So the TV sound is off and the text is scrolling by and QVC is playing, and I’m too comfortable in front of the PC to search for the remote control. Two ladies are pimping these hideous spangled tops for something called the “Quacker Factory”. They look like some shapeless 10 dollar Walmart trailer style tops and dresses that someone has been torturing with a glue gun, and a tackle box full of spangles and appliques, and selling for 40 + bucks a pop.
Who buys this crap? The sizes go from XS to up to 3X, but most of the models seem to be on the heavy side. Is this Big Woman clothing? Is this what heavy grannies are supposed to wear?
You had the sound down? Darn, Quacker Factory is a rather interesting look into a strange Hari Krishna like cult.
They even have their own secret greeting (well, not really secret), they go “quack quack” when they recognize someone else wearing a Quacker Factory “original”. If you see one of those shows where they have a studio audience, they all have little quackers, they’re like a quacking version of a Kazoo.
From what I’ve seen, they’re designed for heavy women. They’re mostly tunics and stretch waisted pants or skirts. So even on a small or medium woman, they’d look pretty shapeless. I guess all the fancy doodads all over them are supposed to help heavier women feel more fashionable.
I guess it’s more fun than wearing black and navy all of the time. I think some of the designs are cute. … for decorating, (I sometimes get craft ideas from their sweaters :D). Please, if I give up like that, just shoot me.
Wow, those are hideously hideous. It’s mind boggling that this “fashion” has a cult following. I am in disbelief that people buy and wear those monstrosities.
This is horrible, but the first thing I thought when I saw those clothes was “yeah, and I’ll bet you wonder why your husband lusts after his secretary.” Good gravy are those ugly.
The ladies who wear those things are probably the same ones who have their entire kitchen decorated in matching strawberry-themed merchandise from the Fingerhut catalog.
I think you’re probably right. Of course, there’s nothing even one bit fashionable about those clothes, but lots of people out there are really incredibly clueless about fashion.
And what’s the deal with rhinestones on casual clothes, anyway? I was at Marshall’s (my first mistake) looking for some “business casual” type clothes for work. There were all these perfectly reasonable clothes that were polluted by rhinestones and sequins and bugle beads and various other embellishments more appropriate for a black-tie event. I’d feel like Queen Dorko wearing rhinestones at 11am on a Tuesday.
I’m a big person – but I don’t like the colours, and certainly not the flashy sewn-ons. Bit of a pain that this is the kind of thing in fashion now for us. sigh
Go into any clothing store and into the plus sized section and look at the potato sacks hanging there. If it empowers women and they want to wear bright colors and spangles, more power to them! Life is a celebration of who we are and clothing is one way of shouting it out to the world.
Plus sized women are still in this day and age are given little choice when it comes to clothing.
As a very tall woman even I have a heck of a time finding clothing to fit. It has been a struggle all my life. At 6 ft. tall and 155# I wear a size 16 jean. Does that make me plus size? According to clothing manufacturers and the powers that be, yes.
I don’t necessarily know that big women feel “empowered” by teddy bear appliques, badly glued-on sequins & other doo-dads.
As a former plus size woman, I can say I loathed these kinds of clothes. To me, they were the exact OPPOSITE of empowering - they were de-sexing. Like “I’m fat, why not dress me like a 3rd grader, too?” The first thing I’m doing when I Win The Lottery ™ is opening a store for plus size women that carries good stuff - jackets, suits, skirts, crisp white blouses, camel hair coats - everything that defines taste for the rest of the world.
My take on the Quacker Factory phenom is that it appeals to a certain demographic - say middle-American women of a certain age who may also happen to be plus-sized.
They do indeed exist; somehow I got on their mailing list. They now sell clothes and electronics in addition to the strawberry themed kitchen & match your towels to the shower curtain to the toilet seat cover to the wainscoting bath collections.
They’re my mother. And my aunts. I think they’re kind of cute, actually, especially for folks who don’t really care that they don’t look like Dior models or that they’re not wearing this spring’s Versace (or knockoff). I don’t think they’re hideous. Kind of tacky, sure, but anymore those of us who collect online tend to call anything that flyover-land ladies of a certain age like ‘tacky’. What’s wrong with clothing that’s Bedazzled, if the wearer likes it?
Besides, the Quacker Factory lady is wacky. I like wacky.
Hmm, maybe the show is different, but the clothes on the Web site are far from the worst I’ve ever seen. Go look at the clothes at WalMart or similar stores for really horrific stuff.
That said, I do wonder about the people who wear clothes like that. My 69-year-old mother wears pretty much the same type of clothes I do. In fact, she’s more into clothes than I am, so is much better dressed. She wears nice jeans and stylish shirts and sweaters.
My mother-in-law, on the other hand, tends towards matching sets of polyester clothing with ducks and butterflies and such on them. She does her hair the same way she’s done it since the 50s. Mr. Athena agrees - he says she’s had the same hairdo his whole life.
She’s a really nice, cute lady, but definitely dresses and acts "old lady"ish. I wonder when women start doing that - there must have been one point in her life where she wore stylish clothes and such. And she still is always neat and clean. So why the ducks?!?
MadTV has done several parody skits involving this lady’s QVC show. Part of the skits involve small-built models wearing oversized clothes with all sorts of tacky, sparkly things on them.
Me too. My mom is 60 and she is much more fashionable than I am. She wears contemporary sexy feminine clothes. When she is around other women her age, she looks so much better.
I know the type. My ex-boyfriend’s mom was just like this. She wore shapeless oversized t-shirts and sweatshirts with cute animals or butterflies, etc. And she has the same bouffant hairstyle she had in her college photo from the 60s.
As a 5.3 inch woman at 160, I wear about a 14 or 16 depending on the evil whims of the fashion designers. They say I am a plus size, but everywhere I look, I see women who are exactly like me in body shape. The slightly gone to seed look.
The industry is in cahoots with the diet industry. I just know it. They hate us both, equally.
And back on topic, Astro I am now emotionally traumatized by the very thought of those shirts. Where do I remit my pharmaceutical or liquor bill ?
My take on it is (because I’m guilty of dressing this way on occasion, not that I would wear this stuff) that some women just want to grab something from the closet and go. They don’t want to be bothered with having to choose a top that goes with a bottom. They want matching stuff that’s easy to wear.
I also took another look through the entire collection and noticed that these clothes would appeal to older women with arthritis or other joint problems. With some exceptions, these clothes are easy to put on and take off because they have no buttons or fasteners. Throw on some decoration and you’ve got something that an older person wouldn’t have a problem wearing.
Ms. Bice’s message also seems somewhat empowering in a motivational “You can do it!” sense. I can see where this would appeal to certain women.
I know women in their 50s (mom is included here) and their 60s who would not dream of donning anything from the Quacker Factory. If my mom did, I would pee myself laughing. Then I would video it and send it to Webjunk 2.0.
