One Size Fits None — a grumble about clothes

I’ve been increasingly fidgety about having no clothes that fit, and hating all my oversized, baggy, too-big clothes more and more. Most of what I own is not only too big, but stained, frayed, poked with holes, faded and otherwise worn out. But I don’t want to spend a lot of money on clothes. So, I’ve been reading size charts obsessively, watching for sales, and looking at online bargain websites like Overstock.com. This led me to actually go shopping this Saturday, which normally I never do. I hate being out in Saturday crowds when I can go shopping on weekdays. But I got a flyer for Building #19, and they had batches of two categories of clothes I wanted–tights, and kids’ sweatshirts–going out on the floor on Saturday, and I decided to go to the Building #19 in Nashua and try to get a few things before they were all picked over. So, yesterday I drove up to 101A and went to Building #19, where I got a bunch of tights (Danskin, no less!) and a few tops, all for somewhere between a steal and song. (I’m wearing double pairs of tights under my jeans, which have two benefits: warmth, and when I break for my workouts, all I have to do is pull off my jeans and I’m ready to go. I hate changing clothes for workouts, fooey.)

Then I drove down to Pheasant Lane Mall to check Sears and other stores that were advertizing big post-holiday sales. That was a mistake. I’d been a little surprised that 101A and Building #19 weren’t busier. I found out where everybody was. :-p Then I got into the mall and was uniformly disappointed in either the selection or the prices. Okay, I’ll stop being coy: I now wear Girls size 12 jeans. My hips are too small for juniors or women’s sizes. Even size 0 is too big. I wanted size 12 “skinny jeans.” Well, the stores either had skinny jeans at more than I wanted to pay, or jeans for acceptable prices but not skinny jeans. I’m going to end up buying all my clothes online–or hand-sewing everything! 🙁

I keep thinking about the dinnertable conversation on Christmas Eve. Z.’s eldest daughter, who’s about 20 I think, is 5’8″ and heavy. She and I both got to complaining about clothes shopping. She was complaining that everything on the racks is too short for her, because she’s tall. I was complaining that everything on the racks is too big. I can’t help wondering: can anyone buy clothes off the rack that actually FIT? Is this the reason that 90% of the people you see out doing errands and non-job-related chores are dressed in baggy sweats, shorts or t-shirts–because that’s all they can buy that fits comfortably enough that they’d wear it by choice?!? Heavy people complain that everything is designed “for fashion models,” tall people say everything is too short, short people can’t find anything that isn’t too long, women who wear anything bigger than a B cup can’t find blouses and shirts that are cut curvy enough, I have NO curves now (except muscles!) and I can’t find anything that fits me correctly or that is small enough! Just exactly who ARE these clothes being designed for, really? It seems to me that they’re all aiming for some mythical “average” that only a tiny minority of bodies actually conform to.