After a lifetime of belittling her body, Monica Fogg sees sexiness as an act of resistance. The new owner of Ooh La La, a lingerie shop in Thornes Marketplace in Northampton, says that beauty is in the eye of the beholder in the mirror.
Fogg, 45, developed an eating disorder in the 1990s, when the culture was notably fatphobic and the star of the blockbuster movie “Titanic,” Kate Winslet, was excoriated for being a size 8. The criticism only intensified as time went on. For three decades, fans speculated that Winslet’s weight was the reason both she and Leonardo DiCaprio couldn’t fit on their makeshift raft while waiting for rescue among the storied ship’s ruins. Finally, the film’s director, James Cameron, commissioned a scientific study to prove that the raft would have sunk if DiCaprio had come aboard. Winslet’s size did not matter.
As the fallout of diet culture was brought to light in 2022, Fogg entered recovery. Within a few years — in one of life’s unexpected twists — she would be asked to take the helm of Ooh La La. One of her first objectives was to make the business more size-inclusive.
“I feel like I’m doing an important job,” said Fogg, who took over in December 2025. “Like, this is something I can actually do. This is my resistance. And it feels really good. Because I’m real mad at the world about the ‘90s. And like, generally.”
Fogg, who resides in Shutesbury, grew up in Delaware, where she studied psychology and art history at the state’s university. Upon graduation, she moved to New York City, where she landed a job with Nickelodeon as a children’s book publisher. Her next gig was with the internet radio service Pandora, and most recently she worked for almost 10 years at IBM. In each position, she was motivated by a hunger to learn.
“I believe I can do it, and I seem to be able to,” she said. “I am a quick study, and I’m very curious. And one of my drivers is always like: how else can I grow?”
But even as she excelled professionally, a part of her life — a part of her — was always cloaked in shadow. As she continued to struggle with her eating disorder and finally made the decision to go into residential treatment, that question was central to her decision.
“I figured I might as well try because I know how to work, but I don’t know how to do recovery,” she recalled. “Let’s go learn something new.”
Her experience as a quick study didn’t apply to this new venture. Fogg resisted recovery until one day her provider leveled with her that if she continued starving her body, her beloved sister would find her dead. In a study cited by the National Eating Disorders Association, eating disorders have the second highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness behind opiate addiction.
But recovery is its own sort of death. There’s the excruciating realization that your life has been at risk — that there are long-term consequences to urges that became behaviors meant to help you survive. There is a reckoning with yourself, with the harm you’ve caused your own body and why.
Fogg remembers how her therapist’s words shattered her.
“I remember. I remember that it was spring, but it wasn’t warm yet. I cried for like two weeks straight,” she said. “I grieved the loss of that life and that body, and I also grieved the life lost because of it.”
After completing residential treatment, Fogg moved in with her sister in Northampton, who had a boudoir shoot one day at Ooh La La. While entering a store that sells the value of getting naked, Fogg may have been at her most vulnerable. But what she found was a “warm, body-neutral space” owned by Ali Ingellis. It was a beginning.
On a gilded bulletin board next to the dressing rooms were hundreds of construction-paper hearts in a rainbow of colors, interspersed with white and tan strips of paper the size of business cards. On every small surface was a note of confidence:
“You are a goddess.”
“You’re doing a great job being a human.”
“I LOVE YOU!”
As Fogg continued her outpatient recovery, she got a part-time job at Ooh La La. She got familiar with the customer profile, dressed the mannequins and started brainstorming how she could reach people who were underserved. Over Thanksgiving, Ingellis — already juggling a full-time job elsewhere — asked Fogg if she wanted to take over the store.
In December, Fogg got to work.
“I’m excited to be here,” she said. “I mean, on my worst day, I’m peddling panties.”
The first thing she did was arrange all the sizes from large to small. Then she brought in expanded sizes, aiming for a range from extra small to 7X. But she also believes that size is arbitrary. That said, she recognizes how tender it is to dress and undress, to measure up to impossible standards. “If it doesn’t fit, we say ‘F— the clothes, not the body,’” she said.
If someone makes a self-deprecating remark, Fogg says lightheartedly, “Don’t talk about my friend like that.” But she noted that self-criticism is not only encouraged by a society that favors small sizes, but is perpetuated when someone in a larger body can’t find anything that fits.
“That’s murder on your self-esteem,” she said.
She feels it, too. The hardest days are when she is trying to buy beautiful clothing made for everyone. “Too many minutes of my day are spent going, ‘Why is nothing fitting?’” she said. “I have to take good care of myself at the end of those days.’”
Even from an economic perspective, sizeism takes a sizeable toll. According to a study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, harmful beauty ideals cost the U.S. economy $305 billion due to body dissatisfaction and $501 billion due to appearance-based discrimination every year. While Fogg is in her own way marketing desirability, she believes that beauty is a feeling nourished in the safe space she is trying to create.
Fogg resists by finding size-inclusive brands like Uye Surana, cantiqLA and Universal Standard. Her most popular product is a black mesh bodysuit featuring two beaded rattlesnakes that coil toward each other, available in sizes up to 22/24. She named it “Eve’s Revenge.”
She noted how personal wearing lingerie is, and insists to her customers that the only person they have to feel sexy for is themselves. “I think more than anything, sexiness is the spark inside of you that glows hot. It’s the thing that cannot be taken away,” she said. “It’s like, ‘You can’t get me. You cannot get me.’”
Learn more about Ooh La La at oohlalamv.com. Mark your calendars for March 22, when the store will hold a joint event with its Thornes neighbor, Provisions Wine, called “Garters, Gals and Grapes.”
Melissa Karen Sances can be reached at melissaksances@gmail.com.
