Fall Fashion: Five Curvy Girl Must-Haves

Happy Thursday! Today I'm featured on Essence.com with my girl - friend & fellow fashionista Gabi Gregg of Gabifresh.com - sporting our favorite trends for Fall 2011. Huge shoutout to our photographer Brandon Haynes of B Haynes Photo for these amazing shots. Here are a few items we think are must-haves for the season...

LoveBrownSugar Feature: VOGUE Black

I am completely overwhelmed and overjoyed with this news. I found out over the weekend that yours truly has been featured in VOGUE!

Words can't even express how excited I am to be among the company of style greats like top model Ajak, stylists June Ambrose and Crystal Streets, and bloggers Tamu McPherson of All The Pretty Birds and Karen Blanchard of WhereDidUGetThat to name a few!

Photo courtesy Swagger360 for VOGUE Black.

I have to send a HUGE shoutout and internet hug to my good friend Guerre of Swagger 360 for snapping this amazing photo of me. Although my feet were killing me, he made me look like a glamazon. That's what great photographers do right? I saw Guerre everyday on my way to the tents at NY Fashion Week, snapping away and capturing beauties on the NYC pavement. I'm just glad to call myself one of his featured subjects. Anyway, check out the feature over at VOGUE Black.

Oh yeah, here are my outfit credits. (A few of you asked about my pink floral top from [THIS] post).

Fur coat: Vintage, Top: American Apparel, Pants: H&M, Shoes: Forever21, Fringe Bag: H&M, Ring: Forever21

Soundoff below - tell me what you think!

Kickin' It: IFB Conference Fall 2011

 Hey folks! Phew, what a whirlwind week and it's not even over yet! While I'm running around like a madwoman for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, I've had absolutely no time to fill you guys in on my whereabouts but I promise the neglect will soon cease! By Thursday, things will have slowed down and I'll be posting away about all my expeditions this season. In the meantime, here's a brief recap of my FAB time at the IFB Conference:

 This was my third season attending the Independent Fashion Blogger's conference and I had a blast. It's such a great time to meet people in the blogosphere that you communicate with regularly online but never get to see face to face! 

Karen of WhereDidUGetThat & I

I had the opportunity of bumping into Karen of WhereDidUGetThat while at the conference. She's such a sweetheart, and I absolutely adore her street style! Check out her blog, it does NOT disappoint.

I also had the chance to catch up with the lovely Gabi Gregg of Young, Fat & Fabulous. We had a ball at the conference. Gabi is also MTV's first-ever Twitter Jockey and she tweets for them over at @MTVTJ so make sure to keep up with her celebrity sightings and pop culture gab on Twitter. I also have the pleasure of FINALLY meeting Vahni of Grit & Glamour. Love her posts but we'd never met! And I also bumped into my namesake Christina, of Profreshstyle. As soon as I find a pic of her outfit, I will post. She looked amazing.

Pic snapped for Shopbop's Best Dressed Blogger contest.

 This year's conference, held at Milk Studios NY was extremely informative for new, and even established bloggers who wanted to learn and get feedback about how to make their blogs better. Sponsors included Shopbop, who hosted a really cool "Best Dressed Blogger" contest at their booth. TheFind, who provided the amazing goodie bags, and so many more! Special thanks to Jennine of The Coveted and Jess of Bits of Banter over at IFB for allowing me the opportunity to work behind the scenes during the conference. I got a chance to take video interviews of amazing bloggers for a video recap that the folks at IFB are working on. Can't wait to see what it looks like!

If you're a fashion blogger and you haven't signed up yet, head over to the IFB Website and register to join the community. It has helped me IMMENSELY not just with information, but also with networking opportunities. Anyone looking to grow their blog and make it better should be part of the community.

Catch up with you guys later! Follow LoveBrownSugar on Twitter for hour-by-hour updates of my fashion week experience.

 

LBS Runway Report: Rebecca Taylor Fall 2011

The Rebecca Taylor Fall 2011 collection was another one of my season favorites. I love how Rebecca's lines, no matter the season, are always feminine, fun and flirty. There are always appropriate pops of color and the beaded embellishments, long maxi silhouettes and tailored pieces in the Fall 2011 collection were enough to keep my attention going. 

 This beaded fuschia pieces was one of my favorites of the Fall 2011 collection. Fun & girly but still chic. Who says Fall has to be all about muted neutrals and long pants?

At the Rebecca Taylor show I ran into the fierce and fabulous June Ambrose once again, rocking another one of her iconic head accessories. June loves a good fur.

I also bumped into Garcelle Beauvais! Remember her? Fancy on The Jamie Foxx Show? I was surprised to see her but she looked amazing. Clad in Rebecca Taylor as well.

Overall, a great show. I enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing what she has in store for next spring, come September.

NYFW Kickoff: Heart Truth's Red Dress + Bar III Launch Party

 On the official kickoff night to Mercedes Benz Fashion Week I had a ball attending my first show of the season, The Heart Truth’s Red Dress collection, and kicking it in the Flatiron district for the pop-up store launch of Bar III!

LoveBrownSugar's New York Fashion Week Begins!

It's that time of the year again! You know, the time of the year when runway reviews overtake the site, celebrity sightings and subsequent Twitpics abound and street style photos are a daily occurrence? Cue the Andy Williams soundtrack "It's-the-most-wonderful-time-of the year!" It's New York Fashion Week ladies and gents!

Kelly Roland & Ashlee Simpson, BCBG SP'11 Runway Show

Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week doesn't officially kick off until tomorrow February 10th, but believe it or not I'll be covering my first few shows between this afternoon and this evening. At 2pm today, I'll be attending the Jsong Way show and this evening at 7PM will officially begin my coverage under the tents with the Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection. Each day I'll be giving you guys a taste of NYFW as I see it, from celebrity interviews to runway pics and fun videos so stay tuned and check back daily.

As part of my New York Fashion Week coverage, I'm proud to announce that LoveBrownSugar will be welcoming a new contributor to the site! Thus far, you guys have heard mainly from myself with the occasional cameo from my bff Jasmine touting her beauty regimen and recommended products.Well now I'm welcoming a new fashionista to the family. Her name is Sisi and she's the fab blogger behind MyModestMouth. With my crazy hectic NYFW schedule, I knew I couldn't take on this season's shows without a little help and fortunately this lovely diva came to the rescue...

Sisi, Blogger, MyModestMouth.com

 Be sure to check out her blog AND vote for her! She is one of the Top 3 contestants on Refinery29's Style Blogger competition. All you have to do is head over to the contest page HERE and vote! Contest closes this weekend so head over there now and show her some LBS love!

Me, Angela Simmons, Kanayo Ebi 

Before I head off to the craziness that is Fashion Week, here are 3 things you should do to keep up with the madness on LoveBrownSugar (and make me feel like this all worth while):

1) Follow me on Twitter! I'm a maniac on that thing, but I promise if you follow, you'll enjoy the ride. I'll be taking twitpics of the collections as I see them, as well as the celebs I see front row.

2) 'Like" LoveBrownSugar on Facebook! All the runway photos I take that don't end up on LoveBrownSugar.com, end up in the Facebook Photo Albums. So if you'd like to see the collection photos right on your mini feed, just head over and click 'Like'. I mean, I like you all! Hopefully you like me too :)

3) Subscribe to LoveBrownSugarTV on Youtube! All my celebrity front-row interviews will be available here, as well as the final walkthroughs for each of the shows. Don't miss a beat!

Wish me luck and be sure to check back daily for updates. Also, comment below and tell me - which shows are you most looking forward to and why? I wanna know your favorite designers. Soundoff below!

Flavor of Friday: Fashion Week Prep Secrets

Harper's Bazaar posted this really cute feature on popular fashion bloggers and what their Fashion Week prep secrets are. Well as I'm gearing up for next week's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week craziness as well, I figured I would give a hand at the Q&A. I may not have been featured, but I still have my secrets to share! Here they are...