And that means it’s time to talk coats. As it happens, Lane Bryant has some very nice ones on sale right now. My personal fave? This classic, wool blend reefer coat.
Not only is this lovely coat on sale at fifty dollars off the original price, it comes in six different colors. Best of all, it comes in tall and petite sizes as well. While it isn’t, perhaps, a coat for all seasons (well it would get a bit warm in summer, wouldn’t it?), it’s as close as you’re going to come to a coat for all sizes and colorings of big girls.
This coat is beautiful, but I usually try to avoid double-breasted coats. I think it makes my chest look bigger- too bad, I love this one!
Comment by Christine — November 24, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
A petite coat? I am tempted to order it right now, but I have reservations about LB quality. Some sleep pants I bought are disappointingly itchy. Anyone taken a look at this coat in the real world?
Comment by Sniper — November 24, 2007 @ 8:57 pm
This isn’t Lane Bryant. This is the Lane Bryant Catalog which is a different company from the Lane Bryant store. You won’t find this in any of the stores unfortunately.
Comment by Jabri — November 24, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
I’ve been reading you faithfully since the first post, and this is it. No more. I am really up to my limit with tips about cheap, ill-advised styles for “big girls”. There is not a stylist worth a dime who would recommend a double-breasted coat for ANY plus sized person. Why, why, why would you suggest this? Sleek, slimming through judicious use of seaming, and above all well-tailored coats are what you should be directing your readers to look for – NOT this abomination from Lane Bryant with its extra layer of padding across the front and absolutely no shaping on the sides.
Just look at the fabric – even in the photo, that coat is pulling across the front when the model just puts her hand in the pocket. The fabric is thin and anyone who knows fabric can tell by just looking at it. You don’t even need to put your hand to it. How fast do you think that coat will lose its shape in the rear after you sit on it a few times? Yes, just give it a month or so.
Last, but not least, a coat is an investment, not just a fashion statement. Those of us with plus figures should be looking for quality and not just price. With careful shopping, you can find something that you’ll be happy to wear for more than one season, and it will flatter and make the most of your body’s shape.
I am going to keep on looking for a blog for the plus size woman that doesn’t push cheap, poorly designed clothing. At this one, there are too many plugs for Lane Bryant or the Avenue – you must be getting a kick-back from these mass-market low-end retailers.
Comment by Snarky Mom — November 25, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Snarkymom, your comment just pissed me off no end. Good for you that you’re plus-sized, “knowledgeable about fabric,” and wealthy, but I’d venture to guess that most readers of this blog aren’t all three. Lane Bryant is not cheap for me. I make a reasonable living, but there is NO WAY I can go around spending thousands on a wardrobe and I suspect most other readers of this blog can’t either. Go shove your snobby “mass-market low-end retailers” up your ass sideways.
Comment by Rachel — November 26, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
It may astonish you to learn, Snark, that not all fat women are shaped the same, and what doesn’t work for you may work for somebody else. I don’t care for the sleeveless styles so often recommended here, but I don’t feel the need to express shock and horror at the very suggestion of sleevelessness. (And you’ll probably be staggered to hear that a style’s being “slimming” is not a top priority for all fat women. Indeed, for some of us, it’s not a priority at all.)
The accusation of “kick-backs” is despicable — utterly indefensibe. And as far as that crack about “mass-market low-end retailers,” well, I can’t say it better than Rachel did.
Comment by Bridey — November 26, 2007 @ 1:27 pm
Just to set the record straight on a couple of items in the reponses to my email, and then on to other things…
1. I am not wealthy – far from it. I am a working single mom, always have been. No Daddy Warbucks in my life, just the regular 8-5 with kids juggle, making pennies stretch where I can.
2. I’m sorry that Lane Bryant is above your means. From bitter experience, I stand by my recommendation that you save your money and buy the best quality you can afford. If you try it, you may find that your limited budget actually goes much farther. Consider the idea of “cost per wearing”. Cheaply made garments wear out faster and better made garments, worn for years, are an economical investment.
3. If you say don’t want to dress your plus sized body for the maximum attractiveness, I can’t say much other than I don’t believe you.
4. Let the website owners weigh in on whether they get paid from sites such as Lane Bryant for “click-throughs” by their readers. If not, then I apologize for that conclusion. Otherwise, I prefer to call a spade a spade, and take the heat from readers – drawing the line, however, at vulgarity such as Rachel needs to fling around.
Comment by Snarky Mom — November 26, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
Dear Snarky Mom:
1. Not everyone – and I realize this may come as a shock to you – equates “slimming” with “maximum attractiveness”.
2. Double-breasted styles are comfortable and flattering on some women, not so much on others. This is much more a matter of body shape and proportions than of size.
3. Making an accusation of dishonesty (“kickbacks”) toward your hosts with neither proof nor evidence is, yes, despicable.
Your failure to apologize for the crack – indeed, your defense of it – says a great deal about your level of class, notwithstanding the cost of your clothing.
Comment by jaed — November 26, 2007 @ 3:33 pm
Snarkymom, as the author of this article, I’m happy to respond to your comments.
I am a plus-sized woman who happens to do well with double-breasted items. No, they are not for everyone, nor did I ever try to suggest that every woman will look good in them. As Bridey noted, thoough, different women come not only in different sizes, but different shapes as well. Also, dressing for the ‘slimming’ effect and dressing make the most of the figure one has are not always precisely the same thing.
Coats as investments work if one has the cash to make the investment and expects to stay the same size. Some of us both reading and writing this blog do not have the means to make a major investment every time we change a size. Some of us prefer to follow fashion’s whims. Some of us, obviously, will make each coat a major investment and then wear it for years. Each of us has different means and different priorities. I, for one, feel that as many readers as possible should find their needs met in our articles. We cannot meet every reader’s needs each and every time, but we can do our best to make sure the lady trying to be superfantastic on a tight budget and/or while changing sizes are among those being met.
Cost per wearing is an excellent rule of thumb, yes, which has been discussed in positive terms in this blog on several difference occasions, but if you’re in the process of gaining or losing a significant amount of weight, you will necessarily get less wearings out of the piece. I’ve lost sixty pounds over the last two years. If I’d bought a high-quality coat every time I lost a dress size, I’d probably have lost my home by now. Instead, I choose to meet my temporary needs at as low an outlay as possible until my weight stabalizes again, when I can again expect to wear a piece for several years.
True, the site does generate funds from click-throughs on the ads. That’s how it works. This is common practice. Our advertisers are clearly visible every day on the blog, and it’s no state secret that they pay for the service, allowing us to share our combined advice to you, the reader.
However, the word ‘kickback’ was used in relation to our editorial content. That is completely incorrect. Francesca, Plumcake and I are not constrained in any way as to what items we feature. We choose what we believe will be helpful/interesting to our readers according to our own tastes and the requests we get from readers. Sometimes that happens to be a piece one of our advertisers carries. Sometimes it’s some other company. Sometimes it’s nothing to do with buying or selling anything at all.
Kickbacks suggests that we profit in an underhanded way from our choices of editorial content. This is in no way the case. I receive my salary for my writing every month, and that’s that. I do not receive goods, services, or extra income from any company I have written about in this or any other blog, nor do my fellow Manolo writers.
I am truly sorry that this blog is not meeting your needs, Snarkymom, but we cannot please everyone all the time. Questioning our ethics because our choices do not necessarily match your specific interests or needs is quite a leap in logic.
Comment by Twistie — November 26, 2007 @ 3:47 pm
*big sigh* I love this blog. While not everything posted fashion-wise is for me, there are some things that are. I happen to look good in double-breasted. I’m with Twistie on this — my weight fluctuates, heck, from moment to moment it seems sometimes. The leather coat that my uncle bought for me three years ago, while is the same size as my wool peacoat, it just doesn’t fit as well in the arms as the peacoat. I am in a double-income household — even though we don’t have the young ones as of yet, we still cannot afford for me to go shopping at Lane Bryant every time I need a new pair of jeans or a nice sweater or a new coat (I do well to purchase new bras there once a year due to cost — Christmas is the only time of year I purchase new bras and pitch old ones). I have not had a problem with anything that I have purchased at Lane Bryant falling apart due to poor quality — I have a pair of dark grey boot cut pants that I LOVE, and seven years later, they are just now beginning to fray around the edges and on my thighs. It disturbs me that some people can be so generalistic because of something they don’t like. Snarkymom is just that — snarky. Keep the beautiful clothes coming for us beautiful “Big Girls,” Plumcake, Francesca, and Twistie!
Comment by KateriBella — November 26, 2007 @ 6:14 pm