Posts
I need some pants. Some for work, some for play, just some damned pants.
I've been in a quandary for the last year though, every since Lane Bryant rolled out their new "Right Fit" sizing. They were all excited, too, with tape measures tossed stylishly around the associates' necks and color- and shape-coded signs. They had my cynical ass all bubbly. Right Fit doesn't come in the sizes I'm used to, so I walked up to an associate and asked how could I find a pair of these "revolutionary," bubbly-elle-making, change-my-life-forever pants in a size that fit? How did the new sizes correspond with the old?
I thought she'd just tell me.
She didn't.
Therein lay the catch.
Apparently, Right Fit is so damned new and unlike-anything-in-the-history-of-fashion that I can't just try to find the size that corresponds.
I have to be measured. In the store. By another person.
That is too much for me. I'll admit that I haven't thrown off the well-instilled practices of not discussing my size (I tell y'all I'm fat but I don't tell you what size I wear, now do I?) and treating my measurements as if they were the combination to a safe at Ft. Knox or something. After a lifetime of that, I've made a lot of progress but I am NOT about to go in a store, fling my arms open, and say, "Measure me, baby!" I imagine a lot of women are hesitant to do so. And it doesn't matter whether we should or shouldn't be, that's just how it is.
Then there's the fact that I don't like people putting their arms around me, especially strangers. Yeah, we can brush cheeks, exchange pecks, give a quick squeeze to acknowledge each other, but a full out, prolonged hug--not my favorite thing. I'm not a touchy sort of person--again, I know a lot of it's related to body image issues. I remember a long time ago, seeing a weight loss commercial in which the mom was in agony over how she had failed as a mom--the proof? Her (very young) child couldn't get her/his arms around mom!! I have never forgotten that and though I thought it was ridiculous, that lingers in the back of my head when people try to hug me. Sad, but true.
So yeah, pants. I need them. I can find the cute specialty ones, but most of the denim and increasingly the career pants are Right Fit. I know there are other stores, but the stuff at Catherine's is not my style and the pants at Avenue always look as if they go with something specific. I'm going to look more the website to see if they'll reveal the secret that is Right Fit sizing.
I am very hesitant to buy clothes online, so that option is (mostly) out.
If not, I just don't know!
4 comments:
I am so with you on this one -- They've had fads in sizes etc.. before, but this is the worst. I'm not sure what I'll do when I need jeans, as the last time I went in there nothing was right -- they didn't HAVE the equivalent to my size anymore... really, they suck.
I'm very lucky that my closet is full of stuff that works for now. I know you don't like on-line shopping - -but, if you have a Coldwater Creek store near you, you can look at the 'average' sized clothes there and then order something similar from them on-line. Also Junonia has really quick service and good return policies.
i actually love right fit. i have been totally converted because i am all apple-y.
but the basic of the colors is yellow=apple, red=smaller waist than hips, blue=WAY smaller waist than hips. you probably know that from the millions of posters.
and someone made a chart that i thought was totally helpful here, which is a useful starting point--then at least you have a size to go with and then try up and down and color equivalencies and such.
they are all done by waist size, which is why nothing makes sense! totally annoying. but, good luck.
Elle, I think I'm with you here, except for me it's the notion of bra sizing. Hell if I would EVER allow myself to be measured... 'cuz then I'd have to feel all insecure about that part of my anatomy all over again, and I'm just over that. It's gotten to the point when I just said fuck it and wear camisoles. Not like I need much in the way of support anyway.
(And if I were a politician, the media'd be sizing me up and trying to figure out my cup size, and to hell with it!)
I was where you were until I was shopping with a friend and she and I both were measured at Nordstrom's for bras. . . and OMG what a difference it made in bra fit to know how the damn thing was supposed to be sized and adjusted. And the measuring really wasn't that uncomfortable an experience at all--and I definitely have personal space and body issues.
Can you have a friend or family member--or even yourself--measure you, and then you can take those measurements into the store?
Post a Comment