After the not-so-great review of Studio Movie Grill I gave yesterday, I’m happy to bring a good review in today’s post, along with maybe a little talk about positive body image and girl power. Huzzah!
I feel a little awkward giving advice about body image since I’m naturally pretty thin and maybe haven’t had the same struggles as other women have, but hear me out.
I’ve often had friends compliment me on what I’m wearing, and then they tell me they couldn’t “pull off” something similar because they’re not “skinny” like me. Listen up, ladies. If you’re under the impression all clothes would look good on you if only you were a size 2, you’re wrong. I know this because I am a size 2, and not everything looks good on me. I come out of plenty of dressing rooms empty handed.
The thing is: women aren’t just sizes; we’re also shapes. There’s no way one pair of jeans (or dress, or whatever) – even if it comes in different sizes – can be right for everyone! It takes work – and maybe it takes more work for some than others – but you just have to find clothes that are made for your body. No blog reader of mine should ever think she’s too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall, too busty, or too whatever to wear great clothes!
Some style advice-givers (like here and here) say that “dressing for your body” means accentuating the best parts of your body and hiding your flaws, but I feel like that’s the wrong way to look at it. What they mean by “flaws” is usually “the biggest part of your body,” and I think that sends the wrong message. Please remove the word “flaw” from your dictionary. Thank you. Instead, I suggest just getting comfortable with whatever your shape is and figuring out what makes you feel awesome and confident. If you try on something that doesn’t make you feel awesome and confident, then learn to laugh about it. Don’t compare yourself to other people – those bitches are probably jealous of something you have, too!
Here, I’ll start. While I have a very small waist (rough life, I know), my hips are relatively wide in comparison. Sometimes when I tell people I have wide hips, they think I’m calling myself fat. No. I am neither blind nor an idiot. I’m just stating a fact about my shape that I’m perfectly fine with. Still, having curves on the bottom is usually my biggest challenge when it comes to dressing my body. That striped mini skirt I wore in yesterday’s post? It works because the side panels break up the horizontal lines. On my search for a striped skirt, I tried on A LOT of duds! There was one that made me look like wider than I thought was humanly possible (that was one I had to laugh about). But pants are the worst.
Have you ever noticed how much J. Crew I wear? Dresses, sweaters, shoes, jewelry…but never J. Crew pants. Do you know why? Because they never fit me. Check out the J. Crew fit guide: no matter what the size, there’s a 10″ difference between the waist and hips. I have a 12″ difference. So when I get a size big enough to fit my hips properly, I have an extra 2″ of waistline just hangin’ out. Not cute. I have this problem with the majority of pants I try on. That’s why I was very happy to receive these jeans from a new line called Poetic Justice made specifically for curvy women. Check out their fit guide: 12 inches, folks! They’re also very affordable and the quality seems great so far – sturdy but not stiff.
So if you’re like me and every pair of pants has a big gap in the back, I can confidently give Poetic Justice the SASS (Sarah’s Awesome Stamp of Satisfaction)!
And if you’re not like me, that’s great, too. 🙂 If you have a different challenge (not flaw), I would love to hear how you’ve learned to make it work for you. Leave me a comment below!
Jeans* // similar Turtleneck // similar Jacket* (under $40) // similar Boots // Lips “Romantic”
*Jeans provided courtesy of Poetic Justice; jacket provided courtesy of Lucky B Boutique.