[OT] Age Appropriate Dress?

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
Victor Martinez wrote:
Helen Wheels wrote:
What, not even muumuus? Aw...

Well, maybe some kinds of dresses are ok:
http://www.utilikilts.com/

In very hot weather that would allow for a nice cool breeze

I have an item of apparel related to a corset. Its one of those crushed
velvet lace-up things that push up your boobs that look appropriate at SCA
meetings. Providing I didn't have to breath heavily (as it was *tight* being
laced up) it was the best thing on a summer's day. For the first time in
*years* I had the delight in feeling a cool breeze underneath my boobs. It
was *wonderful*.

My bodyshape suits "buxom wench" type style. Shame its been out of fashion
for several hundred years :-)

Yowie

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 16:00:48 -0800, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
wrote:



jmcquown wrote:


I do think people should dress for their body-type, as well. I can't stand
seeing a 250 pound woman squeezed into something made with lycra so all you
see are bulges and bumps. Wear a short skirt or dress if you wish, but make
sure it *fits*. Buying a tight stretchy dress isn't going to make you any
smaller.

I've always been a "big girl" (but not fat - at least not
when I was younger). Because of the difficulty in finding
what I wanted in stores, I've always bought a lot of my
clothes from catalogs. I notice (with some dismay) that one
of the "large woman" catalogs includes shiny red leather
pants suits among its offerings. They'd look great on any
young, firmly built, proportionately tall woman up to about
a size fourteen. The notion of a size forty wearing such a
getup (in shiny red, yet) boggles the mind!

Several years ago, I remember seeing a woman in her mid-70's, who must
have weighed close to 400 pounds, wearing a bright purple jumpsuit,
about a size too small for her. The result was reminiscent of the
"Grape" character in the old Fruit of the Loom underware commercials.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

I'm watching "The View" and one of their "hot topics" was whether women
should stop wearing certain types of clothing as they get older (the
example used was women who were over 40 shouldn't wear "Juicies" work-out
clothes.

You'll have to clue me in on this. I don't know what "Juicies" are.


Workout wear and t-shirts, the difference being that a "Juicies" brand
tracksuit is $300, whereas I got a nice velour set at Stitches for $20.

***

I was ill a few years ago and lost a lot of weight. I was being sized
for some kind of bracelet or watch and had to get a "large" size, much
to the surprise of the sizer. I told her I had big bones. She said,
"I used to think "big boned" was just how some people said "Fat" but
you don't have any fat on you and yet the diameter of your wrist is
really big..."

You simply cannot start with the bodyframe of a Mack truck and expect
to build a sportscar on it

(At 130 pounds, friends and family thought I looked "Frighteningly
anorexic." People always presume I'm 30 lbs lighter than I really am.)

--Fil

"Yoj" wrote in message
m...
"Victor Martinez" wrote in message
...
jmcquown wrote:
point. No, you can't wear sweats to the office. No, your skirt can't
be up
to your bum. No, you can't wear tube tops. Yes, you may wear slacks;
tailored style (like khaki's) but not skin tight. You may wear
sleeveless
blouses but not tank tops. You'd think some of this would be common
sense
but apparently it wasn't.

Wow... my employer is very, very relaxed regarding dress code. Many
folks wear shorts, t-shirts and sandals to work. I'm talking engineers
here, so it's not a pretty sight... ;-)
Most people wear jeans/slacks and button-down shirts though. I'd never
wear a t-shirt or shorts to work.

--
Victor M. Martinez

Engineers and computer programmers can often get away with dressing in a
manner that would earn another type of office worker a reprimand.

Joy



Back when "hot pants" were first in style - probably 1967 - I had a friend
who bought a new outfit while visiting her family in NYC and wore it to work
in DC.

She was young enough and built right to wear it, and besides it was gray
with white polka dots. Not really flashy, just different. And it wasn't
like mini skirts weren't around.

Everything was fine until lunch in the company cafeteria. Then after lunch
our area supervisor sent for her. She was away from her desk and when she
got back he called her in a chewed her out for wearing such a thing to work,
etc and she would lose her job if she ever did such a thing again, etc, and
besides where had she been earlier when he first sent for her?

She had been downstairs in the office of the editor of the company
newsletter having her picture taken for the next issue cause they thought
she looked so cute and stylish.

Jo

Victor Martinez wrote:

Wow... my employer is very, very relaxed regarding dress code. Many
folks wear shorts, t-shirts and sandals to work. I'm talking engineers
here, so it's not a pretty sight... ;-)
Most people wear jeans/slacks and button-down shirts though. I'd never
wear a t-shirt or shorts to work.

One good thing about working at the university is that nobody cares how
you dress. I wear jeans and a t-shirt most days. You can't see a
difference between some teachers and their students. OK, some of the
older male professors do wear suits and ties, and one female professor
usually wears a jacket suit, but there's another female professor who
has retained a sort of hippie-ish style, with long flowing skirts or
jheans and long flowing hair that she sometimes wears in plaits or
pigtails. One teacher sported green hair for a while. Most younger
teachers wear t-shirts and jeans. And so on. I would hate to work in a
place where I would have to dress up.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.
marina (dot) kurten (at) iki (dot) fi
Stories and pics at http://koti.welho.com/mkurten/
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

In message .com,
Enfilade writes

I love the fact that there is a choice. For decades, the fashion designers
seemed to rule the world. Certain styles just could not be worn, and skirt
lengths were dictated. Then, one year they blew it. In the same year, we
had maxi, midi and mini skirts and pantsuits. Women liked having a choice
and never completely allowed the designers to dictate to them again.

To be fair, a lot of people learn to dress from their parents and
friends.

This is difficult when your parents and friends are in a very different
line of work than your own.

For example, poor Dylan.

His dad's a bus driver and self-employed editor. His mom works in a
restaurant. His brother works in a call centre. His friends hold
blue-collar jobs like graphic designer, portrait framer, security
guard.

Where was he supposed to learn how to dress "like a doctor?"

Puts me in mind of a doctor I used to know when I worked back in the
Health Service. Strangely enough, she popped into my head the other day
too. Spooky ... but I digress. She worked as a GP, but has been asked
to act as a consultant on the massive new build that was going up which
would vastly increase the size of the Margate Hospital. She wore
leather. Looooong black gothic-y skirts. Mini-skirts. Lots of
eye-make-up, and peroxide blonde hair. Her theory was that although she
was a doctor, she was determined not to conform to stereotypes. She'd
dressed like this as a student, and she wasn't about to give it up now!
--
Cathi

Enfilade wrote:
snip
Where was he supposed to learn how to dress "like a doctor?"
snip

I work at a medical school and it's easy to pick who's who by their
dress. The ones with the sharp-looking shirt-and-tie getup and a white
coat with a stethoscope hanging out of the pocket - they're the first
year medical students. The scruffy looking one with a T-shirt and shorts
on - she's probably the head of surgery, so be nice to her!

"dnr" wrote in message
...
Because of the difficulty in finding
what I wanted in stores, I've always bought a lot of my clothes from
catalogs. I notice (with some dismay) that one of the "large woman"
catalogs includes shiny red leather pants suits among its offerings.
They'd look great on any young, firmly built, proportionately tall woman
up to about a size fourteen. The notion of a size forty wearing such a
getup (in shiny red, yet) boggles the mind!

Since you mention the "plus-size" catalogs: I'm pretty much
limited to LaneBryant stores here (not as "trendy" as Avenue,
sometimes downright stodgy clothes) but Avenue has NO
stores in this state and online is how you gotta get their
faddish stuff (I like). I was shocked to learn from LB's
website (they are owned by some Penn. clothing
conglomerate) that they have *no connection whatsoever*
with the LB catalog! Check it out for yourself...I will never
buy anything again from the LB catalog, and had noticed
over years that stuff from that catalog I'd ordered was
always of inferior quality.

As most of you know, I was very overweight most of my life. I too used to
*try* to shop in plus size catalogues. However, it used to drive me
absolutely bonkers that all the models in there were no more than a size 8!
I knew that anything that made those skinny-minnies look fat would make me
look like a house. But even when something looked nice on a model, I never
knew how it would actually look on me - all of the models were at least 80 -
100 pounds thinner than me! Did they think that heavier models would make
the clothes look bad and nobody would buy them??! If so they weren't giving
women enough credit for having even two brain cells connected - and even
less self-esteem!

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

"Enfilade" wrote in message
ps.com...

I'm watching "The View" and one of their "hot topics" was whether women
should stop wearing certain types of clothing as they get older (the
example used was women who were over 40 shouldn't wear "Juicies"
work-out
clothes.

You'll have to clue me in on this. I don't know what "Juicies" are.


Workout wear and t-shirts, the difference being that a "Juicies" brand
tracksuit is $300, whereas I got a nice velour set at Stitches for $20.

***

I was ill a few years ago and lost a lot of weight. I was being sized
for some kind of bracelet or watch and had to get a "large" size, much
to the surprise of the sizer. I told her I had big bones. She said,
"I used to think "big boned" was just how some people said "Fat" but
you don't have any fat on you and yet the diameter of your wrist is
really big..."

You simply cannot start with the bodyframe of a Mack truck and expect
to build a sportscar on it

(At 130 pounds, friends and family thought I looked "Frighteningly
anorexic." People always presume I'm 30 lbs lighter than I really am.)

--Fil

I certainly couldn't have used that as an excuse - every inch on me was
something I shoved down my throat! I have what Ben calls "itty bitty birdie
bones". My wrist is 5 3/4" around (I have to take out *ALL* the extra links
in watch bands and they *STILL* don't fit tight enough). I wear a size 4
ring.

I'm down to 125lb at 5'5" and I still look a bit chubby around the middle
and upper arms - the ideal weight for my height and my frame starts at 110lb
which, given my teeny tiny bones, I should be at. My "range" is 110lb to
125lb, so I'm *just* within my correct weight range.

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

I remember back in the 1960's being allowed to wear slacks/trousers
to
school for the first time. Before that, girls could only wear
dresses or
skirts with blouses. It didn't matter how freezing cold it was
outside
waiting for the bus to school. Funny thing is, this harkened to my
elementary school days when I lived in Bangkok and no one would have
*wanted* to wear long pants, not even in the winter! They did allow
(tasteful) shorts in school because it was *very* hot and humid 75%
of the
year.

taking a short trip down memory lane

School dress codes were very strictly adhered to - girls were not
allowed to wear trousers, skirts/dresses hemlines no higher than knee
length (checked by making us kneel and our hem had to touch the
floor), grey knee length socks, navy or grey tights (thick wooly
things that itched like mad) in winter and white ankle socks in
summer, grey sunray pleated skirt or blue with white polka dot dresses
(all the same style) for summer, black blazer, navy raincoat with the
hood lined in red, pale blue shirt, navy juliet cap, grey beret or
straw boater hat (detention for anyone caught in uniform outside
school without a hat on), navy cardigan and flat black lace up shoes.

I won't go into all the sports wear and other stuff except to say that
our initials had to be sewn onto every piece in red embroidery thread.

I went a little 'fashion mad' when I left school, I wore the shortest
mini's the brightest colours etc (I had and still have very long slim
legs). ;-)


--
Shirley
http://community.webshots.com/user/shirleycatuk