shopping, yuck

I braved the mall this afternoon. After two hours, I was still empty-handed. The goal was to get a suit for job interviews.

I'm a idiot when it comes to clothes. I am perfectly content with basic jeans, T-shirts, golf shirts, or simple slacks and simple blouse. Great deals on clothes at the malls, but it looks like a giant garage sale. Some of the clothes look like they've been dug up from the 1970's inventory (gag). What's with the frills and fringes and prints? Why would it be so difficult to find a basic solid color long-sleeve shirt?

I'm in the petites section. I saw sizes ranging from 4 to 18. What sense does that make? Size categories are junior, misses, petites, women, and plus. It seems to me that a petite past 10 would then fall under "women." I don't know my size so I picked one and tried it. Too big. Tried the next smaller size. Still too big. Tried the next smaller size ... um, maybe. Waist a little big and pant legs too long, but it means that it can be tailored. Odd thing, the pants are lined like the jackets are lined. Oh, by the way, jacket and skirt sets were rare. 99.5% were pant suits. If pant suits are the norm for job interviews, that's fine with me.

They've fudged with the sizes too. A size 10 these days is bigger than a size 10 of years back. I envy the simplicity of the men's sizing: waist size, inseam length, neck size, arm length. In high school, I favored the boy's jeans. Now that I'm older, I know why: girls' jeans were designed such that they pretty much fit all the way up the crotch. I also preferred my jeans to rest just above my hips, not choke my waist. However, I could never find the exact combo of waist size and inseam length. To get my waist size, I'd have to get a longer inseam. Thankfully they've created the "relaxed fit" in women's jeans; it means I can get a loose fit without having to get a size too large with the legs too long. My jeans as an adult actually fit very nicely.

Tomorrow, I will try another (more upscale) mall. Frodo will accompany me since I'm such a fashion ditz. Perhaps this will qualify as penance: having to shop for interview clothes.