TL;DR version: Im looking for advice on sun-dresses for pear shaped bbw.
Crazy enough to read the wall of words version:
This is completely a fishing expedition. I dont know how much anyone can help me on this, but there are some pretty fashion-educated people on this board so I figure it cant hurt to ask.
Here is the background:
First, my wife is musing about the possibilities of getting a sundress. This is big news, because in the nearly 25 years that weve been a couple she has had precisely one sun-dress, that she wore a few times in the summer of 1992. For that matter, shes had maybe half-a-dozen other dresses (one at a time), all much more structured affairs worn for weddings, funerals, or dressy occasions. I would love her to get a sun-dress, because I like her to try new things, because they look like a comfortable way to enjoy some parts of the summer, and because I enjoy seeing her dressed in different ways and having a chance to show her off in different clothes.
Second, she hates shopping, burns out in twenty minutes max--counting trying things on--and can very easily get turned off an entire style if she tries on some things that dont flatter. Normally I pre-scout stores, and for things that I cant really buy for her (need trying on, not sure about colour) Ill bring her in to do some pretty focused shopping in stores where I think there is a fighting chance that shell find clothes she likes. (just inverse the stereotypical husband-wife shopping dynamic, and youll have a fair idea of how we work).
Here is where I need help. She was less than half her current age and less than three quarters her current weight the last time she had a sun dress, so both styles and her body have changed, and I dont really remember the style on it that well anyway. So I really dont have much of a clue of what would work well on her (or that shell like). Im hoping that someone here can help guide me to (current) styles that have at least better odds of working, so that I can help her by scouting out higher-probability dresses.
She is a pear, carrying her weight primarily in the hips, bum, and thighs, and secondarily in the upper arms and lower belly (and she is a BBW, it isnt like any part is particularly fat free). In younger days she had a very dramatic swoop from waist to hip, but age and motherhood have moderated that to being closer to a steady taper from her narrowest area (just under the bust) out to the hip. She is naturally all hip and thigh, between literally large boned in those areas (when she was thin enough to count her ribs by eye and her hip bones jutted out, she still needed size 13 jeans to go around her hips), and muscle (she bikes and walks everywhere) before even counting where fat accumulates on her.
Generally she does best with necklines that are some approximation of a v-neck, although in a pinch a wide, shallow/flat neckline can somewhat work (some of this is probably general pears should choose a neckline that visually widens their shoulders and some has to do with shapes that flatter her facethe v-neck does both I think, the broad shallow collar only the former).
She generally loathes A-line and empire waist thingies, because with her shape and their lack of structure they drape themselves over every lump and bump of her body. A lot of sundresses seem similarly unstructured, designed perhaps to hang from the shoulders and or bust, but what do you do for someone with hips wider than shoulders and belly more prominent than bust?
Crazy enough to read the wall of words version:
This is completely a fishing expedition. I dont know how much anyone can help me on this, but there are some pretty fashion-educated people on this board so I figure it cant hurt to ask.
Here is the background:
First, my wife is musing about the possibilities of getting a sundress. This is big news, because in the nearly 25 years that weve been a couple she has had precisely one sun-dress, that she wore a few times in the summer of 1992. For that matter, shes had maybe half-a-dozen other dresses (one at a time), all much more structured affairs worn for weddings, funerals, or dressy occasions. I would love her to get a sun-dress, because I like her to try new things, because they look like a comfortable way to enjoy some parts of the summer, and because I enjoy seeing her dressed in different ways and having a chance to show her off in different clothes.
Second, she hates shopping, burns out in twenty minutes max--counting trying things on--and can very easily get turned off an entire style if she tries on some things that dont flatter. Normally I pre-scout stores, and for things that I cant really buy for her (need trying on, not sure about colour) Ill bring her in to do some pretty focused shopping in stores where I think there is a fighting chance that shell find clothes she likes. (just inverse the stereotypical husband-wife shopping dynamic, and youll have a fair idea of how we work).
Here is where I need help. She was less than half her current age and less than three quarters her current weight the last time she had a sun dress, so both styles and her body have changed, and I dont really remember the style on it that well anyway. So I really dont have much of a clue of what would work well on her (or that shell like). Im hoping that someone here can help guide me to (current) styles that have at least better odds of working, so that I can help her by scouting out higher-probability dresses.
She is a pear, carrying her weight primarily in the hips, bum, and thighs, and secondarily in the upper arms and lower belly (and she is a BBW, it isnt like any part is particularly fat free). In younger days she had a very dramatic swoop from waist to hip, but age and motherhood have moderated that to being closer to a steady taper from her narrowest area (just under the bust) out to the hip. She is naturally all hip and thigh, between literally large boned in those areas (when she was thin enough to count her ribs by eye and her hip bones jutted out, she still needed size 13 jeans to go around her hips), and muscle (she bikes and walks everywhere) before even counting where fat accumulates on her.
Generally she does best with necklines that are some approximation of a v-neck, although in a pinch a wide, shallow/flat neckline can somewhat work (some of this is probably general pears should choose a neckline that visually widens their shoulders and some has to do with shapes that flatter her facethe v-neck does both I think, the broad shallow collar only the former).
She generally loathes A-line and empire waist thingies, because with her shape and their lack of structure they drape themselves over every lump and bump of her body. A lot of sundresses seem similarly unstructured, designed perhaps to hang from the shoulders and or bust, but what do you do for someone with hips wider than shoulders and belly more prominent than bust?
