by Brooke Shea

Created on: October 03, 2008

Although I began my adult life as a trim size 8, I now wear plus size clothing and often feel frustrated because shopping is terribly difficult. Most plus size stores carry clothing that looks good on slender people but have been made into plus sizes and look ridiculous on people who are more buxoum and have larger hips. What is even worse, many larger women try to wear the shorter skirts tight slacks with hip pockets, etc. These accentuate the wrong areas of the body and detract from the beauty of many plus size women.

When shopping for clothing, one should look for slacks that do not have hip pockets of any kind, are full or straight in the legs, and come at least to the top of the shoes. Side slit pockets are the best kind of pockets for slacks, skirts, and dresses. Tight fitting clothing simply causes one to seem even heavier than she is in reality, so throw out things that cling tightly to the figure. Rather than choosing a suit, try purchasing an A-line dress with a below the waist jacket. The dress should always come below the knees for several reasons. One, when one sits down, the dress always rides up a little, and two, the length when standing or walking does not draw attention to ones calves which, on some of us, tend to be larger than desired.

Rather than choosing pull overs for outer wear, one might consider choosing three-quarter length or long sleeve outer shirts which button down the front. These do not draw attention to the waist line or the bustline and give one a roomier, more comfortable feeling. Wearing pull over shirts or light short-sleeved or sleevless top under the other shirt make a nice combination with slacks or long or mid-calf skirts and gives one a more professional look. Then, also, one can wear just the front button shirt/blouse with the slacks or skirt as well.

Bulky sweaters should be abandonded for less bulky jackets, sweaters, or coats. Also, if one has nice straight shoulders, one can do without shoulder pads in many items of clothing. Since I have nice straight, broad shoulders, I have opted not to use shoulder pads because it seems to make me look as if I could try out for the Dallas Cowboy defensive line. If, on the other hand, one has small or narrow sloping shoulders, she might choose to keep the shoulder pads in order to align the top with the rest of the clothing line.

Through the twenty plus years that I have been a plus size, I have learned by trial and error what I hope will be a help to all of you who shop in the plus size stores.

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