Before you say literally anything.
Yeah.
I get it.
This look is admittedly a little Wonder Woman and Carmen San Diego went to the roller rink.
I dig it.
While I’m not planning on fighting crime anytime soon, I definitely feel strong in this outfit.
This jumpsuit was sent to me by the lovely crew over at Fashion Nova from their curve line. The badass silk duster (yes, it’s actually a dress) is a little gift I gave myself from Premme – my forever fave.
There’s another accessory here, a little bit more of an acquired taste : my belly.
Never felt good about my belly until maybe a couple of years ago. Maybe even until recently. There are some days that my belly feels “wrong”. It’s usually after I look at too many photos of girls without bellies like mine.
When I first tried this jumpsuit on I thought – oh well, it doesn’t fit.
It fits.
It just shows my body.
It shows my belly.
I was a little hesitant about wearing the outfit. But I figured hey – these gals were nice enough to send this to me. I’m gonna wear it and show it off.
My friend Courtney and I met up right after a cold front hit and the temperature dropped 30 degrees overnight. I spent a lot of time on my hair and makeup hoping to give myself some extra confidence.
As we shot, Courtney got low to the ground and pointed her camera up at me. I posed, laughed, played with my hair – did all the things I do during shoots. Mixed in some happy smiles with some come hither bedroom eyes. The works. Courtney asked me to cross my legs while standing very straight with my hands on my hips.
We took a few shots and she showed me the results.
There it was, my belly, boldly presented in red white and blue stripes.
Two days prior, a rude dude on Instagram had messaged me “you’re cute but cut off that mud flap” enraging me. Not just for myself. But for any woman who has had her person commented on so vulgarly.
I looked at the small digital images in Courtney’s hands as she held out her camera for me to take a look.
“I like this, I like how my belly looks” I said, sort of mystified by the words coming out of my mouth.
“I like your belly too” Courtney agreed.
Too bad the shoot was almost over, because courage and love had begun coursing through me.
I did like my belly. A lot. I liked that I wasn’t simply a straight line up and down and that this jumpsuit highlighted it.
It fit me. It really did.
I sent my boyfriend a scandalous text message and listened to Heart in rush hour traffic. I felt great.
Wow. ?