📸: Hallmark Gold Crown
I give this movie 9 out of 10 vomits
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
🟢 Plot 🟢
Ella’s unique designs inspire publishing mogul Derek to include plus-sized fashion in his magazine. Soon, Derek begins to realize that Ella’s influence reaches far beyond the catwalk.
🟢 The Stars 🟢
Jaicy Elliot – Ella
Benjamin Hollingsworth – Derek
🟢 Non Spoiler Spew 🟢
Yaaaass to body positivity! I really hope Hallmark continues with movies like this, but make them more normal. I don’t want them to keep repeating this same story line but changing it up by switching job positions. I want from here on out for there to be more full figured women in their movies.
To have a completely different script than what Hallmark normally give us was refreshing. These past few movies have been something different we haven’t seen and I am liking this direction. It was a really realistic story and that is what made me like it even more. Yeah there was still drama, but there is this form of drama that does happen in the workplace. There are also lots of people out there who are insecure in their own bodies, so it is nice to have a movie that builds up full figured women.
Seeing Ben and Jaicy together was wonderful! They played off each other very well. Yeah they were standoffish at first, but that is what the script called for. But when the script calls for the characters to warm up to each other, boy do they. They playfulness they had with each other was amazing to see. You could totally tell that they have a friendship off the screen.
I am ALL ABOUT this movie! I love that they are showing that even if you are a full figured woman you can still become a fashion designer. Yes, I know this is just a movie. But hopefully this will inspire someone to take that chance and be that change.
🔴 Summary Spoiler Spew 🔴
Ella is a seamstress who is helping out for Fashion Week. Her work gets praised by a famous designer, Annie, and the dress she is wearing, that she made herself.
We start a new day and Ella is at a local coffee shop where a man on the phone in front of her is taking a long time to tell the Barista what type of milk he wants in his coffee. Ella confronts him and tells him to hurry up. When they are both done getting their coffee they both head the same way to the magazine where her friend works. Ella’s friend shows her the are where she will be helping out with the designer clothes.
Ella totally overreacted about the whole coffee thing. Don’t get me wrong, Derek was bad at ordering, but the barista should have spoken up a bit more. Previously working in a café, you need to speak up a bit more and be a little more stern.
One scene I for sure did not like was when Derek and Ella were at the elevator. When the elevator comes down he says ‘this is us’ and she says ‘there is no us’. What the heck is that about
You know, I do love the bright clothes Ella wears. Pink jacket, orange blouse, and green pants. I do not know much about fashion, but I will for sure be taking some pointers from this movie.
Derek tells Claudia that the magazine is outdated. He does bring his father along so he can deal with Claudia. His dad tells Claudia that they need to work together and Derek also speaks for him. During this meeting he is very cold and stern towards Claudia.
In the designer room Katie, Ella’s friend, tells Ella that Derek is the son of the CEO of the publishing company their magazine is with and that he is one of the top most eligible bachelors. Derek and Ella talk again and Ella is annoyed because he told her that he was new and nervous when they first met. Being he is the head of publishing, he is definitely not new. He said he did not want to intimidate her, and she says she is not intimidated by him because she does not work at the magazine.
During the photoshoot Claudia questions Derek about the style of a dress Ella is working on and he did not know how to answer, but Ella helped him out of the jam. He then hires Ella to give him a crash course on fashion so he can better help the magazine. He wants to do a digital magazine and wants to go live with it during Fashion Week.
In Ella’s apartment she runs a small boutique and helps women who need clothes. She is fixing up a dress for a full figure client and the client says they are more happy in black and not lavender because they can fade in the back. Ella asks how she feels, and she says beautiful. Ella then tells her that if you feel beautiful then you look beautiful.
Ella and Derek meet up and she shows him her designs and tells her about her love for fashion. To give Derek an idea, Ella tells him that the print magazine is hard for some people to afford along with the clothes inside.
The magazine will be doing another photoshoot and Ella tells Derek he needs to attend so he can learn more from Umberto, the best in the business. One of the models goes up to Derek and Ella and when she tells Derek she is happy he remembers her, she then gives Ella the stink eye. When Umberto, also know as Bert, is done shooting the model Ella tell him how much she appreciates his work. Katie’s boss, Liza, tries to shoo Ella away from him, but he does not allow it and then asks Ella what she does for a living. Bert then asks Ella her opinion on a necklace the model is wearing and Katie’s supervisor and the big boss, Claudia, are now going to keep their eye on Ella.
I don’t understand why Katie’s boss does not know who Ella is. How would Katie hire someone without her knowledge?
Derek wants to officially hire Ella for the magazine. She says she will be an official consultant as long as he does a piece about her in the digital magazine as an up and coming designer. She also does not want to be hired though because he does not want her as a boss.
This was a bit weird to me because Katie hired Ella to help with Fashion Week. So she kind of is already hired. So this was a little odd to me. Maybe I missed something?
In Derek’s free time he is a coach for a little league basketball team. It is a youth center that he opened in Brooklynn.
I truly felt this was just thrown in. The whole time they have been showing Derek as cold hearted, so they needed something to show he isn’t like that all the time. It was a nice scene, but they should have flushed it out a bit more.
Liza went up to Derek all dolled up and she asks him if she wants to go out for lunch. He says he already has plans and Ella shows up. The boss is not happy. Ella takes Derek down to the garment district for Fashion 101. She shows him a piece of Silk and says that is is ”soft and sensual”. They accidentally touch hands and Derek says, “I see what you mean”.
She tells Derek that when she was younger her mom would take her to store to store because they never had clothes in her size. Ella shares this story because she would like for the magazine to be more inclusive, Derek agrees. While walking a guy on a bike comes racing around the corner and Derek pulls Ella in close to him so she will not get hit.
Katie’s dream is to become a fashion editor and Ella tells Derek that Katie needs to write the article about her that is going to be featured in the digital magazine.
Derek takes Ella out to a friend dinner. They are going back and forth and Derek asks if they are “fighting or flirting” and Ella says “she isn’t sure either”, then they give each other those I am into you eyes.
I like that they actually talk. Usually these type of scenes are super rushed. Ok. This one was a bit rushed too, but the conversation itself was not surface questions. The banter back and forth felt authentic.
Oscar asks Derek if he and Ella are a thing and Derek says no because he feels she has reservations about him. So Oscar says for Derek to show Ella the real him. Derek then takes her to the youth center that he built. The Director of the center tells Ella that Derek has been happy because she is around. Derek and Ella play HORSE and he twisted his ankle just a bit, but not too bad. Ella then rubs his ankle on the bench.
When Ella hit him and called him stupid I laughed at that. I loved it because that is how I would flirt. It was wonderful to see this on screen. Especially hearing the word ‘stupid’. That is not something you hear in a Hallmark movie, but I enjoyed it because that was a bit more realistic.
Ella tells Derek that he needs to find common ground with his dad because time is precious. She tells him that he is lucky to have his dad around, and she misses hers every day. Ella expresses how nervous she is about the article and then she tells Derek “Welcome to the inside of my head”, he says “It’s my favorite place to be”, then she responds with, “You are in there a lot”. Then they kiss.
Eliza overhears Katie talking about an article she is writing and asks who gave that authority. She says that Derek did and people are going to want to hear about Ella’s story because he makes clothes for full figured people. Claudia and Liza are not happy that Derek wants to go the full figure direction. Claudia does not like the idea about full figured women. Derek’s dad sees Ella and Derek hugging and asks him if he is making these decisions based on a fling. Ella stops the dad at the elevator and tells him that Derek does have great ideas and that he wants to make him proud.
Oscar, Ella, and Derek go to Derek’s place for a working dinner. Derek flashes Oscar a look and he goes home. Ella sees a piano in his home and asks him if he can play her something.
Kuddos to this friend man. There was no hesitation and no awkwardness. He just got up and left when Derek gave him the look. Oscar understood the assignment. When he left and Derek played the piano for Ella, this is when things got awkward. They should have just taught him something easy that he could play. You could totally tell this was fake! If it wasn’t then man oh man did they film it weird.
Claudia tells Liza to cut Ella from the guest list to the launch party because the list is too big. Claudia does not want Ella there influencing Derek. Derek approaches Liza and says the he is Caludia’s boss and Ella needs to be put back on the guest list. Claudia hates so much that Ella is at the party with Derek. She tells Liza that he is out of her league and she needs to get rid of her. Liza tells Ella that Derek pushed for her to be there because he wanted to sell more ad space with designers and that he danced with her to show her off to designers and to prove he is on board with full figured women.
I was NOT happy that Ella showed up in the blue dress she did. Earlier when they were taking photos in her apartment there was a BEAUTIFUL red dress. They should have put her in that. It was gorgeous! This blue dress is just plan blah to me.
Why the heck would Ella let Liza get to her? They do not even know each other and she hears all the awful things Katie says about her.
Katie tells Ella to keep her eye on the prize and to not let Derek get to her. Back at the office Derek tells Ella that he is upset that she left. Ella tells Derek pretty much the same thing Liza told her. She also goes on to tell him that she is not his type. He like cover girl models. She then raises her voice at him and asks what she means to him, and he says everything.
Annie, the famous designer, wants to go in business with Ella and do fashion for full figured women. Bert is at the photoshoot where Annie hires Ella, and then they surprise her with full figured supermodel Candice Huffine. Candice is debuting Ella’s designs. Ella tells Candice, “You are a hero of mine. Your confidence is as stunning as your beauty. Thank you for helping me find mine”.
Ok. I forgive Hallmark not putting Ella in the red dress since they gave it to Candice. This ending was beautiful. I love that the real Candice Huffine showed up at the end.
I really enjoyed this movie. I liked that it was more realistic than other movies i have seen, and I LOVE that they had a full figured woman as the lead.
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