posted
I am told that there is tremendous pressure to be thin in this society. Anyone who thinks that should try actually being thin in this society.
They don't carry shirts in my size, they don't always carry trousers in my size, and I looked in three stores before I found an appropriate sweater in my size (and that is saying something because sweaters only come in about five sizes).
It is easier to find clothes for the obese than someone a five-foot ten, twenty-eight inch waisted, fourteen inch neck guy.
As a result, I wear clothes that are two small for me (from the boys department) or two large for me.
Still, having not set foot in a nice clothing store in ages (It has been years since I bought something that wasn't from Target) I had forgotten how great the service generally is.
I do, however, find it funny that many male models could not actually find clothes from the designers the model in a store.
Medium is the new small and I have even seen “XXX-Large.”
I am not the thinnest person I know, I wonder how other people (especially people my age, whose waists are generally not yet XXX-Large) find clothing.
Posts: 1332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
One of my roommates is about 5'6" and probably weighs 105lbs. He's very thin, and he often shops in the women's section or in used clothing stores, where he can find a wider variety of styles.
Still, I imagine lots of overweight people would be happy to be thin and have a hard time finding clothes, rather than obese and have a hard time finding clothes.
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posted
I am sure that obese people want to be thin, or at least thinner, but not to find clothes. For men at least, clothes for the obese are easy to find.
Posts: 1332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Try being a female is who is six foot one and slightly overweight. Not obese, just twenty or so pounds too heavy. Try to find long pants that actually fit and are not for the underweight supermodels who don't exist in the real world. I admit, in recent years it's gotten somewhat easier to find long pants. But long pants that fit? Not so much.
I have always been very tall. I recall being so embarrassed when I was 7-11 years old because I was too tall for the cute kid clothes. I had to shop in the petite women's section. Thus at 9 years old and five foot three or four, I looked like a frumpy older woman. Not fun.
But in response to your original question Pelegius: I had no idea it was so hard to find clothes for thin young men. Whenever I go shopping, and granted I'm a woman, I find the opposite problem to be true. That is, it's harder for overweight people to find clothes. You could always take up sewing, and make your own clothes though. Posts: 511 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
I don't think the pressure to be thin is as focussed on guys as on girls. For one thing, there are MANY guys in your situation. That may be one of the reasons you have a hard time finding clothes. My 15-year-old brother is almost six foot, and I think a 28-inch waist would still be a little loose on him.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
I do think that it is the oposite for women, yes.
"You could always take up sewing, and make your own clothes though."
Yeah, right, my sewing is so bad that I can't believe I passed the textile arts sections of Middle School art. Even if I were any good, mens clothing is very complex (look at the difference between a dress and a pair of trousers.)
Posts: 1332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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True, true. Pants are not easy, and neither are long sleeved shirts for that matter. Just being a smart aleck.
Posts: 511 | Registered: Mar 2006
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No a dress is not simple, but compared to a pair of pants with pockets, nonetheless, a dress is a breeze.
Posts: 511 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Shoot, I can never seem to put on any weight. That's why I am on this specialized diet that is high in Carbs. It's called the Beer Diet.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Luet13: Ha! You think being thin is a problem?
Try being a female is who is six foot one and slightly overweight. Not obese, just twenty or so pounds too heavy. Try to find long pants that actually fit and are not for the underweight supermodels who don't exist in the real world. I admit, in recent years it's gotten somewhat easier to find long pants. But long pants that fit? Not so much.
I have always been very tall. I recall being so embarrassed when I was 7-11 years old because I was too tall for the cute kid clothes. I had to shop in the petite women's section. Thus at 9 years old and five foot three or four, I looked like a frumpy older woman. Not fun.
But in response to your original question Pelegius: I had no idea it was so hard to find clothes for thin young men. Whenever I go shopping, and granted I'm a woman, I find the opposite problem to be true. That is, it's harder for overweight people to find clothes. You could always take up sewing, and make your own clothes though.
I'm 6' and thin and female. And shopping for clothes makes me so, so angry. Nothing ever fits.
And it's much easier for tall men to find pants than tall women.
quote:Originally posted by Pelegius: I am sure that obese people want to be thin, or at least thinner, but not to find clothes. For men at least, clothes for the obese are easy to find.
I disagree. I have been as low as a size 32 waist and as high as a size 44 waist. At the high end, it is all but impossible to find clothes that fit. Clothes at that size tend to assume that the wearer needs enormous crotch space, and has lots of fat below the waist, which I never have, and it also seems to assume that a person with a size 44 waist nevertheless has skinny legs. Unfortunately, my legs have always, even when I was skinny, been pretty wide, and I have often had to wear pants that were too large around my waist in order for them to not be constricting for my legs. In fact, that pretty much describes me now. And since the pants are too large around my waist, I get these unsightly gathers caused by my belt needing to be cinched tight to hold up my pants.
And lets not even talk about the relative impossibility of finding pants that aren't pleated!
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
It's relative to age and clothing style, too. I'm on the thin side of average (6', 32-34 waist depending on the brand) and it's easy as all heck to find jeans & cargo khakis, but finding slacks or other less casual items that fit well is a challenge. It helps a lot that until very recently, pants too long for your waist size were ridiculously popular.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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What y'all seem to be missing is that no one can easily find off-the-rack clothing that fits. Human bodies don't have standard proportions. Everyone's different. Mass produced clothing has to attempt to fit the majority of people okay, which means that it ends up not fitting anybody well. I'm pretty average sized, but my waist is small. In order to get pants that fit my hips, the waist is going to be too big, every time. Some brands or styles it's better than others, but it's always a problem. Your choices are basically to buy custom made clothing, have your clothing tailored, or spend ludicrous amounts of time trying to find a brand that fits you reasonably well and then sticking with it. Or learning to sew.
So, some people at the ends of the spectrum do end up having a harder time, because there's less choices to sort through, but there are very, very few people out there who would actually say it's easy for them to find clothing that fits. Because most clothing doesn't. Anyone. And there is no particularly good way to fix that.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I'm tall (6'2") and skinny (140) and don't have a hard time finding clothes. Swim suits maybe, but there are plenty of pants and shirts available. And Target is usually too expensive for me ... I go to Bealls, Ross, etc. when they are on crazy sales. I've gotten pants and shirts and jackets for 95% off .
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I just had to go shopping because none of my stuff fits anymore. I tried on size after size until I settled on something that hung right on me.
Turns out I had a change of three dress sizes.
I wish I were handier with a needle and thread so that I could do my own alterations. The best I can do is safety pins, which, if I'm not trying for a punk look, doesn't always match my style.
Pel, you need to get as close as you can to your size, and then have a tailor alter your stuff the rest of the way. In my town, every dry cleaner has tailoring (either in the shop, or they send it out for you), and there are seamstresses who have set up shop, too. Check out your town for similar.
Also, you may have much better luck finding a size 14 collar shirt when you shop from catalogues or online. They are hard to find on the shelves. http://www.landsend.com has clothing in your size. No hassle!
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
No, really sewing pants with zippers and pockets is much easier than any dress I want to sew myself. Most of them have boning from the chest to the waist, which is a pain in the just about everything. I've also altered tux jackets, lots of fun.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Well, since no one else will say it, it stinks to be fat too. Espescially with a long body and short lets... all the pants are too long, since unlike with guys, they don't even GIVE you a length on girls pants. I end up usually doing dresses for work, for just that reason. Long jeans I can just fold up, or bunch over my sneakers on weekends, but dress pants with shoes (other than heals) just look WRONG if they're too long. At least if I go for dresses, the length of my torso factors into it. I still have to buy big sizes, but they don't look so funny.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
There are a few places that sell short/ankle/petite womens pants in average sizes (so 8-16). I know, I buy them.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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i just chop 5 inches off the bottom of pretty much every pair of pants i buy... oh, the pain of being 5'1" Posts: 97 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by DDDaysh: Well, since no one else will say it, it stinks to be fat too. Espescially with a long body and short lets... all the pants are too long, since unlike with guys, they don't even GIVE you a length on girls pants. I end up usually doing dresses for work, for just that reason. Long jeans I can just fold up, or bunch over my sneakers on weekends, but dress pants with shoes (other than heals) just look WRONG if they're too long. At least if I go for dresses, the length of my torso factors into it. I still have to buy big sizes, but they don't look so funny.
Most regular women's pants are 32" inseam. Short/petite are 31".
posted
Yeah, I don't think it's that all clothes are made to fit big people or skinny people. They're all made to fit average people. When I go shopping, there are usually an abundance of size 8, 10, and 12 women's clothing, size 8 shoes, and size 36C bras. Women who are size 10 with size 8 feet and 36C bust are theoretically luckier than those of us who are much smaller or larger than that, but even they sometimes complain of pants that aren't long enough, waists that fit wrong, and shoes that are too wide or too narrow. I like what ElJay said. Nobody fits a mold.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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All winter coats look like cardboard boxes with sleeves on me. Either they fit in the waist and not the shoulders, or they fit in the shoulders and...look like giant cardboard boxes.
posted
At least men don't have my particular problem in finding clothes that fit. Or at least I don't think they do. My problem is that all the clothes manufacturers seem to think that women who have...how to put this...a large derrierre, also have a large bust. Well, no. In order to find a top that will fit my hips, the top part of the garment ends up being two or three sizes too big.
Oh, and then there are the arms. I don't have small upper arms by any means, but at least half the time a top that fits over my hips is horribly baggy in the upper arms.
And yeah, I could lose weight. But then, because I generally lose weight proportionately all over my body, I'd just be buying clothes that fit by bottom but not my top in smaller sizes...the problem would be the same, just scaled down.
And my gripe? That buyers for stores don't seem to understand that those of us who are no longer teenagers would like to dress fashionably, but don't really want to dress like twenty-somethings, necessarily. I can find frumpy stuff that fits me; and I can find clothes appropriate to much younger women that fit me. But I'd like to look nice without looking like I'm trying to be 25 again.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:At least men don't have my particular problem in finding clothes that fit.
erm, have you read the thread?
Well, Icarus, that comment was supposed to be a humorous reference to the fact that I haven't seen any men in here complaining about having breasts that are too small in proportion to the rest of their bodies...note that I did say "particular". I wasn't intending to imply that no one had talked about proportion problems in general...which I did, of course, notice that they had.
Guess I'll have to quit trying to be funny. Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Hey, what stores tailor coats? Because it's freezing here, and I still don't have any clothing for the occasion. I hate falling in love with coats and trying them on and realizing they make me look like a pyramid...and then the salespeople look at me like I'm on crack when I ask them if they tailor. Because, "Can't you just wear a size down?"
No, stupid. I can't. The sleeves are two inches too short already, and my shoulders barely fit in this one. I WOULD buy your coat in a size UP if you would get someone to tailor it.
Sometimes, I wish I could be a model just on the off chance that I would get free clothes for tall people. Then I remember that I like food.
quote:Originally posted by crescentsss: i just chop 5 inches off the bottom of pretty much every pair of pants i buy... oh, the pain of being 5'1"
I'm somewhere between 4'11" and 5'. If I had every pair of slacks altered every time I bought them I'd be broke, so I gave up on flat shoes and tend to wear 2-3" heels instead. It works, but it's a pain. I also save one pair of jeans to be worn with sneakers and have that "walked the extra length off" look.
Posts: 1214 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
When I was younger I was skinnier than I am now (which is still pretty skinny) and more uncomfortable with wearing what I considered to be "revealing" clothing. This caused problems because there was a prevailing feeling that if you were a skinny teen, you'd want to dress... promiscuously.
Now I'm more comfortable with myself and slightly larger, and so I'm able to find a larger variety of clothing. However, I am still down at the very smallest of clothes. And I'm by far not as small (I'm skinny but medium tall) as I could be.
I have no idea what smaller people do!
Bra sizes are even more stupid. But that's another thread.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
lma, I apologize. I didn't see the word "my" in your post, so I thought you were saying men had no problem finding clothes that fit.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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pH: I don't know about specific stores, but anywhere sufficiently high end should. Heck, you might talk to a high end men's clothing store or two, some of them would probably be willing to try tailoring a women's coat (though you wouldn't be able to acquire it there, obviously).
On the extraordinarily rare occasions I have room in my budget, I shop for good clothes at a local men's clothing store (the only really high end one in town) that includes free tailoring for life on everything sold at regular price. A place like that would certainly have the experience in tailoring to reasonably tackle a women's jacket, the only question would be price.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Let me just say, I absolutely abhor any department store's big and tall section. The big and tall stores themselves are fine. But when a "normal" store makes a b&t section it's horrible.
I'll explain. These stores seem to think that bigger people aren't going to like the style of clothes that smaller people like. Now, I'm not terribly superficial...but the styles of clothes they have for people my size look ridiculous. If I see a coat, or a shirt, or a pair of pants in the "regular" store, I think it should stand to reason that there should be a bigger size of that item in the "big and tall" section. Am I wrong?
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Either they fit in the waist and not the shoulders, or they fit in the shoulders and...look like giant cardboard boxes.
