Remember to join our birthday party this week, and come out smelling like lavender, eucalyptus, grapefruit, jasmine or simply a natural, complements of Eucalan.
Since this week is Hourglassy’s 5-year anniversary, I’m starting off with how the site has affected my life. It’s definitely given me a deeper understanding of my own body and its quirks. This has helped immensely when it comes to shopping for clothes and lingerie, and has really impacted my self-esteem positively. More importantly, though, it’s introduced me to so many wonderful people. Darlene is one of the sweetest, most positive people I’ve ever met and it’s a joy to have her in my life. I also feel like I’ve become part of a community of other big bust women and big bust bloggers, some of whom I’ve even gotten to hang out with in real life! It’s such a pleasure to meet so many women who are just as excited (obsessed?) about lingerie and big bust fashion as I am, and it really normalizes our particular body shape. Yay boobies!
Next up is a fun little contest ModCloth is hosting this week. Bloggers were all assigned the same garment and directed to create an ensemble out of it. A winning outfit will be picked weekly and shared on ModCloth’s Polyvore page. The winner doesn’t seem to actually get anything aside from potential clickbacks, but I thought it’d be a fun little challenge to create a bust-friendly outfit out of whatever random garment I was assigned.
The garment turned out to be the “Following Dreams Sweater,” pictured below. To be honest, I’m not actually a huge fan of the sweater. But seeing as it appears to have very little defined shape, I thought it’d be a good busty challenge. Additionally, even though I’m not especially excited about this particular top, it’s a good representation of ModCloth’s quirky-cute aesthetic and is also fairly representative of the quirky, blousy tops one often finds at fast fashion chains like Forever21 and H&M. But those tops are usually very bad for busty ladies, giving notorious “tent-boobs.” So how can a busty gal accessorize these types of tops in a way that makes them a little more flattering? Read on…
Here’s a list of the garments clockwise from the upper left with links:
- Rocking Major Cords Pants
- Cloud Nine to Five Blazer
- In With the Elegant Bustier Bra (We of course know this as the Parfait by Affinitas “Danielle” longline bra in Dusty Rose.)
- Bear for You Undies
- The Best of Times Heel in Grey
- Eager Achiever Bag
I knew right off the bat that I wanted to pair the sweater with high-waisted pants. Leaving a blousy top untucked means it’s going to hang straight down from your boobs, creating a tent effect. Even tucked into regular pants, it turns into something of a bubble effect. But with high-waisted pants that stop at or just below your natural waist, usually the narrowest part of your torso, tucking the blouse in can emphasize your waist and bust instead of swallowing them up.
I also wanted to find a bust-friendly blazer and this double-breasted style is fabulous for busty ladies. You may recall that I wrote about a very similar one from H&M earlier this year.
Now that the outerwear is taken care of, obviously I had to move on to the lingerie! Luckily ModCloth actually does carry a few big bust-friendly styles from Parfait by Affinitas. Parfait’s vintage-style offerings clearly resonate with ModCloth’s ethos. I selected a blush-colored longline because the sweater is semi-sheer and this bra might disappear on certain skin tones. But even if it’s visible, it could pass as a camisole and it’s pretty, so it wouldn’t be totally unseemly-looking.
Even though ModCloth offers matching underwear, I personally like to mis-match my bra and panties so I just chose something totally random for the bottoms. This teddy bear pair is fun and silly, and actually looks pretty comfortable and ride-up free.
Because I have an unhealthy shoe obsession, I insisted on looking through all 1,250 pairs to select just the right ones. They needed to be classic yet a little funky, and have at least a medium-height, not too dainty heel. Stilettos or flats just wouldn’t work with those ’70s-style flares. I love Oxford-inspired shoes and this pair is no exception.
Lastly, I wanted to wrap up the outfit with a handbag. Since the blazer and sweater are a little conservative (well, for me), I wanted a purse that would really pop. ModCloth sells a number of animal bags (including a bat for Halloween!), but this beaver seemed the most odd. Foxes and pugs and cats all make regular appearances on tee shirts and accessories (and junk on Etsy), but when do you see beavers??
Apparently “randomness” seems to be something I embrace in my fashion…
