Petite and Pudgy Looking for Timeless Fashion
I had a medical appointment fairly close to
the Eaton Centre and it being that time a year where I stand in front of my
closet bemoaning the lack of appropriate clothes therein, it seemed like kismet.
So I headed to the building with many, many stores ready to give someone money
so they could give me tops that would be neither too warm, nor too cold.
I skipped the top floor entirely, as that
has become dedicated to expensive US retailers that are financially unattainable for most
people, including this starving artist. I mean, there’s a jeans store where
items start at $300+ for a pair of ripped jeans. Even if I were to temporarily
lose my mind and pay that amount for a pair of jeans, I’d be looking for
something with more fabric. Y’know… to increase the value of the expenditure.
The lower two levels not only have more
stores, but also a lot more people. I zipped through the crowd, first visiting
my new go-to store Reitmans. It’s not as perfectly “me” as Joe Fresh used to be, back when it still appealed to a wider population than the young and skinny
who don’t like bright colours. But Reitman’s has a fantastic petite section and
a core selection of clothes with a nice, timeless style (i.e. basic tops and
pants without frills and crazy patterns).
There’d been some changes. The petite and
plus sections have disappeared, the area in which it was located now becoming
the career area, and the rest of the store had mostly clothes that appealed to
the young and skinny. So I approached my subsequent visit into approximately 10
stores on a triage system based on what has occasionally worked before, through
“I’ve never shopped here, but I’m desperate.”
And there was nothing.
Well, that is to say that there was lots,
but all of it was aimed at the young and skinny. I ventured to ask a few stores
and none of them went above a size 12. Because that’s another thing I
discovered. That apparently anything above a size 14 is now considered a Plus
size.
Eliminating larger sizes makes perfect
sense, doesn’t it? After all it’s not like there’s an obesity epidemic or
anything…
I was mostly looking for tops, so this wasn’t
too much of an issue. Every store has large and extra large sizes in tops and
with the exception of a few, those fit just fine. But the style of the tops was
somewhat limiting.
In every store, it seemed as if at least
50% of the tops were off-the-shoulder numbers. Not the kind with a wide scoop
neck, but the kind where the neck encircles the body at about mid-upper arm
level. Which can look lovely and romantic on models who have those square
shoulders, but on the rest of us mostly just looks like we’ve forgotten how to
dress properly.
The rest of the tops were either formfitting,
lacey or with ruffles (or both), had crazy patterns, or were belly shirts.
I had two problems, it seemed. One, that thanks
to the three M’s (medication, menopause, and middle-age), I am looking for a
slightly more generous cut. I’m in that orphan place between the more slender
sizes (below 8 and 10) and the plus stores which tend to focus on 18 and above.
Oh, and let’s add another M to the bunch,
namely migraine, which prevents me from buying crazy patterns, stripes, and
anything with text on the front. It creates a flicker in my peripheral vision
and triggers a migraine within seconds.
Additionally, there is my age. I don’t consider
myself old, but I am aware that I have passed the age where certain fashion
choices look good, or can at least be blamed on the slightly scatterbrained
fashion choices of the young. Not that I’ve ever made many of those choices —
my style has always been timeless and simple. And leaning towards bright
colours. Solid bright colours, please. Which there hasn’t been lots of in the
past few years, as designers are focusing instead on neutrals, particularly
grey, grey, and more grey.
(Seriously. I went into Joe Fresh just
before Christmas and everything in there was black, grey, or white. With the
occasional sequin. Wha…?)
I came home with a handful of underpants, a
T-shirt, and a feeling of deep frustration. None of which will get me through
the next month before the heat comes.
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