How to Spot a Badly Designed Garment for Your Body

Well, if most women are curvier (not all I know!), then why are so many garments cut and sewn not to cater for this?  I can spend hours shopping with an X, 8 or A shaped woman and we’ll never find a pair of trousers that will flatter and fit. They will either pull across the crotch, and then gape at the waistband,  there will be pockets at the hips that gape or draw widening horizontal lines across the hip/thigh area which is the last thing these women want on their pants – see below for an example of a pocket to be avoided unless you’re a V or I shape.

Before I knew what I know now, whenever I  would try on a pair of pants like this I tend to have a mental dialogue that tells me to ‘lay off the pies’ rather than really looking and saying to myself BAD DESIGN! (Here’s another example I found on a shopping trip).

Then, for many of us who don’t have defined waists, there is the problem of the patch pocket on jackets – which just draw unflattering and widening horizontals across the waist we wish we didn’t have.  Plus the flaps just add some extra unnecessary bulk.  Sure the garment may look less interesting without the pockets, but it would be a lot more flattering!

Those breast pockets too – add more volume to your bust, so if it’s not smaller and you want to make it appear larger, avoid the breast pockets as well.

And then, of course, there are cardigans with unflattering pockets at the thighs, and that end across the widest part of many women – again drawing unflattering horizontal lines.  A cardigan (like the pink one above or the blue one with red stripe) will look fine on someone who has very slim hips and thighs but put it on many non-models and it won’t look so hot.

Then, there is the issue of pattern, for all you lovely petite women, let’s put a large scale pattern on a petite garment, just to completely overwhelm your frame and swamp you, such as this large scale and obvious pattern – anyone who is not really tall with large facial features and a dramatic personality will disappear in this top.

Then what about jeans – why not put low or long back pockets on them that make any but the leggiest woman look short legged.

Alternatively, why not ruin a perfectly good jean with some unflattering distressing across the crotch creating extra and unnecessary horizontals?  All this distressing does is draw attention to your crotch and add an extra curve to your hips.

So next time you’re in the shops trying on clothes, make sure your mental dialogue is saying “these pants aren’t made to fit over my delicious, luscious butt”.

What bothers you most about clothing design?  Do you blame yourself when something doesn’t look good or the clothes?