Forecasting a Hot Summer!

Published
by
admin
on December 14, 2009
in Coverage
. 0 Comments

By Dan Ahwa - New Market Flair, Dec/Jan 2010 Issue No. 22

Finding that perfect outfit to compliment each event is de rigueur, so make sure to check out what’s hot for summer trends this season. It’s not always about block brights, florals and pastels for the warmer months ahead. Retailers are looking forward to a summer of interesting prints and zesty colours. Take your cue from recent Northern Hemisphere runways this season and add a much needed dose of style in your wardrobe.

Lime is a key colour of the season, with New York fashion week spring 2010 showcasing splashes of lime from designers such as Brian Reyes and Proenza Schouler. Locally, have a look at the tropical coloured polo shirts available at Polo Ralph Lauren in the 277 Broadway Newmarket shopping complex or visit Trelise Cooper’s store in Parnell for the sexy ‘San Diego Slim Reaper’ lime pants or the busy ‘Faunacation Dress’ which highlights the lime amongst a kaleidoscope of tropical tones.

Speaking of kaleidoscopic prints, the big trend for the season is a flattering print, and in this instance it’s digitally enhanced prints that merge ethnic prints and 80’s pop art. Forget florals. It’s all about taking a hybrid of references with prints and mixing them up - with consideration. Colours that clash but compliment requires a sense of balance and designers have bravely experimented with ethnic inspired prints and reworked them into contemporary and graphic shapes fit for the modern woman.

Gucci heralds in the season with a new take on ethnic prints whilst Basso and Brooke create a kaleidoscopic print that merges bold colour and stylised flora and fauna for a chic summer wardrobe. The severity of Balmains shoulder padded monopoly has encouraged designers to tap into a softer shape for spring. It’s all about the frivolity of frills and pleats, creating a silhouette that is both exaggerated and distinctively feminine. Viktor and Rolf present an extreme version of this with over the top frills and pleats, whilst Louise Goldin taps into frills and pleats for a new take on cocktail dressing.

For some affordable and chic options over summer, don’t look past the options from Long Island. From hyper coloured floral skirts such as the gorgeous Yvonne Skirt, Bouquet Skirt and our favourite, the Caribbean Skirt. “This has been such a popular style that we had to find another lovely colourway to run it in and this great new print inspires us to get out and dance on the beach - or at least take a walk in the sun! The skirt is fully lined and has a soft stretch waistband for all day comfort and six panels to ensure plenty of room” reveal the team at Long Island. Feminine, floaty and flattering, the skirt options at Long Island are the perfect way to dress up or dress down for summer - taking versatility dressing to new levels.

Paris Tee at Long Island Caribbean Skirt Classic Scoop Neck Top at Long Island

Block colours are another way to shake those winter blues away. Why not try out some of the stunning and vibrant t-shirts and shirts from Long Island. As noted above, lime green is the hot colour of the moment. The Paris Tee at Long Island is a vibrant shade of lime, perfect in complimenting that summer tan. The basic summer tee is another summer wardrobe staple and the colours available at Long Island are exciting, from cobalt blues to hot pinks. The best thing about these t-shirts is their soft mid weight stretch cotton helps ensure that it feels good to wear even when the temperature heats up. Accessorise accordingly with some statement jewellery.

Unveiling New Zealands Best Kept Secret

Published
by
admin
on October 22, 2009
in Long Island in the News
. 0 Comments

By Sadie Hawker - Wellington Woman Magazine
Phillippa Wilberforce is a woman with a mission. She wants to give every woman in New Zealand the opportunity to look and feel fantastic, whatever their age, size or body shape. As founder of New Zealand based clothing company Long Island, Phillippa certainly has the means to do so.

Tired of searching and struggling to find clothes that fit her “non-size 12, nonconformist body,” Phillippa decided to take on the challenge herself and provide affordable, attractive and most importantly, comfortable clothes, to women in a range of sizes from 10-30.

“Women like to be admired and feel good about themselves, no matter what age or size they are. I found it was becoming increasingly difficult to find clothes that fit my body, which constantly changes as the years go by. I decided that I would create a company that didn’t give an unattainable size 10 standard’, but one that took into account the actual shape and size of a real woman’s body,” says Phillippa.

“We concentrate on designing clothes that not only look good, but feel good too. We pay great attention to cut, shape and material, so that our clothes not only look good, but are enjoyable to wear. Quality is of equal importance to us, and our clothes are made to last for years rather than just for a season.”

Long Island began in 2005 as a multichannel retailer. It has grown so successfully, that it now boasts thousands of customers purchasing via its two stores, website and the traditional mail order catalogue.

“I wanted Long Island to be a lot more than just a clothes line. I wanted it to be a lifestyle choice,” explains Phillippa. The name Long Island was chosen specifically for the happy, positive imagery of a relaxing, sunny island lifestyle it evokes.

Long Island pride themselves on stocking items that can be “thrown together in a rush and still look fantastic,” adds Phillippa. “There are a lot of busy women who don’t have time to consider their outfits every evening, so we make staple items that can be thrown together and still look fabulous. I call them ‘multiple use’ items and they’re a great basic in every wardrobe.”

Feedback from her customers is always gratefully received - actively encouraged even. Phillippa loves hearing what her customers have to say. “We’re not some faceless corporation,” she explains. “We are here to provide excellent service and satisfaction to our customers. Feedback and communication are areas in which we differentiate ourselves from many other clothing lines. We listen to our customers, make the changes and work with the suggested improvements. I like to think I have a personal relationship with a lot of my customers. I am very hands on in every stage of the business, from design and manufacturing, to offering advice in store. Sometimes I see three generations of a family shopping together in our store, and there is no greater feeling than knowing that you are on the right track, offering a classic style to suit every shape and size.”

“Women’s bodies are constantly changing, whether it is after they’ve had children, get into their forties, or during menopause. You can be an apple or a pear, or just need something that is easy to take a layer off for when you are having hot flashes. These are all considerations that we include in our design processes.”

In keeping with the ethos of the company, Long Island only uses ‘real women’ to model their clothes in their catalogues and promotional photography. Absent are the stick thin models, who are instead replaced by women of varying ages and sizes, representing the real customers that will be looking to buy Long Island clothes.

“We have customers that refer to our models,” smiles Phillippa. “They say, ‘Lois (a popular plus sized Long Island model) looks like she’s lost weight,’ and I say, ‘No she hasn’t. She is just wearing the right cut and shape to suit her figure.’ They often say, ‘Well, if it looks good on Lois, I know it will look good on me,’ and that’s what we are aiming for - a realistic representation of our clothing lines, not some airbrushed, unobtainable image!”

In the mail order catalogue, as well as on the website, there are guides to each model, detailing height, measurements and dress size so that customers have an idea of how the garments would look on themselves.

Long Island has customers from around the globe, and often delivers to Canada, the UK, USA and has a rapidly growing market in Australia. Which is impressive for a company that designs and produces the majority of its stock in its home country.

“We like to have as many made in New Zealand styles as possible. That way, if there are any changes or alterations we’d like to make to the design of an item, the turnaround process is so much quicker. We can also produce smaller lines, meaning that not every item is mass-produced and you won’t see people wearing the exact same outfit as yourself. We want to assist women to dress comfortably, but also retain their individuality.”

And it is because of the combination of great service and fabulous, flattering clothes, that for some people, Long Island is their best kept secret.

“Some of our customers won’t tell their friends where they are buying their clothes!” laughs Phillippa. “They want to keep the secret of their stylish looks to themselves - worried that if they share their secret source, everyone will be able to look as good as they do!”

But with recent premises in Wellington, and the ambition to open a store in Auckland in the near future, it looks as though this is one secret that is about to be unveiled to many more ‘real’ New Zealand women.

Long Island:
128 Featherston Street, Wellington
13 Stanley St, Sydenham, Christchurch
See our full range online at  www.longisland.co.nz
or free phone 0800 23 43 53 for a free catalogue (or you can sign up here.)

Suit Yourself

Published
by
admin
on July 1, 2009
in Articles
. 1 Comment

Coverage, Ashburton Guardian - Envy/Lifestyle Magazine, May 09

The word tracksuit has been given a bad rap. Bad shiny designs worn by blinged out rap stars, to tight lycra ones preferred by gym bunnies or loose saggy ensembles favoured by those who have lost the will to wear clothes without stretch - one does not often associate this item of clothing with style, finesse or glamour. But now comfort and style need not be mutually exclusive with a new range of New Zealand designed and manufactured tracksuits from Long Island.

The tracksuits, stylish and soft, have been designed with close attention paid to the fit. With the sizes ranging from XS to 4XL this new range flatters the figure, making them a wardrobe staple for wearing around the home, out on the move, or casual dress occasions - dress up or down as required.
All fabrics have been developed specifically for Long Island by New Zealand company, Designer Textiles and then actually woven right here in New Zealand to ensure maximum softness, depth of colour and quality.
Go to www.longisland.co.nz for more information.

Clothing Firm Matures and Grows

Published
by
admin
on June 30, 2009
in Long Island in the News
. 0 Comments

by Tina Law, The Press

23 June, 2009 - At a time when a growing number of clothing retailers are sourcing more products from China, a Christchurch company is doing the opposite.

Long Island is taking an increasing amount of its manufacturing out of China and bringing it back to Christchurch.

The clothing company, which specialises in contemporary clothes for women from aged 40 and from sizes between 10 and 30, gets at least 60 per cent of its products made in Christchurch. A few years ago it was only 20 per cent.

Owner Phillippa Wilberforce said she hoped to bring more production back to Christchurch, but there were some items of clothing which could not be made competitively in New Zealand.

Some of the bigger clothes needed looms with large widths, which were difficult to find in New Zealand, she said.

Having manufacturers based within 10 minutes of its Christchurch office gave Long Island more flexibility and better quality control, Wilberforce said.

She set up Long Island four years ago after noticing a gap in the market for providing stylish clothes for mature women whose figures changed as they got older. She bought existing mail-order retailer Fashion Factory, which had been around for 20 years, and went about rebranding and rebuilding it.

Long Island now employs 19 staff, including an inhouse designer, and its turnover of between $3 million and $5m was growing by 15 per cent.

It has two retail stores - one in Christchurch and a newly opened store in Wellington, and is looking to open a third in Auckland.

“We continue growing because we have more and more people discovering us,” she said.

Long Island has 18,000 active customers and Wilberforce is hoping to double that number in the next two years. Half of its sales are made over the internet or via its mail-order catalogue and the other half is from direct selling at its retail shops. Staff also regularly load up a truck, and go to Invercargill, Dunedin, Nelson and the West Coast where they sell clothes from hired conference rooms.

Customers are evenly spread throughout the North and South Islands, and sales from Australia, United States, Canada and Britain are growing.

Wilberforce, who grew up in Christchurch, worked in branding and communications in London before returning to New Zealand 10 years ago to run the Wellington design arm of the advertising agency DDB.

“I have a passion for building successful businesses. I used to do it for my clients all the time. I thought it would be exciting to do it for myself,” she said.

Long Island is not her first foray into fashion. While at university she sold leather belts and accessories to fashion labels Zambezi and Jag.

It’s Cool to be Curvy

Published
by
admin
on June 29, 2009
in Articles
. 1 Comment

by Carolyn Enting - The Dominon Post

25 June, 2009

The fashion elite may not approve but a trend-driven business cannot ignore what’s hot, and right now it is cool to be curvy.

Celebrities such as Jessica Simpson and Christina Hendricks (star of US television series Mad Men) are at the forefront of a trend towards fuller figures. Simpson’s weight gain hit worldwide headlines in February, even pushing President Obama off the cover of US Weekly. Not only has she put on weight, but - shock horror - she is happy with her new curves. Meanwhile, Hendricks has dared to flaunt her curvaceous figure on screen.

Trends aside, 65 per cent of women in New Zealand are believed to be a size 16 or bigger, with the average dress size 14 to 16. Sixteen is also the average dress size in Australia and Britain.

According to experts such as Stephen Bayley, author of soon-to-be- released book Woman as Design, they’re “recession curves”.

“In times of plenty, there’s a contrarian chic to having an austere shape,” Bayley recently told the Daily Telegraph. “Equally, in times of want, there is an opposing taste for a voluptuous figure. What the female body illuminates is that ever- present conflict between acceptance of the real and pursuit of the ideal.”

Last month, Auckland model agency Nova, in conjunction with StarNow .co.nz, put out a call for plus-size models, resulting in the signing of two models. But they’re keen to hear from more women of sizes 14, 16 or 18 - experience is not required.

Even New Zealand Fashion Week is upsizing with “curvy-licious” label The Carpenter’s Daughter confirmed to show on the official schedule in September.

“Fashion Week only caters for 35 per cent of women and we cater for the other 65 per cent,” The Carpenter’s Daughter creator Caroline Marr says.

The move has been applauded by Wellington award-winning actress and Dancing With the Stars finalist Geraldine Brophy, and addresses what she calls the fashion industry’s “denial” that there are more size 16s than size sixes.

“Once gay men took over the fashion industry it became about homo-erotism, not dressing real women, and getting rid of bums and breasts,” Brophy says. “If you’ve got a majority of bodies in society that are unlike what you are presenting on the catwalk, somebody has to answer to them.”

Last week Brophy posed for The Carpenter’s Daughter’s spring/summer 09/10 campaign. She has worn the label for the past 10 years, and is now its ambassador. “I’m passionate about their philosophy of celebrating the beauty of bigger women - moreish women. That is the word I use. I loathe the expression ‘plus size’, which confines the larger society in the world as a type of people,” she says.
Ad Feedback

“The notion that beauty is one uniform human being [of model proportions] is unintelligent and doesn’t take into account the individual. Many larger people are extremely fit and that is their body shape.”

Marr acknowledges that “plus size” is a term recognised by the industry but she prefers “curvy”.

Last year The Carpenter’s Daughter participated in the public Fashion Weekend following Fashion Week, putting curvy models on the catwalk. Its howling success - even Fashion Week brand manager Myken Stewart shed a tear - led to the invitation to be part of the official Fashion Week schedule this year, where it will be showing alongside Karen Walker and Zambesi.

“We didn’t plan it, but the house just started to sob,” Marr says. “We were breaking down barriers that say that fat and fashion don’t go together. We know it does.”

This is why she wants to show this year on the official schedule - not to make overseas sales, but to show that women of all sizes can be fashionable and look great.

Over the past five years a growing number of designers has responded to the call by women for fashionable clothing that caters for sizes larger than 14 that don’t make them look as though they’re wearing a tent.

Featherston St, Wellington, has become a shopping mecca for fashionable 14+ labels. Platform, which caters for size 14 to 24, has been on the street for more than 18 years and now has as its neighbour Zebrano’s 16+ designer store, which stocks leading labels, including Sakaguchi and Euphoria. Other stores on the street are: The Carpenter’s Daughter, Long Island, and Australian label TS 14+, which opened its first New Zealand boutiques in Wellington and Auckland in October. TS 14+, whose tagline is “celebrate your curves”, has now also opened boutiques in Dunedin and Hamilton, with more stores planned.

Other design houses to upsize in recent years include Christchurch designer Takaaki Sakaguchi, following customer demand. His garments, size 8 to 22, are known for having shape and flattering fit.

It’s a sentiment shared by mail order company Long Island, which caters for women sized 10 to 30. It puts a lot of emphasis on fit.

“There is not enough attention given to how a woman’s body changes as you go up in sizing,” Long Island design director Ben MacMillan says. “Grading is staggered in different proportions to the body. Shoulders don’t keep growing as the waist and hip does.

“Things like that are taken into consideration. A lot of women are sick of buying garments with sleeves down to the floor or shoulders dropping to the elbow or with just no shape to it.”

How to Buy Flattering Outfits if You’re 40+ Years Old? The ‘Forgotten Demographic’

Published
by
admin
on February 12, 2009
in Articles
. 2 Comments

Now just what is a beautiful, sexy woman who is 40+ supposed to do when they really don’t have anything suitable to wear? What clothing options are available for us when we need an outfit that combines elegance, style and form flattering fit? Apparently many designers and retailers think that stylish clothing is only important to younger women.

Sure women who are in their 20s and early 30s want to look good, but 40+ ladies share this desire. Mature women are powerful, curvy females who know how to look good if the right styles are available. Finding clothes that flatter and fit should not be an impossible task for any age group.

Is it possible that fashion designers and business owners think women lose the desire for style after age 39? Then maybe it’s time we made some noise and demanded what we want. Today women 40 and older are in their prime, and proud of it. They are too fashion conscious and self assured to settle for inappropriate and unflattering clothing options.

Many mature women look years younger but can’t find trendy, age appropriate outfits that reflect the classy elegance they want. Just because a 40+ woman looks like a 30 year old does not mean she wants to dress like them. There must be some clothing options available for women besides those made for ‘Funky Diva’ and ‘Granny Green’.

Well made clothing in sizes 10-30 seems to be a virtual impossibility as today’s designers cater to the 16-35 age range. Maybe they need to open their eyes and embrace one of the largest groups of gorgeous females in the world. There are almost 3.5 million women between the ages of 45-65, and they have a heck of a lot more money to spend than both Generations X and Y combined.

Mature women often have certain body changes that they want to address when choosing new outfits. They can flatter their body shapes if they look for tailored garments that fit well. Trying to camouflage some extra weight with a shapeless top makes you look much heavier. A larger waistline will benefit from a skirt that has a side zipper or a flat fitting front panel. Pleats will only add the look of excess pounds and should be avoided.

Tailored slacks and jeans with wide legs from ankle to hip will also give the illusion of length and make you appear slimmer. Don’t be afraid to use bold colours and designs in your outfit selections. Choose tops that are roomy enough for your bosom and those that have colourful designs at the neck also draw attention away from your body and up to your beautiful face.

Shopping online for clothing that suits their needs is one way for 40+ women to build an age appropriate, stylish wardrobe. There are thousands of stores and new designers that cater to every demographic group. Those hard to find plus sizes are now a specialty of many online merchants and thousands of new styles are being advertised. Women who have felt overlooked and abandoned by local stores can now find perfect outfits among the endless variety of fashions available online.

As it happens, we have a fantastic range at Long Island - click here to go to our homepage where you can order online.

How to Find Women’s Clothing that is Designed and Made in New Zealand

Published
by
admin
on January 15, 2009
in Articles
. 0 Comments

The fashion industry in New Zealand is taking off in an incredible way. The growth of fashion is contributing to the economic, creative, and cultural stability of the country. This is all the more reason why you should support your local clothing retailers, not to mention the fact that you can get yourself a fantastic new wardrobe. In New Zealand, it’s the quality of the clothing that counts, not the size.

There are a number of websites out there which offer a comprehensive listing of quality New Zealand designed and made clothing.

One of the best fashion websites is FashioNZ (http://www.fashionz.co.nz/). As well as listing many of New Zealand’s own online clothing stores this site also provides great fashion tips, links to galleries, jobs, articles, blogs, competitions, events in your area and lots more information on the current state of fashion in New Zealand.

Another useful site is Lights on Women’s Clothing (http://www.womensclothing.co.nz/). This site has critiqued many of New Zealand’s finest online women’s clothing stores and listed the results for you to peruse at your leisure. Sites are given an overall rating based on factors such as ease of use, the availability of free shipping, provision of a size chart, provision of contact information and the ease of the checkout system provided.

Finda (http://www.finda.co.nz/business/) is a site that is often overlooked when searching for women’s clothing in New Zealand. This site enables you to search for a business by category and lets you limit your search to a particular region of New Zealand. A quick search for women’s fashion in Christchurch returned 127 different hits conveniently grouped and listed according the suburb in which they can be found.

Long Island (http://www.longisland.co.nz/) features on a number of the abovementioned websites and scores very well on the Lights on Women’s Clothing scale.

Long Island offers a wide variety of clothing options for women sizes 10-30. Cardigans, wraps, jackets, vests, pants, shorts, skirts, t-shirts, tops, underwear and accessories are all available at affordable prices. Their clothing is designed to fit the figures of real women both comfortably and stylishly. Long Island comes out with four new collections a year. Ordering can be done from the convenience of your own home via the internet, or through a mail order catalogue.

Thanks to the invention of the internet, it is now easier than ever to find local retailers and support them with your business. You can view the latest collections and keep up on the current styles and trends all from the comfort of your own home.  Happy shopping! Click here to go to our homepage where you can order online.

7 Fashion Tips to Jazz up Your Old Outfit

Published
by
admin
on December 15, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

We all know how it is - your old outfits are getting a little dull and you’re starting to think it’s about time to go shopping to update your wardrobe. Before you do, try these seven tips - you can actually give your old wardrobe an entirely new look with these seven easy tips; best of all, you can do this with little or no money.

1. Fitted waists are in right now, but a lot of women avoid them, worried that these may make them appear larger. In fact, loose flowing garments are what make you look larger than you really are. Take a loose fitting garment and make a belt out of a scarf, a necklace or of course, a belt. This adds a little something to the outfit and does a better job of flattering your figure.

2. Scarves are a great accessory - they can draw attention to your face and decorate the neck of your outfit. Use a scarf which adds a little colour in a complimentary manner to your outfit. For example, a gray dress works well with a green, blue or yellow scarf to add a splash of colour. Try knotting the scarf or using a decorative pin to secure it for even more added appeal.

3. Those old beaded costume necklaces every woman has lying around are great for adding a little pep to your sweaters and blouses. Try mixing and matching these necklaces to create unique combinations. You can even hot glue beads to clothing to make patterns which are all your own. These old costume jewellery pieces can take a boring old blouse and really bring it to life.

4. Make a whole new look by mixing different fabrics and textures. Try leather with silks and tweeds to make a fashionable combination which can work in many different situations. A lot of the old rules of fashion have been discarded, so don’t be afraid to experiment with new looks.

5. One of the least expensive and simplest ways to change the look of your old clothing is to dye them different colours.

6. Add feathers, fake fur, or leather trim to pockets, collars, and waistbands and see how they add spice to certain garments that you may already own. Hats are great fashion statements and you can find one that will give a totally new look to any of your older outfits.

7. Go through your wardrobe and find the articles that fit you well and these will form the foundation of this season’s outfits. If you have dark solid colours, choose splashes of bright colour or prints with accessories. Monotone colours can work in some instances, but even an all black outfit can gain a lot from an oversized pin that is colourful and sparkly. A vibrant purple or teal collared scarf or sweater will also add a needed zip.

Of course, styles and fashions are in constant flux - keep an eye on fashion magazines to see what looks have come back into style.

You’ll need to put a little effort into dressing up your old wardrobe to create a new look, but you’ll want to pat yourself on the back afterward for getting a whole new look for little to no money.

The perfect pants are out there! - How to find them

Published
by
admin
on December 8, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Womens Pants

Every woman wants to find pants that are flattering. Clothing that is too tight emphasises any extra weight by creating a crease that may bulge above and below. Stretched zippers open and the result is that the person wearing them appears overweight. The perfect pants disguise flaws and create a silhouette that is flattering to the wearer. Everyone wants to look their best and a good fit is one requirement to create that image.

Before shopping for a new pair of pants, take careful and accurate measurements. This way, you’ll be able to shop for the right size from the get-go. Take a look at this chart to find your size from your measurements; the measurements are given in both inches and centimetres to help you in online clothes shopping.

Size Waist Hips
10 (S) 70cm (27 inches) 97cm (38 inches)
12 (S) 75cm (29 inches) 102cm (40 inches)
14 (M) 80cm (31 inches) 107cm (42 inches)
16 (M) 85cm (33 inches) 112cm (44 inches)
18 (L) 90cm (35 inches) 117cm (46 inches)
20 (L) 95cm (37 inches) 122 cm (48inches)
22 (XL) 100cm (39 inches) 127 cm (50 inches)
24 (XL) 105 cm (41 inches) 132 cm (52 inches)
26 (2XL) 110 cm (43 inches) 137 cm (54 inches)
28 (2XL) 115 cm (45 inches) 142 cm (56 inches)
30 (3XL) 120 cm (47 inches) 147 cm (58 inches)

When using the chart, go with the larger measurement of your hips or waist to determine the size to look for. If you have a 95 centimetre waist and 127 centimetre hips, then a size 22 is what you should be looking for. Even if the pants fit around your waist just fine, if they don’t give you a proper fit around the hips, they’re not going to work.

Always take your hip measurements at your hip’s widest point. If the tops of your thighs are wider than your hips, then take this measurement here instead to ensure a better fit. Keep in mind that some clothing manufacturers have their own sizing charts, which means you should use their measurements to determine size.

The next step is to take a measurement of your inseam. Your pant legs should be long enough to touch the top of your shoe, but not so long that you will step on them. If you have an inseam of less than 29 inches (75 centimetres), then petite sizes are where you should be searching. If you have an inseam which is longer, then regular sizes are for you - you can always have them re-hemmed if needed. If you have an inseam which is longer than 32 inches (82 centimetres), then tall sizes are what you need.

In order to conceal wide hips and waistlines, some women will wear baggy pants; however, this can make you look larger and is best avoided. One good tip is to go for straight waists rather than gathered waists, since these actually emphasize a wide waistline and hips. Shorter women may choose pants with vertical stripes to make their legs appear longer and make them look taller. Long legged women, on the other hand, do well with bell bottom pants.

When you use your exact measurements to purchase pants, you’ll find that you have better luck finding the right fit to flatter your figure. Just make certain that you take the measurements in your normal relaxed mode. These are only for you to see, so if you suck in your stomach and attempt to make them as small as possible, you defeat the purpose and won’t get a good fit and that’s the reason you want the measurements.

As it happens, we have a fantastic range at Long Island -
click here to go to our homepage where you can order online.

How to Dress to Suit Your Body

Published
by
admin
on October 21, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

No matter what body type you have, it’s likely that you’ve been frustrated at times by clothes shopping. It may seem as though some days, everything on the rack is there for someone who is taller than you, bigger than you, smaller than you, better endowed than you, and so on. Even if you can find something that technically fits, perhaps it just doesn’t feel all that comfortable on you.

Truth be told, many fashion designer simply make clothes that look great on one single size, namely models. Then, they simply take that size and increase it or decrease it, but don’t change proportions. If you never find clothes that fit you just right, keep in mind that you can find a way to dress well, as long as you know a few simple tips.

When you think about getting dressed up, think about your favorite body part for a moment. Do you have great legs, a marvelous bust line, or small waist?

If you find the fashions that are going to draw attention to your favorite body part, this is going to help make you look and feel great, and boost your confidence, too.

Next, don’t be afraid of colour. Focus on colours that go with your skin and that you like. If you have confidence, you’ll find that you can usually wear most colours, and look great regardless.

When you are considering how to dress to suit your body, think about where your hems fall, both when it comes to tops and bottoms.  You’ll find that the place that a hem falls automatically draws attention to that area.  If you have lovely rounded curves to your legs, think about shorter skirts and shorts.

While if you have long, relatively thin legs, flatter them with bottoms that cut off around mid-shin.  Take some time to consider what you want to emphasise before you head to the clothing store. Do this and you’ll find it so much easier to find the perfect styles for you that will look great.

When shopping, remember that you don’t want to conceal as much as you want to accentuate. Instead of hiding a part of your body that you’re not comfortable with, consider accentuating what you do find attractive. And remember that the clothing you get should fit you well but not be baggy or tight.

In addition, it’s worth noting that slowly but surely, the fashion industry is taking note of people who are bigger than the “models” they usually focus on. Because they are focusing on us “non-fashion industry” people and our range of sizes and shapes, there are more choices for those of us who don’t possess a perfect model’s body.

Above all, when you go shopping, be patient. Don’t buy clothes that are simply “good enough.” Instead, spend your money on fashions that are truly going to make you look and feel your best.

As it happens, we have a fantastic range at Long Island - click here to go to our homepage where you can order online.