Upstairs, Downstairs
Today my departmental holiday lunch was at a PF Chang’s at the Stoneridge Mall out in Pleasanton (much of our team works in Pleasanton, and I’ll likely end up there mid-year next year once they consolidate all of us in one location). I figured since I was already at the mall (4 days before Christmas!) I’d brave Macy’s to see if I could find any interesting clothes at a good discount. It was tolerably crowded.
Flashback to early 2003, when I weighed 352 pounds and the only clothes I could wear were in the plus-sized section of Macy’s or at specialty plus size stores. Hell, at that point, a lot of times I had trouble finding things at Macy’s where the sizes go up to 24 and sometimes a 26. I was hovering higher than that depending on the clothing and the cut.
Yeah, that sucked, and I think it was realizing that I was going to be relegated to online-only shopping that was one of the many wake-up calls that started me on the path towards sustained weight loss and health. Of course, the path hasn’t been strictly linear - after getting down to where I could wear clothes in the 14/16 range by mid-2004, over the next few years I crept back up in weight and size and found myself back into the 18/20 clothing range… which brought me to the beginning of this year and a desire to get things back on track. And, as I’ve chronicled here, I absolutely have gotten things back on track and I’m back into all but the very smallest clothes in my closet.
But in some ways, clothes shopping has gotten more difficult, not easier. Sure, it’s great to be able to participate in an event where there’s a free t-shirt and ask for a Large and be confident that it’ll fit (instead of hoping they’d have 2x or 3x, or taking the XL (often the largest size available) and throwing it in a drawer knowing it’ll never fit. Yeah, I did that a bunch of times - what a victory it was to have those same XL t-shirts become baggy!).
And as much as I wear t-shirts on the weekends, my work look is a bit more dressed up. And that puts me smack in the “tweener” range of women’s clothing - too small for plus sizes and too big for misses sizes. Or at least, I can’t consistently fit into either range. Misses sizes run up to an XL or up to a 14 or 16 (sometimes 18 or 20 but that’s rare). Plus sizes tend to start at 1X, or at 14W, but often at 16W. The “W” generally means that there’s a different cut to the clothing - I find the tops are cut much fuller than I am now and that the bottoms are also cut fuller. So they’re not just bigger, they’re cut differently.
I have less trouble finding tops right now - for the most part I fit well into the larger misses sizes without any trouble. Unless it’s really tailored I can fit comfortably in an L or XL depending on how something’s cut. I think it helps a lot that I’m not particularly busty so stuff hangs better on me. My biggest problem there is that sleeves are often too short since I’m 5′10″ and a lot of my height is in my torso. But a lot of this season’s sweaters seem to be cap sleeve or short sleeve or 3/4 sleeve sweaters that are meant to be layered; I throw them on over a tall size long sleeve t-shirt and I’ve got plenty of room.
Pants are another story altogether and a never-ending source of frustration. For casual styles like workout capris or running tights I have no trouble getting into an L or XL misses size, but for more tailored pants I’m starting to think my only solution is to buy things a size or two up and have them tailored down. If they fit through the tummy/hips, they’ll gap at the waist. If they fit at the waist they’ll be too tight through the thighs/hips/tummy. Don’t even get me started on where waistbands tend to fall … I’m glad that the low rise trend seems to be moderating at least a bit. Low rise just does not work on this body. I have slightly better luck going with the smallest of the plus-size pants, but that’s not a slam dunk - lots of them don’t fit. I found a couple today that were decent - not great - but decent and I bought them because they fit, not because I loved them. That’s what I used to do “back in the day” - when you’re at the highest of the plus sizes, if something fits … you buy it. I thought maybe those days were behind me.
And don’t even get me started on jeans. I have a couple pairs of Old Navy size 16 jeans from a few years back that fit me almost perfectly (if a teeny bit too tight still), and one pair in 14 (that I never wore, but bought as goal jeans). Of course, they don’t make that style anymore and I swear there are no jeans anywhere that are designed for my body. And they all seem to have spandex these days, which I don’t like in denim.
And then there’s the fact that plus size choices still suck relative to the “straight” sizes. The selection is not nearly as great, the prices tend to be higher, and the department is often relegated to a lonely out-of-the-way corner of the store. The title of this post refers to the placement of the plus sizes in a typical department store - it’s usually relegated to the upstairs (next to the furniture or the housewares!) or in the basement (next to the children’s clothing). The message being “you don’t have anywhere else to shop so we know you’ll seek this section out.” Or the more cynical version “we cater to you because it’s good business but we don’t need the fatties visible to the rest of our clothing shoppers!”
I look forward to the day when I’m at a goal weight/size and can start investing in clothes; I think then it’ll be easier to justify paying for tailoring to get things to fit just right. Right now, I’m trying to buy things that are relative bargains because although I’m not blowing through sizes like crazy, I still anticipate clothes not fitting for much longer than a season or two.