Queen Latifah Doesn't Like The Term "Plus Size"

By Jenna Sauers  |  May 23, 2011 | 4:30pm
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Queen Latifah says plus-size “is a word we need to bury at this point.” Promoting her just-announced line for HSN, Queen Latifah said her collection will feature plus-size clothes but is not a plus-size line because “it’s for all sizes.” The line, to be called Queen, will launch in August and will include sweaters, jeans, leggings, T-shirts, handbags, and clip-in hair extensions. “The truth is,” she says, “we all would like to wear the same clothes. We all want to wear beautiful, fly clothes no matter what size you are, and so for me it was important to match with a company that understood and respected that ideal.” In fact, this is part of why the actress — who prefers to wear Prada, Louis Vuitton, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Carmen Marc Valvo, and Gucci in her own life — hasn’t ventured into fashion until now. “I felt like larger girls were not respected, even though we are huge consumers. I felt the marketplace didn’t respect us in the way it should. I was not going to step out with a clothing line that didn’t respect a fuller-figured woman or a curvaceous woman, and really all women.” [WWD]

Meanwhile, HSN is pulling the toucan brooch from the Iris Apfel jewelry collection that was revealed last week to be a copy of a brooch by the designer Hanna Bernhard. HSN admitted that the Apfel collection was never intended to be anything other than knock-offs of Apfel’s own favorite pieces. “Iris Apfel’s collection for HSN is intended to share her interpretations of some of her vintage jewelry pieces. Mrs. Apfel explained to HSN that, like many of her pieces, she purchased her toucan brooch from a flea market and believed it was a vintage piece. As we have discovered that this is not a vintage piece, the brooch will be removed from the collection.” [The Cut]

We admit we do not entirely understand Giovanna Battaglia‘s Cannes dress. [Fashionologie]

On the left, a Rodarte for Target dress, designed in 2009 and currently on sale for $15.74. On the right, a Guess by Marciano dress, new in stores and priced at $168. Isn’t the point of a knock-off that it’s cheaper than the original? [Fashionista]

Chanel Iman and Fei Fei Sun are the latest faces of DKNY Be Delicious perfume. A fragrance campaign without a white girl in it — there’s something you don’t see every day. [FGR]

  • Jimmy Choo was sold to Labelux, a luxury conglomerate, for some $800 million. [Deal Book]
  • Coco is launching a clothing line. It’s billed as “For the everyday woman with curves.” You know, ladies who “have that extra stretch within their step.” Or who “need an extra lift for her gift [sic].” [NYDN]
  • American Apparel‘s latest ads for its denim collection feature lots and lots of boobs. [Copyranter]
  • The movie in which Gemma Ward plays a mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, took in $256 million this weekend, breaking the record previously set by the last Harry Potter film. [NYDN]
  • Brooklyn Decker liked Bridesmaids so much she saw it twice on opening weekend. Her praise for Kirsten Wiig’s scene with Jon Hamm: “She has her little boobies out and her blond hair. She was hot!” [NYDN]
  • Gucci is launching a $50,000 annual award for the best documentary film highlighting women’s issues. [Vogue UK]
  • Princess Beatrice‘s hat sold for £81,101 on eBay, setting a record for the price paid for head coverings that resemble female reproductive organs. [Telegraph]
  • Rent the Runway just attracted another $15 million in venture capital. [WWD]
  • Something called the Hairdressing Council polled salons on customers’ most-requested hairstyles. Audrey Hepburn‘s Breakfast at Tiffany’s up-do won. [CM]
  • Anthropologie joined Tumblr. The name of its page? Etymologie. [WWD]
  • Here’s what happened when Cass Bird went to shoot Daria Werbowy on a boat for T: “While the fashion team struggles to get their sea legs on board, Werbowy is a natural, taking hold of the wheel, pulling at this, tugging at that and instructing our trusty crew on how to navigate these preternaturally blue Caribbean waters. She pours drinks (mojitos at 11 a.m. — why not?) and performs karaoke. (Ace of Base is a top choice.) When she talks about sailing, it’s obvious that it grounds her — she even has an anchor tattooed on her index finger. ‘Sailing is the closest I can get to nature — it’s adrenaline, fear, a constant challenge and learning experience, an adventure into the unknown,’ she says. ‘And of course there is nothing better than wearing the same T-shirt for days and not brushing my hair for weeks.’ With that, Werbowy jumps into the ocean in all her clothes. ‘Shooting Daria is like shooting LeBron James,’ Bird explains. ‘She gives you 30 minutes of pure heaven and ecstasy, and that’s it. She’s over it, bored, and we’re done.'” Werbowy once sailed across the Atlantic with her father and sister. [T]
  • Paulina Porizkova wrote a column about dealing with her anxiety, depression, and taking Lexapro. “When I had to have a physical for insurance on America’s Next Top Model, I truthfully wrote down the only medication I took, Lexapro. Writing was admitting it, and I did so with a fair bit of trepidation. Unfortunately, this was promptly broadcast all over the ANTM production set. It seems I couldn’t be properly insured on a TV set if I was taking an antidepressant. I had just started taking it, and this reaction was exactly what I had feared. I was judged crazy. Unstable. It was almost enough to get me to stop it before it had even had a chance to work. Fortunately, the woman in charge of all this paperwork laughed and admitted that she was also taking said medication — weren’t we all? The production could just write a waiver taking their chances with crazy ol’ me. And they did.” [HuffPo]
  • Rosie Huntington-Whiteley learned to walk like a runway model from her gay Jamaican room-mates. [P6]
  • Kate Moss Wedding Scuttlebutt Scoop: “Snoop Dogg To Perform At Kate Moss’ Wedding: And he explains why he turned down an offer to perform at Prince William’s stag do.” [MTV UK]
  • Dior Rumor Mill Daily Grind: “Gruesome rumour but gruesome year, so for what it’s worth… : DRIES VAN NOTEN AT DIOR. Yeah, I know.” Robin Schulié is a Paris-based fashion buyer. [@RobinSchulie]
  • Balmain, home of the $1625 ripped t-shirt, is launching a lower-priced line. It’ll be called Pierre Balmain and we expect “lower-priced” to be entirely relative. [WWD]
  • Stefano Pilati of Yves Saint Laurent is doing the costumes for the forthcoming revival of Pinter’s Betrayal in London. Kristin Scott Thomas stars. [FFG]
  • Alber Elbaz of Lanvin has bought a 1.5 bedroom apartment in the Apthorp building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was listed at $6.2 million. [City Room]
  • Here, Erdem Moraglioglu takes a walk around the Tate Britain. He likes David Hockney, Lucien Freud, and Gerald Brockhurst, and speaks engagingly about each. [Tate]
  • Prada‘s long-delayed IPO is set to take place on June 23 or 24 in Hong Kong. The company is expected to sell a 20% stake, and analysts believe that the IPO could value Prada at up to $9.5 billion. [WWD]
  • La Perla is opening 19 new stores in Asia in the next seven months. [WWD]
  • In other lingerie news, Elle MacPherson Intimates is launching a bridal collection. [WWD]

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