Wardrobe Wednesday, rant edition

What I'd wear today if I could: well, it's tricky. Some of you have left comments saying you couldn't/wouldn't wear this or that because of your shape or size. I detect a lot of disappointment in the body image department from the blogosphere in general. And it makes me a little sad.

I say, phooey! Almost everyone who has commented on previous Wardrobe Wednesdays is a mother, right? And our bodies are powerful. They are beautiful. Our bodies not only create and foster life, but have the ability to nourish that life -- beautiful children who are healthy and smart. Contrary to what our society would have us buy into, most women aren't supposed to stay the stick-thin teens we might have once been. Some women's bodies are built that way, but most aren't. Someday, I hope we as a society can value our bodies for what they do and not what they look like -- like our brains!

I'm all for losing weight to maintain a healthy size, eating nutritious foods and working out. But I still think real women have curves. Real women have muscle. Real women come in all shapes and sizes, however God made us. Me, my clothing sizes are all over the place. I can fit into some of my pre-preggo clothes, but not all of them. And recently when I bought a pair of pants, they were a size 10, mingling with clothes sized from 6 to 12 (which all fit). I wear small, medium and large tops -- depending on the cut and style -- over my breastfeeding 36D boobs. What I'm trying to say in this confessional is that I am not skinny. (I think I was skinny for only two years of my life, from 12 to 14. Then my mother's hips arrived.)

Yes, the models wearing the clothes I have posted look like they could use a few foot-long sub sandwiches. But that's a model for ya. I'm not looking at them -- just what they're wearing. I imagine wearing what I have posted because it looks beautiful, not because I have the model's body. (Or I imagine wearing what I have posted because I'd never actually spend that kind of money on clothes, in the case of some posts!) I wouldn't want the model's body, anyway, because I love to eat too much!

Despite my soapbox preaching, this week I went looking for clothes that I thought would look good on a variety of sizes (all available at Nordstrom), in the hopes of offering the fashion equivalent of an olive branch to anyone who might have thought I was a body snob:

This tie-back dress by Velvet Torch. Tie-back dresses and tops are good for creating the perfect fit around the waist because you control how tight you tie it! This dress has soft gathers, too, so it should be good at hiding a "tummy."

And then there's this knit dress by Frenchi, which has a similar thing going on. Plus, if you ask me, I think the kimono-style sleeves that are in right now help make your waist and hips look smaller:

Even big-time designer Marc Jacobs has this dress, which has simple lines so you could dress it up or down, as they say:

Now, excuse me while I go get my afternoon snack! I recommend you do the same!