no boys allowed in the room!!!!

i get frustrated when i shop too bc i always have a particular cut/item in mind and then i can NEVER find it.

Hahahahahaha. Yes. My mom took me shopping in MI and I ignored her for basically hours as I blitzed through sale racks.

She kept being like, "How about this?" (holds up thing that I hate).

ugh

my mom got me work pants for xmas and i liked them except she accidentally (?) ordered xtra long. lol mom.

No, she was good overall, esp when she started holding up joke items and we were so tired that it became hilarious. At one point she said, "Stop talking to me like I'm an idiot" and I said, "I will if you stop talking to me."

i still remember going to the thrift store with my high school friends and getting into a MAJOR fight with them about who was going to buy the smaller burgundy velvet blazer
NEVER AGAIN thrift shoppin with friends
i turned into a monster!

i remember barking DO YOU WANT IT OR NOT YES OR NO YES OR NO

lol my high school self wants that blazer!

actually, i have very little tolerance for people who involve me in their long, arduous, vocal decisionmaking

over trivial things, like buying a sixty cent blazer

i get frustrated when i shop too bc i always have a particular cut/item in mind and then i can NEVER find it.

Important keys to efficient shopping, I think: a) have a really clear idea of what kind of thing is acceptable to you, and immediately mentally discard everything else. Do not get sidetracked by something that's on sale if it's not your style/on your list!! and b) Be willing to leave the store with NOTHING if you don't find what you wanted. Do not buy just to have something to show for your time.

that is pretty much what i do but then i will end up looking for a pair of tennis shoes i really like for 6 months while the ones on my feet are disintegrating. nagl.

I used to shop for "fun" because the variety of artistic and desirable things in NYC was mind-boggling to me. But it made me sadder and sadder that I would never be able to consume beautiful things at the rates that they were offered. Too many choices, too much stimulation, too much wanting.

So I stopped going to stores except on a mission for things.

Yeah - I'm the same way! Yesterday, I had to force myself to buy the vacuum cleaner I was there to buy, and nothing else.

I spend way too much on clothes and really need to not do that tbh. I do have a good idea of what suits me and would go in my wardrobe and all.. Trouble is that can still justify a lot of stuff. Maybe a lot of it is just interest in color and pattern and such and I should do collage instead

hahahahaha Daria the world needs more YSL vintage finds and less collage TBH - play to yr strengths.

a) have a really clear idea of what kind of thing is acceptable to you, and immediately mentally discard everything else. Do not get sidetracked by something that's on sale if it's not your style/on your list!! and b) Be willing to leave the store with NOTHING if you don't find what you wanted.

Yeah, see the problem is that there is never anything that fits the really clear idea of what is acceptable to me, and I generally leave with nothing. Then an occasion arrives when I actually need a thing that I do not have, because I have been waiting until I find the thing I really want, at which point I have to make a furious round of all the plus-size clothing retailers in Chicago attempting to find something so simple and necessary and yet so fucking elusive as a plain god damn black cardigan made from a material that is suitable for a professional workplace. (Note: Talbot's, bless their conservative little hearts, finally started carrying such an item, and there is one on the way to me as we speak.) So shopping for clothes is just brutal for me.

When shopping for some other item, I tend to approach it like a precision military operation. Determine which item I wish to purchase through research. Determine the cheapest place I can purchase said item local, with allowances for location, convenience, and timing. Check to see if I can purchase this item on line somewhere cheaper and whether the shipping costs are offset by crazypants Chicago sales tax. If I decide to purchase said item from a local brick and mortar store, I will go in, secure said item, and GTFO.

Unless I'm going to Target. I'll poke around a little bit in Target.

Discount places like TJ Maxx or Marshall's are like living hell to me. I'll go to Nordstrom Rack but only for shoes because they have an awesome selection of size 10 shoes.

Basically I buy everything I possibly can at the giant Macy's on State Street because I can walk there from work via the Pedway during my lunch hour, I know where everything is, and I can get a tamale from Frontera Fresca as a reward for my pain.

Yeah I guess it helps to have "a style" which is just whatever you know you like and feel good in (as long as that is not "dirty jeans and a band Tshirt" because in that case yeah you're going to hate shopping). Then, anything that isn't "your" style, ie peasant tops, things with uh sequins or lace, boot-cut pants, ANY pants, etc, you can just shove them out of the way and mentally clear the decks for a nice straight skirt that you will actually bother to try on.

I want a tamale, though.

peasant tops, things with uh sequins or lace, boot-cut pants

You just described 95% of all stock in every plus-size women's retail clothing store ever.

That's really good advice, Laurel - however, it can be annoying, and sometimes traumatic when you rarely find things you can feel good in, because they're not made in your size, or in flattering styles. That whole Sarahel's Semiotics thread was inspired because of my frustration over trying to find pants I'd want to wear.

xp - ha! I went into Lane Bryant over the Christmas holidays.

There is a woman who works here at my work who knows a woman who makes tamales and sells them, so every couple of weeks I get to put in a tamale order and the next day pick up a dozen homemade hot tamales. $11!!! That is shopping that I can totally get behind.

Lane Bryant and I are currently not on speaking terms, at least until all of my underwear totally gives out.

great, now i want a tamale!

Ooooooooh yes, those bastards. Do they think people over a size 8 (or 10, or 12, or whatever) are USING THEIR TONGUES FOR TASTE?? How about you shop in a PLUS-SIZED CLUE STORE, ya fucking idiots.

loooooooool @ "plus sized clue store"

macy's in ny has a plus floor that is actually pretty accurate larger reproductions of the same stuff in their misses section, but yeah, that was always reallllly annoying.

also for me, i was always in between where plus clothes looked baggy and terrible on me bc they were not made to be flattering, just to canopy, but reg clothes were a smidge too tight (always in the bust!). also i have a small butt in comparison to the rest of me so finding pants is a nightmare. if it fits in the waist the butt is saggy. booo. hissss.

i am familiar with the saggy butt problem

it's like if you are fat you are supposed to have a fat ass, too!

stereotyping :(

I'm high-waisted, so the year or so when all the women's pants were either pleated mom trousers or low slung boy pants was pretty grim. I ended up going w/ the boy pants because I don't have much in the way of hips.

The Macy's here has a good plus section, too. Or at least it is larger than most. Being in between straight sizes and plus sizes is a huge pain in the ass, too.

Basically, off the rack clothes don't fit anybody ever. It's like Laurel said in the shopping thread - you've got to find a manufacturer/designer that suits you. Also a good tailor.

I met Chicago Sarah for lunch today and she told me that my outfit lacked only for saddle shoes to be at home in a Twin Peaks episode (which she meant as and I took as a compliment), so despite all this angst, I must be doing something right.

:D

AWW!

I solved my shopping problem by not going shopping, at least recreationally, and I solved the fitting-pants problem by not wearing pants. Viola.

I realize this is not an option for everybody.

should i go back to my style from the early 90s of wearing dresses and skirts with thick tights and clunky shoes and boots?

A friend of mine and I were recently talking about the day we realized that clunky shoes were no longer in style, and how we both got a little sad. And had to quick go buy some new shoes.

xp Do you feel like it's "you"? Will the things you have to do in your life accommodate that style of dress, ie can you make it work for both business and personal commitments? If yes to both, then Y!

xp - I can't wear pumps or heels or anything with a narrow/small sole because otherwise I'd be returning to a world of pain.

I don't have the job I used to have that required me to wear pants, and I can play drums in a skirt/dress as long as it's not too narrow/tight. So, uh yeah. It's the shoes thing I worry about.

I cannot fathom committing to pantslessness in Chicago tbh

i live in the SF bay area.

xp It's an art.

http://freelancersfashion.blogspot.com/2009/12/anatomy-of-dressing-when-its-really.html

sarah, I can't wear heels either.

i guess the thing for me - is to figure out what height/length of boots would be flattering with a dress or skirt, so that my legs don't look stumpy.

Huh. I think that's just something you need to develop an eye for, cos it's so individual and also on a case-by-case basis.

is it more flattering, if you have thick calves, for boots to hit somewhere on the calf, or slightly below?

A friend's calves were so thick she found it difficult to get knee-line boots at all.

Those giant scary platform heels or ankle boots with the studs, spikes and ginormous price tags do look good with thick tights and loose-fitting dresses/tops/sweaters. Also, the only way I will wear the peep toe (my feet are nice but I hate hangy-outy toes on me). I've been mostly wearing Etienne Aigner fake equestrian boots with skinny jeans and big sweaters/tulip-drape dresses but otherwise my mid-length boots are not suitable on this spin of fashion's carousel. Which is a shame - kitten heels are being revived soon and the Manolo Blahnik one-off pair of boots with same bought from random fashion archivist BITD would be fab to wear.

The '90s ended the second they stopped making Donna Karan black matte jersey tights - they are bulletproof and I have at least five undamaged pairs to this day.

Yeah - you mentioned those tights way upthread, and I expressed my envy!

I was just remembering the other day that when I was young and my mom was getting "personal style" books out of the library, the rule was that boots should go a little bit UNDER the skirt hem, so that no leg showed. The idea being that a longer line in similar (dark-on-dark) colors would "lengthen" the leg visually.

More recently, the rule has been that there should be a slice of bare (or hoisery-ied) leg visible between boot and skirt hem. Apparently this is regardless of any visual trickery.

I don't have any nice boots so it's a moot point to me.