I’ve been putting off writing this post for a while, but it’s time to bite the bullet. So, deep breath and here we go…
Some of you may recall that last year I made an Ingenue pullover from Wendy Bernard’s gorgeous book Custom Knits. If you have no life at all, you may even have wondered why I haven’t done a proper Finished Object post, complete with a triumphant picture of me wearing said pullover. Well, there’s a very good reason why I haven’t done that.
It’s horrible.
Actually, that’s not true. Empirically, Ingenue is a beautiful garment. The pattern is lovely, with it’s 1960′s Audrey Hepburn styling. The posmerino yarn is soft as a dream, gloriously warm and slightly haloed thanks to the possum fur. The colours are stunning: I think it is one of the best dyeing jobs I’ve ever done. No, the problem is entirely me. You see, I was temporarily insane when I chose this project – I forgot that I’m not 25 anymore. I was a completely different shape before my babies: effortlessly thin, practically breastless, long-necked, long-legged, you get the picture. The ’mod’ styling of this jumper was exactly the sort of thing I loved to wear (and looked pretty damn good in, if I do say so).
Yes. Well. I am very much not that girl anymore, a fact that was brought home to me when I saw the one and only pic there ever was or will be of me in the Ingenue:
That's me on the far left, looking like an overstuffed teddy bear.
Yes, I’ve gained back all the weight I lost two years ago (and then some), but I’m sure that even if I were still slim this jumper would not work on me. Because even at 70kg I’m a lot curvier than I was 17 years ago, and the Ingenue’s basic shape is not one for curvy girls.
So, having established that this shape was wrong for me, I then had to figure out what was right. A bit of Google-Fu and a quick trip to the library later, and I had my answer: Trinny and Susannah’s Body Shape Bible. It turns out that my post-baby body is a Cello, a more statuesqe version of the classic Hourglass and, right there in the section on what to avoid:
Polo-neck jumper or shirt - you have breasts, quite large ones in fact, and anything that covers your cleavage is a big no-no. You’ll simply look shorter and wider with some sort of deformity in the middle of your chest.
Yep, that about sums up how I look in the photo above. As for what I should be wearing, there’s a whole list of “right” shapes there on the linked page. As it turns out, my wardrobe isn’t chock-full of wrong:
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Most of my t-shirts are scoop- or v-neck (or henley, which can be unbuttoned partway for much the same effect).
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The 2 or 3 dresses I do own are high-waisted, if not halternecks (they are mostly autumn/winter wear).
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My jeans are all boot-cut rather than skinny, and my very favourite non-jeans pants are wide-leg.
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I generally prefer cardigans, which create a vertical line, distracting from the predominantly horizontal nature of my shape.
So I’m not too badly off, and now I have a shopping list of styles that will work for me; both now, and as I get my weight back down (which is most definitely on the cards for this year).
As for Ingenue, it will be returned to string in the very near future, and I have already picked out the pattern for its next incarnation - Foxhollow, a brand-new longline gorgeousness from Amy Swenson:
(c) Amy Swenson 2012
Stay tuned, because this isn’t over. There will be wardrobe purges, new clothes bought and made, and all manner of fun as I figure out how to dress this version of me.
