20 Blouses With More Room at the Waist
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There comes a rather irritating moment when a blouse you have worn happily for years still fits your shoulders, still buttons across your bust—and suddenly has an argument with your waist.
For many women, this happens during perimenopause and menopause. Research on women tracked through the transition shows the rate of fat gain doubles once it begins, while lean mass declines. That fat is redistributed toward the abdomen — and the researchers are explicit that these changes happen without a difference in total body weight. The scale can stay where it is while your shape does not.
So perhaps the answer is not another diet or another size larger. Sometimes, sweetheart, you simply need a better blouse. The same reasoning applies to the rest of the wardrobe — I used it to build ten comfy fall outfits around the same problem.
I chose these 20 blouses with more room at the waist because their shapes give the middle of the body breathing room without requiring you to disappear beneath an enormous shirt. They are particularly worth considering if you are looking for flattering tops for women over 50, loose-fitting blouses, or tops that accommodate a changing waistline.
You can find all twenty in my 20 Blouses With More Room at the Waist Amazon collection.
Why Your Blouses May Fit Differently After Menopause
This is worth understanding, because women are very quick to blame themselves when clothing stops fitting properly.
Midlife weight gain and menopause-related body changes are not quite the same thing. The International Menopause Society's review of the evidence puts it plainly: weight gain itself cannot be attributed to the menopause transition, but the hormonal change is associated with an increase in total body fat and an increase in abdominal fat. Mayo Clinic makes the same distinction — aging and lifestyle drive the weight, hormones drive where it settles.
That changes your proportions. A fitted blouse designed to narrow sharply at the waist may therefore feel quite different at 55 than it did at 45.
I would rather accommodate the body I have than spend my morning negotiating with a button.
The secret is not necessarily choosing something much larger. Look instead for drape, swing, asymmetry, soft gathers and silhouettes that skim rather than grip the waist.
These 20 do that in different ways.
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