If you have areas of your body you aren’t quite confident about, it can be easy to hide in baggy clothing. Here are some things to look for in your clothing that camouflage and flatter without being oversized.

There may be parts of your body that you are more comfortable hiding or covering with clothing. Regardless of your reasons, hiding these areas may feel like the right answer, but drowning yourself in clothing isn’t the answer. 

Instead, here are five things to look for in your clothing that will flatter and help you feel confident, instead of hiding behind or underneath your clothing. 

Clothing that flatters and covers without being baggy

Flowy tops that hit above the hips

• Flowy tops or dresses are a great option to skim over your middle, hips, and bum. But not all flowy pieces are going to be flattering! Make sure you choose pieces that still show some skin in other areas. Look for dresses that show a little leg (midi or shorter), tops that hit below or above your widest part, and tops and dresses with necklines that show some neck and décolletage. Also, look for pieces with fabric structure! If you’re choosing a flowy dress that’s made of a clingy fabric, you’ll defeat the point and end up accentuating all areas of your body for better or worse.  Cottons, linens, mid to heavy weight knits, gauzy fabrics are going to be great for smoothing over any lumps or bumps.
• The top below is a great example — it’s flowy, but hits above the hips so you’re not hitting at the widest point of your body. It also has a great open neckline to show some skin, and a sleeve that’s a little longer but not too long.

top linked HERE

Ruched dresses and tops

• Ruching or gathering is a great way to camouflage certain areas, especially around your tummy. You’ll see it all the time on swimsuits, like this one, and it can be super flattering because it adds texture and distracts from areas under the fabric that you might want to cover, while also pulling the fabric tight to keep things held in. You can get this same effect with dresses, like the one below! The fabric gathers in a wrap style and creates a waist point (even if you don’t have much of a waist) and the gathers of fabric distract from weight below it.

Dress linked HERE

Peplum Style tops

• Peplum tops are ones that cinch in at the natural waist and then flow out away from the body. These are great because they accentuate the area below the bust (which is the narrowest part of the waist middle for many women) and then flow away from the body. These are a great style of shirt to camouflage weight in your middle! Just make sure you choose ones that have good structure to the fabric so they don’t cling.
• The one below even comes to a point at the middle of the waist which allows it to flow out even more. Avoid a maternity type of look with these tops by choosing ones that are a little shorter of a crop. Long ones that hit at or below the hip can give you a maternity look.

Top linked HERE

Printed pieces

• Printed pieces are absolutely your friend if you’re wanting to camouflage areas of your body. Solid fabrics are much less forgiving because they don’t distract from any weight or bumps. You can do stripes or floral or dots or any other kind of fabrics, but try it in tops and skirts and dresses!
• The dress below is a great example because it has an all over bold print, plus a flowy fabric with structure!

dress linked HERE

Structured pieces

• I wrote a whole post about fabric structure HERE, if you need a little help understanding the concept. But think about a blazer or a denim jacket…both of those are made with structured fabric that holds its shape without necessarily contouring to your body. The more structure you have, the more shape you’ll be given BY the clothes instead of the clothes clinging to your body and accentuating areas you’d like to camouflage.  You can get structure in your clothing from more than jackets – linens, thicker cottons, denim, or heavier weight knits will add structure!

jacket linked HERE

I hope those tips help you move away from the super oversized pieces and focus on the pieces that will actually work well for your body and make you feel confident!

Hiding in baggy clothing is never the answer…embrace your body and choose the best pieces for it as it is right now!

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