Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Sequin And Applique Envy

I was rooting for the girl in this article, who learned that she didn't have to dress down just because she is overweight. Good for her. In case you don't want to enter your ZIP code or whatever to read it, it's an article about the increasing versatility of plus-size styles, and how stores are trying to cater to plus-sized people who have different approaches to fashion. Although I had to laugh at this quote:

"'We have girls come in with their skinny friends all the time,' said Lane Bryant Assistant Store Manager Kelly Martino. 'And the skinny ones are always saying "Oh, I wish I could fit into that."''

Somehow I doubt that skinny chicks are clamoring to fit into the cutting-edge styles at Lane Bryant when they have pretty much the rest of the fashion world to choose from. I could be wrong, but... naah. I'm totally not wrong. Heh.

9 Comments:

Blogger Lisa-Marie Jordan said...

Yeah, right! Those skinny friends are just being nice!

1:03 PM  
Blogger A Peach said...

I'm actually kind of fuming about how the sized 14/16 girl was told she had great legs "for a larger woman" by her coworker! Puh-lease! Gr!

2:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Could have also been ...

"it's an article about the increasing versatility of styles for older women, and how stores are trying to cater to mature women who have different approaches to fashion."

(shrug) I so long for approval. NOT.

4:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Some seasons, I have looked at Lane Bryant clothes and gone, "it's not fa-a-air." I wear a size 2 or 4, but there have been years when the entire rest of the fashion world was giving me billious horrible colors to choose from, and my bigger friends kept getting pretty, pretty colors at Lane Bryant and ?Torrid?. Also, Lane Bryant at least claims to be structured for women with curves, whereas the rest of the fashion world is structured to make linear women look curvy, which makes curvy women look ridiculous.

So while I think women should have good fashion choices no matter how big they are, some seasons nobody gets good fashion choices. And in at least one of those seasons, Lane Bryant came through.

--Mris (not anonymous, just don't have an account!)
www.marissalingen.com

9:00 AM  
Blogger mo pie said...

I love the comments that pop up here, just so you guys all know. Always refreshing perspectives.

I'm puzzled by the comment about clothes for the older woman, though. What exactly would that entail? How would clothes for older women be different from clothes in general? Are you talking about marketing clothes to older women? Like having older women in ads? Because it seems the clothes would be the same, no?

10:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah, Mo?

I am 47 now and, no, I surely do not want to wear the same kinds of clothes 17 or even 27 year-olds wear. Well, not the stuff I see them wearing around where I live. Not this summer. Uh-Uh. No way.

See, I'm not playing the same game as the young women. Clothes now need to be the right colors for my skin (i.e. not black) and must hold up in the wash (preferably several washes) and must not demand my attention as I move through the day.

How do I look in them? Pretty damn good. Are they fashionable? I doubt it and I just do not care.

See, after a certain point in one's life "cute" or "trendy" just doesn't cut it. Clothing that makes one look like someone to take seriously start to take over one's closet.

And they're d*mn*d hard to find in certain sizes.

11:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The older woman thing was me - it just seemed to ring similar bells. Wear what you want to wear cos it pleases you - if you take note of the media you'll never be thin enough or young enough. I don't want to shop in the section that has stuff that *they* think will look good on my bigger bod any more than I want to head off to beige world for the stuff *appropriate* to the elder matron lol

1:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I used to work for Lane Bryant and it is true, a lot of thin women would come in the store asking for belts in size 2. And I was always happy to tell them that the smallest size we carried was a 14. It was great to see their faces drop and then they would scan the store and notice that everyone was big working in there. Then I would tell them to check out Express, because I am sure they have it in their size there. It is true though, happened at least a couple times a week. As far as stores like JC Penny jumping on the bandwagon, well the last time I checked, the plus size section was in the basement, next to the home/carpet section. Nice. I walked around that store for almost 20 minutes looking for the plus size section. It used to be upstairs next to the others, but now we are pushed into the basement in the furthest corner of the store. Let's just say that I do not shop there anymore!

7:56 AM  
Blogger Kendra said...

Lane Bryant makes me shudder with their "hello it's made of PLASTIC" cheapo materials. Even if I find something vaguely cute, I know it'll feel like wearing cellophane. Plus, even though they're going for (mall) trendy, I still feel like most things in there are too tent-ish for me.

I don't mind a bit going to plus sized stores, but I DO mind the shunted-off-in-the-basement plus size departments in big department stores. I always feel like I transform into some small rodent, scurrying from rack to rack hoping no one notices the (gasp!) fat girl.

11:22 AM  

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