Just a couple of points I hope will add to this great topic. a) why are fat women 'real' women? I have been medically obese up until this January nd have always found it insulting that women who are indeed overweight are classed as 'real' women. Staggering statistic I heard yesterday, 66% of British people are obese, not overweight, OBESE. Can't help but think that this continual 'its ok to be huge, you're just curvy and real' is helping this figure grow. When Asda I think it was, brought size 4 clothes into the store, there was uproar, people saying how unhealthy this weight was and the mere stocking of the clothes was pushing us into anorexia... The double standards of fashion and clothes sizing in womens clothes is awful, if a store refused to stock size 26 and above clothes as it was 'promoting' being fat, there would be uproar in the other direction and the store would be called 'fattist' or 'anti-fat'.
the other point was that lady who said she had been dressing herself and wouldnt be experimenting. I totally felt the same, until after about 10 years of being huge and wearing big shirts which I thought were covering and flattering me, my mate asked me to just trust him and try a tighter, closer fitting t-shirt. Amazed wassn't the word for it!!!!! I instantly looked about a size smaller which you can imagine how that made me feel. I've also just found out (at 37) that black doesn't suit me at all, I thought it was the absolute best colour for me and had half a wardrobe of it
White and very light colours are much much better on me and I have recieved a heap of compliments on colour choice!! So yes, I would say do experiment, maybe down the dreaded high street (whispers) first, for free