Let's Talk About This Outfit

Let's be real for a sec. I am a big girl. There is nothing about me that is petite. I doubt there ever will be. When I look at the old pictures of my mama that I love so much, I just don't get it. She was the definition of petite to the max. How can I look so much like her and yet not be built like her?

I don't remember my grandmother, her momma. She died when I was two, but she was a "statuesque" woman.  That must be where I get it from, but that's okay. If I am half the amazing, larger than life, character of a woman she is always described as, I will take being called statuesque any day.

Honestly, I am not 100% satisfied with my body. Who is? I sure can't name a woman who is, and heaven forbid if she does feel good about her body and admits it because then she is conceited.

Anyway, I have worked very hard getting over body issues. I was mocked and called fat all my teenage and middle school years. I often still hear those taunts in my confident, 37 year old mind, and it takes everything I have to beat them down.

But I refuse to see my size as a reason to wear baggy, boring, ugly clothes. I am not a wallflower. I do not do blending in. I don't want to look like everyone else. Not that I want to be distracting or inappropriate. I just want to be dazzling.

It has taken a lot of years to do so, but I believe I have developed a pretty awesome sense of style and expressing myself through the clothes I wear. That is why I love fashion. Every day, every time you get dressed you can reinvent yourself.  What you wear, how you present yourself on the outside is the first impression people get of you. For better or worse, it is how others judge you and see you. You may say you don't care what others think, and I so agree with that statement, as long as you are taking pride in how you look.

I wish I could convince larger women that the worst thing they can do for the way the look and feel is to wear baggy, shapeless clothes. This covers nothing. All it does is add at least ten pounds to your appearance.

Actress Melissa McCarthy on the
red carpet at the 2013 Oscars.

All that being said, I HATE this dress pictured to the left. It is horrible. I demand to know who put the fabulous Melissa McCarthy in this hideous nightmare if a "gown." I put that word in quotes because it looks more like a night gown, Mrs. Rope style mumu, or a house coat than an evening gown worthy of the Oscars and the larger than life personality she is

It has no shape. Therefore it gives her no shape.  I read some people online complaining about the color. I love the color, but it is the draping and excessive amounts of fabric that kill it for me.

Raise that ruching to create an empire waist. Shorten those sleeves. I know many larger women are self conscious about their arms. I am not. I am a great believer in sleeveless. The right amount of skin showing distracts from a multitude of "problem areas." The great Coco Chanel, I am fairly certain said, "There is nothing sexy about an elbow." She was so right. Shorten those sleeves.

If you want to wear long sleeves because you don't like your arms, shorten the hemline. It doesn't have to be a mini dress, just show some skin somewhere. You have to create proportion.

A larger woman should always show some skin somewhere. I just got to where I will tshirts and other crew necks after losing 40 pounds. Wearing lower cut, not indecently cut, tops flatter any face. If you don't like lower cut, look for something with some sparkle around the neckline to reflect light onto your face.

Oh, this dress is just so bad. It makes me sad. Melissa should of had a stylist who knocked it out the park and represented for us larger women of America.

I will never get tired of saying or believing, that it is "all about the presentation."