If you are an overweight apple, you may be frustrated with your tummy, but the right clothing styles can not only camouflage your muffin top but also draw attention to your beautiful assets, i.e. a full bust and slender legs. In this detailed guide, we’ll first help you fully understand your body features, and then walk you through the most flattering clothes for your unique body shape.
Traits
- You have a big bust size. Apple body shapes typically have fuller breasts, but since you’re considered overweight, you may be at least a D-cup in terms of bust size.
- You’ve got very prominent cleavage and well-rounded breasts. Your full bust size results in the appearance of curvaceous cleavage and this will always be one of your most noticeable features.
- You may have chubby arms. Apple shapes usually have slim limbs, but for those who are overweight, there’s a fair chance that you may also carry some weight in your arms, although not too much.
- There’s fullness in your midsection. As an apple-shaped woman, you gain all your excess weight here so it is expected that you have bulges in your tummy or tummy spills not just on the front of your abdomen, but also on the sides of your waist.
- You don’t have waist definition. Due to the excess weight you carry in your stomach area, your waistline tends to be overshadowed by this body fullness.
- Your shoulders and hips are almost of the same width. Despite being overweight, the balance between these two is still noticeable.
- You have slender legs that are well-shaped. One of the best things about apple shapes is that no matter how much you gain weight, it won’t be very apparent in your legs so they are always slimmer in comparison to your other body parts.
- You may have smaller (but not flat) buttocks. Most apple shapes tend to have a flat-looking rear, but for overweight apple figures, your buttocks may still have decent volume, although still relatively smaller than your midsection.
TOPS
Structured Peplum Blouses
One of the biggest challenges about styling an overweight apple body shape is to choose clothes that will produce curved shapes and lines. Being overweight, in addition to your fuller midsection, your curves may not be as apparent so structured tops with a distinctive silhouette such as peplum should significantly help you out with this.
Structured peplum blouses cinch at the waist and then flare out into a peplum ruffle or flounce, which is a design that creates the illusion of curves similar to the proportions of an hourglass body shape. In addition to this, this flared overskirt is a very efficient method to conceal the bulges you have in your midsection area.
Shirts with Open Necklines
For someone who carries extra weight in your body, you’ll need clothes that can help give your frame a sense of verticality and elongation such as open necklines. Shirts with open necklines such as V-neck, scoop, or sweetheart, open up enough space on your upper half to showcase your beautiful decolletage and elongated neck.
Open necklines bring attention to the neck and bust area to divert the focus away from the midsection and deemphasize the bulges you have in your stomach area. They can also enhance the appearance of your full bust size to make it the focal point of your ensemble.
Three-fourth Sleeve Draping Tops
Three-fourth sleeves can be visually beneficial for overweight apple shapes for this sleeve style can help tone down the excess weight you may have in your arms, but without giving too much coverage. This, combined with the forgiving fit of a draping silhouette, can help bring balance and definition to your apple frame.
The draping fabric allows the fabric to gently flow away from the body to create a relaxed silhouette that doesn’t cling to the midsection. When placed strategically on the center of the top, the draping detail can also offer your frame a sense of verticality to draw the eyes up and down and make you appear slimmer.
JEANS
Tummy Control Jeans
Tummy control jeans are designed with either strategic panels, linings, or shaping seams in the waistband and front area to help smooth out and hold in the tummy. For overweight apple shapes, this particular feature of jeans will help create a sleeker appearance by minimizing the visibility of any bulges.
As you may already know, one of the challenges you encounter would be the lack of a well-defined waistline. This way, tummy control jeans can help you by providing gentle compression and shaping around your midsection to help create the illusion of more defined curves.
Dark-Washed Jeans
We all know how dark colors are very effective when it comes to slimming the body, right? So for you ladies who carry more weight in the body, dark-washed jeans should be very helpful in toning your figure down for a slimmer appearance.
In addition, dark-washed jeans create a visually balanced look by drawing attention away from the extra weight you carry in your midsection. They serve as a neutral backdrop that can help downplay the roundness and fullness of your waist and abdomen area and highlight your best features instead, such as your slender legs.
Jeans with Elastic Waistband
Elastic waistbands are very flexible and therefore provide a more forgiving fit to accommodate the fullness you have in your heavy midsection area. They also have a more customizable fit, allowing you to have full control in adjusting the fit of your jeans according to your desired comfort level.
Elastic waistbands sit smoothly against the body to reduce the possibility of creating a “muffin top” effect that can occur with traditional waistbands. It also prevents bunching and doesn’t cause additional bulk in your midsection, which traditional enclosures such as zippers or buttons usually cause.
PANTS
Neutral-colored Pleated Pants
Neutral colors don’t draw too much attention and so they help minimize the prominence and fullness of your midsection. To add to this, the pleats present along the waistband of this type of pants provide more room to accommodate your heavier midsection, while also creating a straight vertical line that can help give you a taller and leaner stature.
Apart from this, neutral tones seamlessly complement a range of colors and patterns, which gives you more freedom in terms of exploring different types of outfits to flatter your figure.
Flat Front Trousers
For overweight apple-shaped women, flat-front trousers are considered flattering because of their ability to create a smoother appearance by minimizing the appearance of unnecessary bulk. The absence of potentially bulky details such as buttons or zippers reduces volume around the midsection, but instead, gives your waist a nice cinch.
High-Waisted Wide-Leg Pants
High-waisted pants will always be a wise fashion choice for ladies who carry extra weight in their midsection because of how this rise covers up this roundness and fullness. The high waist cinches at a narrow point on your upper body to create the illusion of a more defined waistline and give an hourglass-like silhouette.
Combining this with the wide-leg cut can add just the right amount of volume to balance out your overall visual weight from top to bottom. This particular style of pants elongates the legs for a taller and slimmer appearance while also providing gentle support around the midsection without creating discomfort.
DRESSES
Knee-Length Empire Dresses
Knee-length empire dresses are a fantastic choice for overweight apple-shaped women due to their flattering design that accentuates the upper body while gently skimming over the midsection. Empire dresses feature an elevated waistline that sits just right below the bust and gives a high focal point that draws attention upwards, away from the midsection.
Also, this visual effect camouflages the bulk in your tummy area while enhancing your best features even more, which are your bust and décolletage. You’ll also find the knee-length cut very helpful when it comes to showcasing the beauty of your lean legs.
Cotton Wrap Dresses
It’s not difficult to fall in love with wrap dresses the moment you try them on because of the fact that they are extremely flattering, especially on overweight apple body shapes. A wrap dress addresses some of your biggest concerns (such as an undefined waist and a heavy midsection), while also bringing out your best features (full and well-shaped bust and slender legs).
This dress style features a self-tie belt that you can freely adjust to properly cinch the waist and therefore make it look curvier and more defined. Additionally, the overlapping bodice of a wrap dress results in a V-shaped neckline and therefore becomes a perfect opportunity to showcase your gorgeous bust line and elongated neck.
SKIRTS
Skirts with Flounce Hem
Flounce hemlines add volume and movement to the lower part of the skirt and so this extra volume helps balance the proportions of the body by creating a more even distribution of visual weight between your upper and lower body. This can help visually reduce the emphasis on your thicker midsection to give you a more balanced appearance.
Because of the sense of dynamics the asymmetry of the hemline gives, the skirt can draw attention downward toward the legs to shift the focus away from the bulge in your stomach. Since your legs are the slimmer part of your frame, this attention redirection can give you the illusion of a slimmer frame overall.
Flowy Pleated Skirts
Flowy pleated skirts gently drape over the midsection which offers a forgiving fit that can help conceal your heavy tummy area. The flowy nature of pleated skirts adds volume to the lower body while also producing a continuous vertical line to draw the eyes up and down for a slimming effect.
This particular balance draws attention away from the midsection and instead leads the gaze to your slender and shapely legs and has them more emphasized.
OUTERWEAR
Fitted Single-Breasted Blazers
Overweight apple shapes will need a bit more effort and strategy to bring their curves to the spotlight, and this is something fitted single-breasted blazers can effortlessly do. The structured silhouette of a blazer adds structure to the upper body, creating a more balanced appearance with the help of its key design elements such as single button details, neat seams, and lapel to create a leaner line from the waist down.
The elongated lapels and vertical seams of this blazer style produce vertical lines that draw the eye up and down to visually lengthen and slim down your body and create a more streamlined look. Additionally, this blazer’s silhouette can help mask your heavy midsection while also cinching in your waist for added definition.
Tailored Princess Seam Coats
Apple shapes that carry more weight in their bodies can greatly benefit from the neat vertical seams of princess seam coats. These seams run from the shoulders to the hem of the coat, which creates a contoured and fitted shape that can enhance the curves in your figure without clinging too tightly.
The curving lines of the princess seams can add subtle shaping to the coat for a more feminine and balanced silhouette from shoulders to hem. This can counteract the fullness or shapelessness that most overweight apple body shapes struggle with.
Structured A-Line Coats
The A-Line silhouette can do so much for overweight apple body shapes because of how it works around your figure’s strengths and weaknesses. A structured A-Line coat will provide a roomier fit that allows the fabric to gently drape over your bulky midsection to effectively camouflage this problematic area.
This A-Line shape creates a visual balance with the help of its slightly flared silhouette to counteract the roundness of the midsection. The coat’s design helps create a more proportionate and elongated appearance to give you a slim look.
