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I have a significant love/hate relationship with the plus size catalogs. I speak here of the old standards, the Redcats Brigade (Roamans, Woman Within [though the title makes me gag], Jessica London, Chadwicks, et al); the seemingly indestructible Lane Bryant Catalog; Silhouettes, that catalog of items that frequently (and magically) look amazing on the page but are inevitably disappointing in person; Newport News, which never quite makes it out of the early 1990s, no matter how much time has passed.
I love the catalogs for the rare find. As is no doubt obvious by now, I strongly favor dresses for my everyday wear, and thus most of my shopping habits are shaped by the question of where I can find dresses, in my fatty size, all year round. Catalogs are pretty good for dresses, insofar as carrying them all the time. Whether they're the kind of dresses I'd like to wear is another matter. Though ultimately some of my very favorite pieces (the previously extolled trapeze dress, for instance) were discovered as a result of scavenging through these often unfortunately-fashioned catalogs, for the most part, my catalog patrols simply serve to remind me of how dreadful a lot of plus-size apparel really is. And I have the good fortune to live in a country and a metropolitan area in which my options are fairly broad (Fatshionista.com Pun #477489, right there) - I can remember my teenage miseries, before they really made cute, youthful plus-size clothes, all too well. Said miseries involved jamming myself (literally, painfully) into size 18 jeans from Lerner's. Because there was nowhere else to go for a fat fourteen-year-old.
I swear, I partly keep my catalog surveys up to remind myself of those days. So you can imagine my surprise today when Jessica London yielded a couple of possible winners.
 The catalog calls this one the Polka-Dot Crepe Dress. I should note that I am heavily partial to non-stretch, non-jersey fabrics. Jersey looks wonderful on some folks, but it's particularly unflattering on me, because it has a tendency to highlight my middle-fat (in case folks weren't already bored with hearing about my apple-pear hybrid shape). It also feels very casual to me, and if it's not already obvious, I have issues with complusive overdressing. But I digress.
My point is, I'm seriously digging this dress, at least in the picture on the website. It's fitted, it's non-stretch, and the big-dots print is mesmerizing. One of my personal pet peeves is prints that are out of scale with me - cutesy little calico-printed summer dresses look ridiculously disproportionate and downright unbalanced on my size-26 body, no matter how much I like the idea of dressing up like Laura Ingalls Wilder (who was, truthfully, one of my childhood idols). Bigger prints fit me better. Thus, the dress drew my eye immediately based on that alone.
Add to that the surplice front, which flatters almost everyone, and the vaguely retro ruching on the sleeves, and I'm sold, just about. Catalogs like Jessica London tend to play to women who dress more conservatively - this is partly why I have such a time finding things I like in them, but it also means that occasionally, the more conservative cuts and styles wind up looking faintly retro, yet in a simple and modern (i.e. non-costumey) way.
Possibly-Cute Dress Number Two, inventively called the JL Studio Tucked-Front Dress by the catalog, owes a pretty obvious debt to the Project Runway Bitten dress, subject of frequent discussion on the Fatshionista LiveJournal community. Okay, maybe less frequent than I imagine, but they're discussions I've paid attention to, as I was wondering if, given the dress's generous cut, I might be able to cram my fat self into the XXL version.
I think I may prefer this Jessica London option, though. For one, the bust is fitted. Yes, I love swingy trapeze cuts, but I love a good empire line too. For another, it's a bit longer. Yes, I usually favor dangerously short dresses, but it's also nice to have the option of going without tights or leggings in warmer temperatures, without having to worry about showing my ass every time I bend over or sit down. I also like the color, partial to browns and neutrals as I am. The Bitten dress comes in burgundy and black, and it may be that they very last thing on earth I need is yet another burgundy or black dress.
Shifting gears, I also wanted to take a moment here to wax indignant on a personal fatshion Don't: the need some designers and manufacturers have to take a
perfectly serviceable, even lovely dress in a delightful print and then
violate it with totally unnecessary and superfluous SEQUINS.
I hate sequins - actually I hate sparkly embellishments of all kinds. It's just one of my things. So when I first saw the obviously-named JL Studio™ Print Dress, I was enraptured. The colors! The neckline! The print! If ever a dress had my name on it, this was the one.
Until I read the description, which reads, in part: "Flattering flutter-sleeve print dress with a sprinkling of sequins down the front."
A SPRINKLING of SEQUINS, down the FRONT. Like the wearer was eating a sequin-enhanced dinner roll, which left attractive crumbs down the front of her garment as a delightful and sparkly reminder of the meal (I'm not the only fatass this happens to, am I? I mean with ordinary dinner rolls, not sequin-enhanced ones).
The zoom view on the Jessica London website does indeed confirm the existence of the sprinkled sequins. Horror. I would adore this dress if not for that. Honestly, LOOK at it. Look at the PRINT. It doesn't need embellishing, and it certainly doesn't need sprinkling.
Superfluous sequins aside, this particular catalog has done well, even by my high standards. And this just further proves to me that I am justified in stubbornly investigating even the unlikeliest places for quirky fatty fashion.
It's partly the challenge that draws me, I think. Can I find the one decent item in this Catalog Wasteland? YES I CAN.
Tags: catalog shopping jessica london crimes against otherwise cute dresses WHY SEQUINS WHY Readers have left 6 comments. No.1 Untitled
Please don't slap me but...I like sequins. <i>In</i> moderation. I don't like those enormous cheap looking, fugly beads that were liberally encrusted all over the necks and waists of every party dress last season though. They were bloody <b>everywhere</b> in the UK. No.2 Untitled
No worries, I respect and defend The Right to Enjoy Sequins on behalf of others! Ha.
I just... ugh, I cannot get over how perfect that dress would be for me, if only it were sequin-free. I swear I dreamed about it last night. No.3 Untitled
I suppose you could just snip the sequins off, but not at Jessica London prices. I used to like sequins, but on a dress like that? It's basically just like adding a nametag that reads "hi, I'm a mutton in lamb's clothing." Or however the saying goes.
That polka dot dress is pretty great, though. No.4 Re:
I suppose you could just snip the sequins off — FillyjonkI actually just had to do this, except with beading, and with this dress from Newport News: http://tinyurl.com/yrkh55. I bought it with the intention of wearing it as-is, but of course a bunch of the beads came off after I wore it for the first time, so I spent a couple hours carefully debeading the whole thing. No.5 Untitled
Argh, sequins! I have spent hours debeading and desequining some otherwise beautiful pieces...how did the NN dress look after you desequined it?
And as always, thank you for the tips on finding cute dresses. (I am actually looking for a cute burgundy dress, but the Bitten one is not one I want to chance).
I'm having difficulty with the sleeves of the JL Studio dress, though. No.6 Untitled
I'm new to your blog, and you're probably already aware of this catalog, but just in case...are you familar with MIB (Making it Big?) The clothes (for the most part) are fantastic, albeit a bit pricey...mostly natural fabrics, fantastic colors, realisticsizing/fits, an excellent customer service and return program....I've spent much too much money there in the past few years, and have rarely had to (or wanted to) return anything. Their website is: www.mib.com..
This is one of the very few catalogs where the print/online ads actualy match what you receive in your order. I've received numerous compliments on their clothing. |
