Clothes never fit me - YouLookFab Forum

I am new here and I desperately need help. I'm wondering if you can help me figure out what body shape I am and give me some clothes suggestions. I'm including some pictures (embarassing!) and here is a little info.

I am 34 years old. I'm 5'6" and 116 llbs. I have never found clothes that fit just right. I'm somewhat thin (although you will have to look past the pudge right now - I've had two babies in 3 years and my youngest is 8 months old), totally flat-chested, but I have a round booty. It seems like I have a thin waist, but belts don't seem to look good or feel good either. I'm always too tall, too short, too flat, too round, etc. for everything I try on. I hope you all can help me.

Here are my measurements and then my pictures:

shoulders: 38"
bust: 35A or 35AA when I'm not nursing babies
waist: 27"
hips: 37"
inseam: 32??"

Thanks for your comments and your help. Please be gentle with me! Ha!
Here is a link to my pictures:

http://s585.photobucket.com/al.....do_bucket/
password: qwerty

16 years ago

anne

Veteran

Hi Hando and welcome,
I think we have a lot in common! My measurments are within an inch or so of yours, though I am shorter and not as thin (you look great). I am also roundbottomed and flat chested (though, like you not so much at the moment as I am also still feeding lastest baby - in my case 14 month old DD3)
But I am afraid that is a bit hard to see your hipline in that skirt. It is clear you have a defined waist, so you are not a rectangle or apple but we really need to see you in something like closefitting jeans. Sorry to say that after you have gone to the trouble of taking the pictures.

Can you tell us a bit more about which things you find hard to fit?

BTW I am sure you would look good in belts. Lots of us here are taking baby steps with them and can help you try out the look

hando

Member

Hi! Thanks for responding. I uploaded a few more pictures, but they are a tad blurry because I took them myself through a mirror.

I'm not sure why clothes don't seem to fit me. I have the most trouble with tops. For example, button down shirts look really bad on me for some reason. If I get them to fit the bust area, the back and shoulders are way too tight. If I get them to fit the shoulder/back area, I look like I'm drowning in them. The whole collar and neck area always look huge on me, also. Tops always seem to hang down too far on me and I look like I have no waist/shape at all.

I will appreciate any advice concerning belts because I never wear them. They always just feel weird on me - like there isn't enough space for them around my waist. I end up tugging them down quite a bit past my natural waist and then they slide all over the place.

I think it just seems like I'm not straight enough and not curvy enough to fit any style. Does that make any sense at all? Thanks for the help!

Tanya

Hello Hando and welcome! You have a great figure and it shouldn't be difficult to dress at all.

It would be great to have a photo in some fitted jeans, but even from these I am fairly certain that you are an hourglass, which is technically the ideal body shape.

Now first things first, you should have a proper bra fitting ( not at Victoria's secret, but a place like Nordstrom or some specialty lingerie boutique). Everything starts from there. Of course, that should wait till you are done with nursing your baby. But you do not look like 35A in the photos, well actually 35 doesn't exist at all. You'll br surprised with the difference a good fitting bra makes, and you will probably end uo needing something like a 34 B or even 32C bra.

I also have fairly similar figure to you: 38" shoulders, 32C-24-36. The fit troubles you are describing sound like you are not the same size all over. That's OK, most of us aren't. That's when the tailor comes in. The rule is to buy an item to fit your largest part ( for example shoulders & bust) and have it taken in elsewhere ( e.g waist). These will particularly apply to woven tops, knitted ones are stretchy and thus more flexible. I always have to go a size up on my shirts and have them taken in at the waist, I have to take pants in at the waist etc.

On the belts, you are just probably not wearing them at the right place.

Anyway, there are a lot of wonderful women on this forum ready to help and I am sure we will fix everything fairly soon. Be warned, you will have to post a ton of photos though.

It would also help if you told us what kind of clothes you need ( casual or smart causalor dressy) and whiuch stores you have access to.

well, this really surprises me that you think I am an hourglass. I am anything but the curvaceous Marilyn Monroe/Salma Hayek type. Is it possible to be hourglass when you are flat on top and curved on bottom? I thought you had to have a pronounced waist to be hourglass? Is my pronounced like that? I know my measurements show that it is, but when I look at my body I just don't see that. What do you think?

shiny

I think hourglass is more about your shoulders and hips being in balance, and less about having a teeny tiny waist. And your waist *does* look tiny - trust me, my waist is 27 inches but hips are only 33 inches! (my bust is also 33 inches and shoulders are 33 inches - yet I am also 6 inches shorter than you).

Looking at it another way, the ratio between your waist and your hips is 0.7, which makes you very solidly in the category of "tiny waist." There's no way you are an apple or a rectangle, not with those measurements!!!

As for having trouble finding clothes that fit, I think the first question is to ask: where have you been shopping?

I am wondering if perhaps the issue is that you may be still shopping in junior section? And now your body has changed and become more womanly? It is easy to get in a rut and continue shopping in the same part of the store we are used to. Also it is easy to get fixated on a certain size we always wore.... and even if our bodies didn't change with pregnancy and nursing and just natural maturation process, the manufacturers have been changing the sizes on us!!! So what used to be a size 4 ten years ago is now a size 0.

If that's not the case - and you are truly leaving no retail stone unturned, and trying on clothes in a range of sizes - then there's simply the reality that clothing is mass-manufactured for an "average" figure shape and very, very few of us are average. Most people are going to find something is kind of off with clothing bought off-the-rack. Best approach is to keep searching and find the brands that work the best, then stick to them and be loyal (at least until they change their fit model, sigh....). And get things tailored.

Regarding not liking belts, they aren't a requirement. Same goes for collared, button-down shirts (it's a very rare one of those that I can find that fit me, and even then, I just find them fussy). I bet you would look amazing in a wrap top.

Finally, can you be more specific? What brands have you tried, how do they not fit, and what do you define as "good fit"? I ask that last question because since finding YLF I'm realizing that my concept of "fits well" has changed quite a lot. I'm getting more and more used to more body-concious, form-fitting clothing. What I thought fit well a few years ago now seems too loose and baggy. So I do think it's an important term to define. It might be that clothes are fitting you just the way they are supposed to (your measurements are pretty common ones for your height), but that you need to adjust your eye. Does that make sense?

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