Hi friends!
Fashion is a topic of my third book that I’m just starting to outline, while my secon book, AquaTherapy for Lipedema book is in editing. (Yay!) My third book is called Fashion for Lipedema and I’ll talk a lot more about this in depth. For now, here’s a little post to brighten your day!
Let me start with this: Fashion is not rocket science and if I can do it, literally, anyone can do it! You can do this! And seriously you can look really sleek with lipedema. We have the benefit of compression under our clothes, which really smooths us out.
I’m getting a question a lot on the forums about how women can dress well while trying their very best to incorporate compression into their wardrobe, “without looking ridiculous” (as one recent poster put it). In general, too, I get questions about how to use outfits to draw eyes away from legs and to our favorite features.
My style: First I want to say there are SO many body positivity, and even lipedema-based influencers on social media. Their styles range from catering to fat fetish audiences all the way to ultra conservative. My style caters to me – a middle-aged professional, who likes to look mainstream and doesn’t cater to fetishes at all (just NOT my thing. In fact, I don’t respond to direct messages and often delete fetish-related comments from my site. I literally just want to be normal, like I need stuff to wear to work type normal.)
My constraints and confession: I tend to share outfits that are affordable (except for shoes because…lipedema and size 13WW don’t really equate to cheap shoes, so I have to just do what I can until my line of footwear comes out next year.) I also tend to share outfits with pieces I find on Amazon, frankly, because I can affiliate market and get a cent or two to help me actually buy the next outfit. And sometimes, well, often, I’ll share pieces I already own or things I find at goodwill, etc.
Today I’m going to walk you through what I do to make my monthly lipedema-friendly outfits. As a reminder, here are a few I’ve shared with you this year, all of which have blog posts with links.
The first thing I do if I’m looking for inspiration, is go to a board I’ve made on my pinterest recently to remind myself of outfits I found and want to copy. If I forgot to pin something recently, I go to my phone to scroll through pics. This is because I sometimes see random people with a great outfit and literally stop them to ask if I can take a pic of their ‘fit. (They always say yes!) Like this lady that I saw at Harvard one day recently. I’m totally putting this outfit together for this next fall, by the way.
If I still can’t find anything, then I go to the stars. I do random searches of ‘plus celebrity outfits’ or I search for beautiful women who I think dress smartly to see if they’ve worn anything cool lately. Names I frequent right now to see if there’s anything that matches what I’m looking for and want to copy are Queen Latifah, Oprah, Adele, Melissa McCarthy, Lizzo (way too far off so far but someday she might have something that’s more ME. This week I just happened to be binge watching the TV show called Unsellable Houses and notices that Lyndsay Lamb (who appears to have ‘normal’ legs) has a style that often includes longer dresses or leggings/tights with her outfits. And she’s fun and lively, so I’ve started looking at what she wears to see if I can copy her pretty soon. I’ve pegged an outfit for August if I can find the right dress. This isn’t it because I want to keep it a secret, but isn’t her style so great!
Oh! You know who else’s style I love and am trying to figure out? Diane Keaton (I know she’s super slim, but her style is so enticing to me, so humor me here), and Comedienne Nicole Byer (Nailed It!). They both occasionally have an outfit that I’m totally in love with. So I look to be copying them more. In fact, if all works out my July outfit (coming out July 31) will feature a Diane Keaton look that I’m trying to figure out right now. I’m saving that picture for the actual outfit post.
So anyway, once I find an inspiration piece, I go to Amazon and start the hunt. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, and sometimes I’m searching for several weeks before I either find something similar, or I move on.
The last step for me is replacing my old wardrobe. What I know is that I have no need for traditional work slacks anymore. It’s just too hot for me to wear those over compression. So as I get new items in, I am working towards a better system of taking old things out. Goodwill as a last resort, and ebay as the preferred way. So far, I’m a little weak in this area, admittedly.
Here you go, all my tips and pointers. Remember to visit my posts about monthly lipedema friendly outfits to get links and inspiration. I’d love to see you comments about what your favorite lipedema friendly outfit is. Please tell us!
Until next time, stay well and do the best with what you have, TODAY!
Susan
