Shopping maxim: You always find something you love when you’re looking for something else. That’s what happened to me at the Loft yesterday. Usually, I find something I love when I don’t have any money, either, but this time I was armed with a store credit! The 40% off Friends & Family sale helped, too. (I’m not sure how much longer the online sale is going. The in-store sale ended yesterday.)

I was looking for pants, but I only found a couple of pairs of jeans. However, I also found some fresh basics to update my wardrobe for the spring and summer.

First up is the surprise winner, a jersey black and cream polka dot blazer in 12P. The 100% cotton fabric has super soft sweatshirt feel. And look, Ma–no rolled up sleeves! (If you decide to try this, order two in the same size. The lapel in the first blazer I tried didn’t lie correctly, but it was fine in the second.)

A diagonal dart from waist pocket to bust (marked below left) keeps this blazer from looking boxy face on. If I want to diminish some of the boxiness in my profile, I can add a hook or button to close the front panels. Amazingly, when I hold it closed, I don’t get the awkward opening at the chest that I usually get with low stance jackets.

The polka dots make this jacket fresh, and the colors make it versatile. I’m expecting to get a lot of wear out of it in the next few months.

This striped panel dress was my unsurprising second place winner. Even on the hanger I could tell that the scoop neck and princess seams would be a good bet for big busts, but I resisted taking the size 14 to the dressing room because I wasn’t looking for dresses. Once I put it on and saw it in the mirror, of course I added it to my “buy pile”.

I would have liked to have tried the size 12 because there’s a tiny bit of extra room in the waist, but they didn’t have anymore, so I can probably take this in if it begins to look baggy. The heavier weight 100% cotton knit has a solid, high-quality feel to it.

I plan to experiment with accessorizing this dress, so you may see some of my wins and fails in future posts. To begin, I tried it with a chambray shirt, wool blend moto jacket and denim jacket.

The Blah and Boxy looks on the right immediately went into my “no pile” after I took these photos. I think the key with this dress is to respect the waist.

Because I’ve read repeatedly that chambray shirts are a closet staple, I decided to give this XL chambray shirt some serious consideration despite the button flap chest pockets. Now that I’ve compared the chambray pockets to the too-small chest pockets that I discussed in 2011, I think they may be proportionally okay.

This shirt is my third place winner and is a classic example of the trade-offs we have to make in order to complete a big bust wardrobe: First, you can see from the lack of any ease at my chest that anything less than an XL would have gaped. Second, this shirt relies upon generous armholes to create enough room for the bust.

You can see this more clearly on the character of Theresa D’Agostino in season 3, episode 11 of The Wire (my husband’s and my current binge-watching obsession). She doesn’t need such a big armhole for her arms. If it were higher cut, you wouldn’t see that pulling and she’d have greater ease of movement. Unfortunately, she needs the fabric in her sleeves to pull towards her chest to cover it.

That’s what the big armholes in my chambray shirt are doing for me. I have the same tell-tale tightening across my upper arms that you see in Theresa’s shirt.

Despite the occasionally annoying restriction of movement, I’m keeping this shirt because it doesn’t look as giant everywhere else as I expected an XL to look, due to the vertical seams in front and back. After all, the Loft does call it their “long and lean” shirt. I also like the length to go with leggings.

Finally, this 50% wool, 50% acrylic moto jacket is my runner up. The quality of this jacket is amazing–great weight, finished seams, and strong snaps to keep the fabric from pulling away from the zipper. I really, really, really want to keep this jacket, but something about it doesn’t pass my picture test, and I haven’t been able to figure out what.

I’m wearing size large above and below left. I tried it in medium, below right, but I thought the slightly shorter length made it look boxier.



One more AMAZING detail about this shirt: there is absolutely no boob smash because of the princess seams that you can see more clearly in the grey version on the Loft website. These aren’t the most flattering profile images, but hopefully you get the idea. I’m testing it with the oomphiest bra I have–my Kris Line Martina.

In addition to my jeans and the items I’ve written about above, I added the denim pencil skirt and dotted linen tee that you see in some of the pictures. After five years of working from home, I’m finally weaning myself from the idea of “corporate basics” and discovering the basics that work for me. Yesterday’s shopping trip helped a lot.