Women in suits: a bad idea? - Page 5

This raises an interesting question. What sort of suit does best flatter women's bodies? Foo seems to suggest that skirt suits generally do it better than pant suits. Or even if he doesn't, this seems a common view. Is that view true, though? Take a look at the two suits with A-line skirts posted by yachtie. What those seem to do is re-suggest on a grand scale the ideal hourglass figure of bust-waist-hips. They blow up that shape so that it occupies almost the entire body, from shoulders to below the knee. It's as if you'd stood a very large hourglass atop two short columns: the bare legs showing beneath the skirt hem. Now swap out the A-line skirt for a pencil skirt, which falls straight down from the hips to the knee. What you then get is the natural-size hourglass, sitting atop a column--the skirt--which in turn rests on two short columns--the bare legs visible beneath the hem. Now look at the pant suit on Christina Hendricks, in the pic posted by pvrhye. Suppose it has tightly tapered, form-fitting trousers, as are popular in women's pant suits. Again, the overall silhouette is of the natural-size hourglass, now resting atop two long columns which taper slightly as they fall to the ground. Which of these three silhouettes does the best job of making a woman look like she has the ideal feminine figure? I think that depends on how essential you think the two legs are to that figure. Christian Dior's New Look evidently thought they were not essential. The silhouette of the semi-hobble-skirt suit yachtie posted would be an hourglass sitting atop a downward-facing triangle. No interest in the natural legs there. Of course, this isn't all that's going on in flattering a figure. Another thing is suggesting sex: as in intercourse. Skirts do that in a way that trousers can't. Anne Hollander's superb book Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress (1994) is good on how both men's and women's clothes do that: a topic we rarely discuss here.

I find women in suits very attractive, as long as they don't wear a tie...too masculine...

A horribly bad idea. Most disturbing.

Interesting, mkarim. What if it were a bow tie?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

So do you find a suit and a bow tie even less attractive on a woman than a suit and a four-in-hand tie? For instance, the woman in FIH and coat at post 29 of this thread, and this

+1

4 points: 1. AFAICS there is nothing inherently ironic about a woman wearing a "man's suit" unless you are operating within the paradigm that only men should wear suits (in which case I'm not surprised you find it unattractive), or adhere to the the othodoxy you mention below. 2. Consider the origin of this orthodoxy? Women, or men? 3. I don't see how skirts flatter female figures more than pants necessarily. Women have been wearing pants and rocking them for ages, not sure why a skirt is somehow the better option, sense that you're trying justify your personal preference. 4. Not sure where he mentioned a woman must dress like a man to...

Skirt Suit being the norm is just that a norm. It isn't supported by it being more flattering to their body shape. I agree with Loathing in that Skirt suits is more to do with what the men back in the day wanted to see their women in, as opposed to Skirts flatter women's shape. Personally I think well tailored pants are more flattering than Skirts.

Just like men women have different body types. Didn't everybody learn this in their teens? Think of the three male body types Ectomorph Endo Meso Those translate fairly well to women . Most runway models since twiggy have been Ecto Apple women are Endos. You can find your own pictures of Rosanne Barr. Then you have true hourglass girls If you ignore the breasts the only difference between an hourglass girl and a male meso is the hips. Draw the line from the outside of her shoulders down her waist . You've got a V. Not just because her outfit is pulling her waist in. The hourglass top is a V. What looks good on somebody like Twiggy is going to look all wrong on Loren. Loren doesn't need shoulder pads and extend shoulders to create her shape.

Camilla Belle (definition of a dime) wears a lot of suits: Tom Ford Swag Color

Sorry for the huge pics, uploading them to tumblr EDITED

Pictures aren't quite big enough.

It's fixed been at work all day wasn't paying attention. Although the size I think helps show how hot she is.

Yeah, she's a real pig.

I went to a BC Lions game once last year and saw TSN reporter, Sara Orlesky, standing on the sidelines. My camera is old; so it doesn't take very good photos; but it the photos give some idea of what she looked like. I don't recall her giving me a masculine vibe in her choice of attire.