Lost my way - nearly 50 and fat

[friendlymum67]

Any advice for a nearly 50 something, overweight divorcee who has lost her way. I'm an apple shape, 5' 6" and just don't know what to wear any more. I have a staple outfit of jeans, with top and waterfall jacket but a wardrobe of clothes l just don't wear.

Is it even possible to be stylish when overweight?? Don't want to look like mutton dressed as lamb ....

TIA

If you would like to be less overweight then do something about it! Join a bootcamp low carb thread on here - it's transformative...

Get a good haircut, eyebrows and any facial hair tamed and some good upholstering underwear...

Then whatever you put on top will be on good foundations.

What are the clothes you don;t wear like? What do you want to look like? What colours suit you? Smart? Casual? Lifestyle? Budget? We need more info!

Ditch the waterfall cards. Very meh. You can do better.

Don't get the 'mutton dressed as lamb' comment? Do you think you need to be young to wear stylish clothes?

Ditch the waterfall jacket for starters. They're ghastly at any age.

I get exactly what you mean! Of course you don't have to be young to wear stylish clothes, but I personally find I fall between two stools sometimes, some things are too young for me, others are too old fashioned! I sometimes find middle age is difficult to dress!
My bust has got larger, my waist has disappeared and I'm much more 'fleshy' around my tummy!!
What fits my 'waist' is too tight on the hips! I love fashion, unfortunately it ain't loving me back!

I think the issue with middle age isn't your age specifically, it's that your body starts to change in ways that are not always conducive to fashion. I don't think it means the end of dressing fashionably or stylishly, provided you pick out the trends that suit you and sit out the rest (or at least wait until so many people are wearing them that no-one notices any more e.g. skinny jeans). It means being ruthlessly clear sighted about your best and worst features and crucially - and I'm convinced this is where a lot of us go wrong - noticing when your body changes and reviewing your style. I've already had to do this a couple of times.

There's a thread somewhere about dressing 'when you're old and fat' (their words not mine!) which I bet you'd find helpful.

I really don't want to derail the thread but I can't post without adding that I really hate 'mutton dressed as lamb' and I wish we wouldn't talk about ourselves like that.

Can't stand the phrase mutton dressed as lamb.

I'm nearer 50 than 40 and a size 12-14 (recently put weight on due to illness/medication). I'm not stylish in the slightest, but I do know what I like and what shapes suit me, so I tend to go for almost a 'uniform' of shapes now, and then buy new things in the same shapes, or replace items with better quality ones as they get old.

If you know what your staple outfit is and it suits you and your lifestyle, then just repeat it in different fabrics, textures, colours. Or maybe try the same jacket but with a dress instead of jeans etc.

If you have nice legs, and apples often do, then that's an asset to show off! Do you have a bust? I'm a busty pear, so wear v neck empire line tunics over trousers a lot. You could wear similar with leggings, I think. And a jacket/cardi the same length as the tunic.

It is hard to manage your wardrobe when you are also disguising the bigger bits.

I don't know your budget or if you're trying to keep and re-use clothes you already have but personally I'd go through your wardrobe and charity shop/give away everything you no longer want/use and have a look online or in the high street at what you like. Try on lots of things especially shapes and styles you've never tried and see if you can come up with a new style you're comfortable with.
I'm in my late 30s and my mum is in her late 60s and we both love the Toast range at the moment.