Challenge Time: Canned Fashion? Stays Fresh Forever!

This week, the designers had to create a one-day dress for a Gala event for heart disease sponsored by Campbell's Soup.  The models were "real women," and the color red had to be predominant in the design.  Also, the Campbell's soup branding had to be present somewhere on the garment.

So, first of all, let me bravely say that I thought that all the designs on the show this week looked JENKY.  I'm not saying that all the things that I do are all perfect, but this episode, I think that the designers got freaked out by the time constraint or the fact that the women wearing the dresses were not model-sized, because even the winning design looked thrown together and unfinished.

So here is my take on the concept.  It is probably easy to see that I made a dress with the color scheme of a Campbell's Soup can.  Of course, on the can, the white is on the bottom and the red on the top, but a red blouse with a white dress would be INSANE!  And not in a good way!  So I flipped it to make it a little more pleasing to the eye.  You can also see that the ruffled circle tucked behind the black belt represents the medal in the middle of the can label.

It's not apparent in the pictures because Trina isn't actively walking (she only does that when I'm not in the house).  But the skirt flares out in a heart-shaped pattern at the bottom.  It's just a little hidden touch that sounds cool when I describe the outfit.

Although obviously I used one of my girls to model this dress rather than a "real woman," I think that this type of design would work on a large variety of body shapes.  A big woman could wear this style, as well as a short woman (I would just shape the skirt a little different to raise the point that it flares out) and I also think that most women would appreciate the fact that there are sleeves on the dress.

You know, I tend to think that I empathize what women find enjoyable or uncomfortable about their clothing, but the one thing that I don't yet understand is thoughts on sleeveless clothing.  For men, sleeveless clothing is limited to desperately hot days, unless you have REALLY good looking arms, in which case you have earned the right to show off, but still, it pretty much has to be a warm day, and you can't be sleeveless if you go to any place were you have to look "dressed."

For women, bare arms are the norm when "dressing up," but in all the studies in fashion history, there really doesn't seem to be a reason for this.  I would accept it's maybe because it is considered sexy due to the fact the woman seems partially undressed, I suppose.  But there are a lot of women out there that just don't BELONG in dresses that show their arms, whether they be too flabby or too bony or many other reasons.

So I ask the women out there, are you always, if ever, comfortable wearing clothes that show your bare arms?  I'm just curious!