As a young mother of three kids under two years old, Katrina doesn't have much time for herself. And as a lovely plus-size woman, she says she has a hard time finding stylish clothes. We take up the challenge of putting together a romantic date night outfit for Katrina.

   Our Style Mission

26-year-old Katrina is a mom of three (a young baby and toddler twins), and practically lives in comfortable sweat suits. Her wardrobe is full of these “mom uniforms” in colourful shades of — you guessed it — black.

Our mission: no sweat pants, no jeans, no mommy-wear! We’re aiming to give Katrina a treat: a pick-me-up outfit for a romantic date night with her husband.

Our guest expert is feisty Canadian designer Brian Bailey. He had these tips for dressing Katrina:

• The main challenge is to get Katrina out of the “mom-mode”. It’s time for her to feel wonderful, feminine, and sexy.

• Doesn’t matter what size you are, dress her as a beautiful woman. I think all women are beautiful.

   Our Look Book

For Katrina, we wanted to find her a great dress to flatter her curves in a colour that brings out her gorgeous skin tone.

We decided to have a dress made-to-measure, since most dresses require a little tailoring for the perfect fit anyway. We picked out a figure-flattering pattern and chose a luxurious and sexy, body-skimming and bright fabric to have it made.

Outfit details

• Dress pattern by McCall: $7 at Fabricland
• Ocean blue dress fabric: $64 at Fabricland
• Dress-making: $220 at Kerrisdale Custom Tailors
• Silver dangling hoop earrings: $18 at Le Chateau
• Black & white zebra clutch: $40 at Le Chateau
• Guess black patent heels: $83 at The Bay

Brian Bailey’s opinion

• The bag attracts too much attention. (We disagree!)

• The dress defines Katrina in the wrong places. She needs accenting rather than defining.

• The sleeves could be pushed up to give a bit of attitude.

• The earrings are too big.

• The shoes are awful. They’re not feminine. She should be in heels.

   Did our style picks make the “Do List” or “Don’t List”?

Katrina totally loved the dress, and so did we. She admitted we did a lot better than she was expecting! (She was worried we were going to get her a crazy pattern.) Katrina says the dress itself is very comfortable. (Have we converted her from sweat suits?) She also loves the zebra bag. The heels on the other hand, she’s hesitant about because she doesn’t usually wear heels. We’re glad we didn’t go any higher!

(Thanks for sharing your photos with us, Katrina!) 

Our style expert Brian Bailey was much harder to please. He criticized everything we chose for Katrina, especially the dress, and the shoes, and the earrings, and the bag. Well, everything. He said: “This is a C-, if not a D.” Harsh.

 

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Please note: opinions expressed about fashion and beauty in this article are just that: our opinions. Feeling beautiful on the inside is what matters most, but we like to do what we can on the outside too.