A dear reader wrote to ask me whether or not I thought a tweed suit she was hankering after would make her look too Beatrix Potteresque. I think it’s a great question, and I’m afraid that yes, not only did the suit in question strike me as dowdy, what the heck ever happened to that movie about Beatrix starring Renee Zellwegger?
But I digress. Here, for your pick-a-little-talk-a-little perusal, is the blazer from the suit
Nice enough, but with a mid-calf length skirt, definitely more schoolmarmish than you need, unless you have a closet full of creative accessories like fabulous peep-toe pumps and textured hose and a kicky blouse with a cascading jabot so that you can look like you were ironically trying to go for the Fun Librarian Look.
Most of us do not have those accessories, however. We have some belts, a few pairs of shoes or boots, some jewelry and two pairs of hose that both have runs in them that we have yet to discover (but we will when we put them on come Sunday morning!).
This blazer is just too long and boxy to have a place of honor in your closet.
So I’m thinking, why not something like this?
Also classic, but cut far more flatteringly.
And, for the most stylin’ and adventurous, you can play with the current silhouettes:
You wouldn’t go about without your pants on, as this poor child has done, but you would wear her top items with a pair of wide-legged trousers and a big terrific necklace of huge chain links or graphic pieces, and you would add some boots and stomp all over Satan, wouldn’t you?
This is a fun little jacket (I don’t like her camisole — you’d wear it with a real shirt, of course)
:
With a white blouse and a black high-waisted pencil skirt, and a load of turquoise beads, you would rock. And if a high waisted pencil skirt doesn’t work for you, throw on those black trousers again and your boots.
PeaceBang likes to encourage slim women to wear these shrunken jackets because she herself cannot wear them, having a layer of lower abdominal fat the size of an inner tube that requires her to wear totally different styles. So go, enjoy the shrunken jacket for me! I love them!
I, too, have an inner tube middle and am just back today from looking for a blazer or two, but came home with NOTHING bc I looked bigger than ever w/the long, thick, big-buttoned jackets. I have a short jacket (not so shrunked as the blue one) that looks better on me. What do YOU wear jacket-wise, what style, etc., since we seem to be about the same proporioned (truthfully, my tube is bigger than your tube). thanks!k
LOL! I’m always thrilled when I find a jacket that falls right below my “inner tube” and that has a belted back or sides (you know what I mean? Those sewn-in ones?)
In a more traditional blazer I look for the shoulders to not be too huge, a good curve to the waist, and cool slash pockets. Square pockets are just awful, announcing my bulges to the world. Slash pockets create a great optical illusion of shape.
Then there are concerns of lapel and arms. It’s a serious business, I tell ya.
My blazers are so dear to me, because it took so much hunting and horrible disappointments to find them.
The movie was great! “Miss Potter,” I think it was called… I heart Renee. And Peter Cottontail.
PB, there are a few women who I think would look okay in that long blazer jacket. I am tall and have a couple of Barry Bricken jackets that completely cover my hips and look great with pants and with one particular skirt. I couldn’t live without them. But it depends on the shape of the body and the relative proportions of jacket and pants/skirt. I agree with your basic point here.
Yes, the movie was pretty good.
I think the movie came and went pretty fast. Unfortunately, I didn’t even make it to the dollar theater.
Thanks for the ideas about blazer proportions. This entry and a recent rerun of What Not to Wear has opened my eyes about why I don’t reach for the larger blazers I have used for a while now. I just don’t feel great in them from the rear view because it is all jacket and little of me.
I did pick up a great casual textured jacket in better proportions for me at LL Bean last Christmas and I wear the heck out of it when it is cold enough to do so.