Category: Fashion

This is not about weight. Sure, I could stand to lose perhaps 20 pounds — I have no illusions about this — but I am happy enough with my shape. Not bad at all for my age. Not fantastic either, but such is life. So no, this is not about weight. Not today, anyway.

It’s about pants. Pants I can never find.

Today I visited two Joe Fresh locations in search of a particular pair of black pants. Joe Fresh pants fit me well and I am in need of new black pants.

First location had many, many pairs of the pants in question — in size 0, 2 and 4. (I won’t get into the insaneness of size 0). There were a few pairs in size 8 and, I think, one size 10. None in size 12, 14 or 16. I am a size 14 — sometimes, depending on the pants — a size 12.

I was disappointed, but I knew the more suburban locations often have more selection. So I hit the subway and headed to Scarborough. I’ve had good luck at this location in the past. No today.

There was one size 12 in the brown version of the pants. They were too tight — and besides I wanted the black ones. The black pants were only available in the smallest sizes.

I talked to the teenaged salesperson. She told me the best day to come was either a Monday or Tuesday, when the new stock comes in. But she noted, very few of the bigger sizes even make it to the store. She told me they were lucky if they got in one pair of size 16. One pair!

She said they got a lot of complaints about this. No kidding. She also said that people often came in daily to see if the store had their size.

Of course, I understand why this is a good thing from a marketing perspective. People coming in often buy often. But I can’t (and won’t) hike out to the outer reaches of the city for pants — no matter how much I like them.

That’s it. That’s the story of my day. No pants.

Is it any wonder I prefer to shop online?

I tend to buy fairly classic clothing in multiples. For example, I have 5 blue shirts — 3 are lightish blue and 2 are a less lightish blue (oh, rebel me!) — 3 white shirts and one light reddish shirt, plus a few other colours I rarely wear — maroon, teal, midnight blue — but felt compelled to purchase for some reason.

But, as of today, I don’t have a solid black shirt, a brown shirt, a pink shirt or a blue and white striped shirt. (In addition to a bunch of other items that I have not wore in a year or so.) These are important shirts in my wardrobe planning and I feel bereft. The reason: I cleaned out my closet and donated a bunch of stuff to Goodwill.

I lost a fair bit of weight about 5 or 6 years ago and did a pretty big purge then. (And a pretty big shop, too!) But over the last few years I have gone down a further size or two in tops — but not pants, oddly enough. I’ve still wore many of the tops last season, but they are just too big and I decided it was time to take a good look at what actually fit properly.

The “good look” resulted in a much more spacious closet.

But now I am stressing about finding new shirts that meet my (very rigid) criteria. My usual suspects: Lands End, Eddie Bauer and LL Bean don’t seem to have the shirts I like in the colours I require. Well, there is a black shirt at Eddie Bauer that looks okay, but it has white buttons. I don’t enjoy that much contrast in a shirt. (I know, I know — I don’t seem this rigid in real life — and I am not — but I am indeed this difficult in matters sartorial.)

I fear now I may have to brave the shops. I rarely venture beyond The Bay in my shopping in real life — as opposed to online, where I do about 80 per cent of my clothes shopping. But The Bay isn’t Eatons (oh, how I miss you Eatons)…and The Bay seems to never have my size in anything I want. (Nothing more soul-destroying than finding something you love in all the sizes except yours…)

Talbots seems to have some shirts that might work. Yeah, I know, Talbots. I’ve also had some success with Brooks Brothers lately. I think this means something….what, I don’t want to think about any more than necessary.