, personality, and their potential to represent the Torrid brand’s unique blend of youthful fashion, confidence and glamour. Finalists’ popularity with Torrid fans, who were able to vote for their favorite models at www.torrid.com, was also a consideration in determining this year’s winners.

As guests of honor at the Torrid House of Dreams event, the winners will be modeling original designs created by students from FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Torrid has partnered with FIDM for this year’s House of Dreams event which will be held on the FIDM campus, West Coast home of Project Runway. House of Dreams benefits The National Breast Cancer Foundation, Torrid’s long time partner in the fight against breast cancer. This event kicks off a month long Torrid campaign to support National Breast Cancer Awareness in October.

Winner info

• Heather, North Pole, Alaska
• Nikki, Northridge, California
• Taylor, DeWitt, Michigan
• Daron, Vancouver, Washington
• Natalie, Lebanon, Pennsylvania
• Emma, Fort Wayne, Indiana
• April, Beaver Creek, Oregon

City Chic, Australia’s premier high street fashion destination for curvalicious girls size 14+ and BGM Models Australia’s leading plus size modeling agency are looking for two sexy curvaceous girls to make their catwalk debut. For the City Chic SPRING 09 runway shows to be held on Thursday, August 20 at 12.30pm and 1.30pm at the Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival, Martin Place.

Phil Ryan, General Manager for City Chic says, “the average size Australian woman is size 14 to 16 and have previously always been under catered for in the fashion industry, especially in the younger 18 – 28 year old market”.

Ryan has built the business from 1 to 48 stores in five years, says “City Chic will not only be the first brand to present a curvaceous show at Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival (RSFF). But the first in Australia to have size 14+ models on the catwalk!”

There will be fourteen of Australia’s leading plus size models in sizes 14,16 &18 from renowned modeling agency, BGM Models. Darrianne Donnelly Director of BGM Models says “We are looking for 2 more curvaceous girls to join our 14 beauties and make catwalk history”

The prize for our two winners will be:

• Making your modeling debut at the prestigious RSFF event
• A $1,000 City Chic shopping spree.
• A 12 month contract with BGM models.
• Meeting Elizabeth Green – BGM model who now resides in New York working as one of the leading plus sized super models – who’ll fill the  winners in on how to get to the top.

To enter the City Chic & BGM Model catwalk model search simply be a size 14-16, 18-28 years in age, at least 174cm in height. Then FROCK UP AND ROCK UP TO THE WESTIN HOTEL, the official ROSEMOUNT FASHION FESTIVAL VENUE, ON SATURDAY AUGUST 8 –between 10 am and 2.00pm.

Castings will be held in THE WESTIN HOTEL Ballroom.

Lower ground floor, No 1 Martin Place, Sydney.

The 2 winners will be announced Saturday 8th August 3pm at the Westin Hotel.

(Make sure you’re available for model training on Sunday, August 9 and between Saturday August 15th and Thursday August 20th for the ROSEMOUNT SYDNEY FASHION FESTIVAL, City Chic  & BGM Model parade.)

For all details log on to www.citychiconline.com.

FOR RADIO OR PRESS INTERVIEW
Darrianne Donnelly, BGM MODELS is available for interview – 0418 450 222

Phil Ryan, GM of city chic is available for interview – 0416 115 750

For further information call:  Lee Manfred  (02) 8323 5777

These 27 gorgeous ladies ranged from size 14 to size 32 and Andrea Smith at the Independent.ie has a great roundup of the full event and much more. Check it out.

Top plus size model Danielle Line is competing to be the next plus size cover girl in Shirley’s Sexy Model Search, being run by Shirley of Hollywood. Danielle is one of eight finalists in the plus size division and Cherished-Woman.com are sponsoring Danielle as she epitomizes sexiness and wholesomeness all in one.

I wish Danielle, as well as all the other contestants within the plus size category the best of luck within this contest. Furthermore I truly commend Cherished-Woman.com for supporting Danielle, and encourage all other designers and stores to support their models wherever possible.

Read more about the contest, and make sure to check out the other finalists and cast your vote. The winners will be announced live on 25th September, 2008 in the Bahamas.

At size 10, Whitney is not the convential girl you would call ‘plus size’, but in the modeling industry she is what is considered plus size. So although by my standards Whitney is slim, I am still glad that she won the contest, another step ahead in the fashion industry perhaps?

Let’s hope we see even more curves on the catwalks and covers of magazines in the future.

Founded by Chanel Clark, Miss NYC Plus produced its first pageant in March of this year. During this event, women wearing size 12 to 26 where given the chance to gather at an event focused exclusively on plus size fashion and celebrating curves. The pageant proved to be very successful, receiving an overwhelming amount of response. During this event, one particular model was named winner of the 2008 Miss NYC Plus Pageant. The winner for 2008 was Nic Moore.

The next event the organization has planned is a march down Fashion Avenue during New York Fashion Week in September as “a peaceful rally so that people can see how beautiful these ladies [size 12 and larger] are,” Clark said. “We really want to make a statement.”

Definitely watch out for more updates from Miss NYC Plus over here at the scoop. In the meantime if you would like further details, do visit them at MissNYCPlus.com.

Chloe Marshall is a young lady from Englad who is breaking boundaries, challenging stereotypes, and a person who have a very bright future ahead.

A 17 year old from Gulford, UK, Chloe has become the first ever size 16 (that’s size 14 US) model to be selected a finalist for the Miss England competition. Chloe, who is a beauty therapist student, beat seven other slimmer girls to the title of Miss Surrey and will therefore now run in the national finals.

Although plus size ladies, and all real women, are super ecstatic about this breakthrough, and genuinely happy for Chloe’s success, there are some others who think Chloe does not really deserve to hold her title.

One opinion in particular which made most noise, and caused a lot of discussion (and with reason!), was published on the Daily Mail by Monica Grenfell. You guys seriously have to read the article to believe the kind of things this ‘dietician’ claimed. It is absolutely appalling, and she should completely be ashamed to call herself a real woman. After reading this make sure you head on to Kate Harding’s awesome respone. Kate you rock!

So as you might imagine, I think Chloe should be very proud of her achievement and I wish her the best of luck for the finals. I am sure she has a very bright future ahead.

I was lucky enough today to discover this plus size model whilst reading an article on her on the ExpressAndStar.com. Wearing a size 16/18 (UK), Nina’s professional experience reminds me of the experiences Crystal Renn had with modeling.

Like Crystal, Nina did not start her modeling career as a plus size, indeed she was a size 10 when she started off! But this was unnatural for her, in fact the article show that Nina found it very hard to keep her weight down to a size 10. This made her realize she had to be true to herself, and who she really was, and quickly plumed back up to her natural size 16.

All curved up, Nina has this far been very successful in her plus size modeling career. In fact she has modeled for Simple Be, Jusy Mu Size, Matalan, Evans, John Lewis, and many more names. She has also appeared on several TV programmed including ‘How To Look Good Naked’ and GMTV.

Find out more about Nina Blakemore at her official website.

Today I have just ran across this article on The Daily Record, which recounts how Louise MacCallum struggled with size acceptance. Now a very curvy and gorgeous size 14/16, Louise had previously battled with a lot of dieting, until finally finding a way to accept and love her curves.

Hailing from Inverness, ones of Louise’s major accomplishments in her career was being chosen to open Milan Fashion Week this spring wearing a gorgeous black Elena Miro dress. In this particular article Louise shares a piece of advice, which just had to be shared here:

Her advice for girls considering a career in modelling is simple…

“Don’t be affected by it all,” says Louise. “Some women are naturally very skinny but many starve themselves to stay on the catwalk. Be who you are and be careful.”

The interview is very interesting and gives us great insight into Nicole’s struggle with self image and rise to success as a plus size model. In fact in the interview, Nicole recounts how she was called names as a child, and yet how she has now grown up to love her body and her curves. She also reveals how she got into the plus size modeling business by taking snapshot at home with her own camera, and submitting these on her profile on PlusModels.com. Now isn’t that one encouraging story.

Find out more about Nicole, read the full interview.

Auditions for Full Figured & Fabulous in Atlanta, GA will be held on Saturday, April 28th at 4:30 PM. They are looking for plus models, sizes 14 to 24, who would make fierce runway competitors. Competition is expected to be stiff in Atlanta, so it is highly recommended that you have recent runway experience. Over $10,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded to the winners, so what have you got to lose?! If you are in the Atlanta, GA and have some runway experience, give this a go! Here are the full details:

• Date: Saturday, April 28th , 2007
• Time: 4:30 PM
• Location: The Complex Artist Development Center, 1021 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA
• Application Fee: $25
• Attire: Wear a pair of well-fitted jeans, a white tank top, a white blouse, or a plain white fitted t-shirt and a pair of heels at least 3 inches

For further information please visit the official Full Figured & Fabulous website.

So what’s the movie about? It’s about Victoria, a once a top plus-size model, who has seen her fortunes change since the industry shifted to ‘padding up’ thinner models to make their torsos appear large while retaining their toned arms and chiseled features. With bankruptcy looming and her confidence shattered, Victoria’s only hope of regaining her former glory and her financial independence hinges on the Gamble Girl audition. But Tiffany, the current top plus-size model who despises fat people, will stop at nothing to be the next Gamble Girl.

Watch trailer of this, what look like it’s going to be, a very interesting and eye opening short film today. In the meantime I am trying to find out whether this movie is still in production, and if not where I can get my hands on it, to watch the full version. If anyone knows anything I might be missing please let me know!

As stated on the website, all the ladies featured in the calendar have a healthy BMI and range from size 12 through to size 18, showing women everywhere that glamor and beauty have nothing to do with dress size!

What’s very good to know also is that 20% of all profits generated from this calendar will go to various eating disorder foundations and clinic’s around Australia to continue the fight for women’s health and self esteem. What a great initiative indeed.

So check out Australia’s answer to a curvy 2007 calendar, and if you want to take a look at the making of the calendar itself, watch this video.

Now this is the kind of news I would like to hear everyday! What enouragement this gives to plus size women, especially teenagers, everywhere. Hopefully stories like Crystal’s will become more commonplace and more skinny models will start to gain beautiful curves, as Crystal has.

Read more about Crystal here.

Well Mo’nique FAT Chance has this year come back with a bang! The show has matured and has in my opinion grown stronger. This show is so great, in the sense that it helps those plus size ladies who feel down because of their image, think again and say “Hey, I’m curvy and I’m sexy!”. That is exactly what it makes me feel and I’m sure most of you feel the same way.

This year’s winner is Miss Tanisha Malone, who hails from Newark, New Jersey. This 28 year old lady surely has a very exciting road ahead of her. Working as an assistant for a medical examiner, Tanisha loves to sign and read poetry, besides serving as a motivational speaker for teens.

An overview of all contestants will follow soon, and we will also hopefully get some up close and personal interviews for you all. So keep reading the scoop!

This show must definitely go on!