What screams frumpy?

[bradpittsbathwater]

What makes something/someone frumpy? It's hard to define. I know MN can get upset at this word.

Anything from Popsy

Oh the saris sound lovely @Sususudio I tried one on once and I have always wanted to own one since.

Yep 🤦🏼‍♀️

Oops... that's me!

Personally I find baggy fleecy coats and large florals frumpy.
However I also now mostly wear leggings (which I never would have until 3 yrs ago as I always saw them as for kids or sports) and whatever jumper is warm enough under my mud spattered dog walking coat. So I doubt I'm much of a guru

spec savers! They are a Vogue pair. They’re 2 years old though.

Probably spec savers is frumpy though😂

Glasses are frumpy?

www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2024/mar/01/iris-apfel-fashion-life-in-pictures

Any M&S patterned or embroidered T-shirt, especially those with a frill detail.

Your mum sounds fabulous 🙂

Totally agree, it would be useful to see a photo of each poster who is pronouncing on this.

S&B threads where people actually post photos of themselves are really illuminating. So many people are very confident discussing fashion and sound very persuasive until you see them and they don't look awful but if you saw them you would never think they had any interest in clothes.

If I shift a few lbs it will help a bit but the oversized thing is a disaster for me.
Isn't that the point, though. Fashion is usually something that looks great on young / slim people but can look dodgy on most of the rest of us. It is designed to be divisive, to mark out the Cool from the non-Cool.

To me it’s clothes (for men or women) that don’t suit the occasion or look like you haven’t bothered eg I was out for dinner recently and someone I know had a Mountain Warehouse type jacket on over a floral dress with either bare legs or thin tights and low heeled pumps. She’s younger than me, richer, slim and pretty but she could have looked so much better. I’m quite sure she couldn’t give a toss what I thought though.

Also anything in that particular shade that’s somewhere between mauve and fuschia, I can’t think of anyone it suits.

glad To see the men mentioned too.

I’m a summer. That’s my best colour palette. As is pale turquoise. And lilac is a massive colour this spring.

To be fair to my DM, when I was growing up, most women her age seemed to morph into a floral dress, cardigan, perm with blue/lilac rinse and didn't seem to take much interest in exercise. My nana was different, completely the opposite in looks and preferred to try to look more modern.

It's interesting that hardly any older women look as per my para above, which is 'frumpy' though some sort of tend to veer that way. M&S did a few years ago reinstate those clothes back, not sure if they do that now.

Love the "but it applies to men too" crew coming in. Absolutely no it doesn't. It is an entirely misogynist term.

I do think some women don't bother as much depending on weight etc. A friend of mine who's overweight due to health issues (and trying to desperately lose weight) admitted to me that she doesn't make an effort as much these days as things don't look good on her now as they did before. But she looks amazing in some of her older clothes, when she was slimmer, she had the confidence. I'm not saying slim = fashionable/non frumpy though at all.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow i do love a bit of lilac - I don’t wear that much colour but some of the things in the shops are so pretty. I guess it’s the garment as much as the colour 🤷🏻‍♀️

Knee-high boots. Especially over jeans. But also...at all.

I agree, I think weight comes into it a lot. Due to health issues, menopause etc I've put on over 4 stone in the last 6/7 years. Gone from a size 8/10 to a 16/18. Everything makes me look fat (because I am fat), I've kind of given up style wise as nothing looks like I want it to.

I used to love dungarees and dm's which looked edgy, now makes me look like a painter and decorator (as do jump suits). Casual now just looks like I've not bothered

Edgy now = grungy
Classic = frumpy
Smart = middle aged Mumsy
Casual = scruffy

Useful look when it has rained for the last six months, though!

There is definitely a slim privilege at play.

I can add another two birds with one stone to the list; my glasses are Joules frames. And look ace.

Oh no...guilty 😳 (not over jeans but still).

Take no notice! My entire wardrobe is literally Seasalt and Whitestuff. They suit my shape (aka overweight and meno) and colouring, wear and wash well, don’t draw attention to bumpy bits and people tell me I always look good. I feel comfortable and confident.

Although I did feel a TAD less so last weekend when I walked down a London street with my Whitestuff midi dress tucked into my tights at the back, but hey ho.