NSV (attitude)
 

One of my favourite garments for ages has been a loose top by Hampstead Bazaar. Floppy, quirky, with pointy sides. Definitely covers a multitude of sins.

All of my clothes being elasticated waist stretched to infinity, not many of them have felt any different as I've been losing but this top, although big, I could tell a couple of days ago was now draping dropping lower down. It felt good.

I expected to keep this top kind of forever, assuming it would just carry on looking quirky and fun. I've been working out how to mend the pointy bits, because they've got ragged in the washer.

However, yesterday as I yomped into town, I caught sight of myself in a shop window. Not quirky and capacious, just oddly shaped and w-r-o-n-g for such a short person!

I LOVE this top - but it's in the bin. When I get back from Mass this morning, I'm going to rake through my wardrobe and see if there's anything at all I can put together. Maybe hit the cheap shops.

The NSV is - not putting up with comfort 'because I don't deserve anything else', of throwing out a beloved comfort blanket.

It brings a request for help, though:

I've called up a couple of sites about how to dress an apple - I am the ultimate apple although possibly a goblet - but the models they show might be technically apple-shaped but not overweight.

So: I'm only 5'2", I weigh 197, 42c bust, don't know about anything else but virtually spherical but with cracking legs. Any hints about how to dress me?

Ta.

No hints on dressing your shape (I'm the complete opposite shape), but wanted to send along a congratulations on tossing a favorite but now too large item. That's been very hard for me.

Yeah, I'm taller with a different shape so I can't help with the suggestions, but wanted to sympathize with you about tossing your favorite top. Isn't it funny how are perceptions of how something looks are often so different from reality? I'll go along for months and months (years?) with the same clothes, and then all the sudden realize that everything I own looks ragged and tattered and stained. How did that happen?

Here's hoping that you find a new favorite top when you go shopping. :)

Rosinante, you and me are two apples in a crate (except that I'm taller) You need to make the acquaintance of your new best friend, the stretchy, short pencil skirt. When I weighed 295 I could not pull off this look, but as soon as I got down the BMI scale a little, I did the following: stretchy skirt, hip hugging and above the knee. Tailored stretch fabric button down in a plus size, the kind that is designed to be worn untucked-- there are really nice new fabrics that stretch but look like you just ironed them. Or, alternatively, same type skirt, little form fitted camisole, and a little boxy jacket/blazer with kind of a square shape. The trick of the little boxy jacket for us apples is that you want it to be cut pretty short... and you get a nice illusion-- the fitted skirt shows off our leanest part, the legs, the fitted sleeveless cami makes it looks like there is less under that jacket than there actually is, and the jacket both hides a multitude of sins and is tailored looking.

I had to wear plus sizes but at your height weight I'm thinking you wear normal sizes, even better!

The only problem I had with the above look is that I did not look good enough in the cami without the jacket that I would sometimes sit and sweat rather than remove it-- if I knew if was going to be hot, I would wear a shortsleeved shirt, unbuttoned, over the fitted cami.

The other thing that works well for apples is the long tunic type tee over leggings.

Anything that draws attention to the legs and away from the mid-section. And third, if you do want to wear a short-sleeved tee shirt, make sure it has a vee-neck.

Good luck on your thrift store finds!

Thanks, guys!

Yes, weird - I swear the top I just threw WAS great. It's only 2 or 3 weeks ago that I was complimented on how good I looked in it. Yesterday - well, I couldn't get home fast enough: did I look like THAT?!? (yes :) )

Uber - thankyou for your suggestions. I need to ask you a bit more - I have no experience of clothes other than as camouflage, so a bit of a newbie here.

Also, at my weight and height, I'm a UK22/24 - and it's quite a struggle being that size but short. Crops, which people tell me look good on apples (and yes, now that my fluid retention is in abeyance, I Do have good legs!) - I'm so short that they're neither cropped nor full length, they just look like full length trousers that shrank!

Anyway:
the stretchy skirt: if it's stretched over the bulk that is my 'waist' i.e. the lower roll of fat, won't it just look like a fat girl in a tight skirt?
and
skirt+fitting camisole+boxy jacket: I Love the sound of that but, as in skirt above, if the jacket/cami only come down to where my skirt joins, what would be a waist, won't I just look bulgy and fat?
how fitted do you mean the cami?


I really love your suggestions! I am just such a dressing newbie, I could use a bit more help. Thankyou!

p.s. I've got the short T-type tops sorted, they've all got either a V-neckline or a huge scoop, no round necks.

I am going to ask a stupid question....what is NSV?

Non-Scales Victory!

Ohhh!!!

Oh, good for you! And when you get closer to your goal, you'll be glad you have those legs. ;) I'm hating my legs right now. I bet you would look really cute in a long shirt with leggings. I can picture those legs now. :D

Regarding the crops, have you thought about hemming them? Also, I didn't mention leggings, which are the apple's best friend-- you want them to stop above the ankle but below mid-calf, so that they emphasize the slim part of the leg and show off your nice ankles.... I used to get puffy ankles all the time, and boy was I glad to see that go!

So, here's a little more info.

You are going to wear the fitted cami pulled down outside the waistband of the stretchy skirt. The cami should be fitted over the boobs but loose enough to pull well down over the waistband of the skirt... Then, with the boxy jacket, it needs to be long enough to cover the problem area-- so it should fall to your mid to low hip-- but absolutely not stop at the waist.

I have a stretch but not tight pencil skirt that I love-- it's a plus size, but I'm still wearing it... I would recommend anything in a matte jersey fabric... the reason I prefer the stretchy fabric is that I have trouble with a bulgey waist if I wear a more tailored pencil skirt, but the stretchy one does a nice job of curving in below my hips to show off that my thighs are slim...

Here's my pic wearing the aforementioned skirt--I took the picture on the day that I ecstatically realized i could tuck in my shirt after losing about eighty pounds.... but if you imagine the shirt untucked with a little boxy jacket over it...visually you get a nice shoulder line, then a fairly straight line through the jacket, then, the skirt slims through the legs-- meanwhile, the cami creates the illusion that there is less of you and more of jacket...

Also, I might add that not until the last 20 lbs did I start to lose anything from my belly, and so I'm hoping that the last 20 to 30 will relieve me of being an apple once and for all. You never know!

oh thanks, I get the idea now! I'm going shopping tomorrow! and your pic looks very good indeed.

Thankyou!