Sizing up glamour on their own terms
On the red carpet, where the size range runs from 0 to 2, an 8 is the Hollywood fashion equivalent of an extra-large. In the real world, most women are much, much larger, and sometimes, even in a town where one can never be too thin, that’s just fine.
Lights flashed and cameras rolled when actress Loretta Devine showed up at a recent pampering session held in an elegant Westside home often featured in movies. There are plenty of these glitzy, Champagne-flowing events during the run-up to next Sunday’s Academy Awards, enticing celebrities with makeup consultations, manicures, pedicures, massages and more. But none like this one, where curvaceous, queen-size women are the sought-after stars.
“Where did this thin thing come from?” asks Devine, who has had roles in such films as “Kingdom Come” and “I Am Sam” and the TV series “Boston Public.” “Look at Marilyn Monroe. Her size 12 was probably our size 16.”
Devine is wearing a fabulous plum pantsuit ensemble, and her first stop is the chair of makeup artist to the stars Billy B. Another actress, Patrika Darbo, from the ABC soap “Days of Our Lives,” enjoys a pedicure. Advice guru Iyanla Vanzant, in Los Angeles to tape the NBC reality show “Starting Over,” is getting a massage. The treatments are provided by Rescue Hand and Foot Spa.
This is neither the time nor the place for skeletal women, or any woman whose bones are showing. It’s also not for those who are competitively thin.
This is for zaftig women.
If they look into the mirror, mirror on this wall, they will get this message: “Dear Hollywood, Repeat 100 times a day. I love what I see.”
Near that mirror, Mia Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, is trying on a luscious pink skirt from the spring collection of today’s sponsor, Lane Bryant, a retailer that specializes in plus-size clothing.
“I’m very big on promoting body love, whoever you are,” the plus-size model says.
“One thing I learned growing up in New Hampshire: Outside of the cities, a woman my size is normal,” Tyler adds.
*
Tiny isn’t typical
Indeed, about half of the U.S. population is plus size, according to reports from the Census Bureau and Sara Lee Corp. cited recently in Women’s Wear Daily, and the average dress size is 14. That’s the smallest size in the collection at this party; in Lane Bryant’s 740 stores, sizes run through 28.
“The thing that a size 2 wants to wear, a size 20 wants to wear,” says Catherine Lippincott, spokeswoman for the chain.
“The news is color,” Lippincott continues. She stands in front of a rack holding pastel tweed boucle jackets with lace appliques. Jeweled buttons, larger than quarters, and silver thread give a little pop to a brown jacket that has bell sleeves featuring satin bow ties.
The day of just “wearing black clothes is over,” Lippincott adds, pointing to a wide selection of brightly colored capri pants.
Lavender lingerie -- in this case, a baby-doll set that flatters a full bosom -- catches the eye of Whitney Dineen, another plus-size model here to show off the styles. She also checks out a pair of really red, really lacy panties -- even big women want to look sexy, Lippincott says.
Dineen is also the cookie lady, “fattening up Hollywood one cookie at a time.”
Her custom cookies shaped like, shall we say, very well rounded ladies in sparkly red or black strapless gowns are everywhere -- on a coffee table in the living room, in the kitchen, in the pampering area and in the gift bags boxed with a star-shaped sugar cookie as big as a hand.
She doesn’t know how many calories her cookies have, but a taste test of the divine brownies, gingersnaps, macaroons and lemon tarts reveals that she scrimps on neither sugar nor butter.
“They are about three times the size of your normal cookie,” she says, “because if you’re going to have a cookie, have a cookie.”
*
Some serious cookies
Not half a cookie, as someone has done, leaving the other half behind. This is a common tactic of those watching their calories. (Note to, well, you know who you are: The rest of us don’t want your leftovers.)
Big is great here, but that is rarely the case. So Vanzant is asked for some advice.
“God made Chihuahuas, and he made St. Bernards. All of us aren’t going to be Chihuahuas and poodles. Some of us are going to be Great Danes, German shepherds. When I say that, I’m referring to size. Particularly for women of color,” she says. “We come from Dahomey and Ghana and the Congo and Senegal. So our DNA is different from the images that are put before us as beautiful.
“I’m so grateful to be able to stand before America as a substantial and beautiful African American woman and feel good about it,” says Vanzant, who wears size 12 or 14. “And to let women know breasts are fine and hips are fine, as long as you’re healthy.”
Devine agrees. “When you’re working in Hollywood, you’re happy, no matter what,” she says. “And we have such a variety of black sisters that are working. We have all types. We have Queen Latifah, Halle Berry, Monique. ... We come in all rainbow colors, all sizes, and it’s so wonderful because our men appreciate all sizes of women.”
Even on the red carpet.
“If you can find the right gown and the right hair for the red carpet,” Devine says, “it’s magical no matter what size you are.”
