The question we are most often asked is how did we come up with the name "The Three Tomatoes?"  Well part of the story is the word "tomato" which refers not to the fruit, but to the retro use of the word. In the '40s and '50s, the phrase "she's a tomato" was used to refer to a woman who was sexy, or in today's vernacular, "hot."  And the male actors on our absolutely favorite TV series, Mad Men, have on occasion used the term "tomato" to mean just that.  Our favorite Tomato on the show, without a doubt, is Joan Holloway, played by actress Christina Hendricks - she's smart, sexy, and has curves. Maybe Hollywood and top designers will finally get that a size 12 can be sexy. More thoughts on this topic below.

 

And if you missed our radio show yesterday, jazz singer and octogenarian Jo Thompson was a fabulous guest. What an inspiration. And her Lena Horn and Frank Sinatra stories gave us goose bumps.  Listen in at your leisure from our home page.  And moving on from Tomatoes to cupcakes, Liz Hamburg has the story behind the amazing success of "Crumbs" which in our book has the best cupcakes anywhere!  

 

What a Tomato - smart, savvy, sexy

Joan Holloway proves size 12s are sexy
Joan Holloway, played by Christina Hendricks, may just be the smartest person at the fictional '60s ad agency on Mad Men. She's also the sexiest woman on the show, and by the way, she's also a size 12!  And guess what? Up until this show, she was "invisible" in Hollywood, and still has a hard time getting gowns in her size for red carpet events.  

 

In a recent interview Christina did for GQ, she talks about how she was always told to trim down to get roles.  And she told Glamour that she still has a hard time finding red carpet gowns because designers only cater to size zeros and twos.  And if sexy Christina has a hard time finding designer clothes in her size, what about the rest of the size 12s and 14s -- which by the way, happens to be the average size of women in this country.  And yes, obesity is rampant, but in our book, a size 12 or 14 is fairly normal, and far from obese. In fact it was interesting too, that female readers of Esquire Magazine voted Christina as the "sexiest woman alive".  Maybe we don't all long to be a size zero after all.

 

Well at least now women of most sizes women can shop for designer clothes at Saks, which has become the first major retailer to carry designer clothes like Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana, in sizes larger than a 10. They'll be carrying several high end designers whom they've teamed up with to offer sizes up to an 18, in a few select stores. But the designers, and even Saks aren't saying a lot. You see a lot of designers, like the ones who won't make a red carpet dress for Christina, think it would tarnish their image to have women over a size 10 wearing their clothes.   Thank goodness for local NYC designers like Gabrielle Carlson, who delight in dressing women of all shapes and sizes.

 

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic.  Post your comments at Tomato Soup.  And take our "what size are you?" poll this week too at our home page.  (It's anonymous and it's not like we're asking your age or weight for Tomatoes sake.)

Liz Hamburg

From Tomatoes to Cupcakes
Real Tomatoes eat the occasional cupcake too. Hey, even the Sex and the City gals ate cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery.  But our favorite spot is Crumbs.  And Liz Hamburg has the story behind Crumbs based on her recent interview with the owners.  Great stuff at Liz Hamburg's Entreprenuer's Corner.