Girly Clothes Crap

[mrissa]

What on earth is it about spring that makes women's clothing designers want to bring out hideous colors and styles? I'm used to looking through favorite catalogs and thinking either "not my style" or "meh." But the ones I got in today's mail are more along the lines of, "not for love nor money, and my land, whoever thought that was a good idea?"

Here are words that do not apply to apparel for mrissas, not now and not ever: nautical. Pastel.

I could go on, but since that covers something like 90% of springtime apparel, I don't really need to. Apparently the ideal for women in the months of April and May is to wear a petal-pink sailor suit. Excuse me while I try to quiet the shudders.

What I want is short A-line skirts in pretty colors and/or patterns. Things that are not comfortable in Minnesota in January. I'm even willing to (gulp) iron. What I want is another three or four versions of the cream top and cream-and-orange skirt I got at Anthropologie last spring. Except that it was the only even remotely similar skirt in the store, so going back doesn't seem like a guarantee of anything.

Clothes. Frustrated with them, cold and/or arrested without them. It's pretending to be spring here just when I want to cling to my sweaters and coat and hat. Sigh.

Comments

[heck.livejournal.com]

Everything's coral. Even the sheets we sell at work are all in those hideous pastels and, my god, does anyone look good in coral?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I might, but the world will never know, because I'm not wearing it.

[heck.livejournal.com]

Right. And lilac and aquamarine might not make me look completely dead, but I won't be wearing them, either!

Crap, now I have an urge to go back to H&M and stock up on ten-dollar black sweaters.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Last year I issued a moratorium on black and red. No more black or red or black-and-red garments! said I. Other colors can be worn! said I.

I am rethinking this moratorium.

[ladysea.livejournal.com]

I agree.

And lets not even get started on shoes. I may have to get a stick and go after shoe designers.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Maybe I will be one of those people who's permanently stuck in the decade in which she spent her teens, but I would like to point out that no woman's foot ever came to a sharp point. Ever. And that those shoes are not usually sturdy enough to make good weapons, either.

[ladysea.livejournal.com]

*nod* Agreed!

[ellarien]

Sadly, I've seen women's feet that after a lifetime of ladylike shoes very nearly did come to a point -- not a pretty sight!

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Well, personally, I'd love to wear the petal-pink sailor suit. With black fishnets and my stack heeled Mary Janes, and my handcuff necklace. Because it's all in how you accessorize, you know...

[songwind.livejournal.com]

No nautical or pastels? Well, I guess we know who'll never be invited to join the Sailor Scouts.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Succinct, I love it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It was supposed to be "pout," alas.

[zellandyne.livejournal.com]

I have periodically found things at www.bostonproper.com. The regular prices are ridiculous, but the clearance and sale stuff isn't bad.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was wearing a Boston Proper dress when you wrote that. (Had to get rid of it to shower Bar Smell off, or I still would be.)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I was (reluctantly) in an upscale department store a week or so back, doing an errand for an in-law, and I was shocked to see those hideous colors from the mid sixties back--tomato worm green, eye-stabbing crimson, bruise fuschia, stomach-acid orange, horse-pee yellow. YUKKKJKK!!!!!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

LL Bean doesn't make pants/skirts small enough for me, but Banana Republic might. Last year they were pretty keen on pastels in the spring, though.

I hold out when I can, to be sure. It's just...it seems like there should be good spring clothes. It really does. Sigh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't know what things are like where you are, and spring clothes and summer clothes do have some overlap, but I don't think of them as identical. Some light sweaters are fine for spring and too hot for summer; some of my skimpier cotton clothes are not nearly warm enough for spring.

[cpolk.livejournal.com]

I learned how to sew.

Take that, pastel brandishing twits!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the fabric stores are going far enough out of their way to prove that you can sew fashionable clothes "just like in department stores" that it proves An Issue. But sometimes not.

Ohhhhhh. What I really want is a dress like the brown one my mom made me...umm...almost six years ago. But she's busy enough that I don't think I can just ask her to go find green or blue or purple polysilk and whip up another one. Sigh.

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

Pastel=evil.

I don't shop for clothes in the spring, unless the only other choice is going naked.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I like pastels. :(

However, I grew up in the South, so it's not purely a fashion choice when I wear them. There's a measure of comfort in it.

One thing I like about being a guy is that seasons seem like less of an issue for my clothes. (Not that I ever buy any anyway, if I can help it).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What makes them not purely a fashion choice? The confusion, it is mine.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wear them to feel particularly Southern.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

"...the ideal for women in the months of April and May is to wear a petal-pink sailor suit."

Oh, gawd. I know that you and I are about as different build-wise as one can get, but boy I started to shudder with agreement that that statement is just WRONG.

Don't even try to imagine a tall, very broad-shouldered strawberry-blonde in a "petal pink sailor suit." It is scarifying to the mental eyeballs. Raggedy Ann meets Baby Huey. Ick.

I did find some stuff I could live with in the J. Jill catalog - whether or not it fits or I can afford it is, perhaps another matter.

[(Anonymous)]

I was out shopping this weekend and found a lot of colors I liked, but I have to say that I was mostly shopping the sales of winter clothes, so that may be why things were fine for me. I also love lime green and bright orange, which seemed to be out in spades right now. Personally, these colors look great on me, however I don't understand why they are the only colors available as I think I am in the minority that looks good in lime green and bright orange. I guess my lumps are that black and white are terrible colors on me, which makes shopping for certain types of clothes much more challenging.

Heathah