NY&Co and Me – Feature

by Tuesday, September 13, 2016

the_roberta_show2I work in fashion but I’m not a fashion blogger. If your a constant reader of this blog, you have a good idea as to where my passions lie. #IRL for the past ten years i’ve had a wonderfully accomplished career as a Web Designer/Art director. It’s how I gainfully bring home the turkey bacon and visually fuels my creative appetite. Every now and then I get an opportunity to combine my daytime and nighttime passions. New York and Company is the latest to give me the chance to bring some of my experiences full circle.

Back in the day – minus the first 75 pounds or so I was in desperate need of new clothing. I’d been wearing the same clothes for at least 3 years, adding pieces from Old Navy here and there, but for the most part my college wardrobe was solidified. Men’s XXL shirts, size 42 jeans and timberland boots were the most common staples.  Everything changed once I started losing weight – the exaggerated curves and bulges I tried to hide were shrinking at an astounding rate. It seemed that each month I was a size smaller than the one before. A good problem to have in retrospect, but at the time also financially costly. This is when I discovered New York & Company again after years of knowing it as “Lerners” in which my mother tried to force me to shop for back to school years previous.

Once I went from a women’s size 24 to about a 16 – nothing fit anymore. Some Saturday I stumbled into a NYCo and found the sale rack. In 2 or 3 years after I began to lose weight just about my entire wardrobe consisted of New York & Company on trend and timeless pieces. The marvel was that I could find a flattering lounge dress to cover my ever shapely silhouette but also a great pant suit suitable for job interviews and college graduations at the time. The affordable, yet trendy store happened to always be an effect of comfort when searching for clothes to fit me properly during the transitional weight loss period of my life. Shopping was challenging and downright degrading for a larger part of my life. I’m first in line to exclaim that this store is necessary. All shapes and sizes are welcome to look fashionable and without any social undertones about weight, whether we are talking about plus size or petite.

Fast forward to this decade,  less than two years ago I was apart of the eCommerce team responsible for building the website and marketing emails for 4 years. Fast forward to this year, i’m featured as a blogger in “The City” catalog and ON the website. Irony, I would have been the designer responsible for building the interactive web portion if I actually still worked there. I got to wear awesomely fitting jeans and styled myself into a funky ultra self. An amazing experience, an honor and more importantly for a brand that has a very relevant and memorable mark on the history of becoming me.

 

 

 

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