Lean Into the Joy of Dressing Up
I share my top five holiday style tips for special-occasion dressing this season with ELLE Canada.
Photo Courtesy of PENN. X Meredith
Meredith in the press — elle canada | words BY: Allie Turner
Meredith Shaw’s approach to her holiday collection with PENN. was very much rooted in care. The Breakfast Television host and radio personality is putting the women who will wear this collection at the centre of every choice she made, and she learned a lot in the process.
Shaw had previously collaborated with PENN. back in the spring to curate a plus-size summer dress collection, but, this time, she designed the pieces. “I couldn’t have said yes fast enough,” she tells ELLE Canada over Zoom. “It’s one of those moments where it’s just a dream come true.”
The collection has been a couple of years in the making, according to Shaw, and there were many practicalities to consider on top of the fun stuff. Shaw says she compressed all her years of experience as a model and plus size fashion expert on television and put it into the new pieces. Ultimately, she wanted to take all of the conversations she’s had and all of the frustrations she’s felt and address them with this collection.
“Inclusive fashion in this country has a lot of issues,” she says. “PENN. does it really well, but you still see where some of the pitfalls are in how it gets out to customers, how it’s spoken about.”
Shaw has also seen a lot of gaps in the conversation. She didn’t like that bodies were being talked about as if they were a problem to be solved. “What I wanted to do with these pieces is lean into a lot of the joy,” she explains. “The learning for me has been about ‘How do we keep it joyful?’”
In honour of her new collection, we asked Shaw to share her top five holiday style tips for special-occasion dressing this season.
