Last Sunday Annissa and I decided to check out an event over in Oakland – Cupcakes and Muffintops 2.0. “A size-positive, gender inclusive Fat Clothing Flea and Bake Sale where only the prices are small!” benefiting Big Moves and NOLOSE. Sounds fabulous right? I need clothes like I need… well, lets just say there isn’t a good euphemism and bottom line? I don’t need more clothes. Not that this stops me!
Anyway, last year I had class and wasn’t able to attend. So this year I wanted to make sure I did. It sounded fun and we had nothing else to do, so I made a few “ground rules” for myself and off we went. Ground rules being: Don’t buy something similar to pieces I already own and to stay away from more “current” pieces. I was mainly interested in vintage/”special” items.
We showed up at the Humanist Hall shortly after noon. I planning to take some pictures, maybe find a few cute things and make fat friends. Grand plans! And then it all kind of went out the window since I was blown away just walking into the room. Usually I assume, and am often correct, that I am the fattest person in the room. Which is no problem at all, as I’m comfortable with that, but to be in a room with so many different body types was amazing. There were a few long rows of tables with clothing organized by size and type – kind of like a fat girl thrift store, but you know… better. Shoes over in a corner, a boutique rack with fancier stuff by the stage, a changing area at the opposite end of the venue and of course, the bake sale. It was actually hard to concentrate and look through the piles since I was too busy checking out the cute clothes other fats were wearing!
Particularly the woman with the red skirt who kindly told me that it was from eShatki. So cute! I felt like I made an ass of myself though. I can usually converse better, honest!
I coped by checking out the clothes. Still distracted by other fabulous fats so I didn’t do much digging. These piles of clothing were massive. Early on I found a lace dress, which I thought was black but turned out of be black/navy. I’ve coveted various versions from ASOS/Evans and this was a perfect and more importantly CHEAP alternative. Annissa, the enabler, knows my obsession with sequins and found me a sequin dress, which I truly don’t know where I will wear it other than class, which will be amusing to say the least. Or possibly turn into a skirt/cardigan. And I ended up breaking my rule and buying two black skirts, which I definitely have in my closet… but I believe this one is the perfect-for-me, high waisted vintage skirt. It could not be passed up. The other was a more casual/basic skirt and my excuse? My usual comfy skirt is getting worn and the price was right. The last thing I bought was an orange cardigan from Torrid. My rainbow of cardigans is close to being complete! Muahaha.
I do wish we had stayed a big longer (we left before 1:00) and socialized more but we both were a tad overwhelmed and by that time – hungry! You could tell by how passive we were in our shopping! Usually that is not the case, ha. And we should have taken pictures. Maybe next year? I hope to volunteer to photograph this event or even other events in the Bay Area for Big Moves/NOLOSE. Maybe they will take me up on the offer? I did take OOTD pictures, after a shoe change (new shoes, blisters) but feel that this post is long enough already.
After all this, I have to ask…
WHERE ARE ALL OF THE BAY AREA FATS?
Now I know you exist in real life, I’ve seen you! Of all areas, I thought that the San Francisco Bay Area would have an active fat acceptance community. Outside of events from Big Moves/NOLOSE, I haven’t seen much in the way of meet-ups or gatherings. Though I hope to change that very soon. More details on that later!
