Little known fact: before I settled on naming my blog ‘Nerd about Town’, I was strongly contemplating naming it ‘Fat and Wearing Stuff’ as it has a bit of a ring to it, no?
Anyhoo, I thought I’d do a little run down of some of my favourite outfits over the recent years and just talk about them a little; offer some tips, how they made me feel and just have a general chit chat!
BREAKING OUT OF MY ‘SKINNY’ COMFORT ZONE
My legs are my favourite part of my body hands down, and during my late teen years at a time when was still extremely insecure about my body, I used to believe that in order to create the illusion of having smaller, leaner legs, that skinny jeans were the way to go. Whenever I’d pick up a magazine I’d see style advice telling me that skinny jeans were ‘flattering’ on chubby legs and that the skinnier the jeans, the smaller I’d look. Absolute BS.
By confining myself to only one style of clothing, I missed out on all the wonderful pieces featuring different tailored cuts and lengths that I could have been wearing to slay the scene at the time. Luckily once I developed my confidence , I began to make bolder outfit choices, such as introducing culottes into my life. The grid culottes by Simply Be are one of my faves and I just love how they fit on my thighs/ legs. As a fat person, never allow yourself to be dictated to as to what to wear for your body type. Culottes, odd-length trousers and even the dreaded wide-leg palazzo trousers suit ALL bodies and depending on how you style it, can look bloody amazing!
EMBRACING MY VBO
As a fat person, you’re going to often come across advertising campaigns for brands trying to sell you clothes that are made to ‘streamline’ and ‘flatter’ your shape. Now it’s up to you if you want to go down that path, but also know that there is nothing wrong with embracing a bit of VBO (visible belly outline).
In this blog post, I chat in depth about embracing my VBO and not letting it hold you back from feeling attractive or slaying an outfit. Our bellies are typically the most demonizing thing about our fatness; having round bums, thighs and boobs are embraced and adorned as being part of what makes being fat ‘acceptable’, but God forbid we show off our bellies. Show off what you’ve been taught to be ashamed of: your belly doesn’t define who you are and a lil tip, VBO’s look UHHMAZING in velvet skirts. Go ahead and live your best luxe fat bitch life.
CONQUERING THE CROP
It’s needless to say that the crop top is one of my major fashion things over the past three years; I just can’t get enough of them. There was a bit of fuss in the media early on about who could and could not wear crop tops, which is absurd to be honest with you because crop tops are for everyone.
There’s something so empowering about showing off a bit of your tummy when you’re traditionally ‘not supposed to’ as a fat person. It’s powerful; I’m telling you that me and my fat tummy exist in this space and we aren’t going anywhere. I love wearing crop tops with midi skirts normally, however I’ve been branching out and wearing them with trousers of late too.
COLOUR ME BAD
This year I feel like i’ve really gone out there when it comes to experimenting with colour. As a black woman, my skinone makes such a great canvas for a variety of colours, patterns and prints and I’ve been trying to take advantage all year. It’s so easy as a fat person to be confined to wearing dark neutrals and blacks as we’ve been conditioned all our lives to rely on being ‘safe’ and looking slimmer in darker colours, however there is a smorgasbord of dope prints out there, waiting to be adorned and shown off!
FAT ASS LEGS
Spoiler alert: you can get over the knee and thigh high boots for chubby ass legs now! It’s winter time gals and the weather is chapping, so it’s worth popping into stores such as River Island who now offer wide calf over the knee boots!