I have been shopping regularly for the past few weeks — something I HATE to do, specifically because my options are so limited — and I’ve only come up with TWO items wearable enough to buy. And neither of them were all that great; they just worked.
I try to avoid shopping online because, being in Canada, the shipping charges and duty and sales tax are too much, and to have to send half of it back is even more expensive. I’m very curvy, petite, and difficult to fit. I wear between a size 20-28, depending on the brand, the style, and which part of my body is in question. I also have high standards and won’t put up with shit that wrinkles funny or gaps or doesn’t fit my boobs, because I hate the idea that fat women should just accept that stuff isn’t going to fit right and get used to walking around in ill-fitting, sloppy-looking clothes (I mean, unless that’s your thing or you truly don’t care. It’s just not mine, and I do care.) As it is, I own several unwearable skirts that I kept in the optimistic hopes that I would find time to alter them to fit my waist. Hasn’t happened. Isn’t likely to happen.
I am in desperate need of summer clothes, because the hellish heat and humidity of Toronto summer is looming, and there is jack-shit for me in stores — in this huge city full to the brim with clothing stores and even a fashion district. There is something wrong with this picture. There are a handful of stores in the entire city that carry my size. Those would include Reitman’s, Addition-Elle, Jones New York, Maximum Woman, Cotton Ginny, Voluptuous, and The Answer. It sounds like a lot when I type it out in a list, but considering that there are hundreds of women’s clothing stores and boutiques in the city, the plus-sized selection is shamefully miniscule. When I go home to the States and my mom takes me to Lane Bryant, I’m excited to a truly pathetic degree — it’s that much better than my current options.
I am angry about this because I need clothes I can wear to work. I’m angry that it even matters how you look, how well you’re dressed, and that people will judge you on that, with financial and professional consequences. Even though I love clothes in an aesthetic sense, I realize they’re not really all that important, nor should they be that important — they should be fun, an outlet for personal expression, and if someone isn’t into that particular type of fun, they should be able to opt out without any social ramifications.
Unfortunately, in an image-obsessed society, they can’t. And because it matters so much, and because fat women don’t have the options that other women do, we’re doubly screwed-over. Not only can I not find clothing that pleases my personal sense of style, or that makes me look professional to the degree I need for work, I can’t even find clothing that covers my body in an acceptable manner. And I am suffering the social and professional effects of this now.
I have money to spend, but I have to wear the same skirt to work again and again, and I know my boss must notice. I have money to spend, but I have to wear the one pair of shoes (literally, orthopedic grandma loafers) I’ve found that don’t injure my feet, leaving me with blisters for days while I limp around on a strained ankle (that’s actually what happened when I wore a pair of “comfort-designed” shoes with a one-inch heel for a five minute walk to the library a few days ago. NOT ACCEPTABLE.)
I’m 28; I dress like I’m 78. I’m pissed.
Filed under: bitchery, clothes, fat | 37 Comments
I share your frustration (and, obviously, shop in the same places, mostly Pennington’s). I’m about a 26/28, and I cannot find a single pair of black jeans that fit me. Seriously, that’s all I want out of life right now — some new pairs of black jeans. (And nice, all-black ones too, no ones with weird colourful stitching and rhinestones on the back pockets and so low-rise that I fall out of them.) WHY WILL THEY NOT MAKE THE CLOTHES THAT I WANT TO BUY?!? I WANT TO GIVE YOU MY MONEY, CLOTHES-PEOPLE!
I realize that this is neither a quick nor and easy option, but I sew. If you can sew, you can alter fashionable patterns to fit, and nobody will know you made your clothes yourself unless you tell them.
I acknowledge that it takes some time to get to a skill level where you can do this, but it’s worth it.
Because, like you say, the other options are so often crap.
Shoes: I have really enjoyed Tsubos, though they’re expensive (check them on shoes.com). They’re broad, flat, and squishy, but look good enough for work, at least in a casual environment.
I don’t know your money situation; but you might want to consider a seamstress. They’re expensive, but the clothes will fit and will be your style.
Ditto what Piffle said. It’s a pain, sure, but in the end you’ll (hopefully) come out with clothes that fit and that you like.
You’ve probably tried Danskos shoes before, but if not, check them out. I’ve got high arches and oddly shaped feet that are prone to aches and cramps (and blisters, unfortunately) and I’ve found these to be really great. They come in loads of cute styles; I’ve got embroidered felt closed-heel clogs that feel like slippers, and brown mary janes that are darling.
so i went to the clothing show last week – you know, the one in toronto? the one that calls itself “toronto’s weekend shopping event” because it’s supposed to feature so very many wonderful designers and supposedly has something for everyone? yeah. out of *more than two hundred* vendors, i found TWO that had clothes in my size – and one was a novelty t-shirt design place. very cute for around the house, but i don’t really want to wear a killer robot logo to work. (incidentally, it was sickonsin.com – they go up to an american apparel 2xl, which even then is snug on me, but the woman who runs the business is tremendously warmhearted and offered to try and source larger sizes.)
piffle, you’re right on with the seamstress comment, but not only is getting one’s clothes tailed expensive, it takes up a lot of time – finding the patterns, sourcing the fabric – and even then it’s like buying a pig in a poke because one has no idea what the clothes will look like ON until they’re there, made, and on your body – and then what do you do if you realize with horror that boatnecks aren’t your thing?
i’m so on with this post because I live in Toronto too and this past experience with the clothing show was just humiliating. what is the deal with professing such fashion-consciousness and keeping the sizes so minimal? (and my minimal i mean that the range of sizes is ludicrous – there’s so little difference between a s/m/l that it might as well be the same size) it’s even more frustrating to see the people who WORK in the fashion industry – i used to work at city hall and we’d host meetings for independent businesses – the women who work in fashion ARE ALL SIZES AND BODY TYPES and yet the product they make doesn’t translate to a realistic range.
i am sorry, i have taken over your blog with my ranting – it’s just that the subject really resounds with me. may i suggest the one vendor at the clothing show worth checking out, steph at gutstydame.com? she orders in a lot of stuff from the big US retailers, like b&lu, but ships from toronto, hence minimal delivery charges, and if you can get out to richmond hill she’ll happily let you try stuff on in her house.
and it would be so freakin’ nice to have some acknowledgement made in the clothing industries that our bodies do not fit some platonic ideal; that we are not just different weights but heights and lengths and depths and peaks and valleys.
You’re in Toronto? I’m in Mississauga, and baby I feel your pain! I just spent 2 days looking for summer weight, decent quality interview clothes. That whole Reitmans-Elle- Penningtons mess just makes me want to HURL. I agree with Vidya–WTF with the rhinestones, ruffles & the doodads?
Piffle, if you know a good seamstress, please share! Last time I tried that, I ended up with a very expensive wedding dress I would not, could not wear in public!
J.S., do you give sewing lessons? I was actually desperate enough to go buy patterns and some muslin to practice with but I’m not really sure how to proceed!
I’m seriously getting to the point where I’d consider having my clothes custom-made. It can be tough to find a really reliable, good seamstress, however. I found an excellent one in Oregon, when I had my wedding dress made nine years ago, but I no longer live there. I would have had her make all of my clothes in a heartbeat.
I haven’t even looked at Penningtons in the longest time, because I’ve never been impressed with them in the past. I’m not even sure where the nearest one is — I live downtown.
Oh, also: I do sew. And I do alter my own clothes as much as possible. But I’ve never gotten good enough to make nice stuff (though, in the past, I have made wearable pants with a zipper and everything, and once I made a tailored jacket.)
The problem is that I live in a tiny, tiny loft apartment with absolutely no space to sew, I have no time to sew, I’m out of practice with sewing, and sewing can actually be rather expensive. More expensive than ready-to-wear, on many occasions. At one point, however, I was teaching myself to draft my own patterns, and I even created my own dress-form based on my body out of duct tape (my husband wrapped me in duct tape, after drinking a few beers. Then we cut it off and I stuffed it.) All of this effort not because I love sewing (I actually rather hate it), but because I have NEVER been able to find clothing that I liked, or that fit me well. Even when I was thinner, fit was an issue due to my shape.
I really would love it if, eventually, I had the space and time to get good enough at sewing that I never have to depend on another goddamn company to dream up humiliating clothes for me, ever again. I might even learn to enjoy sewing as a hobby. But it just won’t work in my present situation.
The best compromise I have found so far is to alter certain things, which I do when I have the time to drag out the old sewing machine. It’s still not a good enough solution. As it is, I take in the waist on all of my pants and skirts. It’s somewhat more difficult to take in the waist on shirts and sweaters, but I’ve done that once or twice too. In the end, whatever solution I use, I have to spend about 50 times the effort AND money that other people do to get acceptable clothes. I will never stop being fucking angry about that, though it’s probably not very useful or very good for me.
Anyway, thanks everyone for the suggestions, and keep them coming — especially if you’re in my area.
Hon’, you wanna come to Houston, I’ll teach you to sew. :-) But seriously, if you’re interested you could go two different ways.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to learn things alone, go get a sewing instruction book, possibly one targeted at teenagers. Work through the exercises in the book, learn the terminology and how to run a sewing machine. Then, find a super simple pattern for something — maybe pillows. Maybe an apron. Or a really really plain garment without any sleeves or complicated fastenings. Work through it step by step, reading every part of the instructions. Next step: A skirt. Then a dress, or blouse, with sleeves. Be prepared to make mistakes, to rip seams out and redo them. Each time you try something you’ll get better.
If you’d rather learn with other people look for sewing classes at a community center or fabric shop. Or find one of the seamstresses Piffle suggested, hire her for a couple of days, and have her walk you through sewing some simple garments.
Once you know how to do basic sewing, you can find instructions on fitting and enlarging patterns in sewing books at your public library. The ones from the 50s and 60s are the best, because that’s when people really sewed a lot! Threads magazine has good articles on fitting, often for plus sizes. And Simplicity pattern company has put out some truly cute patterns in the past few years that are well designed and fairly easy to sew.
That’s enough information to start with, at least. You go, girl! :-)
If I’m ever in Houston, I will take you up on that! :)
Vidya, right on! I wouldn’t mind the idea that some sort of professional dress is required for work situations, IF that dress were available to everyone. Why can there not at least be some basic, classic things that are made in all sizes all the time?
I will not even attempt to relate the epic struggles I have undergone trying to buy a pair of blue jeans. Normal, basic, classic, ordinary, regular 5-pocket blue jeans that approximately fit me and are tolerably comfortable. Not ones that are exotic colors, button-fly, bell-bottom, super-skinny legs with little zippers at the ankle, huge cuffs halfway up the calf, embroidery, applique, decorative what-not, low rise, pre-ripped, acid-washed, or whatever other foolishness the skinny teenagers are wearing this season.
If you manufacture the latest trendy jeans, hordes of skinny teenagers will buy them, and wear them for five minutes until the fashion changes. If you manufacture the jeans I requested above, I will buy them over and over for the rest of my life, wear them damn near every day, and when they wear out, as they do regularly, I will come buy more. Does this not make economic sense to somebody?
Also, is it really too fucking much to ask that I should be allowed to have a bathrobe?
What? You mean there are fat women in Canada despite the utter unavailability of clothing to fit you? But…but…IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO WORK THAT WAY!! If you only make clothing up to a size 12, then everyone will BE only up to a size 12! You have violated THE VERY LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS, Michelle!
I’ve just moved to Toronto. We should set up a FA meetup and group shopping trip! :) I think there are several of us here!
(Sorry I can’t help with shopping recs – I’m an in-betweenie and wear mostly straight sizes. However, my fatter friend and I have had fun ordering from Torrid and splitting the shipping cost. This is something else we Toronto peeps might consider?)
Hey Julia! Yes, there are several of us in town, and actually I’ve been getting together with Dee and chartreuse (and a couple other people not in the fatosphere.) It would be awesome to get more people together…but I can’t promise anything, as I’m very gun-shy about meeting people. What can I say, I’m a bit of a shut-in/mental case.
Well, since I’m new to the city and really looking to make friends, if you think you’re up for it, let me know. :) My email address is on my blog.
Meowser: donuts + beer = lots of fat ladies. Happy fat ladies.
But fat ladies + no good clothing? = angry fat ladies.
And very soon? Angry fat ladies = naked fat ladies.
Female toplessness is legal here, too. Just sayin.
Michelle, I share your pain. Plus size shopping in the UK is pretty miserable too. I had a freakishly good year last year and managed to buy about a squillion dresses in my size after over a decade of being utterly dress-starved. (Dresses are my preferred mode of attire). But this year? Zilch. Nothing fits right, even if it technically fits, and quite a lot of it doesn’t. Every shop I lucked out in last year has completely changed the way they’re cutting this year’s collections, so even if the styles are similar, the fit is out of whack. U’m glad I nearly bankrupted myself last year because it looks like last year’s haul is going to have to last me for a long, long time.
On the subject of Canadian seamstresses, have you checked out Jane Bonbon? I believe she’s based in Vancouver and I’ve heard really good things about her on fatshionista. Here’s her etsy page:-
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5315387
It might not be your sort of thing but I thought I’d mention her just in case.
Okay. That’s it. Let’s go shopping in Buffalo.
Who’s up for it? There’s room for me and four others in the deemobile.
We need to go to Buffalo. Seriously. Because I could also use some bad American chain-style family dining in strip malls! And that is Buffalo’s specialty, from what I can remember. It is also fun to drive back over the border wearing six layers of new clothes. And we need to go before the 2009 iron curtain falls. My American passport expires in a month.
I’m off to Ottawa in a few minutes. I don’t think the plus-sized scene up there is much better than here, but I’ll let you know.
Buffpuff — I would totally wear all those cotton sundresses, provided they fit. Thanks for the tip! I will check her out more.
I’ve never been to Buffalo! And I’ve lived in Southern Ontario for most of my life. *shame*
(Except I’ve always heard Buffalo is kinda yucky. Someone told me it’s referred to as “the armpit of the world.”)
Even so, I’m totally into shopping in the States.
you ladies have to go here:
Walden Galleria
One Walden Galleria
Buffalo, NY 14255
there’s a torrid, lane bryant, complete with separate cacique store for all your undergarment needs. there’s probably a fashion bug, too. yeah, it’s an awful mall, but there’s some good stuff. ^_^
Julia– I grew up not too far from Buffalo, It’s really only an armpit in the winter! There are certain neighborhoods you shouldn’t probably stumble in around but that’s the same everywhere. If you get good directions for all the places you want to go and you don’t get all spontaneous/adventerous while you’re there, you probably won’t even get lost; the highways are much easier to navigate than here!
I do not recommend Rt 62 within the city limits, ok?
Does anyone know a decent seamstress in Mississauga?
J.S–I went out and bought some patterns and some plain cotton blend on which to practice. (unbleached muslin is like $9 a meter up here!) The patterns aren’t as simple as you recommend but I have done this once or twice before–about 20 years ago. I’ll work up the nerve in the next couple weeks and see what happens.
Peggynature–I’ve heard of the duct tape dress form but I can’t quite figure out what to use for a stand. How did you solve this?
Oh yeah–I just posted a similar rant on my blog and I linked to you. Thanks for the topic!
I’m definitely up for a Buffalo trip! Penningtons has improved quite a bit, we should check it out.
I just ordered the braless sundress from JaneBonBon at Etsy. It was only $70, and it fit like a glove. Having your stuff custom made, where you can and can afford it, is wonderful. I never realized how much I compromised fit-wise to buy off-the-rack (and/or how often I was disappointed) until I had a custom-made dress. It’s totally worth it, and I’ve ordered another dress from her.
peggynature,
For professional clothes, have you ever tried Linda Lundstrom? She goes up to a size 24. When I was in Toronto in 2005, I picked up a few items in her boutique in the Bloor Yorkville district. The clothes are on the pricier side, no surprise given the neighborhood. Yet, overall, the prices are not too bad – on the price range of Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s department store in the US, and the sale prices were pretty good. I wear a size 20-24 (smaller on top, larger on the bottom), and could find things that fit and looked good on me.
I also had an incredibly unique shopping experience there- at that boutique, clothes from size 2 to size 24 were stocked on the same rack! So, I could actually shop on the same floor and section as the smaller sized women! – and I, a plus sized woman, could purchase clothes in same style and fabrics as smaller sized women.
Sad to say, I haven’t ever seen that again. I guess it was just too revolutionary a concept – to treat fat women like actual women and paying customers, huh.
I just checked her website – it looks like the Linda Lundstrom brand has been bought by another Canadian company and the Bloor Street boutique is gone. But, it looks like she has a boutique in East York? It looks like she still carries up to a size 24. I fervently hope the new management continues that.
And, I HEAR YOU TOTALLY on the clothes shopping frustration. I live in San Francisco, and we have several decent to good places to shop for clothes: 2 nice locally owned boutiques – Go Figure in SF and In Full Swing in Oakland, Lane Bryant, Macy’s Union Square, Nordstrom, and Torrid. And let’s not forget our local plus size designer Igigi. It’s telling about the tragic state of the plus size clothing market, that in a metropolitan area of 7,3 million people, I am happy to have 7 stores to shop at, when the skinny chicks have the whole damn rest of the city, county, country, etc. If the average women is a size 14, where is the upper 50%? They can’t all be at Weight Watchers on their knees praying for the day they can shimmy into their teensy weensy yellow polka dot bikini, can they? On second thought, don’t answer that…
Even with these 7 stores, I have been looking all spring and I can’t find a decent pair of normal boot cut jeans to save my life. Arrrrrgggggghhhhhh.
Okay, now I’m also going to have to prove that Buffalo has its charms. What can I say? I’m from Detroit.
The women’s clothing problems are not size dependent! Any woman with broad shoulders, big butt/ waist/ thighs/ you name it, pretty much every woman I know gets clammy when thinking about clothes shopping. I don’t know who designs woman’s sizes, but, trust me, it sucks for everyone! And finding good fitting clothes that will last, forget it!
*Hugs* I totallyyyyyy understand your frustrationssssss babe…… It’s SOOOOO hard for me to find a dress in Singapore or Asia that suits me as well! Firstly, it’s hard enough finding something that FITS… After that, when it fits, you have to think about whether it looks good!!! And that means throwing out a lot of other options again!
I guess we have to blame mass production for that?? :P Once upon a time, clothes were custom made, but these days, they’re mass made to suit a certain body type… That means that women with body shapes which are somewhat unique suffer.. :( :(
And because the media and society have been propagating slimness as the new sexy, it’s no wonder that the majority body type has become the slim body type, and people like me who deviate from them because they’re on the heavier side would probably have fewer alternatives… :(
But again, that probably applies to many societal conventions too! It’s just so much easier conforming to the majority opinion or standards; so much easier to be the same as everyone else.
Yet, when we start chasing all these standards and norms, one day, we realize that we’ve lost the one thing that matters most, really – ourselves.
GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
I’m so fed up with it I’m starting my own store. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for years, but I can’t put it off any longer. It’s become a self esteem issue.
I walked into New Look in the UK the other week, and their plus size section, which did jeans that fit me better than Evans’, had shrunk from half a floor to 2 racks and about 8 metres of wall space. I took it personally. I resent the implication that there are economic reasons for making reduced ranges in plus sizes, when I walk through stores and see things that I KNOW would suit and fit me if they made it in my size.
I’m sick of being stuck with acrid or infantilised colours when the thin girls get deep plum silk and turquoise and moss green and other beautiful colours. Especially when I see them in the same items as in the larger sizes, when I’m stuck with beige and acid green.
I’ve gone down the same route with sewing – teaching myself to draft and practicing by making theatre costumes.
I’m with angela on the styling issues, though – if you’ve had a lifetime of being stuck with 2 or 3 stores to shop in, and can only find clothes to cover you, you can’t exactly branch into sewing clothes without knowing what’s going to suit you. Time consuming and expensive. I go and try on stuff in shops that is too small for me, just so I can see if my instincts about a certain neckline or bustline working on me is correct.
Neatness is also a factor with home sewing. You can learn to make basic shirts and casual pants fairly readily, but learning to make tailored clothing is another level entirely, the catch 22 being that the weight and drape of fabric is different on us due to the volumes, and consequently I think it’s actually more difficult for us to look neat and well put together, so tailored garments for work are pretty much essential even if you do have a casual workplace.
Anyhow, I plan to make clothes that are based on kimono and eastern influences, in beautiful rich fabrics with lots of detailing, so they look formal and neat while still being able to be worn over jeans. They’ll be sexy (by virtue of their fabrics and detailing) without being low cut, and accomodating women with large busts, hips, bellies. My main problem is making them economical without exploiting cheap labour, and sourcing fabrics more beautiful than what’s easily available here. Onward & upward!
I have found lots of great clothes in size 20-26 in a surprising place…JC Penney! In the “Women’s” section of course. They’ve got a lot of stuff in their St. John’s Bay brand, including some fantastic jeans- regular jeans (I bought boot cut), not tricked out with the stuff we all seem to hate. In fact, right now I’m wearing a really cute skirt I got there. I don’t usually find too much in “Fat” stores- I have more luck in the Women’s section of department stores. I have even found a few things at Sears, believe it or not.
What’s interesting is that JC Penney seems to have different stock depending on the store site. I’ve been to Penney’s in both not-so-nice neighborhoods and very nice neighborhoods, and the latter always has better stuff.
If you have a Dillards dept. store near you, they have really nice larger size clothing, but most of it is too expensive for me :-(
I FEEL YOUR PAIN….can I shout this loudly enough. Not only do we have to settle for either trashy looking clothes, or boutique lines that require a home equity loan to afford, if you are shopping online, you pay the shipping bullshit. So, while at one time I was a frequent shopper at Old Navy because sometimes their plus size line actually had some hip and fun clothes. NOW the conveniently only offer plus size clothing online. They call it “exclusively online”. I call it just that….exclusive.
If you are going to bash the fatties and not even offer us the exercise to get to the store, at least offer free shipping.
Hiho!
I’m late to the game here, but also in Toronto. A couple more suggestions – Maria Rinaldi in Hazelton Lanes. Swank and spendy, but lovely stuff. There’s also a place on Roncesvalles Avenue at Howard Park – the name is escaping me now, and I’ve never been in there, but the stuff in the window when I go past is always classic with a funky edge.
My personal system is to check the few plus size places regularly (I live near Dufferin Mall so can cruise through Pennington’s, Reitman’s, Voluptuous and Cotton Ginny in one swoop when I’m there to pick up groceries) and grab the good stuff when I see it, regardless of whether it’s on sale or not.
Grr!!! I’m so frustrated with this as well. I’ve been in Toronto for 3 years and I’m reduced to wearing over priced granny clothes. I hate it. I’m going to have to just pick a couple shopping days a year to go south of the boarder. It seems to me the only way for a big girl. Atleast, down south I could find some hip and fresh clothes.
Roncesvalles and Howard Park store is called “Commesse”
There’s also “Maximum Woman” on Dundas West (Etobicoke) I’ve been there and they have some pretty summer things. Their website is here:
http://www.maximumwoman.com/
Let’s hope things get better here in the future.
:)
sj
you can get an AMEN from San Francisco!
I live and work on Union Square, which has been a shopping headquarters since the friggin Gold Rush and I can find clothes that fit me in 4 stores. They are Crappy Quality, Absurdly Priced, Profoundly Unfashionable and Just Not Appealing. you might have to look for them under different names, but you’ll know what they are. Why is that the Average size in the country is a 16 (if I have the latest stat), but almost every store tops out at a size 12? WTF?
I don’t want to buy anything online. I need to be able to try something on. I have a 18 bottom, 14 top, and size 20 arms. NOTHING fits properly, and only a few things don’t look ridiculous. It’s easiest for me to buy and wear men’s dress shirts/cashmere sweaters and make my own simple skirts. And it must be skirts or a I look like a lesbian. Which is fine, but I’m not so it sorta cramps my style. I mean, it’s impossible to date as a larger woman in this city anyway, and missing out on opportunities because somebody thinks you play for the other team is just insult to injury.
so that was my agreement rant. Here’s my suggestion: haunt the stores. I shop every 10 days, and know all the clerks. One at Nordstrom calls me when something she thinks I’ll like comes in, holds it for me, and tells me when it might go on sale (but I only buy from her). Since new stock is always coming in, I don’t miss anything. I buy what only I like, looks good, and can afford. It doesn’t have to fit perfectly, I buy a little too big and get everything altered. I get waists taken in/out, darts put in, hems moved around (a granny-tastic work skirt is really cute when it hits knees instead of mid-calf), and any number of things done to sleeves. Look at the manequins, every friggin one of them has pins making the clothes look right. What makes anybody think stuff will fit properly directly from the rack?
and since I’m there so often, it doesn’t have to take very long. I know I can skip a lot of racks because I have seen it already. I can go through all 4 places in 1 hour. I loathe prints, as a rule, and dislike ruffles, spangles, jewels, dood-dads, cut-outs. I further don’t go for synthetic fabrics. So I eliminate a lot just by glancing at it. Eileen Fisher has some lovely things, but alas, I am not a wood nymph and don’t care to dress like one, so I can skip over a lot of her super-flow-ey stuff. I know which brands are just trash (has anyone bought anything from Macy’s house brand, INC or Style & Co that has not fallen apart, shrunk, faded, lost buttons, etc in two washings? assuming that you can get around the stupid fit, icky fabrics and grotesque detailing)
thanks for the comisseration, ladies. It’s hard to be a Woman of Substance and Style in a size two city.