Ok, I'll take a stab at this, the women and male fashion experts can correct me if I'm wrong...  If they were to dress in really smart clothes, with classy scarves, suits, nice blazers, toned down/subtle colours, etc., they'd look ridiculously fat. I think what they're doing is trying to distract you from the fat with these loud patterns and crazily cut clothes - also don't forget this goes hand in hand with the crazy hair colours, hair styles, dangly loud jewelry and outrageous makeup. Granted, they still look ridiculously fat but I think it's some form of a distraction tactic.