A French peasant, to be exact, seeing as I've got that somewhere in my family ... I started this journey wearing a snug 24 at 294 pounds day of surgery. I could lose 100 pounds, and barely be in an 18/20!! How is that fair!?!?!! Even when I was skinny in high school my hips were proportionally enormous, size 5 waist, size 6 legs, size 10 hips. So I see people here on the forum talking about having only begun to lose and already they are down 3 sizes, and I turn into a Yosemite Sam of jealousy - frickinfrackenflipersnappingodblessamerica! 100 freakin' pounds off my body and only down three sizes. I figured this out because the last time I weighed 190 something I was in an 18 at old navy. Of course, with vanity sizing these days - due to our nationally expanding waistline - makes your size number meaningless anyway. The measurements that got me into a size 8 in high school would today make me a size four so, who knows.

Bah Humbug!!

It has been 12 years since I was in an 18, 14 years since I was in a 14, and 17 years since I was in a single digit!! I have lived in a "uniform" of jeans and 3/4 sleeve plain knit shirts since 1999. It's kind of ironic that only in the months before making the decision to have surgery did I finally find stylish stores online for plus size! Kiyonna, Old Navy, Eddie Bauer, JJill ...

What's wrong with jeans and plain knit shirts?

I LOVE jeans. 'Course, on the West Coast--particularly in the Pacific Northwest where I live--jeans almost ARE a uniform. People dress 'em up with a blazer, fancy shoes, a belt, and a nice shirt. Dress 'em down with a tee-shirt, hiking boots and a hoodie. Wear 'em with cowboy boots (especially at the Pendleton Roundup) and a Stetson. Wear 'em with a cashmere sweater, stockings, heels, and pearls at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wear black ones to a funeral. Wear 'em to the office with a button-up shirt and a tie (no kidding!). Wear 'em to church (still not kidding).

I don't care how good I may ever look in a dress or skirt--I still hate the things. I have ever since I was a little skinny stick of a tomboy with a gap-toothed smile and an Orphan Annie head of white-blonde curls.

Oh there's nothing wrong with jeans & a tee, I'm from NorCal, I know all about the denim "uniform"!=) Regardless of my size though, even when I was in single digits in high school, pants just don't fit my body comfortably and my legs are too short and hips too wide to look elegant in trousers. I am just eager for options; when you are really big any kind of dress just looks like a mu-mu. I look forward to wearing dresses with fitted waists, and having a waist!

"Consider yourself lucky to be a hipless wonder, especially as you get slim - that body type is who all the clothes are made for!"

Globetrotter, it all just depends on where you are coming from. I AM a hipless wonder and I detest it. If I didn't have boobs, I'd look like a boy. I like girls (I mean I really like girls; I'm bisexual) and I've always fallen for the ones with a waist, hips and substantial butt. I am getting to be thin-ish, but I don't feel sexy because my figure is so boxy. By the time pants fit in the waist, they are getting loose in the butt and legs. I feel like I have to pick clothes strategically to create the illusion of a waist. In my opinion, pears are luscious; we bananas, less so.

"Consider yourself lucky to be a hipless wonder, especially as you get slim - that body type is who all the clothes are made for!"

Globetrotter, it all just depends on where you are coming from. I AM a hipless wonder and I detest it. If I didn't have boobs, I'd look like a boy. I like girls (I mean I really like girls; I'm bisexual) and I've always fallen for the ones with a waist, hips and substantial butt. I am getting to be thin-ish, but I don't feel sexy because my figure is so boxy. By the time pants fit in the waist, they are getting loose in the butt and legs. I feel like I have to pick clothes strategically to create the illusion of a waist. In my opinion, pears are luscious; we bananas, less so.

Well imo you are lucky, here is a list of the fabulous fashions you can actually wear and look good in as a HW - low rider jeans, low rise anything. Pencil skirts, bias cut skirts. Pants or skirts with detailing around the hips like pleats or pockets. I don't personally care for them but if you were so inclined you could wear bell bottoms/flares without looking like a squash. With my wide hips, flat butt, big chest, and narrowness between my shoulder blades, nothing ever fits correctly regardless of the size. The only time in my life a button down oxford shirt has ever fit well was when I took it to a tailor.

I'm not discounting what you say, but I am trying to give you another perspective. The grass is always greener somewhere else. I have straight hair and always wanted curly. I would get perm after perm trying to get super curly ringlets. I was so surprised to find out that many people with curly hair want it to be straight. Now I'm perfectly OK with my hair and will never get another perm. We are taught to want whatever kind of body is currently in fashion. As a teen, I wanted thin thighs like a swedish model. I'm not built like that; my legs are substanial.. (I'm pretty much built like an ancient greek statue of a woman. When my sister first moved to Greece with the AF and saw the statues, she quipped that they must have used our family as models.) Now I'm grateful for my big legs. Perhaps some day I will be grateful for my lack of hips, but not yet.

BTW, low rise is going out of fashion and high waists are coming in. Criminy, that style looks lousy on me as I am short-waisted. I hate fashion.