For maybe half of my life, the phrase "Fat people can dress nice too", has always been my motto when dressing myself. Ofcourse like anyone else I find inspiration through other people, street style photgraphy, what the weather is going to be like that day, what event or gathering I'm going to be attending, or the more typical sense of trends that are happening in that moment. I feel when normal skinny people think of fat people dressing, its either something that is ill fitting, baggy, and in other words non fashionable.
Yes we are limited to resources for trendy pieces, stores like H&M, Zara, Forever21, though curvier women have retailers like Torrid, Lane Bryant. But what trendy stores are there for plus size men, upon personal research Ive only found Big and Tall Jcpenney. I believe its only pure luck for fat people who are into fashion, to find fashionable/trendy pieces to add to their wardrobe. Lets take a casual outfit, Ive found nice basic T-shirts, at big and tall Jcpenney, and if you do, stock up on them. I know plus size clothing can be expensive at times. To me spending 60$ for a flannel or a basic shirts is ridiculous for plus size clothing. Which is why I always wait for sales. For the past couple of months, Ive stopped buying clothing, i.e. flannels, shirts full price, because I don't feel the need to buy it for the price. I just wait until those items are marked down to almost 80%-90% off the retail price (This mindset of sale purchasing also goes for my lux items aswell, but of course if I have the money to splurge, I will treat myself. But other than that sales are my best mates.) Ive refined my wardrobe to have key pieces of button up long sleeves, ie. flannels, button ups, solid color basic t-shirt like black and grey, and paring it with accessories.
When you are a fashionable fat person, key accessories are your best friend. Whether it be hats, shoes, sunglasses, slg (small leather goods) accessories like bracelets. It can really had a stylish sense to your outfit. I usually like to pair a nice pair of shoes or bracelets to my outfit to add that cool effortless vibe, or lux feel.
Tailoring your clothes also helps achieve a stylish wardrobe, luckily for me my best friend has the ability to use a sewing machine. So she tailors my pants for me, and my tailoring them, she makes them more fitted to my liking. Usually when I buy new pants i.e. Docker black pants the areas around my legs fit like bell bottoms, she helps me taper them down to more look like fitted or skinny jeans. Typically i use one pair of pants until they give up on me, but making pants also is a plus, it gives you the opportunity to use the fabrics you want.
But lets be honest, its a lot of work being a fashionable fat person, from my experience and sometimes its just pure luck and effort on finding trendy items to add to your outfit. but in the end confidence is all you really nice. Ive seen plus size people pull off plus size clothing without accessories, or tailoring (Also you're probably thinking "Why not just lose weight" Forget that, thats a whole other blog post). You just need to find it in yourself, so if you don't like the plus size look and want to steer into a more trendy/cool wardrobe, confidence in finding clothes that fit your esthetic, it will help you achieve that.
