Please, this is not an attempt to put anyone down or to start a fight, and I am not trolling. But just need to vent some fashion frustration I have been experiencing recently.

I have never seen a year when there were so many just pain hideous clothes! Who in hell looks good (when not pregnant) in those wretched tops that have the gathers and the baby doll flounces in an empire look and the puffy sleeves--and they are everywhere. And thanks, but I am not Brittny Spears and dont need to wear jeans that show 4 inches of "thongworld" when I bend over.

And those tight fitted shirts with the skimpy 3/4 sleeves--well, they look adorable on someone 16YO who is a size 10 but not on a fully grown woman "in full bloom"

And those awful prints in those nasty knits and jersey fabrics! What woman with too much breast, midriff, hips or butt, looks good in that stuff. And it isnt just Wal_mart. I am talking about places like Dillards where recently I saw a skimpy poly knit top in horrid green and orange and white print with some black, and it was $139.00

Even Chico's seems to have fallen for that look. Frankly, most of the stuff out for the past year looks like someone designed those things who hates women or is jealous that he is not one. Now, before you-all blast me for being too critical, just take a look at the stores and try to find something that is truly a classic. There are darned few--at any price.

And have any of you had the experience of watching WNTW and thinking (of the after pictures) that the hair and make-up were a very nicely done improvement but the clothes were a bit garish or not exactly good for the person's shape. Excuse me, but I have seen too many bosomy girls put into tight knitted print tops with plunging necklines done in wrap styleand they dont look good. I love this show, but they do not always know best!

In the end, everyone needs to take a good look at themselves in the mirror and try to strike a balance between their obvious figure flaws and what is available.

I have some nice white cotton shirts several years old and wear them over a sleeveless top with some plain (not bleached or "stone washed") straight-legged jeans and look decent considering I am still 25 pounds heavier than I ought to be. I'm 5'6", have a thick waist and large bosom and hips that are too wide and yet, most people are astonished when they hear my weight because I have learned ways to dress that hide some of my blubber.

It is a genuine struggle for any plus-sized woman to dress attractively but the current styles make this even more of a challenge. Or am I all alone in feeling this way?

PS--I live in the boonies, but do get to Atlanta about once or twice a month so am not completely out-of-it in availability of places like Macy's, Dillards, Parisian, Neiman Marcus.

Sally - it is frustrating to find what you want when you go shopping. When I need a real classic type appropriate outfit for art galleries and other nice places that I go, I usually check Talbots first. They have lots of classic pieces and are made for adults not the teens.

Cap sleeves. Arggg!!! I'm 44! Even if I wasn't overweight I wouldn't look good in cap sleeves.

I'm no fan of the clothes out this past year either. Especially don't like the extra-long super tight t-shirts/tops. I don't really want a t-shirt or top that has next to no sleeves, and that skims the tops of my thighs. Gah!

And don't get me started on colours. Geeze. No, not a fan of turquoise with brown, or lime green with brown and white, or orange with brown. I'm a blue-eyed blonde and these colours just don't work for me at all. Plus, I don't really like all the garish prints out either. The polyester materials are awful too.

Talbot's is pretty good for classic, simple pieces. I'm also liking Ann Taylor. Most of the department stores are pretty bad. It would be nice to find a less expensive alternative - I mean, I just want some casual summer tops - and don't necessarily want to spend $68 for a t-shirt. Geesh.

Seems to me that summer's particularly bad. I can still find things that are nice in the fall and winter, though I do have to pick through a lot of the 'ugly' stuff as well. Summer's the worst. Sorry, I don't want an orange and white frothy thing with spangles or doily-things all over it. No cutesy 'flutter' sleeves either, or empire waists.

That's the trouble - the clothing this year - it's too cutesy, and it's also ugly.

Oh, and I'm going shopping this morning. Hmmph.

Glad to see some low-carb buddies who understand what I mean. Yep, one of my favorite ancient white cotton shirts is from Talbots, another is Ann Taylor; some things I picked up at TJMaxx look good, too. Three size 16 A-Line skirts on sale from Eddie Bauer will last until I shrink a lot, and I get Chico's jeans on sale--they have some stretch in them and are like a good girdle except more comfortable. And I feel good in them and look good too according to my brutally honest 2 best friends and my even more brutally honest daughters.

But why is it so hard to find something classic and classy to wear if you are not a size 10? Everyday, I see adult, plus-size women who have let themselves be fooled into thinking they can wear something with dangles and spangles all over it (others have mentioned this as well) and they look like they waited 20 or 30 years too late to buy it, or like they have been robbing their daughter's closet.

Worst of all are the ones in skin-tight tank tops with spaghetti straps with rolls of flesh hanging over. Or "steering wheel covers"--those things with elastic at the top and bottom that just cover enough sagging breast to keep from being arrested. Tight knit shorts that show someone's crotch crack in detail are really disgusting. (sorry to be so graphic--but we all need to look in the mirror from a rear view before we wear knit shorts) Dont try to tell us it is too hot to dress decently--I live where the climate is miserably hot and muggy in this awful new summer climate we now face (sometimes in the high 90's.) (A skirt is often cooler than shorts or capris)

I think if we all went on strike when it comes to buying ugly, INAPPROPRIATE stuff meant to make women look ludicrous, then people would stop making it. It's all about $$

And by the way, dressing pleasantly doesnt have to cost a fortune. I have found some really nice stuff at our local Wal-Mart and K-Mart and in fact wore a (this season) $15.00 K-Mart skirt yesterday out to lunch with a well-heeled friend, and she kept saying how darling it was and how great it looked on me, so we dont always have to shop high-end places, but we darned well have to be honest about what looks good on us. (And make good use of a full-length mirror before leaving home.) If we cant be thin and trendy, at least we dont have to be an object of public ridicule when it comes to clothing choices.

Sally let me tell you about hot and muggy I live in Florida and we have already had a few days at 99 degrees this year. There is nice clothes out there you just have to look for them. My mom was always a size 16/18 and she was one classy dresser. She always looked awesome so I know there are some plus size clothes that are really nice.

Hey down there, LynnDee, I know what you mean about the Fla climate--my family lived in the Coral Gables area in the fifties, sixties. Lovely place but way stickeee in summer!

And a big yes to what you said about your DM and dressing well. Your comment reminds me of a dear friend who weighs about 230 and no one EVER guesses even nearly her actual weight--she dresses so cleverly. Denim jumpers with nice shirts or tees under them. Chino skirts and nice shirts. Simple linen shirt dresses or jackets and skirts. They arent cheap, but she keeps them forever because they never go out of style--NO frou frou stuff or wild prints--usually solid colors and almost always, fabrics with some body to them. She is 5'9" so that helps but it is the way she dresses that makes her look so good. Also, she is very blunt about never wearing pants. She admits very honestly that she is broad in the beam and thinks women her size usually look bad in pants. And finds skirts way cooler in summer than shorts anyhow.

She's a blonde with a great smile and sweet personality (great sense of humor) and everyone thinks she is adorable, including men (especially her own DH) People are shocked when they discover she is 65! This is someone who is so sunny in her outlook, has such a warm heart, that her weight has never been an obstacle to anything, and everyone she meets wants to become her friend.

Sally,

I'm one of those people who looks good in the baby doll polyester. It's actually very frustrating because better made clothes with more classic lines just don't work on me at all and I'm usually swimming in fabric but everything is tight somewhere because it doesn't stretch. I am very grateful for the new styles and fabrics but I get miffed too when I see a poly stretch tank at the store for over $50. So I stick to the discount stores.

Janine

oh, Janine, you are so lucky! I just am so darned bosomy that those baby doll things really look hideous on me--even the cute ones in soft solid colors and nice jersey knit. They make me look DEFORMED!! (Or like I am trying to smuggle cantaloupes! )

And you are right, a lot of them are way overpriced for what material and labor is actually in them.

I can imagine! Interestingly that is the one thing that has been weird with me. I am a D cup but when I was this weight before - even 20 lbs heavier - I was a B. I am starting to be more Barbieish, whereas before I was definitely disproportioned more like Ken. It's taken some getting used to. I have lost 79 pounds and have not dropped a bra size yet. In fact, the cups on some of my sports bras are actually getting tight even whie the rest of me shrinks. D is still a reasonably comfortable cup size but every once in awhile I'll catch my silhouette and I'm thinking "they're huge I need to cover up a bit!". Being less well endowed before I never thought about it.

Man, I have never figured out why women with nice neat and tidy breasts have plastic surgery to get great big ones. Except for when I nursed my kids, mine are a nuisance and make dressing crisply a very challenging project. Fortunately, when I get thin, they shrink some. On the other hand, my willowy (5'10" size 6) daughter is a bra size 34b and she is wistful about being "so small" I guess we all want what we dont have!

Hey, I saw an adorable woman coming out of Wal-Mart this AM. She was in her 80's I am sure, wrinkles and snowy hair in little short curls. And she was heavily "front loaded" billowy breasts, thick midriff, protruding tummy (kinda like me but older) She was with a younger woman-her daughter probably. Anyhow, this elderly lady was wearing apple green sandals and a fluttery-sleeved muu muu in a solid cherry red and she looked cool and comfortable and really cute.

I see alot of older women who dress really nice and overweight to. Its just that they dress for their age and not try to look like a teenager.
I don't like all that Britney Spears look at at all but I see women in their forties and fifities trying to dress like that.

And there is another fashion no no I do not like and its those loose tops that fit at the bosom and then just hang and look like maternity clothes. For a large woman like me it only makes me look fatter, Thats what I think.

I am older than most of you here so I dress casual most times with a nice cotton button front shirts and jeans or nice cotton knit slacks.

I do wear tee shirts some to but not those baggy ones with logo's on them, but a nice one from Gloria Vanderbelt or Lands End. I order most my shirts and tees from Lands End.

I love to wear sandals and always keep my toe nails polished pretty. And I keep my finger nails manicured and poslished to. None of those fake nails for me, my own are long and nice looking and healthy.

I never leave the house without my make up on either. I love the natural look in make up and so I wear light color eye shadows and lip gloss and mostly light peachy bush and I have to wear brown eye mascara and liner because my hair is light and my skin to.

I wear my hair in a short youthful bob at chin length and I visit my beautitician often and she keeps my hair colored to cover the grey in it with a ashier blonde that looks natural.
My natural hair color is medium ash blonde anyway..

I have always tried things that keep me looking nice and I never have let my appearance go even though I am and have been most my life a large woman. I have always took pride in my looks.
Most people do not believe I weigh what I do because I dress in the right size fitting clothes. I think when you dress right you will look not only better in appearance but also thinner to.

I love watch the show "What Not To wear" on tv but I do not always like their clothes they pick out for the women.
And by the way I have only seen one show on a woman that was overweight on there and they did shop in a Lane Bryant store.

When you are thick around the middle area like I am there is no way I could ever wear a fitted jacket like they put on the women on that show.

Well, I have spoken enough, better stop and let you all tell us what you wear and some of your beauty secrets.

Sissypoo--EXACTLY! You took the words right out of my mouth! (Are you sure you are not my twin from a "parallel universe" ?) (except my hair--also cut in a chin-length bob--is ash brown.)

Ok Ladies - I need help.

First, I have a frontal muffin top. This means any belts sit uneven - higher in the back than the front. I bought a belted dress - very cute, although I'd never have bought it without my best friends encouragement, and it got rave reviews at work yesterday - anyway, it came with a wide belt. The wide belt emphasized how it sat higher in back, and under the muffin top in front. I have a thinner belt which seems to somewhat camouflage the unevenness. Does anyone have any other suggestions of how to camouflage the muffin top?

Second, I've been told repeatedly that a wrap dress would look very good on my body. BUT, all I can find are clingy wrap dresses - which, of course, are not flattering as they show every single bump. So, based on my success with another dress which has some structure and is not clingy, I am looking for a wrap dress that has structure. Has anybody seen any dresses like this in Plus sizes? If so, at which store(s)? I'd prefer something in the reasonable price range ...

Thanks for any hints you toss my way!

1. The Belt: get yourself a belt that purposely dips in the front. They're out there, and they're flattering.

2. clingy: honestly, get some spanx and a good slip sprayed with static guard. Make sure the dress isn't too small when you wear it. Because of the nature of making one of those 'Furstenburg' type wrap dresses calls for fabric with give, you'll find them pretty much all made from stretchier, clingier material.