Horizontal stripes and the fat person. Yeah you heard me right .
By SusanLee
@SusanLee (1920)
United States
May 2, 2010 4:47pm CST
No one who is short and over-weight should have to settle for horizontal stripes. For that matter, no one who is tall and over-weight should have to settle for it. We usually do though because our choices are limited.
What are these designers thinking about when they see a bolt of soft cotton fabric with stripes, any size stripe from pin to bold?
The first thing they do is come-up with a tent like top with all the stripes running horizontally and all the orders of said tops are sizes 1x, 2x, 3x and larger.
There should be a law set in place stating no clothing over the size extra large can have stripes running horizontally, only vertically.
And for those of us women who are over-weight, yeah; you read it right, FAT. We should not be subject to all our lightweight tops having these revolting plunging necklines and horizontal stripes.
For crying-out-loud! I am over-weight, fat is fat, not differently weighted, horizontally challenged or gravitationally gifted. I am toting around about 60 pounds more of me than I need too, and that makes me FAT. Even so I do not want my figure flopping out the top of my shirt when I sneeze.
I have to pin my shirts to my bra straps as it is just to keep the girls covered up. We have two choices, tops that go clean up to our chin and make us feel like we're strangling, or they plunge so low that even the slightest shrug of our shoulders can send shock-waves through the crowd of the skinny jean wearers, (what's up with those ugly pipe cleaner leg looking pants anyway? Never mind, that's for another day)
Some of you will understand, some will say go on a diet, some will say that it's cheaper for the fashion industry to print the material this way instead of that way.
I have to scratch my head and wonder; what do the parents of these 'fashion designers' think when they see the likes of which you are seeing in this picture (there are many more where this one came from) and realize this is what they invested in when they sent the brat to school for all those years.
I would want my money back.
1 person likes this
7 responses
@redhotpogo (4401)
• United States
3 May 10
Fat people do have a poor selection of clothes. I would say they should stay away from stripes altogether, as well as animal prints, and basically any geometric design, but you don't have a choice. There's plenty of people who make clothes for fat people, but none that make anything good.
@SusanLee (1920)
• United States
4 May 10
Did you ever hit the nail on the head with that statement.
[i][b]There's plenty of people who make clothes for fat people, but none that make anything good.
[/b][/i]
What I don't understand is why. The majority of the population is over-weight, with poor self-esteem because of the weight. Imagine the boom in the clothing industry if they really applied their fashion skills toward helping the over-weight woman find the right style, design and cut for her and a bigger selection to choose from.
@redhotpogo (4401)
• United States
3 May 10
Maybe you should. Get a sewing machine, and some material.
@rapunzelcat (271)
• United States
3 May 10
And what's up with the teeny tiny little capped sleeves? Many, though of course not all, plus-sized women have heavy upper arms and those sleeves barely cover anything, might as well be sleeveless as far as I'm concerned. And I hear you on those necklines too. Some of them don't even cover the whole bra, depending on which one I'm wearing. Stripes, big tacky prints, ugly colors...it's almost like they WANT to make sure everyone notices that we're fat, and make us look even fatter!
@SusanLee (1920)
• United States
4 May 10
Amen lol.
I have come to the conclusion that only about 2% of plus-size women aren't fat at all, just very tall and full figured.
The rest of us are just fat, pure and simple. We eat to much for the amount of calories we burn.
Now, have you ever taken a look at the bathing suits out there. I've seen two-piece suits, 3x and up with tiny triangles of cloth to cover those huge drooping boobs and spaghetti straps to hold up the whole mess.
I mean PLEASE!!! If a fat woman is going to take on a two-piece bathing suit, at least give her a top with the strength and coverage of a good bra, there, now there's a place to go with all those floral prints.
lol, I laughed when I read And what's up with the teeny tiny little capped sleeves?
I can't count the times I've had women digging through our plus-size summer dresses complaining about the same thing.
Here are your choices ladies, you can look like a big orange hibiscus with bat-wings or a walking kaleidoscope.
By the way, you get the best response on this one.
@maezee (41997)
• United States
2 May 10
Well, even though you may be fat (and I am too - by definition), horizontal stripes don't always look bad. It really depends on your frame I guess, and how you're weight is spread out. Not everyone who is considered "overweight" is just wide. Horizontal stripes can look just fine on someone who's overweight. Again, it's depending on your frame and how your weight spreads out. Then there are those people where all of their excess weight goes to their stomachs or hips or whatever - THEN I would avoid them. But I have a lot of fat stored up in my thighs. This is where everything goes in my case. So it's not that bad for t-shirts or tank tops..But for pants - jeez, it's hard to find something that fits in the thighs AND the waist! As usually the thighs/upper legs are too tight but waist is loose. Ugh. Oh well.
I have this problem all the time too, though, just with clothes in general. Especially at stores like hollister & abercrombie&fitch, which are clearly not made for people who are not stick-thin and flat as a board. Even though 70% of my country's citizens (the US) are apparently overweight, stores STILL manufacture clothes that ONLY LOOK GOOD on people with VERY minimal curves AND no boobs. It's weird to think about - because I would think that clothes that actually FIT people like you and me would be in more high demand and thus would be produced more. *shrugs*.
@SusanLee (1920)
• United States
4 May 10
You know, I have wondered the same thing. I work at a department store and sometimes I'll go out into the food court to eat lunch. I watch people and what I have observed is that at least 75 to 80% of the people are over-weight.
The women appear to more over-weight then the men. Usually the women carry the weight in the butt and legs, where the men all have the big belly hanging over the waist-band of their pants.
I've also noticed that most of the women are dressed poorly. When I say poorly I mean in overly large shirts and baggy pants or shorts. I get the impression they're dressing for comfort,not to impress the public and I can't say I can blame them given the limited fashion choices out there.
@samafayla33 (1856)
• United States
2 May 10
i am a little heavy, i have a striped night shirt, but i hate it. Imperial blue is one of my favorite colors but it is basically solid colored. I also wear dark colors solid and if i wear colored clothing, i wear small figures. Several family members give me strange things, but I dont wear them but seldomly.
@SusanLee (1920)
• United States
4 May 10
I have a couple of soft cotton tops that I only wear around the house because the stripes run horizontally, they make me look bigger than I am. The are so soft and comfortable that I even sleep in them sometimes.
I would give anything for the stripes to run vertically so I could wear them to work.
@Professor2010 (20162)
• India
23 Jul 10
Wonderful discussion friend
I am a bit overweight at age of 65, but my height is six feet two am 95 kg
I wear shirts that are plain, no patterns, no stripes..
Thanks for sharing.
Welcome always. 
Cheers.
Professor
Cheers.
Professor
@cmjune76 (273)
• United States
3 May 10
Let me tell you.... nothing frustates me more than seeing polka dot prints, several other obnoxious prints and stripes on plus sized clothing! I see it from the cheapest of stores to the expensive boutiques. It is the designer fault but also the buyers for the store. Both of those parties OUGHT to know better!
The plus sized shopper often has no other choice... (and being sarcastic and thinking, well.. they could lose weight) does not help! there are less options for the plus size shopper too, which is absurd when medical field keeps telling us that there are more overweight people than thin! UGH!
@SusanLee (1920)
• United States
4 May 10
Like I mentioned above, I work in a department store and the area we have for our plus-size women is very small.
Now, for the woman that is bold and wants to please herself and the rest of the world can go hang, I'm glad the 'wrong-way-stripes, tiger-stripes, leopard spots, ginormous floral prints, and polka-dots are available. (No, I'm lying to myself, the wrong-way-stripes should never be allowed on any smock-like top, sized over extra-large.)
That being said, those choices should not be the larger choice and that's the problem, those hideous prints and styles probably take up 75% of the space.
I wish I had the money and talent to do something about it. I know there are specialty shops that cater to plus-size women but they aren't main-stream.
