New Clothes
 

I really, really, really hate trying on clothes. It totally bums me out no matter what I look like or how much I weigh. I'm 5'7'' and I've weighed 100 pounds and hated trying on clothes and I've weighed double that and hated trying on clothes...is there any painless way to do this?? If I shop via catalog I end up with stuff that doesn't fit no matter WHAT the sizes say. It's really soul-crushing. Does anyone have a solution? Or does anyone else feel this way??? :bawling: God, I'm so bummed. And, face it, ya gotta wear clothes. At least in my county.

Vaseline?

Seriously tho, I have to be in the right frame of mind. Stopping by your favorite mexican joint for a good stiff margarita or 2 helps. I either find tons of stuff I like, or nothing at all. I generally dislike shopping with someone when I have a specific purchase to make, new jeans, for example. I also may ask a total stranger in the dressing room their opinion. I started doing this after baby, when I needed new bigger pants, and needed an honest opinion from someone who didn't know what I used to look like. And who wasn't getting a commision on my sale. If I'm just shopping because I have some $$ to burn, then it's more fun with someone, usually. I pretty much never order from catalogs for the reasons you have found to be a pain, and because I tend to be REALLY picky, and hate getting something that's a pain to return if I don't like it.

i like your sig line!

Have you tried one of the shopping sites that lets you enter your measurements and have it pick sizes for you? I think that QVC and LL Bean both have a system like this. There are certain lines on QVC that I know fit just right, so buying jeans is a matter of a couple of clicks and new jeans in a variety of colors are at my house in just a few days.

Or is there a particular brand of clothing that really works well for you, in terms of style and fit?

The problem is not just with you, we are having a women's clothing crisis in this country right now. Ever since they shut down the factories where people who could actually wear the stuff they manufactured worked and sent the industry overseas, we have been at the mercy of crappy materials, 10-year old machine operators, piecework quotas, and sizes that are marked completely differently from what an American can fit into. Because every brand seems to be tagged by reaching into a hat, and even the same brand changes season to season as the factories shift from one Third World country to another, you have no way of knowing if something will fit. You simply have to attempt to put it on, and forget what the label says. No wonder you hate it, the entire experience is too time consuming and unrewarding. We are being sold rags made of synthetic fibers, unlined, and with seams that unravel before you even get it off the hanger, and at twice the price it was before we destroyed our own garment industry. I used to love to shop for clothes, and now I find myself complaining to the salesperson more than going home with a purchase.

Tonchi:

If you're having trouble with the tags in clothes, imagine how much worse it is when there's a language barrier.

Excellent news! I will buy from that brand too :lol:

Well, speaking seriously about languages, I am one of the fortunate ones who has no problem with the labels on everything nowdays being in English and Spanish. I'm a Spanish interpreter. I like to play with labels and see if the translation is good. Learning Spanish has also allowed me to bungle through most French labels, although mostly I only see those on cat chows and other items I buy for T'Pau, Queen of the Universe. Thankfully, the clothes made in Bangladesh and India are not intended for purchase by the locals, or we would be seeing labels in writing that nobody would have a prayer of understanding. Nevertheless, during the Christmas sales two years ago, Rampage jeans were manufactured in Vietnam and I went from being a size 11 to a 2X. I was told that the X sizes were for Americans (1-, 2-, and 3X being the former S, M, and L, I suppose) and anything with numbers only was a raffle. Rampage is now out of Vietnam and I suddenly became an 11 again. But that does not mean it will fit either. Maybe we could start a new style of wearing choir robes.....

You named your cat T-paw?

I didn't know QVC did that! I'll try it! No particular brand really fits--maybe Liz Claiborne is the best. It's just depressing--like Tonchi said, being a size 11 one minute and a 2X the next...pisses me off. And the clothes are, for the most part, crappy. Only size 0-2 have quality crafters. Everyone else has to wear synthetics.

I hate clothes shopping too!! Have you ever noticed how with companies like the Express and the Gap you need a much smaller size? I think they do this to make women feel thinner because they can fit into a size 6 (which is really a size 10)...
It's a pain to clothes shop because it messes up your hair and makeup, makes you hungry and tired, the bright light hurt your eyes, the people crowding you to look at the same rack of clothes pisses you off, you're different sizes in different brands, the light in the dressing room make your butt look terrible- even if it looked good at home, oh, I could go on, but I guess it's enough to say that I agree with you and I don't know any way around it, except maybe to go shopping when you have a few days off of work and you're really bored, so you can tell yourself "I have nothing better to do anyway".

Tonchi's story reminded me of a time quite awhile back that I was shopping for new jeans. The Express store was having a $20 jeans sale, so i thought I'd check their brand out. At the time I was plenty comfortable in a 6, so I picked out 2-3 pairs in that size in the same style but different shades/washes. It was like a bad three bears story, one too big, one too small, and one relatively right. Even the lengths were different. In the same style! I went back to buying the more expensive 'designer' jeans, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Lucky are my favorites because I can pretty much buy off the shelf and the have 'ankle' length which is apparently the new PC term for short. They also still come in styles that a curvy woman can fit into, like 'relaxed' and 'Saturday' styles. :thumb: Being 5'2'' makes buying cheaper jeans more problematic because they tend to only come in a 30-31' inseam, when a 29 is perfect for me. Oh, and I have several older pairs of Calvin Kleins that I love, but they are harder to find around here. Why is it that when you finally find a style that not only looks good on you, but is confortable to wear, the next time you need jeans, they've discontinued it? Ugh. :(

I read an article that American sizes are actually two sizes bigger than what the tag says, so for example - a size 12 is really a size 16. I don't know if that is true or not, but it makes me sad.

I really like to shop at Old Navy because they make their shirts in a variety of fits - easy fit, perfect fit, tiny fit and they also state the length of their shirts. So many shirts now days are short length - and i just don't really feel comfortable wearing a belly shirt.

That's why I wear guys jeans...because I can choose length and width, and big dogs t-shirts, always 4X, and a pair of $20 sneaks from Payless.

Done.


Now Bras....bras are a whole different story....

pfffft.

Once you settle on a bra brand, you're in it for life.

every single underwire bra I ever wore (I'm a 46DD) the underwire comes out, or the outside edge rubs against and finally punctures my flesh.

*sniff*

Lord, woman...you could be seriously injured in an extreme underwire failure scenario.

Mrs. Elspode has much this same problem. I never know when one is going to let go and impale me through the head while we're driving down the road.

That's actually pretty typical, and even happens with guy's jeans (sized in inches). Unwashed jeans run larger than prewashed jeans run larger than stonewashed jeans. The washes cause them to shrink; it is cotton, after all. The designer ones you're used to probably have Lycra and other synthetics in them.

Now, if I can figure out why unwashed black jeans run larger than unwashed blue jeans, but shrink down to nothing even faster... harsher mordant, maybe?

It's a conspiracy to make you buy new before the time at which the pants become too faded to wear. This has happened because dyes are more colorfast than in the past, and detergents formulated to reduce fading are available.

I did the men's jeans for awhile because at the time, low or superlow-rise flare bottom were about all I could find in women's jeans. Not flattering on a newly postpartum person. I liked being able to pick the length and waist, but again, hard to find a style that fit alright.

I wonder if insurance would cover that.



(and thanks for making me smile today!)

LabRat, I'm also 5'2". I gave up trying to buy regular sized pants. Even the "short" Levi's are too long. So I find a pair that fits good in the butt and take them to the cleaners to have them altered. Makes for an expensive pair of pants, but it's worth it. And, I stock up on pants in the summer. Stores usually have pants that aren't as short as capri's but are shorter than regular pants. They fit perfectly! I dunno if you have Target stores near you, but they carry Mossimo brand. I just got 3 new pairs of their "short" summer pants. They're awesome.

Bra shopping. ICK! I'm in between a 36C and D so I always have to try on double the amount because one style will fit completely different then the next. I recently splurged and got my first Victoria's Secret bra. The “Angels, lined demi” fits perfect. I’m going to go back and buy a bunch of them.

34A---PLEASE don't complain to me about bra shopping :lol: I have a helluva time trying to find ones with enough padding to differentiate me from my male labmates, but not so much I look like a freak in a T-shirt. I pretty much exclusively shop at VS for my bras, when I find one that's perfect, I buy 3. $ouch$. God I loved breastfeeding. I have never had cleavage before... I must say tho, it felt like I was leading the way with 'em and I was barely a C. My husband was in heaven :love: .

I am 5'3'' and have the same problem with pants - the short lengths are still too long. GAP is about the only store that has jeans in a shorter length that I still don't have to cuff.

Forget capri pants - I've complained to ever store on earth that people under 5'5'' would like to wear capris too. Knee length peddle pusher styles usually end up as capri length on me.

In general, I just stick to skirts and pants.

I bought my first victoria's secret bra ever - and I LOVE IT!

Actually I remember reading a few years back about a woman (I think in the UK) who got struck by lightning & it went right for the metal underwire.
:eek:

I was wearing an A cup in the 5th grade. Since then, boobs have never been a happy subject in my life. I was a cheerleader in high school and HATED that I had to wear a sports bra to keep from hurting myself - I even considered reduction surgery. It sucked. Still does. It really affects my physical activity. And when you start gaining mammaries so young, they also start to sag when you're still young. I'm only 28 and I'm embarrassed of the way they look. Bigger isn't always better.

Yes, Undertoad, but T'Pau (Queen of the Universe) was named because of her ears. She has the most incredible long and pointed ear-tufts I ever saw and an attitude of entitlement and superiority to match. I tried to post a photo of her on the screen but could not figure out how.

As for the story of the underwire bra conducting lightning, it's TRUE :eek: I read about it too.

It seems like we gals are about the same height and breadth, with the exception that I quit wearing a bra because nothing fit me anyway without one of those little packets that the latinos call "rellenos". So I just wear peasant shirts or T's now and celebrate the fact that if nothing shows anyway you have nothing to hide ;) My doctor laughs and says he never saw anybody my age so completely un-selfconscious about their body. I tell him I have "nothing" to be ashamed of!

If you haven't figured out why the jeans are all too long yet, trot over to the shoe department and look at those Li'l Abner boots and platform/spike heels they are selling to the kids right now and it will all become clear. I solved that problem by wearing cowboy boots with 2-inch or more roping heels or getting some thong sandles with some flashy trinkets attached that come with a huge platform. Around the house I just roll up the cuffs, because that's supposed to be hip right now too. So when you can't beat 'em and you refuse to join 'em, just do it YOUR way.

One size fits all. :)

skintight!

If the wire rubs under your arms it's because you're not DD but E or more, gal. If the wire comes out, well, I guess it's an old bra.

Aaaahhh! Bruce has discovered clothing painted to order. First introduced to the public awareness/horror by Demi Moore. Well, if any of us had paid for as much plastic surgery as she did, we would want to flaunt it too :D

Can't understand why this style never caught on for men, though ......

cause not all of us want to dress up as GOP icons...

Do VicSecret bras come in bigger sizes? I'm a D, nearly DD. Do they fit us girls?

:lol2:

I sympathise here girls. It is nigh impossible for me to find well-fitting clothes, and the ones that do are usually worth my monthly salary. I am a 32DD so small back and large boobies, size 8-10 (think that's a 6-8 to you) and I'm only 5'3 1/2. An impossible combination for most manufacturers, clothes are either too tight or too short or too long or designed for a stick insect. Tailor made's the way to go if you've got the cash, or make them yourself... hey that's an idea. I'm going to do a search on sewing patterns...

These make me 5'4", almost. http://cellar.org/attachment.php?att...tid=5816&stc=1

Interesting. Also 5'2. Target carries a Lee brand that offers short, not ass-out hanging, dark blue (gotta be dark) with a bit of bootcut.

And I must elate! I finally found a bra, besides a sport bra, that doesnt kill me. I can not take the underwire. It may look good for the first 5 minutes but then it hurts. My girls are soft and not designed to withstand this rigor, this germanic engineering. I hate underwire. Wires are not allowed in this area. The new discovery- a brand called "barely there". Hoist 'em up fine, smooth em over a bit, dont be itchy. Thats what I'm talkin bout.

I have to be in the mood to shop and I tend to go it alone and buy the same kinds of stuff. (how much black can you wear?) I sometimes feel that I have no idea what I really look like. It would be great to have someone who knows what looks good and how to pick stuff for your bod, and actually give you the straight dope. I would go with Trini and Susanna and have actually gotten some good ideas from their show. My deal is that I want to look good, but I'm not a girl, and I am not (yet) a matron, and I am still a low maintenance, comfort loving, tom-boy. Its finding some middleage ground, some way to pull it together.

Jeans never become too faded to wear. I buy them dark blue prewashed (unwashed shrinks a lot over the short run), and by the time I give them up, they're light blue. I give them up because they're frayed and/or torn and/or shrunken too much.

When your jeans reach that stage, post them on Ebay and get more than your money back. Some kid will think they are perfect :D

And back to the underwires, they definitely were designed by some Teutonic sado-masochist. And people used to complain about whalebone? I read a long article somewhere about how women's clothing, expecially bras, reflect the degree of repression extant in society. It seems that when Republicans are in power, women's mores are repressed and slammed into neat and useful little boxes while they have clothing that confines the body while still making them look like whores. (The first example that comes to mind is the pointy bras of the 50's under stretched-out sweaters which covered from chin to waist.) On the opposite end of the spectrum was the comfort movement of the 70's, which supposedly had the garment industry in a panic because the women wore what felt comfortable, in whatever length that suited them, and skipped the bras and stockings even at work. Wish I could remember where I saw that article, I'd like to write that magazine and point out that the hellish underwire bra became almost universal in the over-the-top economy of the 90's, with Democrats in office

Me, the best clothes I have are the ones my mother made for me. They fit perfectly, look good on my weird 15-yr-old body, and cost almost nothing. They last forever, too.:) I love my mother.

I have to admit that all of this talk about boobies has been really stimulating.

Mind OUT of the gutter, sir.

:headshake

My mind goes where it wants. I'm just the referee.

they do, but they usually don't carry them in the stores, or at least limited numbers in stock. You can order DD sizes on the internet. They usually have a fair number of 38DD in stock, just limited colors.

You know, it makes me wonder where this thread would be going if fashion designers were underwiring the MALE package nowdays... Oh wait! They already HAVE, they are just sewing the things under the skin instead of making you hang the full monty in a sling like we have to :eek:

Huzzah!
:thumb: :love: :thumbsup:

Having had some experience with women of ...admirable... proportions, I've found a few options here before.

42DD-all

42DD-Wired

42DD-Unwired

Always willing to lend a hand...

I find the names of the styles to be hilarious. However, were I a woman, I'd be very wary of something called Balli Powershape. :mg: I wonder if it's hydraulic or mechanical?

Damn, TS, you've been schooled by someone who is either 15 years old, or has the body of a 15 year old.

I can't tell which from the context of the above post.

I am frightened of the sizes listed as "F" "G" "H" and "I".

A greater, often unremarked, difficulty is finding a small cup size matched to a large band size. You ain't finding these in stores, I assure you.

Doing so by mail order or internet, although offering a wider variety of choices, typically results in a lot of trips to the post office for returns.

The answer is "rellenos", makes any size fit ;)

Gawd! Does anybody remember the hankies or the Kleenex stuffed into your bathing suit??? Hooray for advances in science and technology. We've come a long way, baby!

Well, a certainty of gender would make a proper riposte easier.

Thank Walmart. :eyebrow:Even if you've never set foot in their store they're calling the shots for almost everyone.
Are you willing to pay more for better quality? Doesn't matter for the most part...you've been outvoted by Walmart shoppers.

I'm surprised to hear so many women complaining about underwires. They've always been my preference. I'm not nearly as large as some of the women here (I'm a 36C), so maybe that makes a difference, but the underwires have never poked or hurt me - sometimes one has started to come out - but that's a good sign that it time to retire the bra.

Catwoman! - do you ever have problems with back pain? With such a small back and a large front-end, I know it can be a problem for many women.

When bra shopping, aside from fit my main criteria are shape (gotta make sure the girls look natural - what's up with the pointy-boob bras - who likes that?!) and comfort. Unless of course I'm shopping for something "special" - then comfort may take a back-seat ;)

I prefer underwires myself. less chance of "leakage" from down under--even while doing my cheerleader routine! Yipee! :elkgrin:

No, the wire comes out of the front...the plastic bit on the wire wears against the material closing the wire in on the front, and it pops right up.

I've also had underwires (the kind that's plastic for a "kindler, gentler" shaping system) snap. I felt it just snap. Then I had one big ole boob lower than the other.

And we don't have E's here, lovey, we have DDD and F. As far as I know.

And thanks for the links, TS. My husband has been pushing me to get new bras (once the underwire goes I just jerk the UW out of the other cup and wear em that way...) for ages, and his dad sent him some money for his birthday which he insists he wants me to use for my bras. (Probably to get me to quit bitching.) So I will be buying a tape measure tonight and he can measure me for my new bras tonight. Which can be part of his birthday present. (evil grin)

Seems to me that having very large breasts is like carrying an Elephant gun all the time.
Great for getting someones attention (male or female) and sometimes admiration, but rarely useful and a painful burden. There's always unwanted attention too. :(

I'm glad I'm not that big. My size might sound big, but it doesn't look that big on my frame. I'm 6'1 and go 280-ish. Put in that perspective, 42, 44, 46 D, DD, DDD isn't all that big.

No problem. Like I said, always willing to lend a hand. :eek:

The underwires are just fine so long as you are on a straight course and full speed ahead, "Knockers up!" as Rusty used to say. It's when you twist your upper body, like to reach something or turn on the printer, or stretch, that the fun begins. The titty bits move with the rest of you but the wired part stays rigid, and that causes discomfort that you can't correct by grabbing your bra through your clothes and adjusting it while half the office is watching :eek:

Yes all the bloody time. Well, I have back problems and I'm only assuming it has something to do with my ridiculous centre of gravity. I've been going to see an osteopath but can't afford it anymore so am doing Pilates once a week which is actually brilliant. It strengthens your core muscles - or the muscles needed to hold yourself up - so theoretically you could become strong enough to support your female members without a bra. Nowhere near that stage yet though, but I definitely recommend it to anyone with a similar problem.

Indeed. Of course, we all love attention, and I do most of the time. It does get a bit much though, and even wearing loose fitting clothes you get unwanted attention. Also men (and women) tend to assume you're stupid, which gives me an advantage because it's always more impressive when I slaughter that stereotype.... :cool: