Curves, Cocktails & Clothing at Akira's First Plus Size Fashion Show

By Michele Lenni in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 27, 2011 4:30PM

Go to any grocer, book store or news stand and pick up one of the many fashion, and or, women's magazines that blanket the shelves and you'll see the myriad of gaunt women gracing the faces of these publications, with the occasional Kardashian thrown in for good measure. The truth is that even though most of these magazines give their ideal of what women do and should look like, nothing could be further from the truth. While most models and mannequins don a size zero to, at the very largest, a size two, this is pure fiction compared with what the statistics show for what real women look like and actually wear.

According to the Los Angeles Times most women in the United States average out at about 162.9 pounds and wears a size 14. Compared with the Heidi Klum's and the Marisa Miller's of the world, this is quite a bit larger. Though strides have been made recently with plus size celebrities like Christina Hendricks and Kim Kardashian becoming sex symbols and fashion icons, there is quite a ways to go before the ideal set forth on the cover of Vogue is at all in line with reality.

One step in the right direction is taking place Thursday at 7 p.m. when local fashion retailer Akria holds its very first plus-size fashion show. Models will work the runway in Akira's fashions at their newest location in Andersonville. In addition to seeing beautiful, curvy women work it on the runway, there will be free drinks and hor’dourves plus raffles all night. Women and men in attendance will be treated to sales like buy one get one half off as well as buy one get on free on all clearance items. Though this may seem like a very small step in leveling the playing field for women of all sizes, it truly is a step, or sashay, in the right direction.

Akira's First Plus Size Fashion Show, Thursday, July 28 at 7:00 p.m., 5228 N. Clark St., Free Admission