Love your body? Fashion show in Brentwood Sunday will say you should

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BP Photo by Ezra Fax

LOVE: Store owner Karen Halaszi peruses clothing meant to promote self-esteems.

By Maayan Waldman, Arts & Culture Editor

“A woman should be able to look great any size she is,” said Ms. Karen Halaszi, who owns the Karen Michelle Boutique on Robertson Boulevard.

That’s the motto of the second annual “Love Your Body Fashion Show,” an LA based non-profit event for women, set for the Luxe Hotel Nov. 2. Funds raised will go to Dress for Success Worldwide, an international non-profit organization that helps women maintain successful careers.

“There’s so much negative media today and if you’re size 12, it doesn’t sell in a magazine,” she continued.

Organizers expect the show to double in size in this, its second year, and will offer a women’s lecture series running throughout the event, with five speakers on subjects relating to women’s health and stability.

Two like-minded women, former Shalhevet parent Ms. Halaszi of Karen Michelle Boutique and Mia Adler Ozer, a clinical psychotherapist, say they created the show to address the poor self-image many women have of themselves.

Ms. Adler Ozer, who is experienced in working with women’s sense of self and body image, partnered with Ms. Halaszi who manages everything business-related associated with the show.

The goal, they said, is empowering women to love and accept their bodies. Volunteer models — both professional and non-professional — from age eight to 65 and size zero to 20 will participate in the show.

Teenage and adult volunteers including 13 girls from Shalhevet will help run the event.

Also on site will be a team of manicurists from Orly Nails, a raffle, and clothing vendors from all over Southern California, including J.P. Morgan, Tami B, and N. Hay Scarves.

With a large group of religiously observant Jewish girls and women expected, the event will be completely kosher, with kosher food, liquor, and candy bar. Stylists will accommodate for models who need to dress modestly for religious reasons.

Last year, the event was $20 per person and more than 250 women attended. This year, with free admission, Ms. Halaszi and Ms. Adler Ozer are hoping for over 400.

They both firmly believe in the ideology of the fashion show.

“Don’t judge yourself based on what everybody else deems beautiful,” Ms. Adler Ozer said. “Beauty is across the spectrum- every age, size, shape, color, or whatever you can imagine.”

Only four percent of women consider themselves beautiful, according to Dove Global Research, and six out of 10 girls are so concerned with their looks that they have opted out of normal activities such as playing sports and hanging out with friends.

The two women said today’s culture that makes it increasingly difficult for women and girls to really love themselves no matter what.

“Culture is changing positively because of women like us,” said Ms. Adler Ozer.