The girls arrived at our hotel in Chelsea on Thursday evening and went to our kick-off event, a cocktail hour with Torrid. I wore a top and skirt from H&M and black flats by Jessica Simpson. Clothes from Torrid's current collections hung on the walls, and we even got to try on their jeans and take home our favorite pair! I took the Source of Wisdom skinnies, which are absolutely amazing (great stretch and fabric quality). Chris Daniel, the president of Torrid, was in attendance, along with people from their marketing and PR teams. Everyone was truly interested in our feedback and I was honestly impressed with the clothes on display. I think Torrid has definitely improved over the past few years. Editors from Glamour.com, StyleList, and The Associated Press also interviewed us, and we were written up in each publication!
Friday morning we met up (super early) with Evans for breakfast. I went for a monochromatic look by wearing a grey striped dress from Faith21 with some cute grey heels by Forever21. We had to split up into three tables because our party was so large, but the Evans girls were amazing. I sat with their stylist who was so fun and we got to see sneak peeks of some of their recent photo shoots. We then went back to the Trump Soho hotel to see their fall preview, including the Beth Ditto collection. I think every girl fell in love with what they saw. Seriously, I cannot wait for the fall pieces to be released! I have to say it's the most fashion forward collection I have ever seen for plus sizes, and I am super excited. There is a ton of military inspired clothing, along with great materials and details. Everyone's favorite piece seemed to be the shearling coat, but I also loved a pair of velvet stretch trousers and a beautiful leopard print fur coat. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the Beth collection, but there were some adorable key items, and it's very different from what she put out last year.
We then headed to the Monif C. Boutique, where we ate (more), drank sangria, and discussed the history of each of our blogs. Monif then told us how she got started, and we tried on some of her clothes. I loved this event because it was very intimate and relaxed, and Monif was truly interested in hearing what we'd like to see from her in the future.
After we ran back to our hotel to change and freshen up, we all grabbed a cab and headed for Brooklyn for my favorite event of the weekend: the Meet & Greet! I wore a gold netted top from H&M and a body-con skirt from Forever21. I had an absolutely amazing time meeting you guys! I can't explain how much it meant to me to hear your stories and feedback. You are all truly inspiring! Thank you to everyone who came out, as well as a huge thanks to Deb and the entire team from Re/Dress NYC!
We packed a LOT into one day. For more pictures, check out yffconference.com. I know the posts there have slowed down, but there will be more over the next week or two. Our photographer is still editing pictures and I have a ton of video footage I want to post when I get the time. I will recap Saturday and Sunday in my next post. Below is a YouTube vid with conference clips that I made for my MTV contest. PLEASE VOTE for me (@gabifresh) if you haven't yet! http://apps.facebook.com/mtv-tj-search
Love love love to all of our sponsors who helped make this weekend possible: Torrid, Faith21, Evans, We Love Colors, SimplyBe, American Rag, City Chic, ModCloth, and Boutique Larrieux