The golden guideline has been to sport one voluminous piece per outfit, either on top or bottom, in order to maintain a structured look. For example, a pencil skirt, sleek trousers, cropped pants or jeans, paired with voluminous tops and jackets. Or a fitted and waist defining top or jacket with a full skirt or wide leg trousers. Another approach was to add a belt for structure if the top itself was not waist defining.
Mixing up a voluminous item with a structured one is a pretty flop proof dressing guideline, and goes a long way to preventing that “sack of potatoes” and frumpy, shapeless feeling. In fact, wearing volume on top and on the bottom, unless it was a short sack dress, was thought of as unflattering and a fashion faux pas.
Well, things are once again on the move in the world of the fashion faux pas. Over the last few years, designers have matched voluminous tops with voluminous bottoms and shown the roomy combination on runways. We stared seeing the “volume on volume” trend filter through last year when boxy cropped tops and sweaters were being matched with wide leg trousers and full skirts. However, the cropped nature of the tops ensured waist definition, which gave the outfits their structure. Now, in support of fashionable slouchy silhouettes, long and boxy tops are being worn over wide and full bottoms, as seen in the photos below.
I don’t find these ultra roomy combinations flattering in the conventional sense, but I don’t dislike them either. Attempting to recreate the vibe will not be easy because the visual effect is quite overwhelming. We could easily loose ourselves in all that volume.
It’s refreshing though, to see this much volume alongside all the short, tight and skimpy that’s been overplayed in the fashion world for such a long time. I do prefer the trouser outfits. While the skirt ensemble looks borderline frumpy to my eye, the trouser outfits look edgy and fab. Edgier looks often forgo a little conventional flatter in lieu of a little “daring, cool and different”. The trick of course, is making an edgy outfit look just flattering enough so that it’s still attractive and stylish.
Do you find these roomy combinations flattering? Would you wear volume both on top and bottom?
