If you are a curvy plus size woman, finding the right type, size, and style of beautiful lingerie may pose a challenge. This is especially true if you are bold and proud of your full-bodied figure.
And many plus size women are truly proud enough to flaunt their curves.
This detailed infographic should help to guide you if and when you decide to go for head-turning, shape enhancing, 'cheeky', provocative, or simply empowering plus size lingerie to flaunt your gorgeous curvy silhouette.
From your torso to your legs, these tips will let you know what's best for you - no matter if you have fat calves, wide shoulders, or a drooping bosom.
So, whenever you wish to treat yourself to some nice intimate wear, remember these handy tips. You'll find that you will always make a wise choice, whatever your desires might be - boxers, sleepwear, bras, bustiers, chemise, hosiery, leather, costumes, and the like.
Finding unique lingerie for plus-size women in shops around many localities is not that easy. Yes, they do carry undergarments for the full-bodied woman, but many of the ones you’ll find may not be feminine and sexy enough for many of today’s proudly big girls out there.
Vintage Inspired Plus Size Intimates Online
Now when it comes to vintage-inspired lingerie, it becomes much more difficult to find, that is if you can find them at all.
Vintage-inspired lingerie is not your usual panties, bras, and simple camisole tops. They are certainly more than that. Not dowdy, somewhat plain, and old-fashioned like . . . yes! Granny pants and frumpy brassieres!
It’s not news that many plus-size women seek better and attractive underwear online. As some feel slightly uncomfortable rummaging through the racks and shelves of lingerie at their local shopping malls, others will not be ‘caught dead’ seeking the help of shop attendants, some who snicker behind your back or roll their eyes as soon as you turn to look somewhere else simply because you are looking for something more sensual, stylish or utterly suggestive.
Hips & Curves Full Figure Lingerie, Apparel, Costumes, Hosiery and Accessories
Buying plus size intimates online helps lots of women just like you who absolutely hate having to go out into there, facing skinny and svelte shop attendants, especially when they try to give you advice without really being aware of your needs, or worries of good fitting pieces.
There are specialised online lingerie stores that cater exclusively to the full-bodied curvaceous women of style. They understand that intimate wear should not only be special, but they must also make you feel special; both you and your partner.
How Do You Ensure You Get the Perfect Fitting Lingerie?
For plus-size women who wish to order online for the first time, this may put you in a dilemma but don’t worry. If you are searching for lingerie from an online store, first ensure it’s from a reputable site that caters exclusively to plus-size women.
If it’s a good site, it’ll provide detailed and well-thought-out measurement charts. The site should also include a guide that’ll show you how to take the right measurements.
If you are unsure about taking your own measurements properly, ask a member of the family or a friend to help you out. Yes, it can get quite tricky trying to measure your own body all by yourself.
Try to be honest with your measurements. Some of us tend to wish we were an inch or a bit less than what we read on the measuring tape . . . wanting to give measurements that we desire to be.
That’s quite natural for some and understandable too. But as a bold and confident plus-size woman, it is certain that you won’t.
So take the time to take proper measurements following the store’s guide; this way, you’ll minimise the chances of getting lingerie that doesn't fit you perfectly.
While fashion of the fifties depicted sweeping elegant gowns and couture dresses worn by mature wealthy elitist women, the sixties style was a total deviation from the past.
Fashion was aimed at youthful trendy women with tastes and preferences for simple geometric shapes, shorter lengths, and looser fits, clothing typical of the British pop scene.
Seamstresses and tailors were beginning to lose business to the mass production of apparel manufacturers. It was a new era of fashion-on-the-go and as style began to change, using elegance as a symbol of prestige and elitism was no longer ‘fashionable’.
As life became more casual than it was in the 50’s there was a change which was also reflected in the fashion industry. There was less of the formal elegant styles of the previous decade and more of semi-formal and casuals, many of which was “mixed and matched to stylishly create different looks for different occasions”
Things were still looking bright economic wise though, and the good times that emerged in the 1950’s continued well into the 1960’s. Austerity and rationing became something of the ‘distant’ past, and many people including women became beneficiaries of the pleasant economic boom.
Commercialisation of Fashion
Suddenly, fashion was becoming commercialised. It became embraced not only by the middle class women, but by the lower class to a certain extent, especially in the Europe and the United States.
And because culture became more relaxed, the 60’s style began to feature more of the following:
Shift dresses
A-line dresses
Pill box hats
Bell bottoms
Mini-skirts and dresses
Bikinis
Trousers suits
If fashion and style of the fifties inspired individual style signatures, it blew up into enormous proportions in the sixties.
Replicating Vintage Style
Experience has taught many of us born in the forties (baby boomers) that fashion and style is cyclic. It has always been a situation where “the old becomes the new”, always, albeit with a twist.
So, to be a part of the vintage inspired fashion crowd, it’s good to know how to put together an ensemble that interprets your favourite era, replicating it in the most pleasing and fashion-forward way. This is quite easy with styles of the 60’s.
Five 60’s Look You Can Replicate
It’s fifty plus years after, but you can still reproduce the following looks today, have your own signature, and whip up a buzz in the fashion scene.
You probably remember them; the great fashion designers of the 1960s.
If you are a baby boomer, those were your teenage years and many of you certainly have a tinge of nostalgia for the swinging sixties . . . the era of kohl-rimmed eyes and false lengthy lashes; micro-mini dresses, space-age suits, and shiny patent boots; fashionable stuff that defined the face and style of the times.
They were great fashion designers of their time and so influential in the fashion scene that they easily 'called the shots' in style.
The fashion of the 1960s centred more on London and not Paris, as some might believe. It was a new look, a total deviation from the fifties style of dressing. It was further divided into several sub-cultural trends, prominent among whichever the other styles can be are these three:
Mods – modern chic look in dramatic urban styles
Hippie – a generally unisex look, flowing clothing, tie & dye fabrics, lots of flowery prints
Biba looks – floppy hats, clothing with Gothic tones, a lean towards 20’s style; very dark eye, nail, and lip make-up.
Key fashionistas of the sixties include:
Twiggy
Mary Quant
Jackie Kennedy
Brigitte Bardot
Nancy Sinatra
Edie Sedgewick
Jean Shrimpton
Famous and Sought-After Fashion Designers
1. Biba Founded by Barbara Hulanicki in the 1960s, Biba lines (which eventually included makeup) were aimed at teenagers mostly and consisted of what we may refer to as today’s high-street fashion. Her colour palette was "muddied colours of brown, sepia, grey and plum" . . . dark but rich.
Biba's "swinging London look" was affordable couture recreation and included the following styles:
Mini-skirts
Long tight sleeves
Maxi skirts
Catsuits
Gingham print dresses
Triangular headscarves
Swanky wellies
Today, if you find an authentic Biba dress, it may sell for as much as $1000
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery celebrates BIBA
2. Givenchy Though he rose to fame in the 50s, Givenchy’s fashion creations and elegant styles still reverberate in today’s scene.
This fashion designer's creations were so refined; it helped to define the 1960s refined style of the chic and sophisticated dressing of movie stars. We all remember the elegant Audrey Hepburn. She was mostly dressed in Givenchy's clothing, whether on or off-screen.
Givenchy's most famed designs includeAudrey Hepburn’s style, The Little Black Dress, which she wore in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany’s".
3. André Courrèges Courrèges was a French fashion designer who made his 'debut' in the Parisian fashion world of the 1960s with his futuristic, youthful but "high fashion label".
His fashion creations include:
A triangle-shaped shift dress that was THE defining silhouette of the 1960s
Well-cut pants
Halter tops
Short skirts
Hip-hugger pants
Sequined jumpsuits
White mid-calf boots
Vinyl-trimmed coats and suits
Cigarette pantsuit
It is claimed that he is the designer who created the miniskirt. Authentic Courrèges pricey high fashion creations are difficult to find today, but cheaper copies of his works may be found if you can ‘wade’ through vintage clothing hunts.
4. Pierre Cardin The originator of the fifties bubble dresses, Pierre Cardin, is a very famous 60s fashion designer who created innovative, contemporary designs that bordered on the unusual and futuristic.
It was he who embraced the use of hammered metal jewellery, industrial zippers, and plastics in his creations. His famous styles include:
Thigh-high boots
Collarless jackets
Bright-coloured mini-shift dresses
The unisex cosmos suit
Skinny double-breasted suits
Slim trousers
Space-age designs
5. Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent, an influential fashion designer from Algeria, has had a great impact on the European fashion industry right from the early 60s till date, and it’s not uncommon to find that celebrities and models still gush over his designs even though he passed on from brain cancer in 2008.
YSL contributed to many of the sixties fashion trends. Some of his most popular clothing styles include:
Mondrian shift dress
Peacoat
Safari jacket
Women tuxedos
Blazers
Sheer blouses
Jumpsuit
Women smoking jackets
Photographic Original Press – Yves Saint Laurent 1960s
6. Emilio Pucci
This list will be incomplete without the mention of Pucci, "The Prince of Print", whose designs were mostly recognised for his trademark “psychedelic look” - electric colours, bold geometric prints, and 'clean', racy cuts.
Pucci contributed to the '60s trends like no other. Fashionable women and important personalities, Jackie Kennedy and Sophia Loren, wore his styles, and a great fan of his clothing line, Marilyn Monroe, was even buried in one of his clothes.
His popular designs include:
Palazzo pantsuits
Silk headscarves
Body-hugging mini-skirts
Silk jersey clothing
Psychedelic 'op-art' tights – a form of printed leggings
Cropped Capri Pants
Poplin shirts
Space-age-inspired air hostess uniforms
7. Mary Quant
No, Mary Quant didn’t invent the "mini" as many vintage fashion enthusiasts tend to believe. Rather, she gave the style its name by popularising it in the 60s!
Many of us have the Quant look embedded in our minds. The silhouette ensconced in a mini skirt or a mini shift dress, patent boots, coloured opaque tights, a bob-style haircut, prominent and dark eye makeup and false lashes.
To replicate the Mary Quant look today is a breeze, and you'll find a good number of fashionistas adopting the 1960s "quintessential" Mary Quant style. Her designs were pricey, and many women found them unaffordable. Nonetheless, she was regarded as one of "London’s swinging" groups.
Her designs include the following:
Star style
Colourful raincoats
Boots with detachable tops
Mix and match separates
Tight mini-skirts
Hot pants
Lounging pyjamas
Dresses/Skirts with matching colourful tights
1967 Mary Quant fashion show
Finding an original Mary Quant outfit outside of the UK would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but replication can be achieved by looking out for the right pieces to create the perfect ensemble.
21st Century Interpretations of 60s Fashion Designs
Today, finding these famous fashion designers' originals is certainly difficult, judging by the fact that they 'styled' and set the trends for many of us fashion-conscious youths over half a century ago.
However, it is so good to know that interpretations of their designs are easy to spot in most boutiques, malls, and high street shops. That is, if you know what to look out for.
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