San Jose: Curvy Girl fashion show to showcase plus-size lingerie
June 5, 2014 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Event to include tastings, vendors
Chrystal Bourgon believes everyone should love their bodies, whether they are a size 0 or a size 28.
That’s why she opened the plus-size lingerie store Curvy Girl in Willow Glen. On June 8, Bourgon will host her second annual fashion show at Villa Ragusa in Campbell.
Between 30 and 40 plus-size ladies will strut their stuff in Curvy Girl corsets, bustiers, baby doll dresses, panties and stockings during the event.
The models are regular people–customers of Bourgon’s. “It’s so beautiful and fun to work with these ladies,” she said.
Bourgon expects between 250 and 300 women to attend the show this year: People are already “snapping up” the tickets, she said. Last year, she sold 190 regular tickets in addition to VIP passes.
Bourgon opened her shop, which sells plus-size lingerie as well as other related items, in 2012. Since then, she says, business has been “amazing.” The store boasts more than 60,000 Facebook fans and 82 five-star reviews on Yelp.
Curvy Girl is the only store in the nation of its kind. Previously, it had been one of two plus-size lingerie stores in the United States. The other, a shop in Philadelphia called Lovelies, opened a few months before Curvy Girl but closed about three months ago. While Lovelies is still selling merchandise online, Curvy Girl is the only brick-and-mortar lingerie store specializing in plus sizes.
Bourgon originally didn’t want to have an online component to Curvy Girl. However, after being bombarded by phone calls, she created a website last fall and has one employee who spends 25 hours a week shipping items. Although the majority of Bourgon’s business is still in-store, she has started shipping internationally: she recently sent $350 worth of products to Dubai.
Bourgon said the Bay Area is a “hotbed” of body acceptance activists. In fact, well-known writers and bloggers such as Marilyn Wann and Virgie Tovar will be VIP guests at the fashion show.
The two women are known for their messages about eating healthy and intuitively rather than buying into fad diets, Bourgon said. Wann’s book Fat!So? Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for Your Size was published in 1998. Tovar wrote the 2012 book Hot Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and is known for the movement #losehatenotweight.
The fashion show–for women only, by the way–will include wine tasting, chocolate tasting and a cash bar. Attendees will receive goody bags sponsored by LELO.com and be able to nibble on food provided by Simply Delicious Catering and dessert provided by Nothing Bundt Cake of Willow Glen.
There will also be about 25 vendor tables with items including jewelry, purses, lingerie, candles and skin care products, plus romance toys from blissconnections.com.
The uniqueness of Bourgon’s store has earned her a fair share of media attention. Her “UNPHOTOSHOPPED” campaign, which encouraged “unphotoshopped, regular women” to send in scantily clad photos of themselves to the Facebook page for her business, led to a well-documented disagreement with “Fit Mom” Maria Kang, who lives in the Sacramento area.
Kang said Bourgon was glorifying obesity; Bourgon said Kang was fat-shaming.
Their dispute was publicized by CNN, Good Morning America, Bethenny, Access Hollywood, Yahoo Shine and the Huffington Post.
The disagreement turned out to be good for Bougon’s business, however. It earned her 20,000 new Facebook fans and “tons” of Internet orders in a few months, she said.
Bourgon insists that she doesn’t glorify obesity. Rather, she wants women to celebrate how they look now rather than wait to be happy.
“Don’t put off wearing lingerie for your husband or your wife. … I’m not telling anybody to gain weight, lose weight or get fit. Just seize the day,” she said.
Bourgon said she understands that Kang markets herself as a fitness guru.
“I think what she does is lovely and fabulous,” she said. “I want her to do what she does on her slice of the Internet. And I want to do what I do on my slice of the Internet. And I don’t want to be judged or shamed.”
The pair reconciled during Bourgon’s company Christmas party. Kang, who happened to be in town, dropped in at the store to apologize. It turned out that she has her own body issues and has struggled with bulimia.
“Fat or skinny, we’re all struggling to love our bodies,” Bourgon said.
The Curvy Girls Rock! Curvy Girl Plus Size Fashion Show is 2 to 5 p.m. on June 8 at Villa Ragusa, 35 S. Second St., Campbell. Tickets are $15 and available at curvygirlinc.com or 408.264.4227.
One-third of the price of each ticket will be donated to Next Door Solutions, a campaign to end domestic violence. For more information about Next Door Solutions, visit nextdoor.org.
