Fashion Police

[gerisullivan]

This post started out as an email to smofbabe, debgeisler, and elaine_brennan, but before I finished it, I decided to inflict it on anyone who dared click on the links:

I'm not sure what body shapes this dress would look good on, but I'm certain none of them are plus size. No wonder it's on clearance....

On the other hand, the front view of this winter jacket strikes me as fashionably cute (in a good way), even with its super-wide lapels. I bet it would fail the warmth requirement for this climate, and the back view from the waist down is questionable...if I'm being overly generous.

Great Ghu, there are a lot of ugly clothes out there right now.

The entire "let's bring back the '60s and '70s, but make them worse" trend is disturbing. Here's a typical, gag-prompting example. I noticed this trend several years ago, and immediately hoped that it would sink within a season. No such luck.

Over on the shoe & boot front, Deb will be relieved to learn that even I think these are ghod-awful.

"Plaid wool and rich suede intriguingly mix on a lace-up ankle boot balanced atop a stacked heel and hidden platform." No, that plaid on that heel is not balanced or intriguing. It's revolting.

While we're reshaping the economy, is it too much to hope that designers and manufacturers will learn that one good way to persuade consumers to part with their hard-earned and limited funds is to offer attractive merchandise? Good quality and reasonable prices don't hurt either. With those in place, merchants will have a better chance of selling things before everything in their stores and websites hits the clearance racks.

Comments

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

Sweet Mother Goddess above, those clothes are fugly!

[kaffy_r]

Oh dear. Your Faithful Correspondent must acknowledge, or admit, her love of both sets of boots, most particularly the plaid ones. And she must say she really likes the first dress, for reasons even she cannot quite parse, unpack, or grok. The brown skirt, on the other hand, looks like a 7th grader had the flu when she was trying to finish it for her Home Ec sewing final. The peasant blouse looks like it wandered into Nordstrom from Sears, and is being kept warm and fed by the kindly other clothing pieces, who don't quite know what to do beyond that.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

This may sound odd, but it's actually something of a relief to me that someone I know (and whose fashion sense I admire) likes those two pairs of boots. I think it's because knowing that justifies their existence (to my sensibilities, anyway.

I think the first dress has the potential to look good on some people. I can't make the jump to it looking good on any plus-size people I know or have ever seen. This may be a failure of imagination on my part. I would love to be surprised, and I like the underlying concept of the design as well as the fabric. I just don't think that cut (in that form) works on large bodies of any shape.

Hmmm...maybe cross-dressers? Especially cross dressers with no bellies and small butts? But there needs to be some widening of the hips compared to the empire waist, some curves other than the bust line for the dress to work.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

An open-toed winter boot definitely wins some kind of dysfunctional clothing award.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

And it looks like it has...gills.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Golly, that first dress may be the best of the lot. The problem with the winter jacket is the pleating on the pockets is going to accentuate the heck out of any extra width of person at the hip line. Not so good. That skirt, though, is mind-boggling in its desperate awfulness. Ye gods.

While I agree with you that retreads of the '70s are a bad idea, rendered worse by most re-designs, I have to say I rather wish Jessica McClintock would re-visit her Gunne Sax designs, and bring some out for plus sizes. I've recently discovered that there are all sorts of Gunne Sax clothes on eBay, and they've held their value remarkably well (the damn' dresses are *still* $150-200), but of course, they're even more woefully too small for me than they were in 1979.

But I am starting to think that I can borrow the design elements and make contemporary knockoffs of my own, that fit me. Then I can finally have that Senior Prom dress I never could have back then.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I don't remember them being quite that expensive, but I bought a fancy one for a year-end dinner with the at-risk teens I worked with and one of the girls came in the same dress and was really upset that it looked better on me. I would have changed if we weren't about 50 minutes away from my house.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

I really didn't need to know that Gunne Sax were showing up on ebay. My most favorite from the late 80's was a halter top, high-low flaminco-style(sp) in black lace on black. I was a size 8 or 10 then, and took the halter off to make it strapless. I wore a 4" heel with it on a SFbay cruise dance with the DeMolay and was the talk of the night...a Rainbow Girl in BLACK! STRAPLESS!! and her KNEES were showing!!! OMG!!!

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

Actually, I kind of like the first dress. On the other hand, the other stuff is really, really ugly. That skirt looks like the cat tried to sew. I see all kinds of shirts like that in the stores. I hate both the fabric (the print) and the style.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Giggle. Yep, it's -"the skirt the cat tried to sew"- all right....

And, yes, store racks are stuffed with shirts like that, and I won't buy a one of them. I rarely see anyone wearing any of the ghod-awful shirts, either, so we're not the only ones rejecting them.

[drpaisley.livejournal.com]

Mother of Ghu, Puss-Puss!

That's a whole lot of hideous there, I must say. One obvious problem: a complete lack of paisley.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of paisleys out there right now, but the fabric and fashion designers rarely handle them well -- either the scale is off or the colors are. Even on those rare occasions when the fabric is fabulous, the designers and manufacturers to all the wrong things with it.

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

I will see if I can get the photo of my New Year's outfit, which sort of involved paisley on steroids.
I was very happy to discover that Portmeirion had chosen the same colour scheme for the New Year decoration as my outfit, pink, purple and gold.

Failing that, I will wear it again at Eastercon.

Why yes, 'Subtle' is my middle name.

FF

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what body shapes this dress would look good on

She's grown a carapace!

Here's a typical, gag-prompting example.

She's pregnant, and both her arms have been tied off to take blood samples.

No, that plaid on that heel is not balanced or intriguing.

It's a disguised container for carrying Scotch.

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, clothes for over a year for women have been hideous. I buy stuff on sale (and lots of stuff was on sale today at the mall) but it was all too ugly to buy.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It's really hard to pull off a bandage dress; you tend to need a figure like this.

B

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I agree. I utterly adore the lines and look of the periwinkle bandage dress in the Herve Leger Resort 2008 collection (#3 in the set of 19), and several others are mighty fine, too, especially numbers 7, 8, and 15). But the lines need the right, very sleek body shape, and those shapes don't come in plus sizes in any women I've seen.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Oooo. Some really nice dresses there.

B

[haniaw.livejournal.com]

I like the first dress - even though I could never wear it. Everything else you've linked to is hideous to the extreme. My gut reaction to all of them was "yuck".

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

Both sets of boots would be great for steampunk costuming... except for the price...

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Hates it all, we do. Uglllllly.

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. One wonders what some of those designers were thinking.

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

Despite the temptation, I am not going to put my eye out with a stick.

But it's a serious temptation after looking at some of those things.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

Agree, dress #1 nothing over size 12 or 14, as long as there is an hourglass/or flat shape happening. No extra buldges.

The skirt...left over from the parachute fad or the safari fad. ick

suede boot...over-done. Close the toe, and gills on one side, maybe. A Firefly costume boot for sure, but that's about it.

plaid. I liked a link to a plaid pump that they had, but for costuming, not everyday or fashion wear. The boot would take work to costume to, for me, as it's not a color-tone I can wear (too warm-yellow).


The coat. Not a warm coat, it's a fashion coat for color wear. Like my Zebra from Lane Bryant this season. I have to wear a solid color shawl over it for warmth.

I've got a pair of Madden Girl pumps that I picked up at Mervyn's closing days that for most people would be hideous shoes...but for me they are perfect: one's become an everyday Event Planner meeting shoe at 3.5" and a toe platform of 1/4" (http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/41844123/c/3.html)and the other are black patent shinys for jeans and night time with spikey heels (photo link not found).

[thette.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the sixties, seventies and early eighties are back. I've become fond of tunics with big, bold patterns in bright colours. (Currently wearing one with irregular squares and rectangles in white, black, brown and red.) It's something of a style for me, and it looks good even on a full sized body. I just wish they'd do something sensible with the sleeves. Short or full, not 3/4, and no elastics or anything in the sleeve hem, please.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be taking the elastic out of the sleeve hems of two blouses. They're supposed to be full, but I have long arms and they actually hit just a few inches below my elbows, and are really annoying there.