Baffled, thank you for your shopping report -- I enjoyed reading every word of it. :D

First, I hear you on brown. I'm just not willing to commit either but it's really seductive because it's everywhere and some of the shades are lovely (rich chocolate versus dirt brown). Sometimes a cordovan/burgundy color shoe/bag/briefcase can work with brown and black.

As for vanity sizing, check out poor Ennay's shopping experiences in our main chat thread. She's now too small for 4's, so what to do? It's crazy, we lose weight, get in shape, and have no selection in clothes any more?

Just like you, I consider myself a normal-sized woman. My BMI is a normal 23.2, not even close to underweight. I'm not bony and certainly don't look the least bit fragile or tiny. My hips are 36" and my waist is 26" - normal measurements, nothing unusually petite. But I'm finding "smalls" and 4's sometimes to be too big on me. So help me figure this out: if an average, normal person like me now wears the smallest size sold, what's a genuinely small person to do? Has the clothing world lost its collective mind? Or is this just brilliant marketing?

You know, with more than 2/3 of adults being overweight or obese, it may just be that clothing for us ends up on the top floor of the store in a special section with limited choices of styles and colors. Just like plus sizes used to be. But there won't be plus sizes any more because everyone will wear regular sizes!! :crazy:

Anyway, enough ranting about sizes! :rofl: Congratulations on such a successful shopping trip!

I've started typing about five different responses here ... but upon reflection ... I'm just sad.
Plus size is the new norm and if you work hard to be thin and healthy ... yer odd!

Meg and baffled -- the thing to keep in mind is that nowadays the "average" American is overweight. So being at a healthy weight actually does make you small, if you consider "medium" to fit the average American. If the average American becomes plus-sized, I bet that it won't be called "plus" sized anymore.

Still, it does suck for tiny people. Personally, I am ecstatic that I can wear size 6 and small, even if it's vanity sizing (last time I checked I my measurements were something like 37/27/38). I have yet to find clothes that don't come small enough for me (unless I went shopping at Lane Bryant!).

Jessica, you're right. It's sad but I guess I'm not average, even though I really should be "average"!

You know, the only thing that might end the sizing insanity would be a noncompetitive sizing system. Where the different sizes couldn't be compared and rank ordered like they are now, with constant pressure to fit into smaller and smaller sizes -- or have small sizes get bigger and bigger to fit us! What if clothes were sized by color: red, blue, purple, green, pink etc? "Oh, I need a size brown in these jeans" -- no value attached and no stigma. Kind of like reading groups in school when you had the Blue Jays and Robins and Sparrows rather than slow readers and fast readers. :)

But ... I suppose people would figure out a color system and start making it a big competition all over again. Sigh. Maybe the only sensible thing to do is to size like men's clothes, in inches. :shrug:

We really ought to size in inches! I don't know why we don't, it's really stupid. Then you could buy jeans sized by waist, hip, and inseam, and be guaranteed a fit.

I watched "The Devil Wears Prada" this weekend and honestly the talk about being thin made me sick. I know it was a comedy and they were making fun of the pressure to be thin, but seriously. It was disgusting.

I get what you're saying Meg but I'm an elementary school teacher and I can assure you that everyone in the room knew what each group meant before first recess. ;)

You're right, Denise. Sigh. I guess humans will turn anything into a competition?

:rofl: Baffled cracked me up so much by calling me a Pixie Woman that I added it to my signature line!

This morning I ordered my first fall clothing, a thigh lengthed sweater with a ribbed gathering at the waist. I think it will be very flattering. It's lime green, which I can't seem to get enough of. I've got a lime green purse, wallet, fleece jacket, t-shirt, t-shirt dress, 2 long sleeved shirts, a scarf, a shear dressy poncho like scarf to go over a spaghetti strap t-shirt that I haven't gotten yet, 3 bracelets, and 2 pendants. I'm hoping the PXS will actually be the right size. It's always a gamble for me when I mail order.

http://www.shopthebay.com/pagebuilde...=SEARCHRESULTS

Since some of you have mentioned your meassurements, it got me to thinking what are mine now. So I pulled out DH's metal meassuring tape and found out I'm now 29/24/32 and I know I have a 28 in seam. I remember a time in high school when Levy's still had waist numbers on then leather labels (and the normal weight girls aways penned them out thinking they were fat. Then, I was a perfect 28 28 because the waist hit at my hips. It's the only time in my life were I didn't have to hem pants. Even petites are too long. But better to be too long then some of you who are so long legged that you have trouble finding pants to go down to your ankles.

Accessories? ;)

Well no wonder. Until 6 years ago I wasn't a petite. I wore regulars and petites were seriously high water on me. Then they decided to make all the petites longer. Now even petites are a shade long on me. I'm 5'3 3/4 and I have long legs for my height. What is next - ultra petite for those 00's?

Oh and while I am on a vanity sizing rant. Medela - probably the largest supplier of breastfeeding supplies and products - is discontinuing the 32 band for many of its bras. What is next?

Thin people are just going to be naked soon I tell ya.

:rofl:

Ennay - I just ordered new jeans from Land's End, and they offer petites in 3 lengths. It's wonderful, because I find that most petites are just right or a little short for me, though I need them because I have a short rise. These jeans fit me like they were custommade - length just right and I can button and zip them without effort. :)

I have a slightly annoying time with pant lengths. My inseam is 33", which I think is the length of most regular length pants. The trouble is that while they are fine in length as long as I wear very flat shoes (ie, flip flops) and don't shrink in the wash (which happens 50% of the time), they are too short if I want to wear heels or non-completely-flat shoes. Most of you probably haven't noticed that while they sell petites in stores, Longs have to be ordered online--almost no one carries them in the stores. It's a little bit annoying.

And since we're discussing it, my measurements are currently 34/27.5/38. I don't know how my hips have come to be bigger than my chest--I've always been top heavy. Even though I lost somewhere between 12 and 15 pounds this year, hardly any of it has come off my hips and thighs. It's confusing. I have never been even a little bit pear shaped before--even as a slim teen and 20-something, I was top heavy. :dizzy:

Carolyn, I've always had a love/hate relationship with pixie women. I'm slightly jealous of how tiny you all can be, but by comparison, I always feel like a giant oaf, so I hate you a little bit too :)

Since I'm at work I can't whip out my measuring tape.....but I have to commiserate with baffled. Those of us that are on the tallish side (I'm 5'8") do have a hard time getting pants the right length. I can't buy anything from Coldwater Creek because they're too short (even with flat shoes). I could get the skirts, but I don't wear skirts....At the Gap, I can get regular jeans and wear them with flats and if I pick out the longs, well, they're so long I'd need to wear stilettos (and then DH would look like a shrimp next to me). Can't they get something in between? DD was lamenting the other day that it looks like she won't grow any taller (she's 5'6" and seems to have inherited most of her genes from DH's family who are all on the short side rather than from me where none of us are shorter than me--in fact I'm the shortest except for my sister who is all of 1/4" shorter than me!). Frankly, at 5'6" she has no problem with the length of pants. I envy her just a little for that. But I like being tall!

I read somewhere here about someone's DH or BF who went shopping and came away to find that either he had gained weight (which he didn't think he had) or the men's sizes had changed. He was wondering how on earth a 34" waist could be anything other than 34" (or something like that).

I know that when buying clothes for my DS, who is 12 years old, he wears size 12. He's always worn clothes that match his age. How weird is that? DD was similar but she was always "a couple years older" in clothes (she'd be 10 and wearing a 12).When I was little, all I ever remember was going shopping with my Mom and her telling me that I was a 6X. Oh, how I hated being 6X. All the cute clothes were 5's! What was 6X anyway?

I meant to go to Talbots this weekend, but DD decided a movie was in store for the family. Perhaps I'll get there this weekend.

My bf is 6'2, so I can wear the highest heels I want and he's still taller. It's great!

But don't forget, there's always tailoring. I often buy the long pants and take them with my shoes to the seamstress. She hems them to the right length for about $3.

You're right about 5'6. It's probably the perfect height. But I think that if I woke up tomorrow 3 inches shorter, I'd be terribly distressed. Kinda the same way I am with my breasts: I *****ed and moaned for years about being a D and a DD and all the trouble that causes with clothing and bras, and now that I'm a C and can wear bras with thin straps and can button shirts over my chest, I feel absolutely bereft!

It's tough being chronically dissatisfied :)

Kery - Not a maintainer obviously but I have a feeling I would entirely like to raid your closet. :)

Last time I put on black/red striped tights (they actually come in plus sizes now) I THOUGHT I looked cute until I saw a picture of myself! Eeek!

We're our own worst critics!

Ain't that the truth! :lol:

Unlike Baffled, I'd love to be a C cup, years of D/DD have left permanent grooves in my shoulders.

And at 5'4" (when I stand up straight) I am taller than my DH. :D But he was taller before he had cancer. Lost over 5" from compression fractures in his back. Now he's a little pixie guy :rofl: (Not, you understand, that he was ever a big guy - 5'9" and skinny) My 5'3" sister is the one you tall gals hate - her DH is 6'7"

LOL. In my family, we firmly believe that short women should not steal all the tall men!

Nah, wait until Christmas, that way I'll have more clothes for you to raid. ;)

(And same with the stripes when I was heavier. Or, worse, stockings that stop in the middle of the thigh; things are starting to get better now that my thighs are more muscular, but at the time, with all the fat and cellulite... Eeew.)

Allison, I'm 5'7 and I buy the long in all my jeans. My legs are so long they seem awkward compared to my upper body. Last fall I bought some new boots (that I love) and when I wear them, I'm as tall as DH.

Carolyn, I remember the Levis with the size tag on the hip. I wore them all the time when I was a teen. When I went to college and the 29" waist got too small, I quit wearing them. I do still see men in them with the size tag showing sometimes. (I don't know if they were just really old jeans , or if Levi's still make them this way).

I don't think I'll ever have to worrry about wearing negative sizes. Right now, I'm just happy if my new clothes fit right.

My dh is 5'3 so I am about 1/2 inch taller than him. I finally could wear his jeans, but they are too short...seriously high water. He has I think a 28 inch inseam and I have a 31

Allison - that was me...dh has always worn 30W 28L - VERY hard to find and his mom was so excited because she found some since we cant find a tailor for jeans that doesnt charge as much as the jeans cost. He put them on and they were neither a 30W or a 28L...they were HUGE.

Baffled - you had me LOLLING again this morning! But there are some draw backs to being so short. I have to get a stool out to reach anything in the top shelves of my kitchen cabinette or the back of the middle cabinette. Sometimes in business situations, people don't take me seriously because of my size, especially when everyone is standing up and towering over me. I have to look up to see anyone who isn't a child.

Pants length is so weird. I'm 5'4", which I had heard in the past is "average" height for women, but regular length is almost always too long and petite length is almost always too short! The store that bugs me the most is Express. They're great for tall people, seriously -- their longs are longer than most places, and their shirts are also much longer (which of course looks ridiculous on me). But here is the issue: the longs are like 2 inches longer than the regular. But the regular is FOUR inches longer than the petite!! Whose bright idea was that? For the record though, their regulars are longer than most places too.

But, I did get lucky with my wedding dress. I ordered from a designer that sells them in a "petite" length that is four inches shorter than the regular, and the regular is designed to fit someone who is 5'10". So, with the petite length and some cute heels, my dress doesn't need to be hemmed at all!

I'm with paperclippy. I'm 5'5" and I think my inseam is something like 29. SOmetimes I'm a regular, and I just realized that sometimes I fit petite... but the whole thing is bizarre. I tried on a pair of pants the other day that were a little short on me. I figured they were petite. NO == regular! Maybe that's why they were in the 75% of the lowest price at the Talbot's outlet. Too bad, cause there was a great jacket that DID fit and I could've had the whole pant suit for less than $40.

Tailors can shorten, but they can't add a bunch of length....
Right?

baffled == love the pics, love the outfit!!! GORGEOUS!

Love the dog, too! :)

Now that I look at it, that skirt is not doing much for my thighs. Ah well. At least my dog and grandpa are cute :)

Wyllenn, I have had pants lengthened a couple of times. Usually there's an inch or so at the seam for the tailor to let out; sometimes that can be enough. If you want to get fancy (and really want the whole suit), you could always have her add a strip of velvet ribbon or something to the hems to give you a bit of extra length.

As Stacy and Clinton always say, make friends with a tailor!

I am loving this clothes shopping thread! Clothes are my #1 motivator to keep the weight off.
Carolyn: I love your kiwi sweater and may order one for myself. You'll have to let us know how you like i when it comes and if the XS is the right size for you.
Baffled: You are gorgeous and the skirt makes your thighs look slim and trim. I hear you on the Nordstrom bra fitting. I started out a 38DD and always thought I'd end up a 36D. Imagine my surprise to go for a fitting and find out that I'm really a 34DDD! At Nordstrom I just bought a bra that i LOVE in a 32DDDD. The fitter said the band size ran large which is why I could wear the 32 but still. Once I got over the huge cup size I realize that I look tons better. I feel better too. But ohmigod I lost 50 pounds so I could wear a G cup. How bizarre.
Anyway, I love hearing about everyone's shopping experiences. I can usually wear regular pants and jeans but sometimes they are a bit short. Longs are almost always too long. I do have trouble with sleeves being too short sometimes, and that's a bummer. Otherwise, I like being on the tall side.

Pam

baffled, great pic's and you look fantastic , thanks for sharing. Love the lab too, he's cute.

Maintainers love labs!!!! Great pics, baffled!

Baffled, my jaw is hanging open. You look like two entirely different people!! :faint: You have great legs and I agree that you could show them off a little more. You -- look -- absolutely -- fabulous!!!

Welcome to the club, Pam! All clothes junkies welcome. :D

Heather, I'm in the same boat with pants. At 5' 4", I'm right on the edge of petite and regular. But I need the regular rise in pants so I'm resigned to hemming, generally 2 - 2.5 inches. And I often need to take up sleeves too, even on sweaters. Which is why I love 3/4 length sleeves!

But taking up hems is so much easier than the frustrations you tall people must go through. My sister is 5' 11" and can barely find anything that fits, let alone professional clothes. Blouses and sweaters are too short, sleeves are too short, pants are floods. And she has a very difficult time finding talls (let's not even talk about size 12 shoes).

It just doesn't make sense that the same proportioned clothes are supposed to fit tiny Carolyn as tall Anne and all of us in between. :?:

Thanks for the compliments :) My dog is actually part shepherd as well as part lab. She's adorable.

Pam, 32DDDD!!!?????!?!?!?!? Wow. I didn't know that quadruple D was a size...I assumed it went from DD to E or J or something. I completely agree though: high quality, well-fitting bras make a world of difference. I evangelize on the subject of regular fittings whenever possible. :) There's nothing worse than a woman of any size in an ill-fitting bra, and you see it far too often.

As far as you pixie-types go, isn't the problem, aside from basic length, that the knees on my pants will basically hang around your ankles or mid-calves? Aren't the proportions all wrong?

It really is a pest. I love clothes and I love shopping and I like to look nice. But honestly, I think, a. that women's pants should switch to the 30x34 system that men have, and b. that department stores and boutiques should offer the same tailoring services (for the same prices) for women as they do for men. Why are we expected to be cookie-cutter sized where men are not? It makes no sense.

By the same token, my bf is tall and slimmish and also has very long arms. He wears a 15.5 or 16 in the neck and needs a 37 in the arms. Dress shirts and blazers are almost impossible for him to find, and there is very rarely enough fabric in the seam for a tailor to lengthen the sleeves. He's been trying to find a corduroy sport's coat for about 5 years and has been completely unable to find something that will work. So men don't have it all either.

Actually, I think the only people who have it totally easy with the clothes are women who are around 5'6, perfectly proportioned with no curves. I bet everything fits and looks good on them. :)

I'm very chatty today. I should stop procrastinating! My dissertation, alas, will not write itself!

really?? mine did!!

Ha! Just kidding! :lol3:

I sympathize!

Hi Baffled: What I learned is that a DD = E, DDD = F, and DDDD = G. (Different manufactueres go with all the Ds and others go with the higher letter size.) After that I'm not sure what happens, and I don't want to know! :-) I feel like such a freak, but gosh, when I put my shirt on I really don't look that big. These proper fitting bras actually make me look smaller, which is such an eye-opener for me. And with the larger cups, you go down in band size, so it's kinda fun wearing a 32.

Has your bf tried tall sizes? My hubby is 6'3" with 37-38 inch arms and he can find nice fitting shirts and sport coats in talls (starting with size large or 40-42) at Eddie Bauer, L.L. Bean, Dillards, and other stores.

Pam

Pam, excuse a dumb question, but how did the fitter figure out what your band size is?

My DS needs a 37-38" sleeve too and we've had good luck with Macy's on-line, in their Big and Tall Shop. :)

Meg: She never actually put a tape measure around me. For the first fitting, she looked at me and tried me in a 36D, which was too big around and too small in the cups, and it just went from there, until we got the cups so they covered me and did their job and the band was snug. By the way, one of the fitters said that the band needs to be really tight, almost too tight, when you first try it on, that it should be on the furthest out She even suggested using bra extenders the first few days so it was comfortable until it stretched out. My bras did fell snug when I first bought them but a day or two later I was moving the strap to the middle hook.
I hope this helps.
Pam

Meg, usually they measure you right below your breasts to get the band size (it's something like that number + 4, then do trial and error to find exactly what's right). When you have a proper fit, the band should sit under your shoulder blades in the back and not ride up at all, and the underwire in between your breasts should lay flat against your chest. Last time I was measured I ended up as a 32FF. Apparently FF is a half-size in between F and G!

The thing about going down in bands with higher cup sizes is so weird. Basically in a normal store, I would end up getting like a 36DD, which wouldn't fit right at all but at least it would cover me up everywhere since there is enough fabric. Really though, the amount of fabric in the cups needs to be more, and the amount in the band less, otherwise it will just slide down and not provide support. My boobs look much smaller with a 32FF than they did with a 36DD!

Thanks, very helpful! It sounds like it was pretty much trial and error. My bras seem pretty comfy right now, but my ribcage is really big - like 33" - so I was just curious. :)

Oops, I didn't see Jessica's post. That's what I thought about measuring around your ribs right below your breasts. I'm 33" and seem to do well in 36 bras. A 38 would be huge and I can't see me in a 34. I may play around next time I'm shopping. :)

I was measured around the ribcage, too. I think I was 31" or something, so apparently that's right between a 34 and a 36. Thankfully the 34s fit perfectly (although as the person above says, they stretch, so you can start on the furthest hook and move inwards), so I didn't have to go down in cup size. If you're really 33", you probably would be a 38, but it's possible that you're not measuring yourself properly. Seek professional help--it's worth it!

Jessica, that's what I heard about the underwire laying flat on your chest, and my new bras do that and it is such a nice, new feelings. My bras never fit that way before, I just got whatever would sorta kinda fit and that was it. Plus I was shopping at stores like Kohl's where they didn't have different out-of-the norm sizes to try, only the standard ones, which I now know don't work for me at all. I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one wearing these larger cup sizes, which make me look smaller and give me more lift. A lot more lift. The fitter actually said that now I am showing off my figure and it makes my torso look longer and trimmer.

When I measure around my ribcage right below my breasts I am about a 30-31, so a 34 makes sense if you add 3 or 4 inches. I wear a 32 in this one style because it runs large and stretches out more than others do. It's called a t-shirt bra, and has slightly padded molded cups. That's another totally new thing for me. I never DREAMED of even trying on one of these types of bras becasue I would figure they would make me look even bigger, but they don't. Plus it's nice to not have to worry about nip show-through. :)

Pam

OK, you guys have me sold on the benefits of a fitter!

Now to find one - I've heard that Nordstroms has awesome bra fitters but we're not getting our Nordstroms in Pittsburgh until next year and the closest one is currently in Cleveland. My local Macy's has idiots in the lingerie department, so perhaps it would be worth a trip downtown, hoping that the good people work there. :chin:

Let us know how it goes, Meg. It is definitely worth it. It was a little embarrasing at first, but I got used to it. I tried Dillards and Nordstroms. I think Nordstroms had more variety and the fitter was a little friendlier. The lady I worked with at Dillards was named Herta and boy did she know breasts and bras. One of the Macy's where I live has a line called Lunier. Not all of the Macy's carry it, but it is really nice and is geared for C through DDD cups. Many of the styles are so pretty. I'm in heaven and now I want to buy bras, bras and more bras. I always hated mine before. You might surprise yourself and wear a 34 with a larger cup. I'm not a tiny person by any stretch and am totally amazed I'm wearing 32s and 34s. Like Jessica said, it's that larger cup that makes a difference because it adds more fabric. Still, you'd think that bra makers would have a 32 be 32 inches around, including the cup size. In other words, a 32B would have more band and a 32D would have less band. Anyway, good luck and let us know how it goes.
Pam