I’m not a clothes sharing sort of person. I will, on occasion, loan out a pair of shoes or an accessory –always documented and signed for– when a friend in need has a special event and I need to burn off a few hours of purgatory. I’ve even been known to let a job-hunting girlfriend borrow the Birkin for interviews.
The one exception is my best friend.
Although we are just about the same size and height, our looks couldn’t be more different:
She’s delicately featured with subtle coloring, cascading bambi-colored hair and an enviable sprinkling of freckles across her nose (I’m sadly sans angel kisses, and used to draw them on my face as a child with a Sharpie.) Her legs are long and trim, uninterrupted by waist, hips, or butt and it is a testament to the magnificence of her rack that she is the single most terrifying creature to have ever perched behind the wheel of a midsize sedan and yet her driving record is cleaner than a pig on Sunday.
I, on the other hand, have dramatic coloring, a nearly black Eton crop/pixie combo and a pear-shaped figure with all the dips and swells that body shape entails. Understandably, what suits one of us rarely works on the other. I look like a sack of wet feed in the sheaths she wear so well, and my beloved sternum-revealing necklines would get her arrested or at least gently escorted back to the nearest red light district.
It is with great interest, then, that we discovered how fantastic we both look in the Hazel Hi-Lo Peplum Top from Kiyonna.
I knew the neckline and emphasis on the waist would be heaven on me (not to mention the lalalanothingtoseehere effect of the peplum treatment over my stomach), but I wasn’t prepared for it to look just as amazing on my best pal.
I wear it styled in the traditional manner while she wears it with a camisole. The deep V is supposed to lie flat and is lined with some serious interfacing to make sure it stays that way, but on my busty friend they flip out to look like little lapels, which honestly is just as cute.
Kiyonna makes plus-size clothing the way they ought to be made: thoughtfully and with attention to detail in both construction and design. They’re also all made in America, so you can be smug at dinner parties, which is always fun.
Stay tuned for more reviews, and take a word of advice: if you’re going to take the Hazel top on vacation, buy two. I have a feeling the one I bought might not make its way into my suitcase ever again.
That’s a really cute neckline! I’m curious though how to style the top; I’m not sure what to wear it with. It looks like they’ve put it with a pencil-type skirt in the photo.
Comment by barbara — November 9, 2012 @ 3:05 pm
@Barbara: While it would look great with a pencil skirt, my pal and I both wore it with pants. I went with a pair of dark rinse jeans and she used a pair of black trousers.
Comment by Miss Plumcake — November 9, 2012 @ 10:19 pm
My best friend and I have similar issues when it comes to sharing clothes. We have pretty much worn the same size all our lives, but she is pear shaped and much more slender through the bust and shoulders while I am the racktastic one with shoulders like a linebacker. Shopping together has always been been great, though, because when I gasp in horror at the monstrosity I just tried on, I just toss it over the fitting room wall because, inevitably, it will look amazing on her, and vice versa.
Comment by Kate — November 11, 2012 @ 12:28 am
Hmmm…curious about the hi-lo hemline. I’m pretty much allllll stomach, very apple-y apple here. I’ve been avoiding the hi-lo tops & dresses because I feel like it visually emphasizes the fact that I have a bulging, almost-pregnant-looking belly in front, and not all that much in the back. What I mean is that, between my belly and my fair-size boobs, almost all my tops & dresses end up higher in the front than the back anyway, haha, and I don’t really want to emphasize that further. Do you feel like this top has sufficient additional accouterments to make up for that?
Comment by Eleonore — November 15, 2012 @ 6:40 pm
I was wondering that, too. The Kiyonna website says it’ll be good for “slight apples”. I’m pretty apple-y. Any recommendations from the commentariat for apple-friendly Kiyonna tops?
Comment by Jezebella — November 29, 2012 @ 12:36 am