Sali Hughes on high street fashion for women over 35

[elotrolado]

Just read this - so true.

www.the-pool.com/fashion/fashion-honestly/2017/20/sali-hughes-on-the-british-high-street-dressing-women-over-35

I too long for those 'flattering frocks, neat at the shoulders, sleeves and neck, but with enough fabric around the middle to invisibly accommodate a bottle of red and more than 19 calories ...'

I tried this dress on in Cos today but, annoyingly, I'm between sizes. The smaller size does fit but is way too tight across the bust, and I'm hardly large of nork!

A while ago I thought Finery was the answer to "no longer a gazelle like 20 something but not ready for Country Casyala". Ordered a lovely looking dress. Great styles, hideous clingy, synthetic fabric. Would have been so, so, so much nicer in mid weight cotton jersey. It was n't more than £40, I would have paid more for better fabric.

But Massimo Dutti have a colour palette consisting of brown/ beige/ navy. They all look shit on me

I bought a few Dotty P dresses in cotton this month! Wearing this one today

m.dorothyperkins.com/en/dpuk/product/tall-navy-tipped-wrap-dress-6579183

They have a good search function, you can search for "cotton dress" within their site

I don't know, I have wide hips (am 12 on top and 14 bottom) and I know what you mean, but I find wrap dresses can really work for this shape.

But some don't! A cut across the middle can make my arse seen.huge

But I have been told big bums and wide hips are all the rage now

So flaunt it, and give Kim K a run for her money

DP have a free and easy return system, so.I might order, say, 6 dresses, and only keep 1 or 2.

My arms and my tummy are my BIG problem areas. Any ideas where I could shop?
A clingy wrap dress shows off my unpregnant rounded belly off to perfection 😰

Bloody cut outs!

Random, or what?!

I'm signing up for a sewing course! It's not the complex tailoring skills I want as much as the ability to knock out a little skirt or top in perfect fabric, weight and dimensions for my body. I've been getting shirts made for DH for years, with a high rate of success. And I have been buying and borrowing tailoring books from the library/Kindle and second hand sites. There's an explosion of interest. I can afford an over-locker, if someone will teach me to use it. This is the way forward. I do not want to buy the crap the High Street has to sell.

That DP dress would be really nice - but how on earth can you wear it without showing your bra!! Crazy.

I've recently discovered ruched jersey skirts. I had two from Hush in the winter which were more mini skirts but fine with opaques and a slouchy jumper. I have a couple of fab midi ones from Boden (which I normally hate) and one from Very.

They are forgiving, flattering and wearing them with a boat or v neck look really nice. I wear them with sheer tights until my legs aren't ghostly white. They work with flats or heels too. I have actually lost 2st since December but not one person noticed till I started wearing these skirts and all of a sudden I've been inundated with people saying 'omg, have you lost weight, you look great'.

I used to wear paper bag waist skirts back in the 80s when I was 7 stone soaking wet - and I always thought that one of those made me look fat! The other one was gored, so not nearly so heftily gathered in the middle.

(And it was quite seethrough and wearing it without a slip would put my mum into a rage!)

I'm early 30s. I don't like frills, flowers, pretty little birdies, that awful washed out dirty looking pink, baby blue, excessive polyester, anything tight or t-shirts with stuff written on. I have huge boobs and quite a long body; we are all getting taller as a population so why don't tops come a little longer in the actual tall range? I want black, fitted, plain and enough depth of crotch to not have to go up a trouser size just to get my gym thighs in!

I'm 46 and could have written this! Even when I find a dress that I like and is not made of plastic horrid stuff, the waist is about 4 inches too high.

Cos looks like you have to be uber-groomed to wear it. Like one of those alpha women in TV dramas - the businesswoman who strides along in super thin-heeled stilettos or a hotshot barrister who lives in one of those huge minimalist apartments with floor to ceiling glass. I think I would look like shite in Cos.

That's my fear about Cos Madame. I never wear heels, and aren't going to start now, and my hair is very much on the geeky side of thick and curjt, rather than the edgy side.

My fear with Cos is that all the dresses look like giant sacks. I'm 5'2" and hourglass.

I am reminded of the bit in Don't Tell Alfred where Fanny buys a sack dress from an expensive couturier and Grace puts a belt on it and it becomes a thing of beauty. Fecking waists, designers!

That Dorothy Perkins dress wouldn't show my bra. It's not low enough to show the band,and there's enough material at each side to have no problem covering the straps.

Penguin how did you lose 2 stone?

First time I had heard of Wrap London, some lovely stuff so I ordered two tops. They charged me £18 to deliver to Ireland!! And it will take 10 days. They better be magical bloody tops. How can postage be so expensive, shouldn't they suck up some of their own delivery charges?