99% of my clothes are from thrift stores. Almost everything I own is getting a little grundgy, and it is getting time for me to replace these clothes with stuff that is a little nicer.
I figured that if I can walk in to thrift stores with a twenty and come out with a bunch of cool stuff, I can go to the mall with a hundred bucks and have no problem finding ways to spend it.
Ha!
What I need most is jeans. I am down to only one pair of really wearable jeans and I am sick of wearing them day in and day out. So I go looking for jeans. Big problem.
I cannot wear flared jeans. No one believes me when I say that, until they see me try on a pair. Something about my body- wide hips, long torso and skinny legs- looks absolutly laughable in flares. Added to that, even though I am of somewhat average height (5’6), all jeans are too long for me. I have never found a pair of jeans that I didn’t have to cuff or hem. I don’t know who they make these jeans for- amazons? Are all size nine women six foot three? I just don’t understand! So when I try on jeans I end up I looking like a giant mass of hips and thighs, tapering quickly down into tiny chicken legs and ending in puddles on the floor. It is the single worst style possible for me.
And every freaking pair of jeans in the entire freaking mall is flared! I CANNOT WEAR ANY JEANS THAT THEY SELL! What the heck pocesses someone to make every single item pair of denin pants in the exact same unwearable style? What is so hard about having just one pair of straight legged pants in the mall? Am I the only one out there that is frusterated because I simply can’t buy jeans?!?!?!
Despirited, I went to buy shirts. That is simple. I tend to like simple brightly colored tank tops. Nothing could be more simple. With stores getting in clothes for spring, I thought I would have no problem. I was really really wrong.
Every tank top I found had some completely bizarre touch to it that made it unwearable. Who wears tank tops with ruffles on the neck? Who wears tank tops that are cut so high they cut of circulation to the armpit? WHO WEARS TANK TOPS WITH RHINESTONE STUDDED FAKE BRA STRAPS?!?!?!!?
I get a ride to Toronto. I realize halfway there that I don’t have any clean socks for the weekend. So I ask the driver to let me off at Eaton Place. Eaton Place, enormous shopping mall, good place to get sox, right? Wrong. Not a single store had anything remotely related to sox that didn’t have a designer label on it. I think I eventually found some sox at the Bay.
As far as jeans go, the solution is to shop in the men’s department. There is much more specializatoin in sizes, and there are still jeans avalible that aren’t particularly stylish.
For plain, solid color tank tops would look for catalogs/on line shopping. Places like that tend to have “basics” and you can find a cut you like nad order it in five different colors.
I didn’t get around to the apparent trend of lining the armpits of tank tops with glitter. Or of putting wierd non-functional snaps on them. Or pretending that they are cut of tee shirts from the seventies (If I want cut off tee shirts I’ll make my own, ya?) Or the habit of charging twenty freaking bucks for a single cotton tank top most likely made by third world slave labor and will fall apart the first time through the wash. I really need to know who they design this "clothing for. Rich blind people with a grudge against the seeing?
I was ready to buy anything in the mall that caught my eye. If I didn’t have cash for it I was going to put it on credit. I was so ready to get all kinds of new clothes. All I ended up with was a glittery belt and a studded bracelet with an admittedly nifty magnetic clasp.
Maybe I could give up on clothes designed for young people and shop in the regular women’s department? Not unless I want jeans cut to my armpits and resplended in pleats and elastic waists. Or tank tops that fit like tents. Or I cound give up entirely and spend the rest of my life in denin jumpers over plaid turtlenecks with everything covered in adorable applique apples. Ugh! I am too young to dress like an elementary school teacher. It seems that the juniors stores are the only places I am going to find anything that even vaguely resembles something I’d want to put on my body.
I must ask, who do they make these clothes for? I am 21 years old, 5’6, 140 pounds and have a curvy but still pretty small build. And I am damn sexy. And yet all the clothes they sell make me look terrible. They make me look lumpy and short and badly proportioned. I like my body, but finding mall clothing for it was absolutly depressing. I have trouble believing that I am that I have that poor of a figure. Why do they design clothes so that it looks like I do? What happened to clothing that makes people look sexy and pretty and good? Regular non-supermodel people shop in malls, ya? They sometimes find clothes that fit them, ya? How come I can’t? Who are all these racks and racks of clothes made for?
Back to the thrift stores for me. At least there I can usually find clothes that don’t suck- and it is cheaper.
See, it all comes down to how women’s sizes are different from men’s. We have two numbers: waist and length. With these two magical numbers we can find a pair of pants that fit our dimensions without having to calcuate what size we are.
As a 21 year old, I see no reason why you can’t browse around the “women’s” clothing areas. You are now an adult. True, you are not a Mature Adult, but an adult. And since your taste in clothing does not include useless glitter or flared pants, go to places that do not cater to such styles.
Check out the women’s section. They will have classic Lee Jeans, or Levis. Straight leg, etc. You should find something that will fit you. Maybe the styles will be a bit plain, but at least you won’t look like crap! And with the proper accessories, you will look faaabulous darling, even in those boring Women’s styles!
Reading through your OP, I kept on thinking to myself, “I am so glad I know how to sew.” Maybe you ought to consider sewing your clothes! You will have total control over what you wear if you sew your own clothes.
I have the same problem finding jeans at the mall too. I’m 5’10 and 99% of the jeans I try on are not long enough. And your so right about ALL of them being flared or low rise. It is frustrating but I’ve found some cool stuff at some department stores, Mervyns, Target etc. It just takes some patience and time.
Try out anything in the Gap corporation’s line for some okay clothes at okay prices. All of these stores have some sort of “classics” lines, some slightly trendier stuff, and some stuff that you could only wear maybe once or twice a season and then would have to throw out (i.e. Multi-colored striped shirts from the Banana)
Old Navy: A little bit of hipness, but generally hard to pull off. The problem with the “traditional” stuff here is that most of it reflects the discount pricing strategy employed by the Old Navy. Some of the hipper stuff still just looks like cheap knock-offs or wannabees of higher end Gap stuff or of Abercrombie, J. Crew, American Eagle, or some of the other “collegiate-wannabee” stores. (God I hate Abercrombie!!! ):mad:
Gap: Probably your best bet. They traditional a lot of “updated” or “modern” classic styles. The prices are pretty reasonable, and stuff goes on sale often enough. The Gap still features a lot of things that can only be worn once, and is pretty hard to pull off.
Banana Republic: My personal favorite. Again, they feature a lot of traditionals in a “modern” cut. The price on virtually anything at full price is usually exorbinant, but this store has a constant supply of sale items. If you aren’t a fashion afficando you should probably avoid anything featured on the manacins in the front of the store. Most of the stuff that ends up on sale for $9.99 should also probably be avoided. It never was even trendy, it was just out there.
But a lot of the more traditional stuff still goes on sale as the colors change. Like my favorite shirt, the stretch poplin here usually ends up on sale for around $20-$30. I really like things like this because they are traditional without being stodgy (no front pocket, lean cut, no button-downs, a collar that always manages to stick up), and if you have a lot of patience with this store and build up a wardrobe, it ends up looking pretty good, in my opinion.
A couple of months ago I ransacked that mall looking for an emergency pair of mitts. Where’d I eventually find them? Across the street in The Bay.
I may look in Eaton’s but somehow I always end up actually buying things at The Bay. This could explain a lot about the business success of Eaton’s in the past few years.
I am so with all of y’all. I have a very normal body-type. I’m 5’5" and weigh 135 lbs. Why the fuck can’t I find a pair of black pants (not jeans) that I like, dammit? They were all fine around the waist, but too loose around the torso, emphasizing my tummy in a not-good way. The one pair I found that didn’t do this rode up halfway to my breasts. Another unflattering look. Grrr. Maybe if I were more patient I could find something, but I shouldn’t need to be patient to find nice black pants in a size 8.
At the moment in my area, the jeans that are in fashion (low rise, tight, flare) just happen to be the ones that look best on me, so I’m snapping them up while I can.
Who do they design clothing for? Why, the mannequins, of course!
I like Old Navy stuff. Their pants fit me better than any pants I’ve tried, ever. Catch a sale, and you can get nice dress slacks for $20. I’ve gotten basic, plain v-neck and crew-neck tees for $6-$15 each. The mens’ stuff is worth checking out as well, too-- I like the colors and styles there. Women get all the frilly, revealing stuff, in horrible colors.
BTW, I second the Land’s End suggestion. They’ll hem your pants (not all of them, but a lot of them) for free, which solves that annoying “the pants are perfect except for the fact they’re long enough to cover my toes” problem. I do believe they carry normal tank tops as well.
I’ll third the suggestion for Land’s End. Also, try Sierra Traders - they sometimes have cheap prices on clearance items. I got some great socks there recently, and in the past, I’ve gotten all sorts of goodies.
I called and asked about this, and they told me that the “rule of thumb” was that they don’t hem knit pants for free, but they will hem (and cuff if you want) any woven fabric pants for free. It’s a wunnerful thing!
The hemming thing is great if you already know the length you want. Otherwise, it may be a bit of trial and error before you get the length you want. I have a pair of dark olive chinos that I don’t often feel like wearing because (IMO) the hem I requested is too high. I feel like my ankles are overexposed.
My advice is to get some other person to measure your inseam for you. (Make it the SO and turn it into some kinky foreplay or something.) The strategy of putting on a pair of too-long pants, marking the length you want it to be, and measuring the inseam to that mark just doesn’t work reliably enough.
sven:And yet all the clothes they sell make me look terrible. They make me look lumpy and short and badly proportioned. I like my body, but finding mall clothing for it was absolutly depressing. I have trouble believing that I am that I have that poor of a figure. Why do they design clothes so that it looks like I do?
Because people who are dissatisfied with their clothes because they’re somewhat unbecoming, a little too far out, or just plain unfashionable (and even the fortunate ones like Kayeby who look best in the currently popular style will be less likely to continue wearing them when the fashion changes again) tend to buy more new clothes. If you can persuade consumers that the important thing about clothes is fashion—not whether they actually look good on you, not whether you find them comfortable and appropriate, but simply whether or not they’re “in”—then every time you change the fashion you can get them to buy all new clothes. Ka-ching!
What happened to clothing that makes people look sexy and pretty and good?
The people who bought it liked it and kept wearing it and weren’t in a hurry to replace it; they would even (gasp!) mend it if it got damaged rather than buy new stuff they didn’t like as well. Ka-ching not. Therefore, the ruinous policy of selling such clothing has to be replaced by the more lucrative eternal cycle of planned obsolescence.
*Regular non-supermodel people shop in malls, ya? They sometimes find clothes that fit them, ya? How come I can’t? Who are all these racks and racks of clothes made for? *
Well, take a good look next time you ride the bus or walk through the mall: how many people do you see wearing clothes that really make them look good? Aren’t most people just dressed in some version of current or recent fashion that looks more or less “normal” but doesn’t actually enhance or flatter them in any way? And aren’t all these people continuing to buy more clothes? There you go.
You weren’t imagining that the fashion industry’s goal is actually to make customers happy, were you? Unhappy ones spend more, particularly since not so many of them have your strength of mind to realize that you’re simply not going to find what you want and walk out without buying something you don’t want.
