A Closet 52 Review

 *These dresses were gifted to me from Closet52 for the purpose of review. All opinions are my own and as always, thank you for supporting Prim and Propah.

It's been awhile since I did a review of clothing on the blog. To be honest, the past couple of years has not made me feel the greatest about my body. It's been a struggle to get my brain to get back to that place of kindness, a place of understanding... so to do a photo shoot with dresses, showing off my body in clothes, well, it wasn't at the top of my list of things I wanted to do. But when Closet52 reached out, something said to me, well, what could it hurt and honestly, it could actually help my self esteem a little bit. And I was right. Based in NYC, this brand wants to outfit anyone in the dress that they are dreaming about, at a great price and a great fit.

Floral Midi Dress

First of all, when the dresses arrived from Closet52, they all fit! You may be like ok, why is that such a big deal but often times, when trying a new brand, I may be really disappointed when the sizing is off or varies from item to item. These all fit and fit great. From the stretchy floral midi dress, to the less flexible polka dot dress, the fit was consistent with my Size Large/Size 12 norm.

Sleeveless Polka Dot Dress

The quality is pretty great too! I am not a fan of the hanger straps on these dresses but that's an easy problem to solve with a careful snip, but other than that, these dresses are comfortable, great quality and are just the right length for someone who like to wear bike shorts under her dresses during the hot Summer months... I am nothing if not practical AND stylish! I feel like the selection of dresses is pretty extensive and when searching, you're able to see what stock is like in case you're on the fence about purchasing and don't want to experience FOMO.

 Tiered Chambray Dress

Overall, I'd say that Closet52 is a pretty good option for finding good quality dresses that are unique enough to garner you some compliments while you're out and about this Summer. I can often feel like fast fashion is making it so that everyone is buying the same exact thing and you're seeing it on everyone. While this is generally OK, I do like to be a little bit different than others and also buy dresses that will last. Also, I'll never be mad about 2-day shipping, always.

You can find Closet52 on their website, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.

Curvy is Sexy + Vedette Shapewear Giveaway

Vedette sees all women are pretty regardless of size and shape so when we started chatting about me supporting the initiative, Curvy is Sexy, I was all about it! I was challenged to style a piece of Vedette Shapewear as an integrated part of my outfit. I thought I would take this one in a casual way, to show how we could wear this in an every day way. This past weekend, the man and I were preparing to hit up a Vintage Antiquities Market so I thought I would see how I could work the Lea Body Shaper into my Sunday look. Don't fret my friends, it was a lot easier than it seems to incorporate something so svelte into a look where I could feel comfortable and my curves looked fab.

Why so Mean to Kelly Clarkson, People?

In watching Saturday Night Live this past weekend, I was a little taken aback by host Charles Barkley and Musical Guest, Kelly Clarkson... if only because I sort of feel that neither are 100% relevant right now. Once the show started though, I thoroughly enjoyed Charles Barkley as the host and I was reminded of how friggin' talented that Kelly Clarkson really is. I have seen many a SNL where the musical guest sounded, flat out horrible live... but Kelly, now there is a true talent.

So here I am enjoying myself and imagine how absolutely peeved that I was when I saw my Twitter feed blowing up with people dogging on Kelly Clarkson for being fat.... and actually tweeting to her about it. Ummm, hello people, Kelly Clarkson can actually see those tweets. Would you tell your friend or even a casual acquaintance that they looked fat? I don't think so.

Bad manners aside, I think that this type of public reaction to someone's personal appearance is something of societal tragedy. Are we that obsessed with weight, youth and beauty, that physical looks automatically trump absolutely amazing talent? Here, I'll show you some examples of the complete superficiality:

@fsmikeyL 100%. Kelly clarkson loves to eat ham
@IlickBrains Clearly if Kelly Clarkson "Just Walked Away" she wouldn't be at her size.
@willnoonan Since You've Been Gone, Kelly Clarkson has been eating.
@brandnirwin Kelly Clarkson weighs more than Charles Barkley

Those weren't the worst but you get the idea...


Now there were no great pictures that I could snag of her performance but check out this video of her Mr. Know It All performance that night.... OK, welcome back. Please also see pictures of Kelly below from VH1 Divas, the American Music Awards and recent NFL event. I THINK KELLY LOOKS GREAT. Yes, she has gotten some curves that perhaps weren't there the last time we all took a look at her but seriously people, she is an average American woman that you are putting down here. I bet you that Kelly Clarkson and I might be pretty close in size (well I have more chest while she has more butt) and it kind of hurt my feelings that the Twitterverse was giving her a hard time.

Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images North America, Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images North America, Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images AsiaPac

I think that girls today need to have great role models. I love to look and feel beautiful. I love to daydream about wearing designer clothes and dressing up to look glam but if society is telling me that I have to be model thin to actually be beautiful? Geesh, what kind of message is that. Should I not even bother? I am SURE that Kelly Clarkson's feelings were hurt by the mean tweets, how could they not be? She is an absolute power house of natural talent that I could only dream of having. And to boot? She is a curvalicious and beautiful woman. Seriously people, why so mean to Kelly Clarkson?

Where do you weigh in on this? (no pun intended)