Your (Easy) Guide to Styling a Thick Body
by Karyn Rudance
You’re standing in the store. You love the dress. You buy the dress. You take the dress home and put it on. You look like a sack of potatoes. “Intimidaaatiooon” (in Lowered Expectations sing-song – Mad TV 1990’s? No? Just me?).
Let’s talk about how to elevate that idea of a garment into a “look.”
I’m talking to the 40-something who got caught up in life, forgot to pay attention to what “the kids” were doing, and now looks in the mirror and doesn’t recognize what decade they’re in.
FIRST – Girl, get on Instagram. There are people on there (literally millions) who are creating content just. for. you.
“Content” is anything from a video, to a list, to an article, or a picture, that fills the space on their social media account. “Content” refers to whatever they are posting.
It is the job (yes, content creation is a job now) of so many people to create outfits and film themselves putting that outfit on their own body. If we’re lucky, they will tell us where they bought the individual pieces in that outfit, but more often than not they’re shopping at the same Old Navy and H&M we are.
Most of the content creators follow the same formula. They show you the garment while they stand there in their undies, then they put it on in front of you. After that they start to add accessories, shoes, hairstyles, and outerwear to show you how to make that garment go from just a dress, to a “look.” In other words, they’ve “styled” it.
Maybe you have some of those accessories, maybe you need to buy a few things. But it’s a brilliant resource to have these creators guide you through putting an outfit together that elevates your style.
“Where do I find these creators?” Good question! It’s not like they’re in a line in front of you, asking for your business.
Instagram search makes it really easy to find what you are looking for. And the algorithm (the internet thing that keeps track of what you search for and automatically shows you more of that content) will start suggesting more accounts you should follow, based on the searches you’ve typed in. Before long you’ll be following everyone from Canada to Africa watching people get dressed (if our past selves could see us now…).
Type keywords into the search. Keywords are words that are “key” to the content you want to find. Are you a size 16 and want to watch someone get dressed, for inspiration? Type in “Size 16 GRWM.” That’s an acronym for Get Ready With Me, an important phrase you NEED to know, as this is what the kids these days call this type of content. A number of accounts will pop up with size 16 women who are showing themselves getting dressed.
Type in 50-year-old GRWM.
Big belly GRWM.
Mid size GRWM.
That’s it. End of story. The quickest, easiest way to learn how to style your body is to ask instagram to show you people who are doing exactly the thing you want to see.
Eventually you’ll find people who look exactly like you and you’ll probably be loyal to them, using their content as daily inspiration.
The lesson here is that there is SO MUCH available to help with styling your mom bod, or elevating your mid life look. Get it, gurl. You deserve to be included!