Overweight and short, medium, or tall? What do you think are the pros and cons?
Hi All,
I thought this would be a fun question.
As an over weight person (more thinking of women, but don't want to leave out the men!);
What are the pros and cons of being short, medium height, or tall?
I went to the plus size store in my area (Lyne Bryant) today today for a dressy outfit. The size 14 pants fit great. They were a little long, but hey I am 4'11"---even petites are long on me!!!
But the nice blouses were size 14/16 was the smallest, and they were BEAUTIFUL, but when I tried them on, they were crazy. They were made for a woman 5'6" and taller. I could tell because the chest was so low!! It would have to be taken up on the shoulders, BUT the width and length was very nice! I was so upset because they were soooo beautiful. But that was the smallest size so I had to go to Sears.
So went to Sears and started squeezing in thier 14 and 12s which was so depressing because I looked prego in everthing, and I am not!
Anyhow I picked a nice roomy 16 off the rack by accident and it looks very fancy, and that is the one I got. Makes no sense.
BLAH BLAH BLAH,
I'm 5'7" and I find that I can only wear "tall" pants--the regulars end up being too short after a washing. I'm also busty--so button-up shirts are a no-go. As are most dresses and shirts not made with stretch-fabric.
When I started out, I was in 15/16 pants and that was on the MAX end of the "ladies" pants, and the beginning end of the "plus" pants. It was hard to find 15/16 misses jeans and that size in plus were too big everywhere but the waist...
I'm finally in 13s, so I can wear Juniors again--and I've managed my boobage problem by trying different styles of shirts. I think that the benefit of being tall was that I'm kinda hour-glassy, so I've never looked as heavy as I am. The boobs have balanced out the fat.
Oh! One more complaint: Bras. I'm a 36 DD. The ONLY place I've found bras that don't look like my grandmother's underwear is Fredricks of Hollywood (LOVE them). For some reason, everywhere else assumes that cup size DDs must start at 40 band size. It bugs me that they can't understand big boobs don't necessarily = big band size.
I'm 5'6 with a medium/small frame (big rib cage...small wrists and ankles lol)
I am definitely a pear - measurement day was this morning so at present it's 25" waist to 37.5" hips...it's extremely hard finding pants that fit as I also have muscular thighs and calves and urgh...those skinny leg jeans are a nightmare! Most jeans are a nightmare :P
I'm flat chested which is painful for finding tops as I have nothing to fill them out - and dresses blegh lol...two totally different sizes top and bottom!
I had most of these problems at any weight however...as my proportions have always stayed the same. Even at my stick insect 110 pounds pants that fit were still an issue and at 180 I was still flat chested :P
I wear moderately tall pants too - and low rise pants come up to my belly button. I need the 32" inseam but am short in the waist. I'm not sure it's the "short, med, tall" thing so much as we're all different shapes, and that coupled with the fact everyone seems to store fat in different places makes for more variety in overweight body types than clothes types. I like my jeans stretchy too - then they don't gape at the waist too much.
On bras... I'm 34DD (and have been up to 34F) and I've found lots of pretty bras, mostly by European manufacturers. I've shopped at figleaves.com in the past but there's also herroom.com and barenecessities.com that have decent bras in larger cups/smaller band sizes. I like Fantasie bras - they fit me well, but I also like MarieJo and I've just discovered a great bra from Antigel.
I rarely wear button shirts for the same reason as Azure. I also like 3/4 sleeves because "long" sleeves are always 1/2" too short.
And I too have small wrists (I can easily overlap my fingers around them, even though I don't really have long fingers) and am definitely a pear.
I'm not sure whether it's better to be short or tall, I'm 5' 6" and my sister who is shorter than me always complains about clothes - that was whether she was overweight or not. The petites do help I think, and some stores now carry plus size petites.
I find most things OK - my biggest beef is the inconsitency in sizing - whether between stores or in different items at the same store.
Jax
Last edited by jaxjob; 09-28-2007 at 08:26 AM.
Reason: spelling issues!
the thing that's always been funny to me is... Im 5'10 but petite jeans are perfect on me. MXM (cdn) brand are crazy long so I wear petite length jeans. woo short legs!
I'm about 5'7 and the petite jeans usually fit nicely. My legs are so much shorter! With the sizing though, it's hard. If it fits my hips/waist, it's usually too tight around the thigh area.
I'm just under 5' 4", which is right on the border between petite and regular. I am short-waisted but have long legs for someone of my height. Consequently, it is hard to find pants that fit. The regular pants often hang too low in the crotch but the petite pants almost always have two short of an inseam. I need a 29" to 30" inseam. I like to buy pants from Lands End, because they will hem them to whatever length I specify--so I can buy petites and have them hemmed to a 30" inseam.
Long-sleeved shirts are also a problem. I absolutely have to buy a petite in shirts but apparently my arms are long for a petite because often times the arms end up being too short. The only solution I've found is to buy shirts with 3/4 length sleeves.
But when it comes to clothing, I'd rather be short than tall. It's far easier to take things in and hem things up than to let out or lengthen. In the rest of life, I'd rather be tall.
Great question!!!
I am also a pear shape and wear a size ten jeans...which, unless the store makes a short size, are MILES too long. It seems that most designers think that the wider you get, the taller you are! haha (i am 5' 3" but with very short legs...).
I also have a question:
I am a college student and do not have a lot of expendable income and I have one nice pair of jeans that are the perfect length..with flats. I can't wear them with heels because then they are too short! Do people normally have a lot of jeans in various lengths to work with different shoes? Help!
Lmills - I'd never even thought about having different jeans to wear with different shoes lol. I just have the same length jean with whatever shoe I happen to be wearing! But I guess like most people maybe it's because I have too many issues with finding jeans that fit to be bothered trying to -find- that many
Jeans West and Just Jeans make regular length and long length jeans and will also shorten them for people, but i don't think you would have them over there?
Lyria- no I have never heard of those! I just wonder about the lengths because my pair of jeans is perfect with my flats (i dont like them to drag on th ground and get ratty looking) but looks so silly when i get dressed up! maybe i should stop wearing jeans with heels haha!
Hi all,
Thanks so much for your replies. I totally don't feel so bad. I guess I was under the impression that other women knew their sizes and that worked, but we all have to go through this together is at least comforting.
As for shoes, yes I totally have certain pants for shoes. I don't go out and buy them for that reason or anything, but when I get home and I have extreemly long pants. I wear them with my big platform shoes and they cover most of the shoe, so I look taller. I hate having pants hemmed, so that works for me.
Then the pants that are too short I will wear small heals or flats with, or flip-flops.
As far as jeans, I think heals look great with jeans, that's really not my look but I do like it a lot. I think the jean should pass the heal of your foot by a half inch or inch, so that they don't look like floods.
Anyway, I went to the wedding in the brown dress and was soo comfortable, it was 3/4 length so it came down really low on me and covered most of my legs, which is great and I didn't have it altered at all. It was a great find and I got a few compliments on it too! I wore strappy shoes, but ended up in flip-flops by the time we hit the 2nd wedding, I think everyone was too drunk to care at that point a lot of the girls were in flip flops and barefoot anyway. Thanks all!
I think being short and overweight is probably the hardest, considering most clothing for short people is "petite" and somehow designers just assume that if you're short, you must also be skinny and small all around!
I'm 5'7". Shopping for shirts can be difficult sometimes because until I have my super hot ripped stomach, I want shirts that completely cover my torso! Button down blouses can also be frustrating because I (now) have a not so big waist with a pretty big rack. Pants shopping can also be a pain because I do have somewhat long legs, but if I get "long" pants, they go WAY too low because I wear my pants as low as possible. If I wore them any lower, you'd probably be seeing the plumber's crack if London and France didn't pop out at you first. This makes the bottoms of the pant legs drag down and rip.
I'm not overweight anymore, though. However, when I *was* overweight, shopping just SUCKED! My style was a cross between just rolled out of bed and just escaped from the homeless shelter. That's how little I cared about my appearance. I thought I was too fat for good clothes and that there weren't a lot of options.
However, if I wanted to own my fat-ness (or at least accept it), shopping wouldn't have been so bad. There are plenty of options of overweight but medium-to-tall sized women if they want to look fashionable and stylish.
I am 5' tall and it sucked being short and fat. I had to buy regular fat clothes and as it is they are cut big...I looked like a potato most of the time...and fortunately for me was pregnant 2 of the 4 years I was really fat.
Shopping was a nightmare but I was always convinced that I wouldn't be that way for long so I spent only some cash buying one pair of size 18 jeans at Walmart that I hemmed myself...and spent my life in t-shirts and sweats!
As for Jeans...yeah, I have jeans that I waear with flats, and my 7FAMs and Paige Premiums that I wear with sexay heels!
I'm short and for me it made shopping a little easier for some things and more challenging for others. I hate shirts at LB. They are always too long and hardly have any shape to them. i was always one of those fat girls who wanted to show off the goods. Not in a vulgar way but I wanted my clothes fitted so people could see I had/have a well-definted waist. That meant wearing a lot of shirts that were probably a tad too small, but worked with proper foundation garments.
Pants are kind of hit or miss. They used to make cropped pants that were perfect pant pants on me, but they've gotten hip to my game and now cropped pants are 26 in instead of the 28 I need. Petites clothes are cut too straight and boxy. I have never understood this!
I fare better with skirts. I love pencil skirts, and mostly I just love that length of skirt. Even ones that look too short end up being the perfect length on me. I wear a lot of skirts even though I wouldn't right away consider myself super girlie.
Button down shirts are a nightmare and I never wear them. I've tried putting tiny velcro strips between all the button holes and that would hold for a day and then oops. I tried buying the stretch button downs and then sewing the potential gaps closed, but the shirt never fit right regardless of how rigorous the bra was underneath. I don't wear a lot of dressing for that reason! Unless they are made from stretchy fabrics.
Overweight and short, medium, or tall? What do you think are the pros and cons?
