Pear-Shape Shopping

Like many women, I'm a different size on the bottom than on the top. This is why many swimsuit makers now make separates so you can choose which size to wear on top and which on bottom.

I am what the fashion world would describe as pear shaped. In other words, my bottom half is larger than my top half. I can't tell you my jean-shopping woes (if it fits my hips, it may gap at my waist, but even worse, even though I am a "curvy" gal, my legs are somewhat leaner, in proportion and therefore most jeans make my legs look bigger than they are, but I digress), and ... I haven't worn a dress in many, many years.

As mentioned in my last post, a friend is having a wedding a few hours away and frankly, my sad little wardrobe doesn't really have anything appropriate for a fashionable girl's country-club wedding, so I thought I'd try and find something cute. Brian suggested a dress and I merely laughed sadly and shook my head. Dresses don't look good on me (for the most part, although my wedding dress rocked!).

First place, no luck. Second place I found something that would work (a cute top I could pair with a black skirt), but I saw this ultra-adorable dress (black and white flowers, high neck, poufy skirt).... The largest size they had in stock was a few sizes smaller than I wear, but it seemed like I could at least try and see what it might look like. If it just looked totally horrible I could just chalk it up to the size and style and go my merry way. But, while the zipper didn't go up all the way and my boobs were a little squished, this dress actually didn't look bad. Shocker! SO ... I went to another store of theirs somewhat nearby (as nearby as two chain retail stores can be) and tried on one in my size and ... lo and behold, not only did it fit, but it looked cute!!! You have to understand, I don't like shopping much, mostly because things fit oddly, and everyone has different sizing and such and me in a dress is almost unheard of. And then, a lady shopping there (because sure, the saleslady will tell you you look good in it) told me that I looked "really cute." Aww! Must have. Luckily it was in my budget as well.

The only downside is that it's sleeveless and I have to wear something over it. They had some shrugs, but the only color in my size was pink. It looked okay, really, but I just couldn't do the pink thing. So today I ordered a shrug in black, and then a fun shrug (from another company) in a "mauve berry."

So, what does the dress look like?

Ta-da!

Since the model is holding the skirt out, you can't actually see that the skirt actually has some fullness. And I hope that with the colored shrug it will really make the outfit pop. So, I'm very excited, mostly because it's been a long time since I found something that I thought looked cute on the rack, it fit AND looked cute on me too.

Color me a happy pear!