Designing Diva Hip clothes for full figures

When Abbie Lynn Kearse, 34, was offered a chance to emerge fromher behind-the-scenes job at MTV and become an on-air reporter, sheturned the seeming dream job down. The reason? A warped body imageand personal insecurities. "I wanted to be on the air, but Iwasn't ready to deal with being under a microscope,"explains Kearse, whose full figure initially hindered her from TVstardom.

But six years later, after turning 30 and experiencing thelife-altering loss of her grandmother, Kearse decided to tossapprehension aside and ask her bosses for another shot at 15minutes of fame. The only problem? Though equipped with a newfoundconfidence, Kearse couldn't find any fun, hip clothing to fither plus-size figure. "They'd usually hand me somethingfrom Bill Bellamy's wardrobe, like an oversizedwindbreaker," says Kearse. Not wanting to dress like a rapperevery day, Kearse was determined to find clothes to reflect hergirlie, glam-rock image.

"Nothing represented what I was about," says Kearse,"and there wasn't anybody going out of their way to helpme, so it fell into my hands." Diligently studying fashionmagazines, Kearse sketched designs and had tailors whip them up. In1998, when MTV didn't renew the on-air portion of her contract,she left her salary behind and stopped working.