VSG Verified: What I’m Bringing to You (and Why You Can Trust It).

VSG Verified

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My Promise & Receipts Folder

If you’re new to VSG – Very Stylish Girl, start here. This is my receipts folder: who I am, where I’m from, and why I only bring you what I’ve lived, tested, and truly believe in — especially for plus-size and age-full women.

Welcome to a VSG Verified space. New here? Start with the Shop, then read the Blog, then meet me on the Podcast.And if you’re plus-size, 40+, or both — you’re exactly who I built this for.

There’s something you should know before you go any further with me:

This is my receipts folder, so let me be clear:

I only talk about, write about, recommend, or sell products and services that I have truly tried, tested, and verified for myself.

No exceptions. No “just for the coin.” No pretending.No “fake it ’til you make it.” Around here, it’s earned, not claimed.

I do not and will not team up with any brand, label, business, or person I have not vetted.

If it shows up on this site, it’s because I believe it can serve real women — especially plus-size women and women of a certain age — with honesty, usefulness, and respect.

This is a VSG Verified space. Plus-size friendly. Age-friendly. Reality-friendly. And I earned every inch of it.

What You Can Expect from VSG – Very Stylish Girl

On this site, you’ll find:

Only vetted recommendations. If I haven’t worn it, used it, sat in it, walked around in it, sweated in it, washed it, or lived in it — I’m not pushing it.

Plus-size at the center, not the side. I have always been plus-size. I know what it means to love fashion and still have to fight for a decent waistband, a real sleeve, or a dress that doesn’t ride up.

Age-inclusive style. I honor faces with laugh lines, bodies with stories, and closets that have lived a little. Wigs when we feel like it. Stilettos sometimes. Red lips when the mood says yes. Soft nudges forward. We’re not squeezing into anybody’s idea of “still got it” — we never lost it.

Useful, honest information. Fit notes, fabric truths, what really works for travel, work, holidays, and real life. Not fantasy shopping.

I’m not here to impress the industry. I’m here to serve the women who’ve been ignored by it.

Big, Black, Beautiful — and Desired

Let me say this plainly: Big, Black, beautiful women are desired. That desire has always been there — even when the world tried to twist it, hide it, or exploit it.

Look back to the early 1800s and Sarah Baartman’s story. It’s a reminder that Black women’s bodies were objectified and exploited long before social media ever had an opinion. The world didn’t suddenly discover curves in the age of Instagram. Our bodies have been watched, wanted, used, copied, and critiqued for centuries.

The difference here is:

I am not here to exploit that history. I am here to reclaim it, honor it, and style it on our terms.

VSG is a space where we know the story — and we show that we know.

Where I’m From Shapes What I See

I am a Queens girl through and through. Queens taught me people, flavor, and point of view. New York City — especially in the 80s & 90s — sharpened my eye, cut my teeth and my hustle. Global view.

FIT grounded me. That campus gave me language, training, and tools for what I already knew in my bones. NYC has always shaped my style: bold, direct, polished, but never trying too hard. Under all of that is my classy / sassy Southern base, always just under the surface — the “yes please”, the good coat, the family pride, the belief that when you step out, you step out right. My roots are U.S. Military, my wings are New York, and VSG lives in the middle of that tension and grace.

 “College fashion show in a dress I designed and sewed myself, walking in Manolo Blahniks. I wasn’t just wearing clothes — I was building my point of view.”

Sewing My Own Lane

Because the world didn’t always offer what I wanted, I made most of my own clothes. That’s where my style voice really nested and took shape.

I wasn’t chasing every trend, but I always had style.

By high school I was:

• raiding my daddy’s closet for jackets, ties and shirts,

 “1980 field study with my fashion crew. I’m in my dad’s black neck tie & suit Jacket , my mother’s fuchsia top, and my grandmother’s black / fuchsia mix matched gloves — science on the schedule, style in my spirit.”

• digging through my grandmother’s wardrobe for treasures,

• and recreating masterworks from an already stellar baseline.

Sequins? Yes.

Silk and satin? Of course.

The power pantsuit and stilettos? In full rotation —

before people even had language for it.

I wasn’t just wearing clothes.

I was building a point of view.

The Original Side Hustle: Styling Before It Had a Name

By 15, I was already:

• modeling

• styling

• coordinating fashion shows

And I became a personal shopper for my neighbor as a little side hustle. Every mother and cousin in my Queens neighborhood knew: if you needed fashion, you called Kimberly.

“High school yearbook autograph — ‘You’re the best fashion coordinator I ever had.’ I was styling outfits and shows long before anyone called it a career.”

My own high school yearbook has the receipts. One of my classmates wrote:

“You’re the best fashion coordinator I ever had.”

I wasn’t calling myself a fashion coordinator — they were.

Fashion was my headline and my hotline. They trusted me with their events, their bodies, and their budgets.

I didn’t know then that I was training to become the VSG — Very Stylish Girl, Verified Style Guru — but that’s exactly what was happening.

 “Early ’90s traveling fashion troupe — we did parties and shows for local designers. I’m in the black outfit I made and sold after the event. Side hustle before social media had a name for it.”

From Queens to Campus to Seventh Avenue

When I got accepted to Southampton College on a scholarship, nobody was surprised.

Southampton was known mainly for health sciences and marine science, and for most African American families then, the “good path” for daughters was clear: be a teacher, nurse, or social worker. Respectable. Stable. Safe.

But I always knew fashion was my highline — my calling, my main track.

So when that first summer session wrapped and I chose a different direction, no one who really knew me was shocked. I left, packed up my sewing kit and my style, and headed where I truly belonged: the Fashion Institute of Technology.

I worked part-time, went to school, and tore up New York City in the 80s — in the best way. I was:

• learning the business,

• learning the city,

• and learning how to survive and thrive as a plus-size Black woman in a very particular world.

From FIT, I entered the Executive Training Program at Alexanders Department Store, and that’s where the business of fashion got real.

I landed as an Assistant Buyer in the Better Dresses department and for five years:

• I earned my space,

• I learned the rules,

• and I practiced the art of buying with integrity and skill.

 “Assistant Buyer, Better Dresses at Alexanders — pre-computer ladder plans, Hot pink blazer, real numbers. This is where I learned to buy with integrity and skill.”

One of the Few: A Black Buyer on Seventh Avenue

For almost my entire forty-plus years on Seventh Avenue, there were rarely more than three Black buyers in the room at the same time.

I used to call it the quiet “3.5 rule” — that’s how they counted us in America: three Black buyers, and maybe a fractional seat if someone was in training or visiting. You could count us on one hand and still have fingers left.

People should know: the numbers have shifted, but not that much has changed.

In an industry built on the backs, bodies, and brilliance of people of color — especially Black women — that unspoken rule sat in the background.

I saw it. I lived it. I navigated it.

And through all of that, I held onto my standards:

• Don’t play with people’s money.

• Don’t play with people’s bodies.

• Don’t sell what you don’t believe in.

• Don’t let anyone shame you for your size, age, or story.

Those are not just personal values — they’re now the backbone of VSG.

Why This Matters for You

I share all this not as a résumé, but as a receipts folder.

When you read a blog post here, ask for styling help, or buy something I’ve curated or created, you’re stepping into a space built on:

• decades of experience,

• real-life testing on real-plus bodies,

• industry knowledge from the inside,

• and a lifetime of style lived out loud, in Queens, in New York, and beyond.

This is:

• Plus-size and age-full style without apology.

• A vetted, verified space where your time and coins are respected.

• A home for women who are done settling for “good enough.”

The VSG Promise: Do Zero Harm

My promise is simple: Do zero harm.

I am — and have always been — in the business of helping women feel and see how beautiful we truly are, right now, in the bodies we live in today.

So join us. Trust the journey. Give grace as the rocket takes off.

GREATER LATER — let’s go.