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If you would like a good laugh, maybe even a guffaw, check out these posts by Tina from T Minus, T Plus and Sarah from Bombshell Beauty, where they paid homage to one of my first posts featuring these pants. These two ladies are in the small handful of bloggers I started following last summer so it not only made me smile but it is just kinda cool to be acknowledged by these two stylish and talented ladies (even if their interpretation assumed I'd been eating too much Hormel Chili).
A friend and coworker sent me an email recently where she said "After having my third child it is hard to find clothes that fit right. I think it is time I accept the fact that I'm plus sized! Where am I supposed to find clothes now?" and this made me think. She and I are about the same size, she is a beautiful chica and I've never thought of her as being plus size. Do I consider myself plus size?
Over the past three years or so I've fluctuated up and down (and up and down) 20-30lbs. This isn't something that thrills me but I generally have a positive body image so as much as I don't like the fluctuation, I don't stress out about it too much. Even when I was in the best shape of my life (water polo, dancing, running and rollerblading regularly) the smallest I've ever been as an adult was a size 10. At this point the clothing that fits me is size 12-14-16 and M-L-XL-1X. I'm a firm believer that you must try things on and I'm proof that size is relative!
The issue at hand, and the reason I'm having a hard time answering my friend's question, is that I'm having difficulty finding things that fit right myself - so how am I supposed to answer that question for someone else? I'd like to consider myself a Tween as far as sizing is concerned (look, I'm making up new fashion terms). I sit strangely between two worlds right now and it makes looking for clothes really difficult. I have a hard time finding things that fit correctly on the 2nd floor of Macy's yet the clothes on the 3rd floor don't fit either. 14's and 16's at NY&Co or the Gap are fitting strange yet I went in to Dress Barn Woman and tried on a 14W and was SWIMMING in the dress! On a recent trip in to Avenue I tried on a pair of black dress pants and a black lace skirt in a 14 and a dress in a 14/16 figuring in women's sizes these would probably be just right. To my surprise, the pants and the skirt were way too tight (boo, the sale was amazing) and the dress was massive on me! I'm having a hard time dressing my own body lately!
There are a few bloggers out there that have a great way of featuring styles for regular (for lack of a better term) and plus size gals. Kimberly from Fab Finds Under 50 has a great way of featuring styles to fit any number of body types... but even these pieces are often awkward on my body - insert sad face here.
What to do? What to do? Where does that leave me? Where does this leave many gals that sit in the size 10-16 world that don't fit neatly in to one store or the next? I know I'm not the only one out there that is stuck in this limbo-land.
Help? Advise? Suggestions?
Outfit Details
Pants: Loft
Shirt: Talbot's via Marshall's
Boots: Style&Co via Macy's
Jacket: kikaPaprika
Belt: Target
I would say you are 100% NORMAL. Not at all plus sized.
ReplyDeleteAvenue clothes are very inconsistent with their sizing - I can wear a 14, 16 OR an 18 in pants which is frustrating and depressing at the same time. I can say comfortably the same thing about Lane Bryant clothes (tops and dresses specifically), although most of their pants have stabilized as far as the sizing variances are concerned.
LOVE your blog! I recently discovered your blog through the Fab Finds and Bombshell blogs.
Ooohhh I really like these pants- you have a great figure and that belt is stylin! xo Emily (fellow remixer)
ReplyDeleteEven more craziness than usual seems to happen at those sizes cuz the cut can be for misses (straight) or for women's (curvy). 12W means you have curves, not that you're plus-sized.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it does mean that those 14/16 gals can make a haul on clearance items at plus-sized stores like Lane Bryant where the larger sizes sell out...
Love this outfit! Sizing baffles me, too, especially with the vanity sizing most stores do now. That's why I never buy clothes online. You are gorgeous, so just remember that it's always the clothes' fault, not yours. And there's always a tailor. :)
ReplyDelete