20-Somethings - I hate clothes. >:(

So this might be a bit of a rant. :p

I used to only shop in the plus-sized department of stores because, to be honest, it was the only thing that would fit me (I was a snug 1X - looser 2X when I started:o). It would really limit where I could get clothes from, and cost a lot of money to get an outfit..mostly because plus-sized clothes are so much more expensive than smaller ones. :(

But recently, having lost almost 30 pounds (yay!), I've gotten rid of all of my bigger clothes as motivation to never let myself wear them again, and have found myself needing a few things to replenish my wardrobe for school. Problem is, I'm stuck in limbo between the plus-sized and non-plus-sized world! :( the 1X in things is normally too big, but the XL is snug.. it's really making me mad! I feel like I don't fit into any stores. :( Hopefully I shrink some more soon, hmph!

ANYWAY, let me know: what's your biggest clothing peeve right now? I'm sure I'm not alone in the in-between sizes thing.

My biggest pet peeve since gaining is that plus sized clothing does not ft me right. The jeans always expect my butt to be twice the size it is, so they have that unflattering sag there. My chest is pretty proportioned for my bigger body now, but the shirts when there is an empire waist or seam, they are usually too big. Plus, the clothes are usually ugly. I end up hating my clothing within a couple of months.

I miss my cute clothes. I don't know who thought that big girls like big prints. I never got that. Nor do I feel the need to have butterflies and flowers on EVERYTHING. I'm 29 not 12.

Then there are shoes. I was a wide-width when I was 135 lbs. So at 230+ my feet have widened when I had kids, then have fat to top them off. The wides either aren't wide enough ( I refuse to wear a size 10 for width when I'm an 8.5) I would KILL for a sexy pair of shoes!

So yeah, I understand.

My hips are a 16 and my waist is a 12! So even though I am thinner, I don't feel like I look thinner because I have all this extra fabric around my waist. I look thinner naked but I feel like my workplace would frown on that. Also my bum has shrunk up (not hips, just bum!) so for those of you familiar with the world of Mexican clowning . . . I look like Cantinflas.

Don't get me wrong. I am happy for the progress that I have made but I wish my parts would progress at the same rate!

I'm with you on hating clothes shopping! I think my biggest peeve is fitted, button-down shirts for women. Anything off the rack either doesn't fit my, well, rack, or the bottom balloons out. And don't get me started on the manufacturers' tendency to forget that bigger boobs means more fabric in terms of length. I teach and it's down right embarrassing to write on a chalk board as it means my mid-riff shows (and there's nothing anybody wants to see there at the moment).

Although I've never worn plus size, I've found that buying new clothes that are a little snug and tight are motivation to keep working towards my goal. And it's worked! You'll be saying goodbye to the plus size stores in no time, good luck :)

Ack! Jeans! This is pretty much a normal frustration no matter what, but they either fit my legs or my hips, never both.

I guess more so right now would be shorts - I want to run in them but they ride up so horribly and I can't wear a pair of spandex because it would look horrible. So I'm stuck wearing pants or capris. I just want a pair that I don't have to pull down every 30 seconds. :(

I'm so glad to hear I'm not alone! Looks like we all have different issues, too. Maybe clothing manufacturers need to re-think their sizing proportions!

Sheramama- I have a similar jeans issue.. my thighs are too small for the pants my butt needs and I get an awkward saggy thigh look in most pants.. grr.

lucky72- I have a gappy waist problem too :( stretchy pants are good for that sort of thing, but they aren't always appropriate to be wearing all the time. :P I'm down with the nudist plan, haha!

0059500 This is true, and is basically what I've done for a few items, but I feel uncomfortable in those.. which makes me not want to wear them, and defeats the purpose of buying them. :P I'm just fussy. I've made a "not-yet" section of my clothes, though.. and make a point to try them on every week or so to see if they pass my self-test. ;)

mindymoo AHHH, shorts! I'm so glad summer is ending because I can't stand shorts. I normally get the bermuda style ones to avoid the pulling-down problem, but then my legs look stumpy.. which is hard to do when you're 5'11. :P I played rugby in high school, though, which required shorter shorts as a team uniform, so we were required to wear longer spandex underneath them.. maybe you could try that for running? plus, wearing tighter clothes underneath makes me jiggle less. ;)

Sizes in certain stores. In most stores I'll take a medium right now (maybe 90%), but every so often I encounter a store where I can barely fit into an XL. My hips are a 37, my waist is 27, I'm not an XL, what gives?

Hmmm try having my issue:

Im 6 ft tall..and a big girl..I cant find shirts to cover my belly without getting a shirt that is super large like wide large as well as long enough.. Then there is the jeans issue: My bum and hips fit into a size 14 and my stomach is a size 18 around the waist...so try finding a pair of jeans that are slender in the butt thighs and hips but jeans that are wide enough at the waist to fit along the waist line!!! Then on top of that..they also have to be extra long..As well..my boobs are small but my waist is huge..so i could fit the upper part in a 1x and my tummy rolls into a 3x..UGH!

Pants that fit me around the waist are super tight on my thighs. Pants that are good on my thighs, are all baggy around my waist!!

I know your frustration! I was stuck there for years before I gained weight in high school. Before that I was stuck between Junior's Plus and women's. It was a horrifying time in my life and I remember coming home from clothes shopping crying. Luckily in losing weight I wasn't stuck in the void between plus and regular for quite long.

I actually enjoy clothes shopping now, which shocks me.

My frustration always stemmed from the fact that clothes NEVER allowed enough room for my bust! I'm not incredibly large busted (usually I'm a D cup!) Yet even when I was plus sized, I found I would have to go up a size in tops just to accomodate my bust. I fell in love with halter top dresses because I could actually buy my size!

For you though, not all plus is the same anymore and it actually depends on where you shop. Certain plus size stores start at 12, which helps immensely because that 12 is generally cut differently than a regular size 12.

When I was Plus size, I shopped pretty much all the time at Dots and Torrid. Torrid is a tad expensive, but if you wait for a 50% clearance sale, you can generally make out like a bandit. Torrid stocks a size 12, which helps depending on what you need. Dots is wonderful store that has both a regular and a plus size section. Their plus size section starts at 14/1X, but their regular size section generally ends at 15/16. The clothes are usually the same, so if something is too big in Plus you can find it in Regular.

Good luck in your journey! Hopefully you won't have to be "stuck" between Plus and Regular for long ;)

I think I'm constantly having clothes drama! :lol:

Plus-sized clothes actually used to work very well for me because I'm very, very busty (maybe an G or H cup now?) but have a small rib cage (just a bit over 32" at the moment) and normally plus-sized clothing accounted for that. Now that I'm in regular sized clothing I'm having some major issues!

Clothes that fit my waist are WAY too tight in the chest. Ones that fit my chest are WAY too big in the waist. You can just imagine how dress shopping is for me! :dizzy: Add to that that I live in a country where they don't even sell bras above an F cup (and they only really recently started selling those and only have specialty shops for huge amounts of $$) so the proportions on clothes here are way off my own. Finding tops is near to impossible and after months? of looking for a dress I finally found one and I'm pretty sure that's just because the manufacturer accidentally cut it too big in the bust. ;) I figured it out and my bust size is at least 2 sizes bigger than my waist but even then bigger tops/dresses are cut with the assumption that you have a large ribcage/small breasts so they don't even fit me very well!

Oh, and pants... yep, I get the gap thing going too! I'm planning on trying out those Levi's Curve ID pants next time I go to the states and also see if there is a fashion bug where they have pants with different curves to see if that helps.

Once I get to goal I plan on just buy a bunch of high quality clothes and getting them altered and hoping that they last awhile! It's sad because I LOVE clothes but finding clothes that fit takes forever!!!!

Unfortunately this rings true no matter what size you are. But I remember being in between Lane Bryant and "normal" sized stores.... it is a TOUGH time, but it gave me more motivation to get it done. It is still frustrating to shop for me. Like many of the other ladies have said, some stores I'm a 12 (YAY!) but some stores I'm still a 16 (Boo! :( ). I wish I could say it gets better, but soon you won't be able to shop in plus sizes at all any more. That's a pretty awesome thing :D

Hmmm try having my issue:

I cant find shirts to cover my belly without getting a shirt that is super large like wide large as well as long enough.. Then there is the jeans issue: My bum and hips fit into a size 14 and my stomach is a size 18 around the waist...so try finding a pair of jeans that are slender in the butt thighs and hips but jeans that are wide enough at the waist to fit along the waist line!!! Then on top of that..they also have to be extra long.

My heart goes out to you. I am 3 inches shorter than you and I have these issues...cannot imagine the frustration you have. I have the stomach problem and trying to find longs are really annoying. Dress pants are a disaster. I will tell you that American Eagle sells x-longs online and with a code or whatever I can usually get a pair for about 30 bucks! I also wear a size 12 shoe which is impossible to find in stores. Do you have this problem?

I am right there with you girls... I have become famous among my friends for making button extenders. What I do is buy a button about the same size as the button on my jeans, and but some 1/4 inch elastic, and I sew it into a loop and attach it to the button. I found this helped tremendously with jeans as for me they generally fit well in the but and thighs but are too tight around the waist. It adds just enough space and stretch to make the jeans fit as comfortably as one can expect of jeans.

I am, however, most defiantly one of those people who wear black stretchy pants even when it is inappropriate. I would wear them every day if I could.

Oh Yes, I am in between sizes right now too. 16s are too loose, but some 15s are way too tight! But then somewhere a 14 will fit.. or even my mini goal 12s will fit, even if a little muffin top. I am so frustrated about it!

However.. if you ladies think you have it bad.. try finding a pair of Breeches that look anywhere near flattering! (Breeches are the pants one wears when they ride a horse hunt seat) I look like a sausage stuffed into a khaki colored package. I haven't tried them on in months though. SO here is to hoping they are too big when I start my lessons back up this fall!

Oh I definitely have clothes issues, but they are not all weight related. I have scoliosis and as I've lost weight it's become more and more noticable that one shoulder is higher and kind of rotated in. Now that you can actually see them, my shoulder blades are pretty uneven, so things with straps never lay right across my back and racerbacks are always all wonky and pulled to one side. Becasue of the curvature in my spine, I have a weirdly short torso and long legs (I'd probably be 2-3 inches taller without the scoliosis). I know I shouldn't be complaining about long legs, but at 5'5" it should not be this hard to find pants that are long enough!

Gotta say, I have discovered that sometimes clothes s*ck no matter what size you are. I watched Project Runway Canada awhile back and listened to Iman talk about the things she would not wear because they did not flatter her!!

Remember...she's a crazy hot supermodel and she still thought that a lot of clothing fitted her wrong and looked bad.

It's not really us folks. It's the clothes. Sizing is weird, silhouettes are strange (I've stood in changing rooms trying to determine just what shape I would have to have for the dress I have tried on to fit me properly).

I feel like if we all had the money to have clothes tailored for us, we'd feel so much better about ourselves. But we don't. I certainly don't.

I sew and last summer my milestone sewing achievement was that I successfully made a dress with a sweetheart neckline that actually covered my boobs. Usually I look like I'm trying to show off my breasts for all to see...and that's if i can actually get the zipper closed.

I put it on and cried because I had never wanted to be the cleavage queen (and losing weight didn't affect my cup size at all).

So, by all means, let clothing be a motivator but please don't beat yourself up if you lose weight and clothes still s*ck... because some of them just do and it's not you, it's the piece of fabric.

So, by all means, let clothing be a motivator but please don't beat yourself up if you lose weight and clothes still s*ck... because some of them just do and it's not you, it's the piece of fabric.

I agree and support this comment 100%. I was trying to explain this to a forever skinny friend just last week. Just like certain colors work better on different complexions, the same goes for cuts and fabrics. The only person who looses from beating yourself up over something not looking right, is you.

PinkSparklers - I can TOTALLY relate :cheers:

I have the biggest problem with tops and dresses. I am tall and the gap from my shoulders to my boobs is kind of large. My shoulders are broad and my boobs are HUGE (DDD+). Trying to find any sort of fitted dress/top (ie anything other than a wrap dress or a cotton top) is damn near impossible. The boob part of the top often doesn't reach my boobs because the gap is large. I really need to buy stuff 2 sizes larger so that it fits my boobs and get it tailored but I'm barely a 12-14 atm, so the cuter clothes don't come large enough to buy big and tailor. I nearly cried looking for a dress to wear to a wedding this past weekend.

I love my curves, but there really aren't a ton of great clothing options for busty women. Most of the contemporary stuff is designed to make less curvy women, look curvier. On me it looks ridiculous. Thank God for "What not to Wear" which taught me how to dress my body.

I hate not being able to shop at the cheap stores! Forever 21 and H&M are staples of a college girls wardrobe cause they'red cheap but cute and awesome!

However, I can only fit into certain stuff at those stores, and it sucks cause I have to buy the rest at actual stores.

A large at forever 21 rarely fits me, whereas a large at a more expensive place fits fine! grr

For me... I have a hard time finding clothes... partially because my arms and legs are so long that even a lot of the clothes made for "tall" people are still too short. I like my pants to hit the ground... when I'm wearing my shoes. And my shoes have like... MAYBE a centimeter of extra height... if that. I generally need a 36" inseam. Even though my inseam is "technically" 33". I've found that most inseams for "tall" people are 32" or 33"... still too short. 34" will work... but 36" is preferable.

That... and I'm picky. Picky picky picky. I have tried so so so hard to find clothes at cheap stores... and most... eck... no thank you. I like quality. But quality is out of my budget... so I try to find stuff used... which is hard.

Thankfully... I'm pretty 'balanced' body-wise... hourglass figure, but my stomach isn't overly big or overly small... so I am able to find stuff... without it billowing crazily, or being overly unflattering... but yeah... the height... even though I'm only 5'9.5"... why do my arms and legs have to be so darn long??!!


But... I'm going to be making my next coat... in a size medium... or maybe I'll try the small... it's my goal coat... the yarn is my "onederland" gift to myself... and it'll cost me around $50-60... so it better be some nice stuff:

Sylvi... *drools*
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3045/3019587470_5087931ebd_z.jpg?zz=1
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/3018756469_155409c600_z.jpg?zz=1

My biggest issue right now is that I couldn't find a pair of jeans that are flattering to save my life!

Skinny jeans make me look like my entire leg- hip to thigh to ankle are bloated sausages.


Flared jeans accentuate my big hips and often once I've found a size to fit them the legs are nearly too long to wear.


Boot cut jeans ...I've never given them a shot because I have short legs and I figure it would make them look shorter




I suspected it may be due to my pear shape... but I'm realizing- I just have wide hips and store ALL my fat in my hips and legs.

I always hate trying on a size I assume will fit and being horribly mistaken. But once, I size up.. well they get longer. Now this shouldn't be a problem because with skinny jeans you can roll them up but my calves are just too gross right now to be exposing to the world.

I have to buy some things for school and I've been putting it off...


Maybe it's my discomfort in my own body, but I feel extremely conscious of how I look in clothes, so I feel the need to look put together because if my body already looks sloppy, it's extremely to let my appearance to.


It's going to be such a reward to feel great in jeans.

oh, honey, i was there for a LONG time! so i feel your pain....

just stick to your diet and eventually you'll get past it! just look at it as you saving money by not buying clothes now, and then in about 10lbs or so you'll be able to get a whole new wardrobe!

my biggest problem now is that, living in Japan - the land of tiny women - it's very hard for me to find clothes that fit... :cry:

hip to thigh to ankle are bloated sausages.
big hips
I have short legs and I figure it would make them look shorter
I just have wide hips and store ALL my fat in my hips and legs.
my calves are just too gross right now to be exposing to the world.
Maybe it's my discomfort in my own body
if my body already looks sloppy


Listen to yourself.

It must be difficult to hate what you look like that much.

One of my figure difficulties is that I am overweight, but not curvy. I'm an A cup-size now, so who knows what I'll be when I lose more weight? Not that I'll let that stop me, of course! :) My measurements along my body are approximately the same, if not higher around the waist. In regard to shopping, my problem is usually that the shirt could be tight around the middle, but absolutely uneventful around the top. Yup, I am one of those "fat," small-chested girls. If I were skinny, I would probably look like a stick. In any case, I'll never be curvy in all the rights places, so all I can do is please myself. :)

My most recent obsession is my weak chin. My neck looks like a ski slope from my chin to my chest, and I'm hoping that it will be less dramatic after I lose more weight. It's my face, and I need to learn to love it. I have been wearing more V-necks lately, hoping to extend my neck line. I dislike my profile, but again, trying to resist that feeling.

It's a fight to accept myself. Gotta keep fighting the fight, though. ;)

Listen to yourself.

It must be difficult to hate what you look like that much.



Until I just reread what I said, I didn't realize how self deprecating I can be.

I was going to make a thread about this too! Good to know others are dealing with clothes issues too.

I've always been known as the girl who loves clothes. I had an AWESOME wardrobe. I really love fashion and I actually never had a problem really finding clothes even at my heaviest. People used to always say "dont you ever dress normal? Your always so dressed up!" ... that was then.

I had to go through my closet and get rid of so much stuff. I was actually using ribbons and safety pins on some of my clothing to make it fit. Now, my jeans keep falling down when I walk, so I feel like I'm always tugging and pulling on my jeans and tops. (which why do I have to lose so much weight from my boobs? lol)

Right now my fashion sense isn't what it's always been. I'm in an in-between phase. I basically live in leggings and jersey or cotton dresses because they fit better even when losing weight. I have a few staples in my closet right now to get me by.

Try shopping at stores that offer XXL.
When I was having this dilema these stores were my life saver!!

Tommy Hilfiger, Gap Outlet (or online), Old Navy - are just a few. American Eagle even offers XXL on their website.

I completely understand your frustration - goodluck!

I was just about to ask the same thing. I aminbetween sizesand unfortunately I dont see myself losing any more weight. Soi can either buy the slightly small one and not be able tower it only "fat" days other the bigger one and have them look weird and not fitted (looks saggy). Sigh.

I lost quite some weight and I'm just mad because some of my old pants are still tight where I don't want them to be tight - around my a** and thighs. I could put them on when I was 15lbs heavier and they would fit the SAME?! I was hoping I could use them now since I lost weight but I guess not..

I am having the opposite problem.. I lost 18lb, but I am not ready to buy new clothes.. so instead everything looks baggy and not flattering.. Unless I wear stretch clothes (yoga pants) but... lets be honest.. I dont want to be wearing yoga pants every day...

I was just about to ask the same thing. I aminbetween sizesand unfortunately I dont see myself losing any more weight. Soi can either buy the slightly small one and not be able tower it only "fat" days other the bigger one and have them look weird and not fitted (looks saggy). Sigh.

What about getting the larger pants altered?

My hips are a 16 and my waist is a 12! So even though I am thinner, I don't feel like I look thinner because I have all this extra fabric around my waist. I look thinner naked but I feel like my workplace would frown on that. Also my bum has shrunk up (not hips, just bum!) so for those of you familiar with the world of Mexican clowning . . . I look like Cantinflas.

Don't get me wrong. I am happy for the progress that I have made but I wish my parts would progress at the same rate!


I so know what you mean!!! Bits of me are shrinking i.e calves, bum (not hips), waist. Other parts of me are being left behind i.e thighs, tops of my arms, my back. Its so frustrating as clothes look bad on me and I look totally out of proportion, I've just accepted that it'll take a while longer before I can buy clothes that look good and will just put up with the stuff I have already as long as possible. At least it'll be cheaper and it's not forever.