Fashion Hacks
Mopie’s post about Torrid and Fashion Overdose reminds me how much more resourceful we must be, we girls whose sizes end with X. Mall-sized girls would never get excited about a new store, never catalog their resources under a bookmark like they were the Holy Grail. Mo and Anne consistently dazzle me with their fashion sense–Mo has taught me about trying on things that fit rather than devour my frame and Anne has encouraged me to break out of my black/grey/white rut and wear not just one color but many colors at once!
Maybe the key is a refusal to follow rules. The designers won’t play by our rules, so fuck if we should play by theirs. I dig through the racks at farm implement stores or shop on sk8ter boi websites. I’m tired of waiting for great clothes to show up in my size.
One of the best fashion investments I ever made was a red crocodile pleather jacket at a store in the middle of the inner city. It turns a plain white v-neck t-shirt ($6 at Tarzhay, which started carrying basics up to size 30 a few months ago) and jeans (when they’re not embroidering the hell out of everything, The Avenue does make a decent pair) into a fashion statement, but it also acts as the most stylish and best rain jacket ever. I get compliments on it all the time, not just from women, but also the straightest guys who ever walked the planet. The best part is that the jacket was part of a set that was on clearance for $9, so even though the matching pleather jeans didn’t fit, they got tossed into the donate pile and I have good karma knowing that they undoubtedly gave some curvy girl a very excellent story about her rock and roll clothing score at Goodwill. And once I used a $7 set of iron-on rhinestones to turn a $4 Old Navy tee into a personalized “bix” shirt for the GB Minicon and everyone kept asking me where I had gotten it.
I don’t want to just jerk off about my fashionista prowess here. What are your fashion secrets? Do you ever try pulling a Project Runway? Since Café Press just enhanced their line to include plus-sizes and Zazzle has always had a great selection of cute customizable basics in sizes up to 5x. When the fashion designers refuse to give it to us, how do you get what you want anyway?
Posted by Weetabix
Filed under: Fashion
What a great post! I can’t wait to hear everyone’s ideas!
My crafty fashion secrets:
I make my own skirts! They’re the simplest choice to sew, and my own body shape makes it hard to find skirts that fit. I have made a pattern that fits my shape at the hips and waist, so I can alter the length and the fullness easily. I hate hemming, so I design in frayed edges.
Iron-ons!
I can never seem to find tee shirts that both fit nicely and have nice, well-proportioned designs on them. So I start with the former and make the latter.
I use lovely designs from art books that come with CD ROMs- check some out here!
I print them out on my ink-jet printer using special iron-on paper I bought at Staples.
Buttons!
Another way I jazz up boring Fat-girl tops is with new buttons. I’m wearing a purple Old Navy cardigan right now, which I dolled up with navy, grey and shimmery blue buttons.
Whoa- I just realized that I am wearing examples of all three of my fashion secrets right now! A green shark-tooth-hem skirt, a blue tee-shirt with green and brown iron-ons, and the cardi.
PS- I just clicked through your link to the Curvalicious Craftster board- I’m in love!
Here is an awesome tutorial for putting together a pattern that fits just you. It’s a little math and a lot of arts and crafts – fun as hell.
I am a pretty internet savvy shopper. I shop alight.com and fashionoverdose.com and sizeappeal and igigi and I find small designers who are willing to make things to measurement. I make my own clothes, without a pattern most of thetime, and I alter existing clothes. I thrift. I swap. I scour sales on the fatshionista community on livejournal. I try things on that don’t have my size marked on the tag but look like they’ll fit. I try on maternity clothes.
Mostly, I just remember to have a good time with my clothes.
I alter existing clothes quite a lot – if it’s perfect except that the neckline doesn’t quite sit right, or the T-shirt is an unflattering length, or the wrapover top slides apart when I bend. Small things.
I wouldn’t buy stuff online, though (other than T-shirts) because I never know what size I’m going to be in a shop: it depends so much on the cut.
I would make more of my own clothes if I had time. Though a while ago, I fell in love with some sari fabric and made myself a top out of it – whereupon my size-ten sister borrowed it so often that eventually I gave it to her. Law of unintended consequences, there…
This is a little OT, but worth noting for the topic of fashion in general: plus-sized model Kailee O’Sullivan is featured in the May issue of Glamour. It’s a great pic of her. Maybe it’s just a blip on the radar, but maybe again, some designer out there will realize there’s a market for plus-sized fashions out there, along with great models to show it off.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9578114
Did anyone else catch the NPR story on Macy Gray yesterday? She has a plus-size line of clothes coming out that sounds great.
Thanks for the link, Lisa!
And how great is it that her line is called “Humps”? That just cracks me up.