Fashion Tips for Large Bums & Tums

Dress for Your Body Shape – Minimize Your Hips, Stomach and Bottom

© Gill Hart

Jan 22, 2008

Great dress style is about making the most of your body shape and forgetting about your size. It’s about accentuating your best assets and cleverly disguising the flaws.

Choosing the right cut, colors and prints can be effective in giving the appearance of losing pounds or kilos. So for those who neither have the time or inclination for a keep fit regime, learning how to make the most of your figure will make you appear slimmer, give you a confidence boost and increase your self-esteem. In the words of UK fashion gurus Trinny and Susannah, “If you can’t beat it, conceal it!”

Fashion Tips for a Big Tummy, Wide Hips or Big Bum

Dresses and Skirts

• Avoid shift dresses and go for a tailored or fitted dress, advise Trinny and Susannah in their book What not to wear, Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated (1 Jun 2004). The versatile wrap dress also allows you to camouflage the tummy. Maxi dresses cover a multitude of sins, but make sure an choose a close fitting rather than baggy cut.

• A skirt cut on the bias emphasizes your bigger bits and an A-line skirt will accentuate a large bottom even further as it will balloon out at the back. A more flattering style is a flared skirt that just skims the bottom and hips, which will draw attention down to the lower legs rather than to the waistline. Ruched-front skirts are another tummy-and waist-reducing alternative.

Blouses and Tops

• Wide slash-neck T-shirts and tops will balance out the width of your hips or bottom. Fitted smock-style tops will skim gently over your waist, but choose one that is close fitting around the bust to avoid the beached-whale or expectant mum look.

• Tops or blouses with a shirt-tail hem will gently curve downwards over the tummy, but avoid this style if your also have wide hips. Ruched tops will disguise some of the stomach flab and longer wrap styles clinch the waist and fall loosely over the tummy.

Trousers and Pants

• Go for loose fitting wider-legged trousers, flared or boot-cut. This will create a more balanced silhouette than straight leg pants. Avoid tapered trousers, which will emphasize a big bum and large stomach even more.

• Choose trousers with a lower waist rather than pulling tight across the waistline, causing a roll of fat to spill out over the waistband. Side fastening pants rather than zip-fronted trousers will minimize the bulk around your middle.

Jackets and Coats

• Coats with wide lapels draw eyes to your upper half and neck and choose a cut that skims over your bottom and thighs rather than a baggy or straight cut with no definition. According to Trinny and Susannah, “a coat with a tailored look will hide and balance the bum, giving a feminine shape.”

• Three-quarter length jackets will cover the problem areas. Avoid short-waisted jackets which finish just at the waistline or halfway up your behind as this draws more attention to your middle.

Swimsuits and Beachwear

• Go for a dark block color and avoid horizontal stripes, vertical or diagonal are best. A swimwear style that is ruched across the stomach will act as camouflage. High leg cuts flatter big hips and bums as they have the effect of minimizing those areas.

• Avoid a design which features detail on the stomach and hips. Instead choose one with detailing on the bust, which draws eyes upwards. “Any kind of detail along the bust line focuses attention up and away from the hips…teeming a dark bottom half with a printed top really flatters,” according to In Style magazine, “Shop for Your Shape”, in the November 2007, Australian Edition.
• Cover up with a stylish tunic style caftan top rather than a sarong, which tends to add more bulk to your figure.

Body Shapers

• If you feel slightly self conscious about your flabby areas, then splashing out on a body shaper is one of the best investments you can make. These days there is no longer any sigma attached to wearing this kind of underwear and these “magic knickers” are advocated by fashion stylists the world over, including Trinny and Susannah on their website of the same name.

• Body shapers not only keep fat in, but improve the lines of an outfit. Once the domain of more mature and pregnant women, whether you are twenty or sixty-something, there is no longer any age discrimination in wearing these.

• There is a huge choice of waist, hip and tummy reducing underwear available from different manufacturers and can be bought online or through high-street stores. These magic, life-saver, lycra pants and tights come in all shapes and sizes from corset belts, body smoothers to bum, tum and thigh reducers, even thongs.

Colors and Prints

• Go for dark colors on your lower half or large prints with a dark color base. Avoid fine, light fabrics when going for larger prints. Vertical stripes slim the body, avoid any horizontal stripes around the tummy, hips and bum.

Fashion Accessories

• Smart and fashion savvy women will invest in some eye-catching jewelry to keep attention focused on the upper body. Clever use of earrings, brooches and necklaces will draw attention to your face, neck and bust rather than your bum, hips and stomach. Hats and scarves will also draw attention to your top half.
• Knowing where to wear a belt is critical as it can either draw attention to your problem areas or disguise them. Large chunky belts can hide a flabby tummy and a hipster belt can halve a big bum by fitting across it. Avoid narrow belts unless they sit just under the bust, as in this season’s popular empire line dresses and tops.
• When choosing a bag "don't carry a handbag or shoulder bag that falls from the mid to lower torso," says Stephanie Pedersen, in her book Handbags, what ever woman should know, (David & Charles 2006). Learn to choose the right bag for your body type.

Kaftan J by Jasper Conran

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