I also really love the band that they love to put just below 'the girls'. Anything like that makes me look 12 months pregnant! :eek:

OMG the armholes!!! For years and years I did not wear tank tops, admittedly I'm self conscience of large arms, but it was more because the whole top and side of my bra was visible through the armhole. Yikes! I know the young girls dress to intentionally show off their bras, but in my day the entire goal of wearing a top was to COVER the bra. I just can't go there.

You are so right about the low-cut peek-a-boo aspect, and it does not help that I'm short, and hail from the land of "plenty". So whenever I put on one of those tops, it's a scene! Run, hide, cover the eyes of the children (and the husbands), here comes the jiggling jug brigade.... No thank you, it's too cold here in Michigan for that look, my lips would be blue for certain.

Don't sell your "old lady crack" short, believe me a dyed in the wool breast man does not care how old you are, they look and enjoy the show regardless. When I was a teenager I spent some time at my grandmother's house over the summer. She was maybe in her mid-50's. Anyway we spent a day at the beach, at one point we were walking along the shore collecting shells and whatnot, when all of a sudden there was a loud cat whistle. My grandmother leans over and says, "I think that was for you". So I slowly turned my head to see who might be whistling. Wrong, not for me, there was an older gentleman stretched out on a beach lounger waving at us. Believe me grans had (and still does) plenty of "old lady crack", and it never fails to reel in the "boob" men.

Ugh, that look should be avoided unless you're very pregnant. It certainly makes everybody look pregnant. It's one thing for me to walk past a rack of that style, it's a completely different thing to explain to our 10 year old DD why the tops that her aunties bought for her for Christmas aren't appropriate to wear to school or anywhere else that's out in public!

LOL on the tank tops! I have flat out refused to take my sons to any function in the family that a certain cousin's gf is at because I can't have my sons exposed to her huge jiggling boobs and bra that she insists on only wearing a tank top over!! :eek: Even my hubby is disgusted by that one.

Well, I can't recognize a single one of the stores you've been mentioning, but here in Spain it's not very different from what you describe. Plus size clothing is a nightmare: you will either find florals everywhere (like I need that), or those pregnant-looking tops you mentioned above. Nothing fits correctly, it's either baggy or too tight, and whatever fits my hips is huge around my thighs, etc... In the end almost everything makes me end up looking like a circus tent.
Then again, I have very skinny friends who say it's not a piece of cake for them either.

I think a lot of it depends on your personal style and body shape. Not every thin woman is shaped the same way, so there are lots of styles to accomodate that. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the same for plus sized clothes. I have a big belly, but tiny shoulders and small arms. To find something that fits around my middle, I have to buy things that swim around my shoulders and arms. Anyone else have that?

Well, my problem is usually about chest sizes. The most common bra cup in Spain is B, and every bra store has B cups everywhere but no other sizes, it's so frustrating! I'm a D, and I can't wear buttoned shirts, for instance, because they're all wrong for me. In order to avoid the gaps between buttons I'd have to buy shirts a couple sizes larger than what I need. I go to lingerie stores and I can easily find thongs, boyshorts, etc that fit me well, but bras? Forget about it.

I can't wear buttoned shirts either, every time I move all the gaps open up between the buttons showing everything. Thankfully I'm at a D cup now, I was at a triple D when I was heavier. I imagine there are absolutely no stores in your area that would carry that!

I'm still a DDD right now. Button shirts are just now becoming a possibility if they aren't way too big. Still have the gapping sometimes. I am big in the belly but have less in the thighs and butt department so I have a problem with pants fitting the belly but being way to big on the legs. I have taken to buying 'skinny' jeans. LOL who would have thought that? LOL

I buy shirts to go over by girls and just take them in for better fit throught the waist. I'm not a seamstress I just follow the original line.