Beth Ditto for Evans

Beth Ditto’s line for Evans is up and available for purchase. I’m glad the collection actually came to be and I really want to like it but most of it is just not my taste. I do quite like the biker jacket, the purple hoodie and the sequined tunic. I’m leaning toward liking the acid wash denim pencil skirt but I’d need to see it on someone before deciding. It could be cute with the biker jacket and strappy, chunky heels. I can’t say that I’m willing to spend the money on any of the items, so I don’t think Beth will be in my closet any time soon. I’m sad because I really wanted to love this collection.

I guess what turns me off most is that I was a fat kid in the 80s and I wore a lot of long, baggy tops with leggings. I’ve always thought of that look as the “fat girl uniform” so it just doesn’t appeal to me. In fact, it borders on insulting, in a weird way. I think the cat face t-shirt kind of pushed me over the edge there. I’ve spent a lot of time trying not to dress like a streotypical frumpy fat girl and now that look is trendy? Eh? I know there are ways to put together outfits from the separate pieces and the looks are cute but .. I mean… cat face t-shirt? Should I wear that with big, white socks and a scrunchie?

Having said all that, I predict that this line will be popular and I hope it does well so we can see more from Beth soon. Maybe she’ll venture beyond the 80s trends into something more creative. I’m not anti-trendy but I was really hoping for a collection that was a more forward-thinking and not so reliant on the looks many of us got sick of 20 years ago.

More opinions about the collection:

• Beth Ditto’s Got a Collection! from Big Fat Deal
• I bought a skirt at Beth Ditto for Evans from Obesity Timebomb
• Finally. from Young, Fat and Fabulous
• Waving the White Flag from Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes, Too

Comments

[Tari]

I mean… cat face t-shirt? Should I wear that with big, white socks and a scrunchie?

THIS, exactly. I'm with you - I dig the hoodie, the denim skirt, maybe the biker jacket (tapered sleeves I'm on the fence about), and I think a cute outfit could be assembled out of the collection....but so much of this is like flashbacks to middle school. Side ponytail, anybody?

I actually may fork out the cash to pick up something (leaning towards the hoodie, which I genuinely dig and could imagine wearing), like you say, in the hopes that the line succeeds and then Beth comes up with something less retro and more fresh.

[leftfoot]

Yikes. I really wanted to like it, too. I get that the 80s is trendy again, but I don't really want to go back to my days of puffy hair and tutus. It's times like this that I wish I was famous enough to design a line. I prefer more structure that will give the illusion to weighing less rather than t-shirt muumuus that just make it worse.

[jasmine]

I waaaaaaant the hoodie, but I'm very scared to spend 80 dollars on something that might look awful on me. NOoooo!

[Bree]

Aside from the black dress with the funky design and the black jacket with the domino cuffs, I can't dig her collection because it is 80's retro. As an 80's kid, the last thing I want to wear again is acid wash and baggy T-shirts with animal faces. I love the music and the culture, but we didn't need to relive the fashion.

[OTM]

This is all so. Freaking. Ugly. And yes, that opinion is very much based in my being 36 and having already owned similarly hideous shit when I was in jr. high and high school and having no interest in returning to those times sartorially.

But seriously, this shit is hideous and will be completely worthless in six months when it finishes going out of style (again).

[OTM]

I don't even like that purple hoodie. It looks like the costume designer for Omega Man got high in the sewing room one night.

I will say this: I absolutely cannot get enough of the new Gossip record. Somebody else said this, but I agree: as a fashion designer, Beth Ditto is a great singer.

[Tari]

It looks like the costume designer for Omega Man got high in the sewing room one night.

That's a perfect description and part of why I kind of like it. I haven't purchased enough weird clothing lately.

[buffpuff]

I'm 50 ... and I loved the 80s! But I think maybe I was wearing different things.

[Ashley G]

I'm almost 29 and there is no way I'd buy anything from her collection. I was overweight and looked heinous in the 80s with my big shirts and leggings....excuse me but I'd rather not relive it. This collection must be for the same crowd that shops at Torrid. Everything is too ultra trendy and will look out of step in 6 months to a year.

I'm so disappointed in Beth Ditto. She is an icon and could have really blown the top off of it. It seems like falling back on the 80s was the easy way out.

[Ashley G]

P.S.

I think the sequined tunic looks like it was smuggled off straight off the set of the Golden Girls. It looks like a Bea Arthur special!

[Hazel]

The blue all-in-one pants suit kills me. All I would need is orange juice can bangs and some LA Gear Hightops and voila Violet Beauregard the blueberry girl.

Outside the leather jacket his collection seems oddly out of synch with her semi-gothic rock-n-rolla normal fashion persona.

[Laura P]

I bought the stained glass prom dress (which Beth is wearing in the pic above) and I'm ging to wear it to work tomorrow. I love it!

[Carrie]

It really kills me to see this stuff again. I lived through the 80s and honestly, have no desire to go back and wear that crap again. Ugh.

[Kate Harding]

I'm 50

Wow, you look about 20 years younger!

I think the stained glass dress is really cute (I just don't do strapless), and I'm torn on the geo sequined prom dress -- like the cut, am struggling with the '80s print, but that's more about awful childhood memories than the print itself. Oh, and I like the swirl print cape, though it, too, would do me no favors. But everything else? THE OVERSIZED CAT SHIRT? Too freakin' much for me.

[Kate Harding]

OMG, I'm an idiot. Not that you don't look fabulous, BuffPuff, but I knew you were 50 -- and misread the names, so I thought Tari (who is about 30) made a typo. I should double-check before I make fun of people.

[Moe]

I hate the cat shirt. Hate it. But I love the biker jacket and domino dress. I don't mind the hoodie. The tights are not happening.

I think the line shows Ditto's punk side and it definitely isn't for everyone. But I think it's great that she has a line and I hope it does well.

[Eli]

Oh, that cat face shirt is hideous. If I wore that, as a 30 year old single chick with a cat, I would never get laid again, and I'd look awful.

[cheryl]

It's funny, I clicked one of the links on the bottom of the post and it took me to a page of comments raving about the new line. One woman's hideous cat shirt is another woman's treasure I guess.

[Raquel]

This line is a real disappointment: the worst of the 80s, with shapes that will flatter no one among the women she's trying to please. Beth is a diva, and I love her it, but not a designer - or at least, this isn't a great debut. First, everything looks rather cheap, and worst, very poorly conceived. The shapes, especially any of the dresses or tunics save the - hairball! - cat shirt, would make me look like an ice cream treat on a stick. The cuts would not flatter arms, and the jacket, which would be nice, really, is very short and thus isn't suited to taller women or those with wider hips. The blue all-in-one hoodie would make me look like I'd escaped from a retirement home for Wal-Mart employees; the face knit dress would cling at the legs like a scrunchie; the purple sequins...well, that's just waaaay to many sequins for safety, especially in a club; I can't even entertain the thought of the tights, they give me nightmares; I'm not one for dots, so that rules out a third of the line; the accessories are nothing special, and here she could shine. I don't wish to disrespect Beth, but I'd expected to be surprised and pleased.

[Pearmama]

Whew, I thought I was the only one who thought this line was fugly.

I think, if you lived thru the trend the first time you shouldn't revisit it a second time. :)

[Cal]

I saw the collection and was pretty disgusted by it. Everything in it is tacky tacky tacky.

I've seen a lot of people wax poetic about the domino dress, but I just don't get it. It looks like something a waitress would wear in a dingy, pedestrian Las Vegas casino.

[Jennalynn]

I was totally excited to hear her clothes went up to a size 32!!!

Until I discovered that it was a UK 32... which is only a 28 here.

Left out again.