Curvy and Cool

So the dreaded shopping season is upon me. The fact that I have curves and I don’t apologize for having them, after all I’m Latina and negro, I like food and enjoy eating and I’m an unapologetic chocoholic and I love creamy desserts, I embrace my curves. And I mean if it was easy to find clothes I am talking about real clothes for real women not the scraps sewn or stuck together that is being marketed as clothes, I might even say I would love shopping. But the truth is I don’t. And let me not even start on swimsuit browsing, talk about pulling your hair out kind of shopping.

Blouses never fit, the bottom buttons can button up but the top ones cant, they pucker out and look like they are going to pop out. Go up a size or two and the tops just fit too boxy, so I just buy the tops anyway and use it like a kind of jacket and wear a camisole below it. And would ya know, what I have been doing for ages is the 'in thing' now, its called layering, a nice name for my having to improvise LOL. Jeans and pants are a nightmare, when I get one to fit my thighs, the waist doesn’t fit and vice versa. Skirts are not a problem but pants are few and limited.

And then there is the dreaded swimsuit search. This is like a nightmare, there is nothing I hate more than trying on clothes and swimsuits top the list. The last time I went shopping for them was when I went to Venezuela two years ago. Granted that Venezuela is the only place where I can walk into any store and find clothes and I mean really nice clothes that fit me so perfectly. As if it were tailor made for me, like someone gave them all my measurements and they made it just for me. I remember the first store I went into and tried on some clothes, it was like I could hear an Alleluia chorus. Tried on clothes and they fit so good and looked so good on me, you know that feel so good that you pose in the mirror and do a little dance kind of good. Clothes that fit and so many to choose from, don’t have to say how much I stocked up while I was there LOL.

So I go into this swimsuit store, never seen so many suits in so many sizes and styles, Miami has nothing on Venezuela. My cousins start choosing suits for me, the darlings that they are and the sales girl makes a few suggestions. I was up for trying something new because there was so many to choose from. So I’m armed with a few swimsuits and ready to try them on. Let me just tell you something, the way a swimsuit look on a hanger and the way it looks on you are two completely different things. I remember this black halter or tie back top piece, hey I’m no Elsa Klensh so excuse my descriptions. I put it on and screamed was like, ¡Oh no, no no no, I will be arrested if I were this outside!¢ But I did leave with an absolutely gorgeous tankini. Don’t know why I did not buy two, LOL

I live in the Caribbean, beach central and I’m thinking of going to spend two weeks with my aunt and uncle in Grenada . I love it there, its so much slower paced than where I live. When you go there, the wind, the food, the ambience just shouts at you, relax, unwind, just enjoy where you are. I mean the church is literally on the beach, you go to Mass and you step outside to the most gorgeous, sky blue, clear, warm, calm, white sand beach you have set your eyes upon. The gas station near their home is on a beach, you can go get gas and go take a dip at the same time, now tell me where else can you do that?

So this means I have to go shopping, especially for a new suit, can’t have all the pictures with me in the same suit LOL. Don’t get me wrong I embrace all of me, I just don’t know who came up with what the perfect lady is supposed to look like? To be honest don’t we come in all shapes and sizes, races, colors and heights? Who said that curvy isn’t cool? You go into the stores and you do feel as though something is wrong with you because nothing seems to fit and the sales girls says 'you know curvy girls are so hard to fit'. I am sure some of us do have curves and there is nothing wrong with having curves. It can be discouraging at times but I’m lucky in that most of my family is curvy so it’s like I know I am not the only one that looks like this. Thank goodness for the Queen Latifah’s and Nigella Lawsons out there.

So you might be wondering where is she going with this? Don’t worry I was too LOL. I guess, no I’m saying embrace yourself, no matter your size, shape, height, color etc, these are too trivial to stress over, 'the I wish I coulda woulda look like X, Y or Z'. So tiny, thin, towering, top heavy or curvy, embrace yourself, don’t conform to society’s idea of the 'perfect woman' just be you, perfectly you. And do stay tuned to hear about my shopping adventures, I’m bound to fall down in shoes or something, just would not be me if I did not LOL!