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

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

I swear people who design and make clothing for women have never actually looked at the shape of a woman.

They certainly give that impression. And it does seem to be extra-bad with (though certainly not limited to) plus-sized women -- for instance, they don't just make things wider, but size *everything* up: sleeves get longer, the distance between shoulders and bust darts gets longer, etc. Apparently we're supposed to get taller when we get fatter -- who knew? Because the actual women I know really don't gain much weight, say, across their shoulders.

Someone recently pointed out eShakti to me, and I'm very intrigued -- apparently you can customize to your measurements for really an absurdly small charge, and you can change details like putting wider straps on a sundress so bra straps stay covered, making a skirt longer or shorter, etc. And the stuff is cute, at least in pictures! I'm definitely going to check them out the next time I need a new dress.