Fuck the F-cups, ask about the D-cups. One of my primary reasons for losing weight (I’m down to a loose 10–yay!) is I want to wear pretty button-up blouses, too! If I bought a button-up blouse that fit across my tits, it was too loose in the waist and tummy area. I have a waist and my tummy’s relatively flat. I don’t want fabric flapping around my midriff like a tablecloth. I want a tailored fit, gosh darn it! Schlepping shirts to my tailor to have darts put in was a major pain in the ass.
Since I’ve lost a bit a weight, I can wear blouses off the rack without wearing a sign around my neck warning passers-by that at any moment my button could pop off and put their eye out. I still have to order a large or extra-large, though.
I think this is more of a “bitch at the fashion industry in general” thing, not any sort of attack at the OP.
And, yeah, being small? No easier. I’m not quite 5’0 and not quite 100 pounds. All the fat on my body is in my hips, and I’ve got really, really short legs, which makes it impossible to find jeans that fit. They fit either at the hips or the waist, never both. That’s saying nothing about length.
And heaven forbid I should want to wear something slightly more professional/dressy. I will need to have it tailored to fit, probably in more than one way.
I’ve had the pleasure of having to buy dresses for weddings in the past few years. I have come to the realization that all dresses are made for women over 5’7". I’m 5’2", and everything is too long on me, including the smalls. They make my legs look even shorter than they already are. Meanwhile, my 5’9" sister looked fabulous in nine of the ten dresses she tried on. If it’s too tight across my hips, it’s too big on my chest. I finally just bought a random dress at Marshall Field’s, and I’m going to have it tailored before the wedding. And maybe buy a really really padded push-up bra.
I spent some time in the early 90s as a perfect size six. Back then big boobs were more fashionable, so my then C cup was great, too.
It was wonderful. The clothing world was designed for my frame. Everything looked good on me (well, except really hideous colors). I was a good height for my size six body (5 foot six or seven), too - so skirts hit the right length and pants fit off the rack.
About the same time I went to Asia and had some clothes custom made. Even better.
I’ll give you the bright side…you spend a lot less on clothes when there are fewer choices and not all of those choices look great on you. Its not much consolation, but since I became more “normally” sized, I don’t take three dresses into the dressing room and “have” to buy them all anymore.
I wear a size 6 and have DD breastages. This is not a problem that garners me a lot of sympathy (even though I really dislike my boobs and would get them reduced in a second if I could afford it/convince a doctor it’s medically necessary), but seriously, it is hellllll to find a button up blouse that fits. I do not want to look like a porn star when I go to work. I want to look like a nice professional.
My solution is simply to not wear many button up blouses. And when I do, I usually wear a tank top and do different stuff with the buttons, like button just one across the breasts, or the bottom three, or just leave it unbuttoned altogether.
I too hate the “women” sections at store. I see the sign and think “Oh, that’s for me, I’m a woman!” and when I get there, it’s all plus size stuff. Okay, then. Fine, I’m not a woman. How come I have to walk around with these big ol’ boobs all the time then?
I’m a UK size 6, with E cup boobs.
I think that’s a US 4, or maybe a 2. In GAP (which seems to run large) it’s a 0.
I have the frame of a 10 year old girl who has just had some Pamela Anderson style implants and a JLo ass and hips added.
So Junior clothes are out (no boobs or hips) and my size in women’s clothing is out (again, no boobs or hips). I compromise by wearing the styles where that doesn’t matter as much. Where all else fails I wash a bigger size on a high temperature and tumble-dry the hell out of it until it shrinks.
I get the smallest sized jeans and take up the hems myself (petite lengths are too short), I only buy certain styles of clothing (v-neck sweaters, strappy tank tops, balconette style tops that are MEANT to hang loosely over the tummy etc) and only from certain shops (GAP, Topshop, Miss Selfridge).
Damn, nothing in Ontario.
I have my fat times and my less-fat times (I’ve been at an almost-12 and up to a 22). I’m currently an 18 and have H-cup boobs, but when I’m a 12, I’m still at a DDD/E/F cup. I have a gut but still a curvy figure, which means that almost ANY pants that I find won’t fit. They’ll fit in the hips and fit (or be a bit snug) across the front of my stomach, but then I’ll have a ginormous gap between my body and the waistband in the back. I tried on pants that I had a hard time zipping up, yet when I turned to look at the back, the gap was so large I could literally stack my fists on top of each other, and fit the fist-tower between my waist and the pants. What’s up with that? Seriously, I’d LOVE to know what that is!
I posted a huge rant about this in my Live Journal a couple months ago. I was trying to find slacks for work (business casual) and couldn’t find anything that wasn’t either
A. Too small/too big
B. Required serious amounts of laundry attention
C. Wrong for the season
I wear a 22/24 most of the time. I have DDD breastages. The only places I’ve found to by bras “off the rack” is either Lane Bryant or Avenue. However, lately I’ve found when shopping that at one store - or one BRAND- I wear a size 22 pant. The next, a size 24. In a couple, I suspect I’d actually wear a 26.
And I’m really tired of manufacturers/designers who decide FOR ME that because I’m plus-sized, I must only want “relaxed fit” jeans or smock-type shirts. No, all my weight is in my stomach and some in my hips - but I’ve got a really nice ass & legs, and I’d like to be able to show them off & dress in a sexy fashion. But it’s hard to find stuff that works.
My best luck, for the most part, has been shopping at stores which seem to cater to ethnic groups other than mine (i.e. not WASP.) Bright colors, sexy skirts & tops, all in plus sizes. I can’t wear it all the time, but it’s nice for dressing up.
Sympathy for the OP and all the women on EITHER END of the scale who can’t find what they want. (I lived with a friend who is 4’7" and weighs about 90 lbs. She has to shop in the “girls” section at most stores, because petites are too big, and she’s almost 40 - that’s a pain in the arse & very frustrating, too.)
Sweet Zarquon. I’ve had to abandon store after store because all their tops have lycra or spandex in them and are therefore as clingy as bathing suits. Obviously meant to display one’s figure. And with someone like me, who’s basically an underweight 13-year-old girl without the bosom, there’s nothing to display! It’s even harder to find non-stretch jeans to hide these chicken legs.
And I’ve got a friend a few inches taller than me, perfectly curvy figure, bitching about her [normal] weight. Point is, nobody’s satisfied but the mannequins.
I’m guessing that ribbed turtle necks are out too - heck, they make my relatively small boobage look monolithic - you must look like you’re packing a pair of torpedos under there!
I would just like to take a moment to bitch about women’s jeans. It seems like every pair is “lycra blend stretch-fit” and boot-cut. What’s up with the glitter, the cutesy contrast stitching, “lowrise” or worse, “superlow” waistbands, and the “worn look”? Why does the industry insist on taking perfectly good jeans and “distressing” them so that they look dirty, frayed and worn? When my jeans look like that, I buy new ones.
All I want is a pair of ordinary cotton denim blue jeans. I want jeans that fit my waist without assuming that I have a huge ass to go with them. I want pockets that I can actually fit things in, like car keys or my hands. I want dark blue denim that will fade over time as it breaks in.
This is why I shop the men’s department.
Oh god I am turning into a cranky old lady … :eek:
Guess I’m the exception here. Off the rack 4’s or occasionally 2’s (depending upon the manufacturer) fit me just fine, if not perfectly. Mrs. Six is about the same height and weight as I am, but has more curves, so she’s pretty much a perfect size 4. She always finds what she needs.
My solution to the problem of finding pants that fit right is never to wear them.
Oh ABSOLUTELY!!! You won’t “see yourself coming and going everywhere” (fashion-wise) and the neatest thing? Patterns run big, so you can say “oh, I’m a size 8”, when you’re really a size 10 or 12
I don’t object to the phrase “real woman” nearly as much as many women in this thread (I knew that was gonna cause a few angry posts), but only because for YEARS, the clothing industry has pushed the idea that UNLESS a woman is a little heroin chic starved waif, then SHE is not a 'real woman" so to see them starting to apply the phrase to the more average sized woman was a bit vindicating.
Though I can fully understand why we really need to eradicate it now.
Yeah, maybe so, but having similar issues to Kyla’s, I must say I’d rather look like I’m carrying torpedoes than wear an ill-fitting, gapping button-up blouse and look like I’m 6 months pregnant, because the blouse, well, blouses over my bustline and hangs straight down from there.
I do have a waist. If people can’t deal with the fact that I have a bust, too, then that’s their problem. This is why I love ribbed and stretchy fabrics. I could stand to lose a few pounds, but not 40!
Yeah, but fortunately I’m not a huge fan of ribbed turtlenecks anyway. They’re almost always made of cotton, which is a wonderful material - for t-shirts. With sweaters I prefer wool, which are usually stockinette or cabled, not ribbed.
Oh my God, no kidding. I went to Target 6 months ago to buy some new jeans. They were all as you described. Low waisted, stretchy, or in a shade/wash I really didn’t want. I tried a few things on, they looked like shit, and I was as mad as a wet hen.
I went over to the men’s side, picked a few out, tried them on, and happilly made a purchase. Sheesh.
I am 5’7 and apparently every single pair of pants in the world is made for people who are 5’4, because I cannot find a pair of pants that stays long enough after the first washing. The “tall” sizes - when I can actually find them, since many brands don’t offer any but one length - end up being exactly the right length, so I can’t imagine being 5’9 or 5’10 - everything would be ankle-waders.
I’m about 5’4", and I always thought the opposite. Every pair of jeans I buy I either have to get hemmed, or resign myself to stepping on them all the time (at this point, I’ve giving up on hemming, so the back hems on a lot of my jeans are very frayed). Back when patterned jeans were in style, finding jeans that fit was impossible for me–the designer ones were always too long, could never be shortened and were too nice to let get ruined like that. Plain jeans were impossible to find below a size 5. Thankfully, things have changed and I can now find pants easily. Bras on the other hand…
