Clothes are the wrong shape
Last weekend, for a brief while, I would have said that I was the wrong shape, but that’s not correct, of course. I’m me, and I’m me shaped. How can that be wrong?
I’ve been dress shopping. Well, on my weekend day last week, anyway. (What? Weekends are two days long? I don’t believe you, sorry.)
There are no dresses that fit me, period. Ok, actually, that’s a tiny lie. There is one dress in the whole of Dublin that fits me, and one skirt and top combo. Trouble is, the dress isn’t right for the occasion and the skirt/top combo isn’t very nice.
I came home from the shops and measured myself, using size guides from the websites of two major retailers. According to the size guides, I am a 10-12 bottom and 8-10 top. (uk sizes). According to the clothes I tried on I’m an 8-10 bottom and an odd shape that doesn’t fit into any tops because my shoulders are too short and my boobs too small.
The thing is, I’m not a weird shape. I’m not tiny, I’m not big. I’m average looking. Perfectly normal.
I don’t understand what clothing sizes are doing. Is it to make people feel that they are smaller than they actually are? Is it just that I’m shaped differently to everyone else? Is it that all women with small boobs wear super padding? I suspect the first and last.
I think I need to start a campaign to make jeans and a black t-shirt acceptable wear on all occasions.
I will sign any campaign petition to make it so.
I am ***DREADING*** going home because I have to shop. And, to be frank, I am STALLING and doing it in the U.S. on the not-believed-but-convenient excuse that it’ll be easier in stores near my old house. I think sizes are trying to make women believe they’re smaller, and if you are two different sizes, top and bottom, forget it.
I may have to take up sewing. I’m not sure if this annoys me or scares me more.
I do love that you know that you’re ‘you’ shaped, which is, of course, exactly as it should be.
24 May 2008 at 2:30 pm
I’m with you on any petition! I was at the Gap a few years back trying to find a pair of jeans. I tried on all of their styles in a variety of styles and not one fit right. The sales person had the guts to say “I guess our jeans don’t fit your body type” - I was so ticked off that I left my enormous pile of clothes in the dressing room (shirts / sweaters that did fit…) and didn’t return to the gap for a few years! My body type is ME, and it’s quite normal. And of course now that I’ve had a baby it’s ME-having-had-a-baby-but-still-normal-shape.
24 May 2008 at 3:05 pm
Hear hear! (because the ladies are not the only ones with clothing fit issues)
24 May 2008 at 4:58 pm
I second the jeans-black t-shirt thing. I think I wore nothing but that on holiday last year.
24 May 2008 at 5:14 pm
I have exactly the same problem, and exactly the same solution. Jeans and black t-shirts forever!
24 May 2008 at 7:29 pm
That’s the main reason I love the navy. I don’t have to think about clothes. It’s true though we are all individuals and therefore one size can’t fit all. Perhaps we do need to tell the manufactors to stop trying to flatter us and make clothes that fit.
25 May 2008 at 4:31 am
Yes, I think the first and last. And another thing. Firstly, clothing sizing was standardised in the 1960s, when people were generally smaller. Gradually shops have moved to recognise this, but there has been no official acknowledgment of the fact that we are generally better nourished, so shops tend to make fast and loose with official sizing. Then of course, some shops size things quite small, so that you try it on, find that it’s the size 6 that fits you, think ‘Oh, I am so slim/I have lost weight/these clothes are the only ones in the world that recognise the thin person inside me trying to get out’ and buy them, because they flatter your vanity. And thirdly, I think most people wear bras that are a bit padded. Apparently some even wear extra inserts that they affectionately call ‘chicken fillets’. People are weird.
Have you got time and funds enough to alter a dress or have someone do it for you? I’ve often resorted to that when having to wear A Dress (rather than a dress you can wear to the park). Good luck!
25 May 2008 at 8:00 am
I’ll sign that petition… I don’t know what shape women the clothes designers think there are on the planet!
25 May 2008 at 2:32 pm
most clothes are now made in SEAsia and they can’t believe we are all so fat here so they change the shapes! That’s my excuse
26 May 2008 at 7:53 am
“most clothes are now made in SEAsia and they can’t believe we are all so fat here so they change the shapes! That’s my excuse”
Unfortunately, I’d have to knock your theory down, because that would mean the clothes should fit *me* and they don’t.
We talked about this at knitting group the other week. The consensus was that we should all go back to getting our clothes tailor-made. It would cost a lot initially, but it would fit and last longer and I bet wouldn’t actually cost more in the long run.
(That, or buy sewing machines, obviously.)
26 May 2008 at 9:00 pm
You know, we brought our sewing machine with us, because there just aren’t clothes that fit, ever, anywhere, unless you want them to look saggy/baggy.
For instance: I buy ‘Tall’ shirts, so that the arms will be long enough. Because of this, the shirt companies think that I also want ‘wide’ - so I end up tailoring each and every shirt, from the underarm down the side-seam, and removing two strips of material about 6 inches wide. It’s still not really enough - I should take down the width of the arms as well - but it’s enough not to have wads of material stuffed down my trousers, leaving odd patterns of wrinkles to show through.
Teach D. how to pin for tailoring.
27 May 2008 at 8:28 am
Great post and it’s so true. I’ve been dress shopping recently and it’s very hard to find anything that fits. I’m not fat but I’ve had shop assistants tell me I’d lose weight for the dress. Why should I change for the dress? I’m fine the way I am thanks. As you said the clothes should fit the person and not the person having to change to fit the clothes.
29 May 2008 at 11:27 pm