Quote - hehe. interestingly, many women i know who are obese would wear spandex.
their unofficial uniform seems to be spandex pants or tights, with a tshirt thats about 8 sizes too big for them and hangs down to mid thigh, and running shoes.

And in my opinion, they do a great disservice to themselves. The only times I'm wearing that sort of thing is when I'm cleaning my house.

Quote - im no expert, but IMO tailored clothing looks better on larger women. i know its more expensive but surely you can shop around for deals somewhere.

It does look a HELL of a lot better, but because of the difference in sizes, it's very difficult to tailor things right. Example: two people might have similar hip and waist measurement, but in one it can be mostly located on the sides (making them wide but not "thick") and in other, at the front, in a belly. Yet according to standardise sizes they should both be wearing the same size, although anybody can tell that the construction of fitted clothing for one will not be the same for one as for the other. The only real way to beat this is to have clothes made to measure, either by yourself or by a seamstress, or to have them altered as necessary. But both solutions require extra cash on top of what tends to be already quite expensive clothing.

The second problem is that quite often it is very difficult to find clothes that actually suit large women. Either because they're trying to blindly follow what's fashionable, making larger sizes of things that no self-respecting large person should be wearing (large apliqué pockets on hips and breasts, tube tops, large prints and other niceties come to mind) or because they're making things that resemble circus tents because it's easier to make something that will fit everybody, by making it shapeless.

And Gabe, re the large prints, totally agreed. Now think how much nicer that stupid white dress would look in a plain fabric: it shows off cleavage and nice shoulders, tapers the silhouette with the A-line skirt, and enhances the waist with the long waist-cincher style. I have the feeling however that the large prints are supposed to make you look smaller because small prints would appear to be too many, or some other nonesense like that.  Me? give me nicely cut, no-prints any time.

Then again, that's exactly the reason why I started making some clothes for myself.

Arien

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