Designer dresses vs. retailored breasts

[nifer]

Designer dresses vs. retailored breasts

The most fashionable fashions don't leave much room for surgically enhanced figures.

By Eric Wilson

The New York Times

June 19, 2005

There are worse fashion dilemmas than the one confronting Heidi Pollert, 30, a marketing executive in Houston, who can afford suits from Prada and MaxMara but must spend a small fortune on alterations because her bust is too big for the cut of most designer clothes.

"I like well-fitted clothing with straight lines, a real classic look," says Pollert, who works for a wealth management company and tends to dress more conservatively than one might expect of a woman who has had breast implants that increased her cup size to 34F. "I'm bigger around the top, but I'm small everywhere else," she says. "So I have to have everything tailored, especially jackets."

Such is life for shoppers who have faced the double-edge scalpel of plastic surgery, which has allowed hundreds of thousands of American women to have the cleavage they deem ideal, though they no longer fit the svelte silhouette dictated by many fashion houses.

In regions where breast augmentation is most popular, such as Southern California, Texas and Florida, the wave of implants is skewing the selection of designer clothes sold at some stores, favoring sizes and styles more ample on top and creating a new market for alterations.

"For women who love fashion, breast enlargements and designer dresses do not go together," says Brian Bolke, the owner of a Dallas boutique called 4510 for its address on McKinney Avenue. He estimates that more than half his customers have had cosmetic surgery.

"These women have great bodies, but they are not the bodies that designer clothes are made for," he adds. "There is a ton of adjustments going on, because this area is not known for small chests. Either women are having dresses completely butchered, or we're selling them separates with a top and a skirt in different sizes."

A growing phenomenon

The high-fashion industry is struggling to catch up to the new plastic silhouette. After the popularity of implants dipped in the early 1990s, after the general withdrawal of silicone implants for health concerns, procedures have risen steadily.

Surgery for breast enlargement (including breast lifts) has grown by 257 percent since 1997, reaching 432,403 patients last year, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Saline implants, filled with salt water, have largely replaced silicone in the United States. Last month a committee of medical experts advised the Food and Drug Administration to allow the return of silicone, which was never conclusively linked to health problems. The federal agency has not yet decided whether to follow that advice.

Surgeons have performed about 1.3 million augmentations in the past decade (including repeat customers), not enough to have a broad impact on the American clothing market in a population of 149 million women. But the implant trend has affected the styles sold in designer boutiques in certain cities and regions where surgeries are most popular.

For example a woman who was a standard size 6 before surgery -- a 34.5-inch bust, 26-inch waist and 36.5-inch hips -- and whose implants increase her bust by two cup sizes, would need a size 10 dress. But because she remains slim through the waist and hips, the dress would have to be altered.

After breast augmentation, many women say they fill out sweaters and swimwear better, and they get a lot of positive attention, but other clothes no longer look right.

"I gave up my wardrobe to show off my breasts," says Tara Fierstatt, a national merchandiser for Buffalo Jeans in New York, who had implants in 2000 and now fits a C cup.

"Your options are so much better, but it's funny: I used to wear button-down shirts, and now they don't fit," she says. "I might have to go up a size on the top if it's too tight around the chest, but then it does not fit in the shoulders or the arms."

Instead she wears tight-fitting sweaters and more daring designs from Juicy Couture and D&G.

Retailers take notice

A few retailers are catering to the trend.

In 2003 Rachel Clements opened La Mode, a lingerie store in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, which stocks merchandise specifically for women who have had implants and other cosmetic operations. Her wares include compression garments for those who have had liposuction and bras with no underwires for augmentation patients. The store carries underwear from La Perla, Chantelle and Aubade, brands that produce larger cup sizes in more stylish, and costly, designs.

Houston is "second to Los Angeles in augmentations, and we see a lot of alterations," Clements says. "You've got great designers like Proenza Schouler who are doing beautiful bustiers, but they don't always fit. They are designed for models who are A cups, and that's not where the customers are."

Clements works with a tailor to customize suits and other clothing for these shoppers, altering 15 to 20 pieces a week from houses such as Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. "Until it starts to affect their business, the designers just aren't going to listen," she says.

Customer demands for more figure-flattering clothing from designers have had an impact in the last decade. Once there was a near constant request for dresses with sleeves to accommodate women who wanted to conceal the effects of age.

Today there is a call for more halter tops and strapless gowns, says Frederick Anderson, the business partner of Douglas Hannant, a designer based in New York.

"When we talk about age-appropriate clothing, the equation has changed dramatically," Anderson says. "But you can't design a collection around a customer with a large chest, because it throws the proportion off. It's not realistic. When someone is a size D cup and a 2 waist, it's really a challenge."

Typically, a designer will revisit and adjust a line's sizing every three to four years, the designer Carmen Marc Valvo says.

"You look at your customer profile and see what's working and what isn't," he says. "I always thought I had cut for a womanly figure, but we noticed we had to increase our bust size."

Plastic surgeons say the most popular choice in breast size among augmentation patients is a C cup, although it is not uncommon for a patient to return for bigger implants. Sam Saboura, a fashion stylist who appears regularly on the television series Extreme Makeover, says that after working with women who have had implants, he suggests that "anything bigger than a C cup is a bit too much."

In a book to be published this month, Sam Saboura's Real Style: Style Secrets for Real Women With Real Bodies, he writes that choosing the right clothing can be as effective a makeover as plastic surgery.

Dr. James H. Wells, a former president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the chairman of its breast-implant task force, has led a campaign among the society's members to encourage women to consider more natural-looking implants, meaning smaller sizes.

Few women seem to have been persuaded, Wells says. But he has not yet tried telling them they would be out of fashion.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/orl-livfigures19061905jun19,0,6574502.story?coll=orl-home-lifestyle

[raincry]

interesting article. i bought a size 4 mazazria dress and had to alter it just a bit to accomodate my breasts. most other size 4 dresses i buy i could fit right into it but i was surprised when i bought this one and had to have it altered a little.

[aljedynak]

The other side of the coin is the woman who cannot fill the dress out, which is just as frustrating. I had that problem pre-implants.