The Myth of the Wrap Dress!

[This is a post about some of the fashion “rules” that don’t work for all body types. Even though I know the dress does not look good on me I still posed and styled the dress so you could see it objectively. The images are my sacrifice to knowledge.]

So, if you’ve done any research on what is a no-fail, universally perfect dress for any shape or age you’ve discovered the wrap dress. This is a dress that drapes the fabric to one side of your torso so you get the illusion of a smaller waist and it accentuates your bust, alluding to your femininity. Unfortunately, for those of us with a big bust this dress completely backfires. Oh, and you apple shapes? Be prepared to be asked “when are you due?” when wearing this.

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This was the first dress I bought when I was going back to work. I believed the hype. Even though in the dressing room I could see something would have to be done about the dip in the neckline since the fabric was pulled downward and outward revealing a great bit of my bra. But, I bought it, brought it home, tried it on with a black camisole underneath. Now the whole vertical look of the neckline was completely changed. No longer was it a long vertical triangle starting at my neck and moving down. Now it stopped in a horizontal line above my cleavage. It looked like I was overly modest.

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Then I decided I needed to have that v-neck to get the desired look so I stitched up about 5 inches of the neckline and tried it on again. Something still didn’t look right. I put it away for a few months then brought it out again. Maybe I was wearing it wrong? I put it on and my teenager told me it looked “matronly”. Death knell.

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DSC_0295What I realized is the reason this doesn’t look good on a big-busted woman is because it plays up the bust too much. The low v-neck is the focal point and divides the bust into two. Now, you have two gigantic breasts, completely outlined by the dress structure. Then the affect of the ruching creating the waist hits right below the breasts. If I had smaller breasts the ruching would be lower, closer to my natural waist. But, with the uptake of fabric by the bust and the inevitable low-hanging quality of larger breasts, the fabric is gathered almost underneath the breasts further silhouetting every bit of them. The resemblance to a maternity top is too much for me.

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Now, it is helped a lot by the “3rd piece” jacket. It reins in the width of the bust and hides the side silhouette of the waist, but I think the dress still just doesn’t look as good as a dress should look. But, if you’re ever in this situation, keep in mind the power of the jacket to, at least, make it acceptable.

I cringe when I look at these images but I wanted you to know that if you are built like me you will have to take the “rules” lightly and actually try everything on, view it critically and if it doesn’t look right in the dressing room, it is not going to look right at home. Linking up with these ladies Mama and More

Unfortunately, I will have more posts like these in the future since I have several more examples of items of clothing that don’t work for my body type. Learn from my mistakes!

 

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9 Comments

  1. So glad you wrote about this. I am a very similar shape, and have always found wrap dresses to be wildly unflattering. I bought one of the original DVF wrap dresses and wore it a lot because that’s what everyone did, but I never particularly liked it. I’m looking forward to your future columns. Thanks!

    1. So glad to know it’s not all in my head! And yes, I have other similar items of clothing that I will be writing about in the future that just don’t work for our shape though they may work for everyone else. Thanks for joining in the conversation!

  2. Wow! Thank you for making my inner critical voice audible! I really thought there must be something wrong with me if every single fashion blog noted that “wrap dresses are universally flattering” and yet I looked either pregnant, saggy, or both in every one I tried.

    I think the current rage for cheap stretchy fabrics just adds to our woes, as I can envision a structured wrap dress that created an illusion of a waist, if made of something like a quality lightweight denim or a woven wool with a little stretch.

    1. Yeah, I think they have potential but I really don’t think they should be sold as universally flattering. It’s kinda like that “one size fits all” theory that has been de-bunked!

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