Suze Solari - The Curvy Girls Style Handbook: Stylish Upgrades 3

Copyright 2018 by Suze Solari

Published by Claymore Ulfberht & Xiphos LLC

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Photos By: Spider Meka

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To my husband Joe and sons, Rowan and Vincent, who with their love and encouragement, made this project a reality.

To the readers of my first two books, who asked for my help in representing them and for the resources to feel amazing in their clothes.

Clothes are the deepest expression of our individuality, they should give us the bold confidence to express exactly who we are and what we stand for.

When it comes to feeling comfortable in our own skin and being stylish at the same time, I know it can sometimes be well, a challenge! Between finding the right clothes to fit our bodies and discovering our own personal style, getting dressed can often feel like more of a chore than fun.

Lets change that.

This handbook is not your typical fashion style guide, where you struggle to relate as I speak about the latest fashion trends of Paris, London, or L.A., leaving you trying to figure out how to incorporate these into your wardrobe. There will be no lithe, fresh-skinned models smiling on the streets of Milan, in garments that havent even hit the stores yet.

I am so passionate about this project; it is a love letter to every woman who has ever felt bad about her body and her style. Its all about celebrating and relating to the everyday woman, with an understanding that the looks featured here are attainable by using clothes bought from regular stores, and not necessarily the latest season fashions.

How this book can help you, is by demonstrating ways to upgrade what you already have, to fully express your personal style. By evaluating the structure of your clothes and using my two key styling principles, I call the V for Victory, and the B for put a belt on it and other strategies, you will learn how to create shapes that flatter and celebrate your curves, as opposed to concealing them.

If you are not sure what your style is, or you feel like you lost your style underneath a childs car seat years ago, I can show you how to regain it. Not by spending thousands of dollars on new clothes, or forcing you through some Zen closet cleanse, but through utilizing what is in your closet right now.

Dont get me wrong, I hope that along the way we clean up some unhelpful clutter. Lets begin by smashing one widely held misconception. One that if you dont overtly believe, it dwells in your subconscious.

In researching this book, I asked my newsletter list to take a short survey. One question was What is your perception of your size? Sixty-eight percent of the respondents answered bigger than average. Later, I asked for the persons actual size, so I could discern the difference between the perception and reality. Only five percent of the respondents were bigger than the average size 16. In fact, the results showed that thirty-one percent of those who completed the survey were a size 16 and sixty nine percent fell between 12- 16.

The reality is that eighty percent of the respondents are average size or smaller, but the voice in their head is messaging that they are big.

You are not the problem; the fashion industry is. Think about how broken a business is, to tell the majority of its customers that they are wrong and need to change.

Here is an example of how that frustration has been expressed to me. I was sent this email from a reader of my first two books.

Subject: Help, I am tired of frumpy, ill-fitting, and uncomfortable options

On Jul 10, 2017, at 6:50 PM, MM wrote:

I love your books, I hate your books. While I have learned a lot, I feel that most of the information does not address everyone. For instance, I am a plus size, 5 ft 4.5 inches, look like an apple, and have a very hard time buying every piece of clothing, from bras to shoes.

Pants are always mis-proportioned, if they fit at the waist then there is room for another person in the rear and hips, there is only so much a tailor can do.

Your first book did not address what an apple should look for in jeans. Forget shoes. I tried on every sandal in the department store, and all were too narrow.

And bras, ugh, the straps always fall down, the sides just give me a muffin top under my arms and back, and the back rides up. While I like the visuals and the information on what makes a good outfit, I am discouraged about my prospects for finding a simple white T-shirt that looks good.

Could I lose weight? Ideally yes, but you know what, I am 62 years old, have dieted all my life and I am tired of that struggle. Could I pay someone like yourself to help? Not on a teacher's salary. I figure (pun intended) at least I could learn how to dress well.

I am hoping that sometime in the future you write a book for all of us forgotten women, I like your practical approach. Thanks for letting me vent, there are a lot of us out there......

Respectfully,

MM

So, with this inspiration in mind, I set out to give you a different experience.

The models are real women:

If you dont see yourself in these women, then they likely will remind you of one of your friends. There is a cross-section of ages, ethnicities, and body shapes. All the models are women I have come across who have voiced similar issues with clothing options, needed to regain their style, or faced wardrobe issues because of the careers they have.

These amazing women have also shared their stories here and I bet you will see similarities in the challenges you face and some misconceptions you labor under.

The clothes are real:

Rather than the typical look-book where clothing brands supply clothes in an effort to influence you to buy them, I started with each models own closet. I put together outfits from their clothes and one or two borrowed items from some friends of mine, to create our inspiring Looks section. Think about that what I said. You can do something similar without buying a thing, just by going into your own closet and perhaps swapping some things with friends.

Anyone can look amazing if a Lucky Brand representative, for example, spent two hours preparing and styling them for a photo shoot. At a typical magazine fashion shoot, the clothing company selects people (models) who are best suited for the clothes; the exact opposite of what we do when buying new clothes. They have hand selected an outfit directly from the factory, then custom fitted it for that professional model. Hairstyling and make-up is applied (usually two different artists) before a professional photo shoot; afterward, photo-shop and airbrush touch-ups are applied. This is how the photos are produced for magazine layouts, catalogs, and online shopping websites. They are highly produced, unrealistic and in complete opposition to what we wanted to achieve for this book.