Curvy Kate’s Star in a Bra – My Thoughts
I had a dream last night that I was looking at the top 30 selected girls for the Curvy Kate competition, Star in a Bra, and vividly saw myself in the line up but needless to say in reality I didn’t make it. Today they made the list of potential model wannabes live on their Facebook application and I was gutted I wasn’t there, although part of me wasn’t too surprised (just very disappointed).
The Curvy Kate brand is targeted at women who wear a D+ bra, and as the name suggests, women with a curvy figure. The word curvy is a highly debatable definition.
To me, curves are boobs and bum. A woman with an hourglass figure perhaps, because the body line draws out at the boobs, in at the waist, and out again at the hips, creating that curvy line. I definitely don’t like the term curvy being lumped into the same category as overweight women. I’m not a body shape hater but I believe all too often the larger woman is heralded as the perfect ‘curvalicious’ woman while the slimmer woman is knocked for being too thin, labeled as anorexic and tarnished as a bad role model to girls. The fact is that even though there are women who naturally have a smaller frame, and yes some may have a weight related illness, in today’s age it’s all the more common for the bigger figure, and yes, many times it is down to being overweight, or obesity. Society has made it okay to bully skinny girls but protect and lavish big women.
Following the Curvy Kate Star in a Bra brand since it’s advent in 2009 I’ve not seen a woman representing the company with a skinny figure but with big boobs. I’m not saying their models are obese, the Curvy Kate girls have fantastic figures, but there’s a continuing trend in the fuller cup market for the models to be bigger all over, not just in the bra department. There are girls out there who have big busts and skinny waists but where are they in the media?
The only time I noticed a change was when the Star in a Bra competition was launched for the first time in Australia and the winner was petite size 8 FF cup Julia McLean. This is the kind of woman we need more of.
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| Australia’s Star in a Bra, Julia McLean |
Browsing the Star in a Bra top 30 list of images I find myself seeing the same typecast fuller figure. There are some stunning girls though and I very much wish these girls get ahead of the game and represent the slimmer girl with a bigger bust. Good luck girls!
Becky x
Project Lingerie
May 28, 2012 at 6:59 pmI agree; my definition of curves is not overweight but boobs, a bum and small waist for an hourglass! I didn’t get through either and I’m 28FF-27-36; fairly hourglassy too! xx
Cavy.girl
May 29, 2012 at 1:26 amYeah, it’s definitely my bugbear. You look amazing and I’m surprised you didn’t get through, but then that’s the problem I see, those will our stats are under publicised. By the way, I’m a 27-36 too! 🙂
Becky x
Katie Biernacki
August 12, 2012 at 5:59 amFirst of all, you are absolutely lovely, and I wish you had made it to the top 30! Even though I do enjoy seeing larger women like myself as Curvy Kate models, I feel that they all kind of look the same and wish they had more diversity. I kind of hoped myself for more smaller girls both height wise and boob wise for those of us under 5’2 or those of us on the lower end of busty-ness.
As for the body image issues, I never heard it from that point of view, but being a larger woman myself, I HATE the “real women” movement. ALL women are real women, skinny, fat, whatever. And bigger women are not protected, not in the least…we can’t even work out in public to become healthy because we are ridiculed for being fat…Just like a skinny girl can’t eat healthy in public because people automatically assume that they are dieting. It’s stupid, and no body shape is safe from that. It’s society’s way of making us feel different from each other, to separate us, and make us feel that people are different from us merely because their body shapes are different.
Second, people use the word “curvy” as a way to avoid saying fat or overweight, because it has such a stigma in our society. Being overweight does NOT make you curvy, your proportions make you curvy! And if you don’t have the proportions to be curvy? You know what, that’s totally cool too!
For example, I am both curvy AND overweight, I say and, because, like you, I don’t think they mean the same thing. I’m overweight because I weigh more than I should, but I’m curvy because I measure as an hourglass at 48″-40″-48″.
Also, I just realized, this may come off as kind bitchy, and I really apologize, I’m not flaming you, I actually agree with you on some points, but I have a tendency to get riled up about body image issues and elite-isms.
Everyone is beautiful, no matter what their shape or size as long as they are healthy. But if they’re not healthy? Well, it’s probably none of the business of an outsider. The fashion and beauty industries are about CLOTHES and MAKE UP. Think about it, if you don’t have a uniform body type, then that is going to distract from the clothes or makeup they’re trying to sell you. It’s nothing to get mad about, it’s nothing to ridicule people over, it’s no one’s business aside from the models and their doctors. It is certainly not anyone’s place to put someone down. And you if they do have eating disorders, then putting them down is just going to make that worse, as eating disorders generally stem from low self esteem.
To sum it all up, curvy does not = fat. Fat does not automatically make you curvy. Being skinny doesn’t automatically make you healthy. But just like it’s WRONG to tell a fat person they should loose weight, it’s just as WRONG to tell a skinny girl she looks anorexic just because she’s skinny, or to “go eat a burger”.
These beliefs and behaviorism only serve to separate women, when instead, we should be telling each other how lovely and sexy we all are. You are a beautiful person, and don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise, no matter who they are, because generally, people that comment on the weight of others generally aren’t positive people to be around, so don’t waste your precious time, and go love the hell out of yourself being a beautiful model instead! =)
I hope this wasn’t too long of a rant, I just really felt the need to get these words out there to someone, and I’m sorry you happened to be that random someone! =)
~ Love and Best Wishes from America
Cavy.girl
August 14, 2012 at 12:10 pmHi Katie, thanks very much for your great comment! 🙂
Giving Curvy Kate’s ethos of using what people call ‘real women’, you’d expect them to use a broader range of body shapes, much like Ewa Michalak do.
Some people didn’t understand where I was coming from with this post (I’m glad you do). I would personally like to see slim models with big boobs, because you really don’t see them being used. Most leading brands just use slim girls with a smaller chest, which doesn’t help when you’re buying a larger version of the displayed bra, which leads to disappointment because the garment isn’t going to be the same, as I find a lot of the time. Also with the more recent publicity surrounding getting properly fitted, where many women are being fitted as a small back with a large cup, I think if these stats were shown via a model it would help with the continued education. So, so many people don’t know about or understand how a ‘normal’ woman can have a small back and large cup, when in fact it is, or would be, pretty common if everyone were to be properly fitted. An example of what I mean, if you look up a Panache or Freya bra on Figleaves, the model showcasing the bra will be slim with a small chest. I just don’t think it best sells these bras for women with bigger boobs.
I grew up being called anorexic at school and now I’ve filled out, I’m definitely not the same figure as my childhood! But labels do hurt whichever end of the scale, whether someone’s healthy or not. I was mocked for my stick thin legs as much as the big girls were for their bodies. But yeah, health + size + curves don’t all necessarily add up in a simple equation.
Thanks again for your fab post. 🙂
Becky x
Bra Junkie
April 21, 2013 at 4:33 amI don’t really get why you said you haven’t seen any Curvy Kate models who are thin with big boobs. Have you not seen Laura Butler, Lauren Colfer, Sophie Morgan and many more?
Becky Boudoir
April 21, 2013 at 9:50 pmThis was something I posted early last year so it’s not a current topic and Sophie Morgan wasn’t a Curvy Kate model then. Laura and Lauren are more curvy in my eyes much like myself, not that’s it’s a negative, I’m thinking of those women who are even slimmer with large boobs which was why Julia McLean was a good addition to the models.
Becky x