Having a pear shape means your bottom half is wider than your top half, and if you are also overweight, you may feel frustrated to find the right clothing for your shape. You can still look beautiful, and the key is to stick with the styles that bring focus to your best assets and stay away from those that highlight your weaknesses. Before we go over what styles you should not wear, let’s first take a deep dive to understand everything about your body.
Typical characteristics
The overweight pear shape typically has the following features:
- Bottom-heavy appearance
- Well-defined waist
- Thick thighs
- Large hips compared to the width of the shoulders
- Narrow shoulders
- May have a small bust
- Longer torso
The overweight pear shape has a little extra weight on the body that amplifies the typical pear-shape features. To complement this and project an amazing appearance, you should focus on avoiding any clingy clothing. Below is the full list of styles you should avoid as they will emphasize the bottom-heavy appearance.
Tight tops
As an overweight pear shape woman, the last thing you want to do is wear a top that squeezes you uncomfortably, giving you a boxed look. This is one of the unflattering effects of wearing tight tops. However, another huge factor here is your narrow shoulders.
Tight tops will emphasize your shoulders and how they are not proportional to your wider hips. Therefore, making your wide hips stand out even more will further throw your silhouette off-balance.
Rather than wear tight tops, look out for tops with a more comfortable fit that leave breathable room. These can have U-neck or a wide v-neckline that flatters your upper body.
These neckline choices will help to add more volume visually to your upper body, creating a more proportional outlook for your lower body and an overall streamlined silhouette.
Pastel colored pants
Pastel colors refer to soft-looking hues created by adding white to saturated hues. Most colors in this category are lighter versions of purple, yellow, blue, green, pink and grey.
Wearing lighter pants as an overweight pear shape woman doesn’t give off a flattering look as these are attention-grabbing colors. It’s no secret that darker colors have a slimming effect.
Wearing pastel colored pants will emphasize the exact width of your hips and draw attention to the disproportionate look compared to your narrower upper body. Therefore, it’s best not to wear pastel colored pants and tilt more towards darker pants instead.
Dark grey and black are colors that have a more flattering effect on the pear shape as they help to streamline your entire silhouette by making your upper and lower body align properly.
Tops with details on the hips
Naturally, the pear shape has wider hips compared to the width of the shoulders. Therefore, you should try as much as possible to avoid wearing tops that draw attention to this fact. This includes tops with details around the hips.
Details on a certain part of your body add volume and you can pretty much guess what happens when this detail is around your wide hips. So, tops with pockets or prints around your hips are a huge no.
If you must add volume to your upper body, be sure to keep this around your bust and shoulders. Wearing bold patterns around this area will add more visual interest to your outfit and create a more flattering evenly distributed shape on your pear body.
Drawing attention to your bust rather than your hips help to accentuate your naturally curvy shape.
Hip-length jackets
Hip-length jackets are those that typically end at the widest part of your buttocks. Wearing jackets that stop at this exact part of your body draws attention to the area and could visually widen your hips.
This is not great for the pear body shape that naturally has wide hips and is super unflattering when you’re also overweight. Rather than wear hip-length jackets, it’s better to wear longer jackets that are longer than your hips and not stop directly at them.
This is one of the most effective ways to hide problem areas and rock a cool look that slims down your hips. A long cardigan is chic and sophisticated, and will create a super flattering look that complements your unique body type.
Jackets with unstructured shoulders
Jackets with structured shoulders typically feature hard lines that add more width to your shoulders while unstructured shoulders are softer and drape naturally around your shoulder lines.
In choosing your preferred shoulder style, you need to pay attention to your natural body features and how to play them up. For the pear body shape, you will typically have narrow shoulders which are not aligned with your lower body.
Wearing jackets with an unstructured shoulder will draw attention to this fact and further make your disproportionate silhouette more obvious.
Since you don’t want the narrow shoulders on your overweight pear shape to stand out even more, it’s best to avoid jacket with unstructured shoulders.
Those in dark colors with well-structured shoulders are a better option to give you a slimmer and more sophisticated outlook.
Skinny jeans
The overweight pear shape is heavier around the hips and bottom. Therefore, you need to avoid jeans that taper as they move past your hips and thighs. This will draw attention to the exact structure of your lower body and emphasize a disproportionate silhouette.
Skin-tight jeans that cling to your hips are a huge no as they accentuate your pear shape and could visually narrow your shoulders even more. They also draw attention to your curves excessively, and that’s not the way to create a flattering fit.
Rather than wear skinny jeans, opt for bootcut styles that have a straight cut with a more comfortable fit. These also have a naturally slimming effect that complements your upper body.
Ultimately, they help to make your curves look even more amazing without squeezing you uncomfortably in all the wrong places.
Low rise jeans
If you’re an overweight pear shape with a long torso compared to your short legs, low rise jeans will make this torso length more obvious. On your body, this will look awkward and amplify your flaws.
Rather than wear low rise jeans, you should opt ore for mid to high rise jeans. Apart from being super comfortable on your body frame, this can help to balance out your overall body proportions if you choose the right styles.
A great idea is to wear high rise jeans with a wide leg shape. Wearing this in a dark wash finish is even more flattering as it helps to visually elongate your legs while keeping your body proportions more even.
With this, you can transform your look with the illusion of a shorter torso and longer legs. Of course, this will also make you feel relaxed and comfortable.
Leggings
Leggings are just as unflattering on the overweight pear shape as skinny jeans. The way the fabric clings tightly to your body and highlights every bump and curve could make you feel incredibly self-conscious about your appearance.
However, a major reason not to wear leggings is that they accentuate your heavier bottom, a typical feature for overweight women with a pear body shape. Rather than wear leggings, you’ll feel more comfortable and sexy in palazzo pants.
Apart from the fact that they are usually in stretchy fabric, the well-defined waistband will help to minimize the lower half of your body so that you look slimmer and smaller. Palazzo pants give off a really sophisticated look that will make you stand out beautifully.
To make this even more flattering on your body frame, wear palazzo pants in darker colors that have a natural slimming effect as well.
Bodycon dresses
Since this style of dress is obviously too clingy on the entire body, this figure-hugging style is not flattering for the overweight pear. Bodycon dresses are meant to showcase your curves, alongside every bump on the body.
Since the goal is to camouflage as much as possible, it’s best to avoid bodycon dresses.
Belts with huge buckles
The goal is to draw attention away from your wide hips or subtly add volume to your shoulders to give a curvy silhouette. Belts with huge buckles won’t help you achieve this goal.
Instead, the big buckles will do the exact opposite by drawing attention to the exact size of your hips, visually making them appear bigger. Also, these can abruptly cut off both halves of your body and emphasize the length of your torso.
Rather than wear belts with huge buckles, you will have a more flattering appearance with smaller belts. This will look even more amazing on pear shape women with smaller waists.
You can use this to show off your best assets and further enhance your curves to tilt more towards a hourglass-like look.
