The Ultimate Plus Size Style Tip
Posted by Jen Anderson on
It's New Year's Resolution time, and that means self improvement. Which, OK. None of us is perfect. A little fine tuning couldn't hurt. But you're pretty awesome already, so let's just not with the New Year, New Me. Maybe you want to up your style game, exercise more often, try new recipes. That sounds fun. With any resolution, it helps to keep things simple. If you try to make every single recipe in a specific cookbook, you'll get overwhelmed and give up. So I'm going to boil my style advice down to one rule you can remember easily.
This isn't your first rodeo, so you're expecting me to say something about dressing for your shape, or only wearing investment clothes. But that's not it. So what's my ultimate #1 plus size style tip?
Dress Like Yourself
OK, great, but what does that mean? Dressing for your body shape is part of it. Long time readers will know that I'm not talking about dressing to make yourself look taller, or hourglass shaped, or whatever. Trying to look like you have a different body isn't dressing like yourself. And it's uncomfortable.
When I say to dress for your body shape, I mean find the styles that work with your shape so that you're not adjusting your clothes all day. If you have a long waist, wear tunics and consider shorter pants than you think you need. If a regular length top shows off some skin when you stretch, you might not care - or it may be super important to you. You get to decide.
Your Style Personality
We've discussed this before. Labeling your personal sense of style can make shopping easier because you'll know to look for boho dresses or Jackie O suits. But that doesn't mean you have to fit into one category. Maybe you like Maxi Tank Dresses topped with a Blazer one day, and a bright print Sheer Topper another day. People are complicated, so your wardrobe can be as uniform or varied as you want.
We tend to fall down on this one because we dress the way we think we should. This could be because of our mothers, our office dress codes, or our friends. We have this primal need to fit in. But we can lose ourselves. I moved from NYC to Kansas City, MO and discovered that everyone around me was dressed a lot sportier than me. Rather than go shopping for a bunch of clothes that I didn't love, I just decided that I was going to be the most overdressed person in the Midwest. No one pointed and laughed. I was happy. Life went on.
If you have the urge to wear cowboy boots in a part of the world where no one wears cowboy boots, go for it. If you want to only wear different shades of red, there's no reason not to. Sure, maybe you'll stand out a little and you've been told your whole life to dress to fade into the background. But you'll be happier and you'll look amazing.
Fashion vs. Style
Fashion is what's in stores and Style is what you choose for yourself. So don't adopt a style that isn't really you. Dress like yourself and you'll be the most fabulous person in the room of any size.