I went everywhere today looking for a dusty pink tshirt to wear to the concert tonight. I was served by countless blonde women, half my size and age.
Is nothing out there made for the woman who isn’t a size 8 - 10?
For god’s sake.
I had such a great morning, spend loads of time with my Dad … went off again with Mom for Looking and Possible Buying Shopping. Turned up nada.
Lots of the summer stock is gone and the winter lines are being brought in, many many clothes with long sleeves and such. But heck, surf shops are notorious for always having tshirts.
I was so tempted to just buy a guy’s one, they had one there in the color I wanted. We even tried Colorado and the more expensive stores too.
FFS. I hate Paul Frank too, he makes nothing over a size 10, NOTHING.
If you’re in your teens to mid-20’s, Torrid marketing is aimed straight for you. Some pretty hot styles in larger sizes. They’re owned by the same company that runs Hot Topic. Torrid’s emphasis is less on the goth/punk stuff, though.
I agree with you that sizing sucks, but I hate the phrase “real woman.” WTF is a “real woman?” If I am not over a size 12, am I not a real woman?
The clothing company that I sell shirts through recently introduced a hoodie that was sized up to a 14-16, and labeled it for “real women.” It was offensive to damn near everybody. To the real women who were bigger than a 16 and it didn’t fit, and to smaller women like me who don’t like being “fake women” or whatever because we’re small. They ended up getting rid of the phrase all together.
Please… the clothing industry sucks. If you aren’t proportioned exactly how they cut their clothes (heavy OR small) it’s damn hard to find anything that fits properly.
I’m only 5’3" and weighing anywhere from just under 100lbs to as much as 115 or so depending on my diet and how much exercise I’ve been getting, I have a hard time finding clothes too. Pants are too long, I have long legs/short torso for my height so if I buy anything other than low-rise pants I look like Grandpa Simpson. Shirts with the right length of sleeves are tight across my back and chest. And believe it or not, when I’ve been at my smallest (about 98lbs) I had a damn hard time finding clothes small enough to fit! Shirts that fit me everywhere else assumed I had huge boobs, so you could forget finding anything like a halter top or non-stretchy tank top to fit. Stores stock plenty of sizes 4-8 or so, but for the one or two smalls or extra-larges they order if you don’t get there right when they’re put on the rack, you miss out.
I worked in a clothing store doing receiving for about six months last year, and that confirmed this. When we got a new shipment of shirts in, we’d get sizes like one (or no) extra small, two smalls, six mediums, eight larges, and four extra large. Stores get more medium and larges than any other sizes, and more extra large than small. So your bigger and really small sizes disappear quickly because they only get a couple in to begin with. Which probably has something to do with why it seems like they only stock clothing for the 8s and 10s. Those are “average” and after the others get snatched up, that’s what’s left on the rack.
We had a plus size section but the size distribution was skewered to have mostly 1xs, slightly less 2xs, and not a lot of 3xs. The petites are horrible… all the cuts of clothes seem to have been made assuming you’re as wide as you would be if you were several inches taller, so nothing there fits me right either. I totally sympathize as I have never had an easy time finding clothes off the rack my whole life (I was a really heavy kid), but please… all of us are real women.
Yeah, I’ve always hated that phrase too, and I AM a size 12, usually. I’m no more or less “real” than my skinnier or fatter friends.
Even with the abundance of size twelves in stores, it’s still hard to find pants that fit me right. I’m small-waisted, so something that fits my hips / butt will be loose on the waist, but if it fits my waist, too small in the hip area. this is the reason I wear a lot of skirts, b/c I can buy them to fit my waist if they aren’t too straight.
I also have the problem of being too short for the “regular” sizes, and not quite short enough for petite. I’m about 5’4", and my legs are rather short, so even the “short” sizes are sometimes too long. I wish they sized women’s clothes like the do men’s, using actual measurements instead of arbitrary sizes. Is the US the only place they do this? When I see clothes w/ European sizes it’s always in inches.
I count myself lucky that I usually take a medium sized shirt, because those are the easiest to find. However, button-downs are always a problem b/c to get them to fit my boobs w/ out having gaps I have to get a large, which looks too big on the rest of me, or else get a medium and they look too tight on the boobs. My boobs aren’t even that BIG (36 C)! I’d hate to imagine what more well-endowed ladies have to go through when trying to buy buttoned shirts.
An average woman can be anywhere between 5’2 and 6’0, have anywhere between 28’’ and 38’’ inside legs, anywhere between an AA cup and F cup breasts, a waist somewhere between 24’’ and 34’’ and hips between 30’’ and 40’’. And of course there are people on either side of even those numbers.
There are a hell of a lot more variations in the shape of womankind than in mankind.
Unfortunately clothing shops cater to the peak of the bell-curve, and forget about the outer limits.
I’m petite (5’0’’), with big (30E) boobs, a 30’’ inside leg, a slim waist and hips, and trust me, it’s not easy to find clothes for me either.
It’s easy to think they’re picking on your particular shape, in reality they’re just catering to the majority and ignoring anyone who falls outside of that, in whatever way.
I hate the phrase “real woman” too and I’m well over a size 12.
Do what I’m doing, OP. Take a sewing class.
I figured I could wait for the fashion industry to change and understand that fat people don’t need to be wearing spaghetti straps and horizontal stripes, OR I could learn to sew and start exerting complete control over what I wear.
Still learning, but I look forward to the day where I can slap an outfit together in a few days.
Uvula Donor thanks for the heads-up on Torrid!! I am not sure that any of the clothes are my style but I am geeked that they have ACTUAL LARGE MODELS instead of like size 10 models representing plus sizes. Now I can see how the clothes would fit on ME!
I too, hate clothes shopping. Lane Bryant has nice stuff but it’s just damned expensive. Target under-sizes their clothes. Anything 1x that I find anymore is ugly.
I have a 40" torso and a 28" inseam…a 41" waist and 44" hips…I have found that boys clothes are not only better fitting, but cheaper.
It’s not necessarily easier for the very small gals. Fierra is a size 0 or less, and she has to shop in Juniors for jeans (where she’s still a “2” or something). The last time I measured her waist it was 22".
Some may find it a false complaint, but those size 6 dresses that look so stunning that I can wear she cannot because they hang loose on her. About the only thing thin enough that looks great is the really high-end stuff like Armani and Versace, and we know what that means ($$$). She’s had to give up on many very nice outfits that were just too large, and this has caused her some stress.
We don’t have nearly the same trouble in the UK. It’s like the mean (equivalent) size jumps by 6 when we shop in the US versus the UK.
The “real woman” pisses me off quite a bit as well. It sucks that you have trouble finding clothing that you like that fits, but it doesn’t make me any less “real” because I don’t. /rant off
Anyhow, I hope you find some things you like - you know, you could always get things altered (although I’m sure that’s a pain in the ass for a T-shirt).
Face it, the fashion today are for thin people. Half sweaters on a size 2 person look cute. Half sweaters on a size 12 or 22 look stupid.
I wanted to find a pretty new sweater to wear for Valentine’s dinner. It took me four HOURS to find a sweater that I liked. Every sweater I found was made with either that scratchy nylon fabric that hugs every curve and shows the indentation of your bra strap, angora which makes me sweat like a mother, or lycra. Egads. I don’t have the best figure in the world, but the last thing I want to do is accentuate that little roll hanging over my pants, thankyouverymuch. I would have paid large American dollars for a sweater that was pretty but not too snug.
Even the athletic clothes are for skinny people. Tennis outfits are being made with a “breathable” polyester-type fabric that hug the body. Think Jennifer Capriati. Folks if a professional looks dumpy in the outfits, we need to re-think the design. Can we all say “cotton?”
And then we have t-shirts. Good luck finding a t-shirt that doesn’t have lycra in it. I hate wearing men’s t-shirts because they go to my knees but I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend half of my time tucking my too-small-by-design lycra t-shirt back into my shorts.
Designers: Listen up. There is a market out there that has money and would just like to look nice. A smart entrepreneur would satisfy the demand that is there.
I don’t disagree with this at all. I have a good friend who is quite tiny and has to shop in Juniors. We had a hell of a time finding her good professional slacks. I think she got them in the boy’s section at GAP Kids.
I find it odd that guys’ pants come in tons of waist sizes, by the inch (40" is 40") and also a myriad of inseams. While womens’ pants come in some wacky non-standardized size number and long/short/avg IF you’re lucky.
and to top it all off, we have to have periods too!!!
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
I agree with the “real women” comments. I’m naturally slender through the waist, curve out at the hips, and have large breasts. I don’t do anything special to look like this; I’ve never had plastic surgery. I excercise and eat a vegetarian diet only to stay healthy, not to change my weight. So that makes me not a “real woman”?
And fashions today are not meant to fit thin people, they’re meant to fit thin people without boobs. Sometimes I want to wear something funky, but anything that allows for bigger breasts is quite frankly, very skanky. Halter tops that fit show off half of my breasts. Hey, sometimes that’s what I’m going for, but what about the rest of the time when I just want a shirt for the summer? There’s either:
loose and baggy so I’m not saying “Hi, here are my boobs!” but also look kinda grubby or
tight, small, showing off every curve and not appropriate for anywhere but a nightclub, and only if you’re one of the cage dancers.
I really like the look of the shirts from Bravissimo, which are made for girls with big boobs. Button up shirts where the buttons don’t gap! Halter tops with built in bras! But with the exchange rate, they’d run around $80CAD before shipping, way outta my range.
If only that was true. Jeans and dress pants for me are a 38", suit pants are a 36". And they never take into account large thighs, or my irish genetics which produce men without asses, or a large set of “jewels”. Thankfully Mrs. Butler is an accomplished seamstress, and if she can’t do it, her mom is an even better seamstress!
But, Mrs. Butler is also a small (height wise) woman with a “real” figure, so I know of the pain of which you speak.
I’m drooling over the Bravissimo website! I doubt anything would fit me, but I’m only a size or two away from 38. SO, if/when I lose a few pounds, I can buy a @#!# spaghetti top with a ^*(#! underwire bra built in!!! I’ve looked all over.
I also dislike the “real woman” phrase, although I understand the reasons for its use. Also, if I were a size 6, I’d STILL be complaining about the waist in most off-the-rack pants. I’m going to learn how to sew one of these days.
Ahhh, too bad we don’t go back the middle ages where you got your clothes custom tailored to your body and only had one out fit for most of your life. No silly fashions to chase…
Well, this is true. I don’t get the deal with button up blouses that fit everywhere - shoulders, waist, back, and then pull accross the boobs. I don’t even have particularly LARGE boobs - they’re just 'C’s.
Ye gods, lighten up you guys. Hello, we are ALL real women and we all know it, including the OP. Therefore, we all deserve to be able to buy clothes that fit. Why are you all so offended? It’s not like she’s leaving anyone out or said anything horrible against people who fit in sizes 4 to 12. For fuck’s sake, you sound like a bunch of bitchy lock-step feminazis.
Check out the great styles to be found with Vogue, Butterick, and McCall’s patterns. You can adjust the length, width, etc. Sizes from small to XXXLarge. (Sewing sizes 6-24 being most common. As a general rule, your “sewing size” is 2 sizes larger than your store clothes size. For example, size 10 in store-bought probably would be size 14 in pattern sizes.)
In store clothes, dresses are always too loose around the waist and too tight in the bust. They are too low-cut. They are too saggy and long. When I sew my own dresses, I adjust the pattern so they fit me right. I have been told that my homemade dresses take pounds off my figure—because they fit.
It’s amazing what we put up with in store-bought clothes. I was reading one of my seamstress books, where the author was talking about fine-tuning her daughter’s prom dress. Her daughter was of “average” size so she could have worn something off the rack, but mom was making fine adjustments here and there, to get the best fit. The daughter’s classmate is at the home one day when this fine-tuning is happening, and she is astonished at how great the dress looked, and marveled that all these little adjustments can be made—we don’t have to suck it up and accept ill-fitting clothes.
All these little things that most “average” sized people don’t think about, like a slightly-too-extended sleeve, a dart positioned not quite where it should be, pants sagging a little too much—can be fixed when you sew your own clothes. And the end result is subtle, but very flattering, of course.
