Hullo, Pigeons!
I’m sorry I haven’t had time to write more frequently. I feel lately like a character in one of those 1970’s women’s lib movies that had titles like, “I’m Dancing As Fast As I Can!” where I might be played by Jill Clayburgh or Mary Tyler Moore and have a nervous breakdown at the end while wearing great all neutral pantsuits.
I’m DANCING as FAST as I CAN! You say it in that actor-y voice that makes it sound more like, “I’m DAHNCING as fast as I CAHN!” If my sister is reading this I know she’ll be able to do the voice perfectly, because we have made fun of it for decades.
This Stella has definitely not found her groove quite yet, so I have days that are super together and then days where I’m like, “Where did I pack my spoon rest! And my nail polish!? Where the heck is all my nail polish!” My diet goes from smoothies and salads to McDonalds. Some days it’s just Starbucks Refreshers and popcorn.
One thing that has worked very well in my favor is building a dressing room. It’s amazingly helpful to have everything in one place, jewelry in pull-out drawers, and clothes hanging my category and color. Given the relative chaos of the rest of my house, I am eminently grateful for the orderliness of my closet. Here I am fooling around with some selfies of “summer day at the office” outfits. You can see that I have a basic uniform of pants, shirt and cardigan. And ridiculous poses and expressions.
Everything I’m wearing except jewelry is from the sale rack or on-line discount retailer. Macy’s has the best sales.
You can click to see the images better.
Macy’s shirt and cardie. Old Navy pants. Calvin Klein Oxfords (Zulily). Some kind of necklace?
Lane Bryant cardigan. Old Navy tank top. Loafers by Cole-Haan (Zulily). Silver hoop earrings. Red lipstick.
Moving into more autumnal colors – Macy’s cardigan and Calvin Klein top (purchased at Macy’s).
So, just a size 20 middle aged female parish minister dressed for a typical day at the office with no teaching or public witness or community leader/public ministry responsibilities. As is always the case when one is a self-proclaimed “expert,” I am far better at reading and interpreting other people’s images than I am my own. For myself, I am just trying to communicate that I’m ready for the day and happy to be there. For me, that translates as simply taking care with my appearance, doing the hair and make-up, wearing clothes that make me feel happy and that have a little bit of creative spirit to them.
My personal look has nothing to do with fashion, as fashion isn’t geared toward women of my size and income, but style is about using attire as a form of expression rather than an obligation. A lot of what goes into my consideration for dressing is about fit and shape. I’m very heavy and short and bosomy if I don’t pay close attention to the shape, line and cut of clothing I can easily look twice my size. You’d be surprised how much consideration goes into the cut of my cardigans, and you’d be surprised how many variations on the simple cardigan there actually are!
There are boxy cardigans, baggy cardigans, cardigans that come in cheap cottons that hang weird, and cardigans that are thick and springy and add more pounds. There are cardigans with ugly buttons and (shudder) pockets! There are cardigans that shrink the second they touch water. There are beautiful cardigans that cost way too much. There are cardigans that are lovely in every way except that they come in awful colors.
PeaceBang is a Cardigan Expert!
I get most of mine at Macy’s for $35. I have a few pricier ones from Talbot’s Woman but they’re not as good. As you can see, I choose to err on the side of shorter/cropped rather than have the sweater grab me around my lower abdomen, which is a major “trouble” spot (although I don’t think of fat as “trouble” – it’s just fat, and difficult to work with when choosing clothes). A good bra is imperative for me, and I usually wear a lightweight spandex tummy smoother when wearing anything knit.
I would love it if you would send a few photos of yourself in your uniform so we can see a few day’s worth of the variations on a theme!
MWAH! Kiss of peace!
I recently completed the difficult task of going through my closet and removing everything that does not fit me. Most of it I’m giving away. Some of the pieces I’ll hold onto for another year to see if my body is any different a year from now. If not, I’ll give those pieces away then. In the aftermath of the purge I had to fill in a few staples for the days that I work outside of my home office. I was looking for cardigans as well and as I tried on dozens I made some discoveries for myself of which ones work best for my body. Turns out that the classic, crewneck, botton-front cardi looks horrible on me. I hadn’t ever realized that. I found that open front cardigans with some kind of drape work well as do v-neck button-front cardis. That was a helpful discovery and gave me a shot of confidence when it came time to walking out the door. I’ll pull some photos together and send them your way. Thanks for Macy’s suggestion as well.