I’m not entirely clear on how it happened, but I somehow wound up subscribed to Lucky, “the magazine for shopping.” I won’t quibble too much about a magazine that encourages you to obtain stuff – stuff acquisition is part of our cultural and arguably biological heritage, especially for women. Since I’m writing a fashion blog, and fashion is all about getting you to buy way more than you need, I’ll stuff my old political self in an airtight jar until today’s blog is done.

In North America we don’t need acquisition for the sake of survival ― we pay someone to gather our berries and put them in a jar for us ― so we have a whole new meta-system of self-interest called social status. Were I ten years younger I would quail and rail at this societal blindness; I’ve always hated status-seeking behaviors. Nowadays, I get it, and Fat Chic seeks to subvert the system as it is by taking a disadvantaged social class – and yes, plus women get their own unique social class, with a whole checklist of factors based on race, ethnicity, and geography – and giving that social class a few ideas in order to slowly take control of one system that assigns them their social status. In this case, that system is fashion, and I’m doing it by commenting clearly and bluntly on popular and unattractive designs that will be thrust upon plus women as “in fashion” and by pointing out those styles that are unflattering and intended to damage our social standing by sending a negative message about our appearance and our awareness of appearance. Yes, this is my version of “Just say no.”

This Jaclyn Smith from Kmart is an example of what’s going to be marketed as “fashionable” pretty soon. Examine carefully.

Lucky’s February issue, while neither aimed at nor acknowledging the existence of plus women, had a public trend that I know will make its way to plus sizes soon, and I want to send out the APB now: women of any size, say NO to the tie-neck blouse. I don’t care if Marie Claire editors bill it as a “sophisticated” look. The tie-neck is not sophisticated, it’s dowdy. No woman great or small looks good with this design; it even looked bad in the 80s when it was also billed as “sophisticated.”

For plus women, the tie-neck is especially bad. A flattering look is all about maintaining as many uninterrupted lines as you can around your curves. A swath of fabric nestling on your bosom, especially a larger bosom, emphasizes how big you are in your upper torso while obscuring your neck, accentuating any double chins or related flaws in your face.
As a general rule, if a photo of you in a tie-neck blouse can fit easily underneath an imposition of a frog’s head and keep the same visual symmetry, it’s just a bad look.

I’m sure I’ll write more about these as they come along, but I’d also like to point out that ruffles and shoulder-puffed sleeves are also unflattering designs for the same reasons. Fat Chic, resist!