A few thoughts after accompanying a friend on a clothes shopping run.

[randomness]

• Doing a search for "plus size clothing" "store locator" can get you a quick list of chain stores to try, although some of them may be a little far away.


• Just because Ashley Stewart bills itself "for the plus-size urban woman" doesn't mean you shouldn't be willing to go to Roxbury or Mattapan to check it out.


• Torrid has its own sizes for tops, but not for many other items.


• Going to Lane Bryant last can often help your budget.


• It's not that your body is the wrong shape, it's that the clothes are cut wrong for it.


• Weekdays out of shopping season are an excellent time to go clothes shopping.

There's probably more but it's all that occurs to me just now. As always, this was fun.

Edit: This is probably also a good place to add a link to Lee Lee's Valise, though it was also a bit far for this particular expedition.

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Oh! (I'm assuming you mean the statement about the clothes being cut wrong, not the one about ruffles. Ruffles have their place, I think.)

[karakara98.livejournal.com]

Yes, about the cut. I realized the depth of screwed-up-ed-ness of women's clothes sizes once on a shopping trip with ladybird97. We were both reaching for the same sizes at the Gap despite a 7 inch difference in height and a proportionate difference in shape.

On the other hand, I realize why this happens. The more size configurations, the greater the inventory carrying costs and the greater the need for educated consumers and sales staff. I just wish that brands and stores were more explicit in the figure they size for and that more brands catered to a diversity of figures and shapes.

Ruffles are a personal choice--I have opinions on their place on me, but I agree that they have their place for others.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

The more size configurations, the greater the inventory carrying costs and the greater the need for educated consumers and sales staff.

Sure.

Men's clothes generally have more size configurations but fewer available varieties of styles and colors. It had never occurred to me that those two characteristics might be related.

I just wish that brands and stores were more explicit in the figure they size for and that more brands catered to a diversity of figures and shapes.

That really would be useful. Again, my impression is that men's clothes often cater to more diverse body shapes: dress shirts, for example, usually have two size measurements per garment, as do trousers.

Two measurements is itself a great oversimplification, but it gives many more permutations than one.