We are always inspired and amazed by the extraordinary lives of those within the Dia community. Our Style Tastemakers Series introduces you to those who are using their voice and their style to inspire others.

Virgie Tovar is the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat, The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color, and The Body Positive Journal. She is a contributor for Forbes where she covers the plus-size market and how to end weight discrimination at work. Her Webby-nominated podcast, Rebel Eaters Club, is now in Season 3. She lives in San Francisco.

Get to Know Virgie

Oh gosh! Well I have to share two: one is a Dia highlight and one is an 11 highlight.

I immediately thought of 11 Honoré opening NYFW in 2019. 11 was a new company. I had just done my first interview with Patrick, and he blew my mind with his vision and his witchy wisdom. He asked if I wanted to come to NYFW. Um. YES. Then he invited me to 11 Honoré's former HQ in LA, which was gorgeous and full of crystal obelisks. He even gave me one because I'm a witch too! He told me to go into the closet and pick something to wear for the fashion week show. So I'm in this truly gaga dream closet, trying on these brands I'd never thought I'd have in my closet! I tried on this purple chiffon gown from Reem Acra that had just come back from a shoot with Teen Vogue and a creamy Monique Lhuillier dress. I'm literally salivating thinking about it. Then I get to New York for fashion week, and the studio for the 11 Honoré show is a who's who of every plus-size name you can imagine. They announce that the runway show is about to happen. So everyone takes their seats, and the room goes quiet, and then I hear the downbeat to the Fleetwood Mac song, Dreams. And then there's just Stevie Nicks' voice and these gorgeous plus-size bodies on the runway. Wow! I had the chills and was crying the entire show, just unbelievable. Truly something my little girl self would have never believed was in her future.

A similarly magical little Virgie dream-come-true moment was from a few years earlier when Dia asked if I'd come to New York and model some clothes for an upcoming release. They even flew out a good friend of mine, another plus-size powerhouse, Fallon Young, to be in the shoot. So we arrive at this gorgeous, huge space and it's buzzing with photographers and stylists. There's a mountain of food for craft services. They take us to hair and makeup, and there are two women doing my nails while this unforgettable stylist, Chuckie @chuckielovehair (who, by the way, styles Solange (!!!)) worked on my hair. The photo shoot was totally wild and amazing! The photographer asked me what music made me feel most like myself, and I said (wait for it...) Stevie Nicks. So she put on Fleetwood Mac, and then proceeded to tell me top hop like a bunny and sprint around as she photographed me in my Dia looks. Chuckie was holding a leaf blower so my hair would look windswept! Ah, isn't that amazing? After that day, Fallon told me that she never thought in a million years that she'd have an experience like this as a plus-size person. I knew exactly how she felt.    

Farm Rio!! Farm Rio, please hear the siren song of the plus-size human your clothes were meant for! Though they do collab with Anthropologie, you can't get most of their styles in plus, and I personally need to own every item of clothing with enormous bananas, toucans, and pineapples on it!

I'm currently waiting on one highly anticipated item: the Poptart Ritz Gown from Selkie. Oh my goodness, the drama. There's like 45 yards of pink organza on this thing, and the brand really opened my mind to how you can make gowns into a daywear casual thing. So decadent. I love it. I'm always on the lookout for a dramatically huge coat. I definitely need more shoes for events and parties, more silky pajamas, more clothing with fruit and/or cake on it. 

I want fashion to do what I want the culture to do: create a world for the bodies that actually exist. I want mainstream fashion to stop throwing the plus-size customer under the bus and expecting more of us than they do from their straight-size customer. We are so heavily scrutinized when sales under-perform for a single quarter in our category, while no one bats an eye if the extra-small, small or medium customer under-performs. The companies who are saying that it's too risky to invest in plus are the very same companies who are investing in Web3, which, hello, doesn't functionally exist last I checked? I want to see every fashion school teaching plus-size patterning and providing plus-size fit models (basically none of them do that right now). I NEVER want to see another NYFW roster without a single plus-size show again.

11 Honoré and Dia are really, truly titans and leaders and voracious advocates for the plus-size customer. I love love love Nadia and Patrick so much! Just thinking of their faces makes me tear up! They work so hard, and I know they lose sleep over how to best protect the plus-size industry and the plus-size customer from an often harsh news/cultural climate. So, a big part of my heart will always be indebted to them for that. I love that the integration lets plus-size shoppers have it all: gorgeous clothes in every style at every price point.

I choose The Ruby SF. It's the home of my beloved creative community in San Francisco. It's a one-stop shop for friends, professional development, idea incubation, events, rest, social justice, healing, co-working, and fashion inspiration!

The Ruby SF: SOMArts: https://somarts.org/)

Keep up with Virgie's work, life & style on Instagram @virgietovar or at www.virgietovar.com.

Buy Virgie's The Body Positive Journal, read her work on Forbes, and listen to her podcast, The Rebel Eater's Club.