Topic Open House: Clothes and Fashion

[sasha_feather]

Both eruthros and toft asked about my fashion decisions and clothing thoughts! Which is really flattering, and I echo what littlebutfierce said, in that my teenage self would be really surprised.

I confess I've been feeling weird about my clothes (and body) lately because I put on weight and went up a clothing size. This is probably because of a med I take, but it doesn't matter why, really. I have been slowly purchasing some new clothes, and anything that doesn't fit, I have either gotten rid of, or put in tubs and bags and into the storage unit in the basement. One has to be ruthless about such things: it is extremely important to only wear clothes that fit right and that are comfortable! That is the really the only rule in my book. Otherwise, I generally think that I, and anyone, should wear whatever the frak they want.

For this post I took a selfie in the work bathroom the other day.
Linky!

I'm wearing a long gray wool skirt, a teal shirt, a gray jacket, one of my ever-present flat caps, tights from Lane Bryant, and Dansko boots (brown leather). My love of clothes really started with jackets and blazers and went from there.

I found some dress shirts that I like, finally, after much searching! Button ups nearly always gap over my b--bs, and I hate fussing with the colors. I also hate tucking them in.
The shirt I'm wearing in the photo has a sort of draped neck line (obscured in the photo). I have one other shirt like this and want to find more, because they are my favorite!

I tried to find a photo of such a shirt via Google, on a model with a more similar body type to mine. I think these are flattering on busty people. The model's shirt is 2-tone, which looks good on her; I would have to try that on before I bought it. You never know.



Also, no ironing required! Ironing is not part of my gay lifestyle plan.

My standard work pieces are 2 dresses; the long skirt pictured above; dress pants in black and brown; many many blazers; a couple of nice sweaters; and a few nice shirts. I am short on shirts but working on that. I also have a couple of nice scarves and plain necklaces. For shoes I always wears Danskos or other similar types because my feet hurt.

My favorite fabric is wool! My favorite places to shop are a) Thrift stores and b) TJ Maxx, which is like a thrift store but for new clothes. Maybe someday I will have disposable income and then I can actually enjoy shopping at other places too without getting sticker shock.

My favorite colors to wear are dark red/cranberry shades. :D This was fun to write, thanks for the prompt!

Comments

[lassarina]

If you can hit it up during a sale (i.e. all the time, but especially in January and August), I have found Kohl's to have marvelous things at stunningly cheap prices. One brand they carry, Apartment 9, actually makes button-up shirts for people with boobs. it's incredible. In the interests of full disclosure, though, I wear a size 8-12 depending on the day and the brand, and have not had cause to investigate other sizes.

[susanreads]

Cool photo! One thing, in case anyone else has this problem: Flickr demanded I "sign in" to see it. I don't have a digital camera, so why would I have a Flickr account? The solution was to sign out of my Google account (i.e. one of my emails) and sign back in afterwards.

[sasha_feather]

Ugh, Flickr. I don't know why it is doing that. Thanks for letting me know.

[toft]

Yaaay!

I LOVE draped necklines, they are totally my favourite necklines. You're right that they work really well on large busts. I too have that issue with button-up shirts and I rarely wear them because of the fit problem: recently I have discovered that a) buying them in a size larger than I think I need, b) finding tailored shirts (ie. darts under the boobs/arms and also front darts), and c) SEWING UP THE BOOB GAP in the buttons at the front, or putting in an extra button, have revolutionized my sense of whether I can wear shirts. Altering my own clothing is still a totally weird idea to me, but J is all about changing the necklines of her clothes to suit her, and I've started doing it now; like, that dress that is too low-cut for me, I can just pull the neckline tighter and sew it there. Amazing!

I really love your style in blazers and jackets, and the way you combine them with skirts - I have yet to really work out how to do that. My project for this year is to find dresses I like wearing and feel comfortable in, and wear them. I'm going to try and find some warm winter tights, that's my first goal.

[eruthros]

I love your selfie! Your skirts + blazers are always v lovely.