Just Another Work-Clothes Rant

[ladysprite]

I am not that small.

I mean, yeah, I'm short, and I'm not big, but I'm not freakishly teeny, either. I'm kind of.... average-sized. So why the hell can't average stores carry clothes in my size?

I need to wear clothes to work. And while I can deal with my non-work clothes being either poorly-fitted or highly specialized, for work I need simple, washable, professional-looking stuff. No hip-huggers, no pencil skirts, no babydoll tees.

Unfortunately, if I want clothes that fit, I need to either shop at Super Petite Elite Specialty Stores, where pants costs more than my wedding ring did and are dry-clean only, or at the Juniors department of other, more reasonably-priced stores, where the current trend in clothing is best described as Little Ho Peep.

All I ask out of life is a pair of non-pleated, machine-washable pants that start near my waist, end near my ankles, and either don't gap enough at the top for a patient to crawl down them or actually have belt loops. And a sequin-free, glitter-free blouse that doesn't hang like a tent. Is that too much to ask?

This rant is brought to you by my mad dash through my closet as I try to get ready for a new-practice interview today, in a desperate attempt to look professional and not like an eighth-grader in my mom's clothes.....

Comments

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Oh! And you might also try shopping in Chinatown - their average customers are smaller than the American average, so they're less likely to balloon their sizes. (I appreciate Talbots trying to make me feel good, but when their 14 is an 18 somewhere else, it's just silly.)

[quietann.livejournal.com]

That's a really good point.

Back when I was at UC Irvine, where 60% of the student body were Asian, I was chatting with a clothes vendor who'd come to outdoor sales there. He said he always stocked up on size 0 clothing when he came to UCI. Many of the young ladies were tiny -- 5 feet tall, 80 pounds dripping wet, but not too thin at all.