Complementary Cloathing!

This is a good topic, Kate! Let's see: One of my favorite looks of the moment is the skirt--it's so pretty right now, with ruffles and flounces and lots of smart dressmaking details. And lots of young girls have been wearing them, and with nice tops (non-belly-bsring) and cute shoes, either with a heel or without. I don't care to see them barelegged, but that's just my 50s upbringing, I guess.

My mother and oldest daughter and I were shopping together last week, and noticed that the ribbon watchbands that were big in the 80s are back, and with a vengeance. That trend, added to the cute little scarf belts for jeans and skirts, is a nice feminine touch. I'm so tired of seeing girls schlepp around in jeans and baggy hooded sweatshirts; it's refreshing to see a girl actually dressed as one!

Karen Maslowski > After the kerfuffle of what we hate to see, lets see what we love! What,

This being a southern city, florals are popular when fashion rebounds into pretty, as it seems to be doing for spring. I saw loads of beautiful floral print heels in today's fashion ads. Flippy skirts, with ruffles, or bias-cut chiffon numbahs, Beautiful sweater-knit tops with appliques co-ord with the skirt. On the elegant front, smart pumps, matching tailored trousers, cut to skim flatteringly over the body, worn with simple, classic minimalist jewelry. Same color family head -to-toe, yielding a longer, leaner line. I love seeing people dressed professionally for work, especially since women no longer feel compelled to wear 'uniform' suits. The combination of beautiful colors and elegant fabrics--silk, linen, fine woolens, rayon--lifts office wear into the wow arena. WOW, she looks like she's gotten a promotion. No? Maybe we should give her one! It goes without saying that their nails are perfection, their hair cut and styled flatteringly. If this sounds like The Stepford Wives Revisited, I have to admit it is a refreshing change from seeing folks schlepping everywhere in baggy, dirty sweats, or holey blue jeans. I've gotta get on this new clothes bandwagon! Cea

I love to see people dressed in clothing that fits them physically, emotionally, and spritually. You know them when you see them. They look at home in their skin and what they have on. Its rare. Id like to be one of them. :-) Diana

I love that too, and these days a lot of the time that's me. I have some stuff now that fits physically (no longer over-size to try to hide bulgy bits, or slightly too tight because I bought the biggest size in something stretchy that I knew I could get round me... And suits my life-style and personality, so I feel better about myself, and better about how I look.

Colours I like and look good in (charcoal and burned red rather than boring ole navy!), and I no longer feel the need to make something BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL to cheer myself up. I still love mad colours, but don't feel compelled to wear them all the time. Nor do I feel compelled to buy only 'sensible' patterns! There's a HUUUUGE difference between patterns being AVAILABLE IN in a size 24, ans being SUITABLE FOR a size

24! The range of things I like the look of on me has expanded enormously, and I'm not at goal yet! Mind you, I think losing the last 20 lbs is harder than losing the first 20 lbs, but it shows more!

For all those out there who have struggled with weight issues, let me tell you, I'm the weakest willed critter in the world where food is concerned, and if I can do this, anyone can!

That is great encouragment. Thank you! There is a gal I talk with who has volunteered to help me define my personal style, and then its up to me to make it fit well (thats a challenge) and find the colors that bring out the best in me. Im looking forward to it, no matter what my weight is. Tho, less would be better!! Diana

I'm a religious convert - to Weight Watchers! It's not a 'diet' - it teaches you how to eat sensibly for the rest of your life and makes room for treats and celebrations. You can adapt it to special dietary needs, like celiac disease, lactose intolerance, diabetes (both type 1 and type

2), a vegetarian philosophy, and a slew of other things.

I'm also more aware of the colours that really suit me and the accent colours that bring out the positives, as well as which colours are good neutrals for me to splash colour on. I've always been a fan of taking a single colour from head to toe, with accents of another colour, but now I do this with more than just black and navy - though black is one of my best 'colours'! I still own a LOT of black, though possibly not as much as the average teenager...

I've been saving a collection of bitter chocolate velour and jacquard knits for ages... I think I might break that out this year! :)

How did you develop your sense of what looks good on you? What styles, what color. That sort of thing... Diana, a fan of Covert Bailey fit or fat

Dunno... I think I always had a fair idea, but I'm always willing to experiment and try things on, or wrap up in a length of fabric in a shop and ask for a mirror! Even as a child I always knew rich earthy colours, blues, grays, and clear bright colours looked better on me than pale wishy-washy shades, beige shades, and most yellows.

I have pale skin that doesn't tan easily, reddish brown hair (where it hasn't gone grey!), and dark brown eyes. Colour is as much a matter of what you like as what suits, but there are some colours I really like that I could never wear (like pale pink, misty pale blue, primrose yellow... They all make me look like I died last week, and am ready for the lid to be screwed down!)

As for style... Well, I always suited both the strictly tailored look, and a slightly hippyish bohemian look, so I try to mix the two! I used to wear a lot of vast and almost shapeless things, but these days go in far more for slim fitting things. I top them off with something bright, or a shawl, or some daft floaty thing in my hair.

It's a matter of being willing to try things, having objective criticism from people who really want you to look your best, and, like learning about fabrics, just accumulating information in the shape of necklines and sleeve styles that suit, hem length you like the look of, and what really REALLY looks dreadful on you!

Ok. I have part of that down. I look devoid of color in peach, and look dreadful in gathered skirts. Soooo.. thats a place to start! Time to shop! Diana

I know that feeling. It took me 15 years of studying sewing and "find your style" books (from Color me Beautiful to books telling you how to figure out what you look best in for your build and your personality) and a concurrent 10 years of reading the sewing newsgroups for me to get there, from the "buy the cheapest thing that will do and live with it" mentality to actually refusing to buy something unless it's the right thing and not refusing to buy the right thing because it costs too much. And I think I look "put together" about 90-95 percent of the time, and I am happy.

I like women who wear clothes that fit in the gym. (I'm training to be a gym instructor). I'll probably get flamed for this but - a gym is a place to work out not look cool, and skin tight lycra fashions just do NOT look good on some people! I mean, I'm a size 8 with a belly and I can only just "do" lycra. And even then it's never stomach showing crop tops!

What's wrong with T shirts and shorts? Or flattering joggers? Looking good does not have to go out the window just because you're at the gym! Anyone would think it was a return to the 80's!

Charlie.

Some classic things to watch out for:

If you have a short neck, avoid shirt style collars and shoulder pads: they make the neck look even shorter.

Short necks and large busts look better in V neck things.

3/4 length sleeves are all the rage right now, and are a great way to flatter chubby arms

Look at hems carefully: avoid those that emphasise the fattest part of the calf. Look for ones that come just below it. There are a lot of asymmetrical hems about here: try them - they are fun and can help add length to short legs as well as disguising chubby ones.

If you have prominent hips, try smooth slim lines rather than skirts with lots of seam detail over the hip area.

Elastic waists are magic! Especially on those of us with a bigger hip than waist size! ;)

Try some dresses on - long lean lines in darker colours, with something bright at emphasis. I have a stretch knit charcoal dress (Rohan's New Jersey Dress - not sure they still do it) that I team with a bright head scarf of a mad coloured pashmina.

If you are larger, avoid those furry collars and other really bulky fabrics.

Knee length pencil skirts and long tunic tops emphasise fat legs and short ones! Go for a below knee skirt and a shorter top.

Try a whole slew of things on. Take a trustworthy friend - one you know loves you enough to tell the truth about colour and shape. Go shopping for shapes and colours: when you know the outlines that flatter and the colours that make you sparkle, hit the pattern books and the fabric shops and the stash, and see what you can come up with. If the stash if full of colours you didn't ought to wear, sell those lengths on eBay and replace them with nice things you WILL make and wear.

If you want to lose weight, make simple things you can wear now, but can easily be taken in later, like slim skirts with elastic waists. And while losing, make do with far fewer clothes that you really like and that flatter where you are now! They can be passed on to other non-sewing slimmers as you shrink out of them.

As I have shrunk, I have disposed of all but a very few Fat Clothes. I'm keeping one suit (not one I made) and a pair of trousers, and a lovely embroidered shirt, just to show how much progress I have made. I'm also having a hard time getting rid of a light weight tweed jacket I made from the length of superb tweed my mum bought for me in Selkirk. If it fits her, she may inherit it. I really hate to see it go, but I'm starting to look like Little Orphan Annie in it, and before I started losing, I couldn't do the button up!

My favorite neutral is tan or beige, Khaki anything in that range, especially which I can wear a red with. LOL I've liked it since I was a girl.

Now I went through my black period, just like everyone, but it makes me look goth and that was before goth was all the rage. LOL I was probably the first. except for my blonde hair, which I vainly thought that the black was accenting. teehee. what vain things we are, especially when we are kids, eh?

I've enjoyed reading this thread, lots of good info and reminders in it.

I still have all my fluff, so I'm green with jealousy for Kate. LOL

I have more hip than anything being fluffy, so find that taliored suits just don't work for me, I look more like a sausage than anything. I'm planning on making a sort of 1890's suit for my daughter's wedding. having short legs I don't do knee length, but this one will still be a stretch for me, I'm doing floor length. I like ankle length for daily wear, it seems to balance me out a bit.

anyway, this is a fun thread.

Charlie, when I went to the gym, before I inherited three grandkids, I wore city shorts and a matching top for my workouts. I just don't want all the lumps to show, you know? Kitty

For over about a year I worked with Wild Ginger, helping them out with workshops and working in their booth at sewing shows. Workshop participants are instructed to bring with them a constructed fit garment, based on their sloper plus a small, set amount of ease--just enough that the person could walk and, as the tech support person says, "lift a teacup". In every case, no matter what the figure, the more fitted garment looks good on the wearer, sometimes more so than the less fitted garments they were usually wearing from their own wardrobes.

This experience has been eye-opening to me. I've donated all my old, sloppy, unfitted clothing in favor of more fitted garments. Everyone has noticed, and even though I haven't lost an ounce (truth be told, I've gained, and not ounces either), I get compliments all the time about how "fit" I've gotten.

Besides, women have curves, so why hide them? Think Queen Latifah; she has ample curves, but wears her clothing so that it skims her body outlines, and it flatters her rather than not. You can wear tight clothing that does not do anything for you--think Renee Zellweger at the Oscars this year. Ugh, she looked like a stick to begin with, but then her gown was like red mummy wrapping, and it didn't do a thing for her. The key is to fit, but without binding and without obliterating the major outlines and curves.

Karen Maslowski > Some classic things to watch out for:

After the horrors of finding a cozzy for the pool, I'd wear anything that covered me bum for gym, if the gym were possible. Unfortunately, fibromyalgia makes higher impact thing inadvisable. Mind you, I dunno what gets higher impact than hauling the boxes of fabric about! I swear I just gave my pecs and biceps a good workout in the loft, hunting for a particular bit of fabric that the stash appears to have swallowed without trace!

I'm having a quick coffee and recovering my breath!