Dancing on the @selkie #nyfw runway. When the industry said “Fashion is for thin folks”, I said “Hold my fans.” And yes, this was my first fashion week, and yes, I did close the show! 💅🏻 What an absolute dream Thank you @exhibita_lk for capturing this! #plussizefashion #plussizedancer #fairycore #selkie #fandance
Dreams do come true! Today I performed in New York Fashion Week in @selkie’s unbelievably gorgeous runway show at the St. Regis Hotel’s rooftop ballroom! 💗 I have such appreciation for @selkie on so many levels— from the unapologetic whimsy and magic of their aesthetic to their intentional, consistent inclusivity and commitment to creating fashion for all bodies. I’ll be posting more about the show this week, but for now, let me just say: WOW. The looks were incredible, the models and teams were so kind, my performance was an absolute blast, and the entire audience looked so great they could’ve stood on their own in the spotlight! But I think the absolute best part of today was realizing that this entire collection would have been brain-breaking to me when a teenager, but it would also have changed my life. Back then, my only option for clothing was whatever the one fat lady store at the mall had on sale. Young people weren’t supposed to be fat, so the clothes were targeted exclusively to office workers. I was rocking business casual looks at da club y’all! I was out there in chinos! It was not great. Even worse, it got the message knocking around in my impressionable brain that larger bodied people don’t deserve beautiful clothing, or to participate in girly or romantic behavior, or to draw attention to themselves at all, unless they’re performing weight loss penitence. I had to do a lot of hard work as an adult to unlearn those lessons, and one of the reasons I began performing burlesque was because I wanted to help adult women rethink their relationships to their bodies and their sexuality. But today, as I was laced into a corset covered in butterflies and swathed in soft sexy pink, I realized that when I most needed to see fashion like this was was a teen flipping through fashion magazines, trying to learn how style worked and seeing no one who looked like me, and nothing that spoke to me. Today I got to be the person teenage me really needed to see in fashion. I can’t imagine anything feeling better. @selkie, I’m so glad you’re here. You are everything I want fashion to be. Thank you so much for letting me be part of the magic. ✨🌙🔮
This photo!!! I love how I look shocked *and* concerned, like “What AM I going to do with all this ass, all this ass outside my jeans?!” If you are unable to refrain from sharing in the comments what you personally would like to do with all this ass, please tip me $50 at any of the links in my bio, as I am not here on the internet to get you off for free. Bisoux. 💋 Photo by @brokenglassfoto for @strippedavaldezproduction ✨
Loving this new duster- you can never have too much drama onstage! 🍊
Just saw an image of a crowded vintage beach scene w/ the caption “A Beach in the 70s. Not one fat body. My, how the food industry has destroyed us.” Fat people have always existed. It’s not shocking that they’re not in old beach photos— they were taught to hide. When y’all act like fat people are a brand new problem, you help prejudiced people feel justified in othering us & painting us as abnormal. We are not. Fat people have been around. Body diversity is normal. Every mammalian species exhibits it & we think nothing of a bigger gopher w/a smaller sister. There’s no need to rank gophers (or people) according to size. Capitalism HAS affected our population’s health in a bunch of ways, including what foods are available/ how they’re grown, but posts like this make it hard to talk about, because their framing is so reductive & misguided. Let’s talk about food deserts, or Monsanto, or the racist roots of fatphobic thinking, or how “obesity” is a made-up disease that prevents people from getting adequate healthcare. Or the ways an ever-increasing work week has changed our exercise habits. Or when diet drug Phen-Fen was taken off the market because it was killing people. Let’s talk about practical reasons for our fatter population, like folks living longer & having access to medical intervention. We could discuss the ways eating disorder treatment fails so many people who are suffering & then have the exact same conversation about bariatric surgery. We could talk about factory farming, or food choices being ascribed moral virtue, or America’s prejudice against disability being reflected in anti-fatness. We could discuss the “war on obesity” harming to people of all sizes, or food consumption as stress response, or the myriad ways people are denied access to psychiatric & medical care in America if it doesn’t line exactly the right pockets. Does that sounds like too much work? Is it too complicated to talk about fat in a way that encompasses data other than “calories in, calories out”’? You’re right. Let’s just say the problem is “the food industry” making people “fat”. That way, the solution is simple: just don’t be fat. That’s how this works, right?
Little peek at the studio. Love working with @boudoirbynomi & I think these are going to have a SUPER different feel than our last set. Maybe I’ll post some of those this week to remind you! 💋
Totally forgot I made the angry door guy at Sony Hall take this walk-by video of us showing off our outfits after the @newyorkburlesquefestival Saturday Spectacular. Look how cute we are tho!!! 🥰
Floating through a cotton candy dream @selkie NYFW. It felt exactly like it looks. 🩰🎀💗 📸: @ashleehuff #nyfw #fashionweek #whatiwore #pink #plussizefashion #selkie #runway
Every layer of this @selkie look was out of control but this butterfly corset/frilly panty situation was so flirty and fun! 💕🦋💅🏻 I’m going to try to find a close up photo to post next because I want to give the hair and makeup babes their flowers- they absolutely slayed everyone’s looks. #nyfw #fashionweek #selkie #butterflies #cottagecore #fairycore #pink #newyork #plussizefashion #runway #fatbabe #glamour #fashion #inclusizefashion 📸: @ashleehuff
Y’all I cannot ✨WAIT✨ for you to see the photos @boudoirbynomi took of me yesterday! We had so much fun shooting & playing with her new lights. 🥰
🦇 Happy Friday the 13th 🦇 Incredible 📸 by @ireallyhopeyouwin Incredible robe by @catherinedlish
It’s decorative gourd season, m*therf*ckers. 🍁 Last night’s @newyorkburlesquefestival show was incredible and judging by the amount of orange accents & costumes, we are READY FOR FALL! Thanks @angiepontani @jengapay for having me & curating one hell of a festival & @burlesquebishop, our lovely kittens & the whole team for keeping the wheels on the train! I know it takes a lot of people to make a festival go and I appreciate all of you ! 🧡
Last night at @newyorkburlesquefestival! Had so much fun. ✨ Lately I’m getting some wild comments about how I’m “sucking in” or misrepresenting my body in photos (in the skin tight clothes I wear?! which I take off onstage anyway? okay 👀). I thought it was probably time to come clean and expose the “real me” so please enjoy. 👹
Last night at @newyorkburlesquefestival! Had so much fun. ✨ Lately I’m getting some wild comments about how I’m “sucking in” or misrepresenting my body in photos (in the skin tight clothes I wear?! which I take off onstage anyway? okay 👀). I thought it was probably time to come clean and expose the “real me” so please enjoy. 👹
This week, I’ve been thinking about the way we view our bodies as projects. It’s almost as though they are imperfect paintings that always require just one final adjustment, no matter how long we’ve been working on them. Our culture encourages us to eye our bodies critically: optimize, perfect, sculpt, tone. We are taught it’s necessary to shape our bodies into whatever form is currently perceived as ideal. Of course, “ideal” is a moving target. The minute you buy a fat ass, thin is in again. We live in a society that rewards certain bodies while penalizing others, so it’s normal that we daydream about how our lives would be different if our bodies were different. But we do not need to be wait to live our lives until our bodies are perfect. Maybe you are putting off a beach vacation, trying a daring style, asking for a raise, flirting with someone gorgeous. “I’ll do it later,” you whisper. “When I’m better.” The thing is: you don’t need to be better. And you’re not guaranteed later. Let me be clear: All bodies have equal value. All human beings deserve respect. Your body is unrelated to your worth. You will not deserve love or happiness or respect more if you have a “better” body. Anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something. And listen—you are the ultimate expert on what you & your body need. I don’t necessarily think it’s wrong to change your body if that’s your desire. I’m just reminding you that you don’t have to placeholder your life until your body catches up to your goals. It is possible to live a life full of joy & love & fun in the body you have today. It is possible to find peace there. You just have to put down the paintbrush, step away from the canvas, and live. Live as though your body is already perfect, for one dinner or day. See how it feels. When you return to your canvas, look in new ways. Do you always need to scan for imperfections? What if the weird stuff is actually adding to the painting? What if the flaws make it interesting? What would happen if you hung the painting as it is? What if you never changed another thing about it? What would happen if you acknowledged that you are already a work or art?
Don’t torture yourself, Gomez. That’s my job. 🥀
Showgirl mode OFF at @descendonbend ⚡️I spent labour day weekend with a bunch of nomads in the Oregon outback and it was such a blast. I’ll be posting more about that at @lovejez if you’re interested… in showpony news, I’ll be in NYC twice in September for two very special shows, so stay tuned here for info on that! ✨ thanks @crizzlecalanca for the photo (and for everything.) ❤️
When your victory rolls give up before you do. Peep the tour shirt- I got it in Santa Fe this year. #latenight #faceoff #surrenderrolls
For anyone wondering how Meow Wolf went, I opened the sky! For folks who haven’t been, every Meow Wolf has an optional mystery you can try to solve, and when you get far enough in it, sometimes you get special powers. Opening the sky sets off a giant laser light show in the “sky” over everyone’s heads, and you can only accomplish it by sitting inside this giant robot & solving a puzzle. I did it! It was pretty great! I always try to do “the game” at every location, but I’ve never actually finished it before. Too much too wander around and gawk at (and truth told, I think the Denver mystery is a lot easier than those in Vegas and Santa Fe.)
🍊✨ What I wore. ✨🍊 Slipped on this very casual neon orange highlighter of a ruffled robe and made a mimosa onstage in —ahem— a very memorable way this weekend to celebrate my return to New York! #iykyk Thanks to everyone who cheered me on during my performance and a special shout-out to @edienightcrawler @momotarosound @rexhalligannyc @theaudreylove @menadominaze for helping me down a bottle of Veuve Clicquot between parties on Saturday with record speed so I could use it for a prop bottle on Sunday. I literally couldn’t have done it alone! 🥂🍾👯
Did everyone get a chance to admire the Blue Moon? It was gorgeous! If you didn’t… here’s your chance to admire a very blue photo of me at La BurlaBee! Sure it’s a different kind of “moon” but I think it still counts! 🌝
✨TOMORROW!✨ I can’t wait to show all of you how to make mimosas in the most ahem unusual way at the @newyorkburlesquefestival! Tix in bio, as always. I will be at the show tonight as well so if you see me, please say hi! 💕😝✨
Dream big, and you just might catch a falling star (or an orange! One should be prepared for surprises.) 💫🍊✨photo courtesy of @newyorkburlesquefestival
✨PORTLAND!✨ I’m teaching a live all levels fan dancing class on Saturday, Oct 28th! I know it’s a busy weekend but I hope some of you will be able to join me ❤️ details in link🌲
