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| Froog’s entire wardrobe, minus underwear. |
Hello Dear Reader,
I’ll admit, I don’t own many clothes and I certainly don’t shop for many either. I tend to buy new clothes every two years or later depending on the lasting structure of the clothes. I tend to wear the same clothes to work, around the house and out and about. I don’t like to be scruffy but I never have to be formal. My suit wearing days are long gone.
I struggle to find clothes to fit. In heels, I’m over six foot. I have a thirty inch waist and forty two inch hips. I would require size 16 trousers to fit my hips which would then mean I have a gaping waist. Dresses and skirts are never long enough. The waists on dresses are too high and the arm pits too shallow. I dread clothes shopping and I can often walk away feeling like a total freak as nothing fits me. Shops make clothes for big girls, petite women and tall women are relegated to Long Tall Sally and one rail of long trousers in Next! LTS is very very expensive and I just don’t like the styling. It’s very formal and business like and that’s just not me.
My ‘wardrobe’ consists of knitted jersey tops, jumpers and size 14 trousers with a high lycra content for comfort. Any thing low waisted is arse crack skimming on me, so I often end up in Nanna’s trousers from Marksies which are not flattering on a Nanna, let alone anyone under 90!
I’m sure by now that you get my frustration and don’t even get me started on bras!!!! Tall women have longer bodies and bras even on the longest strap setting hoik my tits up under my chin and I spend all day dragging the cups back over my knockers! And, yes……….I always get fitted! 34F and I have a very narrow back. They do the best they can. I’ve been everywhere except Rigby and Peller and the straps are never long enough!
So, if all clothes are a compromise on fit, then I’m not paying top dollar for anything! I spend a lot of time trying to find affordable clothing that’s suitable for a giraffe and not going to bankrupt me. I buy some clothes in charity shops but again, there are few women as tall as me, with a 34 inside leg, big arse, smaller waist and chest all out at the front and nothing at the back (I’m bloody lucky DB can’t see a thing when he takes his specs off!) I get a few stretchy t-shirt tops from Primark and I can buy Nanna trousers for work in Marksies and I can buy jeans from Next. I usually wait until the sales or I find an online discount code and I buy online and collect instore to save a few pounds.
Here are some of the online retailers I found whilst trawling for some clothes
Affordable knitwear - look at the sale items Woolovers - longer and great for lanky birds.
Weekend wear - Joe Browns - If I wasn’t saving up for absolutely everything, then I would buy some of this. I love their tunic tops - again long enough for lofty women.
All sorts of everything - Crazy Clearance - seems to be a discount store, that sells all the makes in all the sizes. I’m eyeing up this dress…………..it’s actually long enough for me and affordable. I recently bought a pair of jeans and three tops from them for £50…………which will be my major clothes purchase for the year.
| My three new jersey tops all from crazy clearance - those with a pair of jeans came to £50 |
Finally, I’ve been recommended MandMdirect - a mixture of casual clothing and sportswear. My sportswear gets a lot of wear so it will need replacing very soon. From what I can see, it’s very good for shoes and coats. Mine will need replacing eventually.
Now, Dear Reader…..over to you. Of course, I use ebay, charity shops and car boot sales but I usually have no luck at all. I also think that charity shops have priced themselves out of the market as the discount retailers can sell me clothes cheaper than they can! So, Dear Reader…..where do you find a clothes bargain online?
I will update this post over the next 24 hours and add your recommendations. Paste the website address, name or URL into comments and I will put them here for everyone to see and have a look at. Before I do that, you can always highlight the comments and right click and copy and paste that into your search bar and have a look yourselves. Also, Dear Reader, feel free to join in my moaning about clothes that just don’t fit! Who else has their head in the clouds and nothing’s long enough, who ends up cutting off most of the dress as it drags on the ground. Do your clothes pinch or gape as none of us, yes hear that manufacturers, none of us are a standard size.
I feel better for that off my chest!
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xx
Please note - no retailers have sent me any clothes - if they’d like to, feel free to contact me! My opinions are entirely my own.
My closet looks like yours, Froogs. I have 6 pr dress pants, 2 blazers and 3 dressy knit cardigans, one skirt, one dress and several blouses. In the dresser draws- two pair jeans, 3 pr capris and one pair shorts. Lots of short and long sleeved knit shirts to mix and match and lots of scarfs to wear as well. I am 5'7″ and wear a plus size 18. 40DD and I have a hard time finding bras too that don't irratate my skin. I used to sew everything from underwear to outerwear, but since having children, my shape has changed so much that it is harder to get a good fit. I need to take a fitting class.
Barb from Canada
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Investing what you can in clothes that you will wear again and again is well worth it. I mean being willing to spend £50-60 a time on a dress that you can wear every week and look fantastic in; or £100 on a pair of knee length boots that go with everything. By the sound of it, and by your photos, jersey wrap dresses would be worth getting several of; I bet you look incredible in one.
Dresses are often much less of a pain than trying to get trousers to fit. There are also a lot of fluid midi skirts around at the moment on ASOS, Monsoon and so on which are very forgiving - it doesn't matter whether they hang round your shins or your knees, they will still look good. I just wear mine with the zip loosened to fit wherever my waist happens to be, and it stays in place all day.
Persistent online shopping with the likes of La Redoute and the White Company can yield some good sale bargains on quality clothes. M&S usually have far better choice online than in store, and often discount online items. The fit of these slightly better quality clothes means that they can be worn again and again. Buying two or three of an item that looks good online makes sense, because if it fits well you'll want to wear it a lot. It doesn't cost any extra to return them if they don't work, and if you choose a store with free returns and free delivery you're laughing.
Having fewer items of clothing, but always wearing things you look and feel good in, is much better than having lots of things that were cheap and don't quite fit. Nobody else will notice if you're wearing the same things frequently; they'll just notice if the overall look is good.
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The last Item i have bought was a Good quality wool cardigan, some stylish granny left behind at the thriftstore. For 2bucks. I really rarely buy clothes anymore, I don't enjoy it anymore. I'm also a big butt-small waist girl, plus I have a very long torso. I only wear high waisted skirts, few dresses. My clothes are very old looking now, I will have to do some selecting, except the thrifted ones, Who keep the shape. What an irony!
I don't wear a bra. I have a small bust and they're uncomfortable. I wish they would make well cut undies. I really do.
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Hi, I'm very hard to shop for tops (super narrow shoulders, big bust, tiny waist) .. but being in the similar bra size range, I can totally recommend figleaves.com for you, which is a UK based website. This is where I get mine from and their ranges are very wide. I cannot find my bra size in Canada or US with such narrow band and much larger cupsize. The stores here could special order it for me for thrice the price + tax of what's sold at figleaves. No, thank you!
Shipping to UK is always free, so are returns from UK- if it doesn't fit right. As for me, I continue to pay hefty postage to Canada including import duty if I order more than 2 at a time. You also have lot of options if you dont mind wearing underwire…
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Shhhhhhh, don't tell everyone about Joe Browns. I like them because they are different - they won't be if everyone wears them 🙂
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I'm not only odd shaped (think childs drawing, square body on skinny legs), I'm 168cm (5'6″) which is OK, but find that I have to buy long trousers to get the length, but then the legs flap. I now buy my pants from Millers fashion club here in Melbourne, they are $20, elastic waisted and reasonably dressy. My main problem is I get warm and can't wear artificial fabrics so I make a lot of tops for work. Bought a very easy vogue pattern about 30 years ago in a tunic design. Long it's a dress, regular -tunic for over pants, short, a blouse. It's now fallen apart and I've lost the front so this year as lacy tunics are in I found a pattern I can use. As I'm 60 this year, if I get 30 years from this pattern i think it will see me out
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I am very lucky - I have an Ex Catalogue Shop locally (they are only in the NE and Cumbria) and they sell all sorts of clothes to fit me (I'm 5'10 but sort of proportionate). I can also get some tops and trousers as gifts for my adult daughter there as long sizes are often returned as no-sells from catalogue companies (Including Joe Brown's, hooray.) . My daughter is 6' 2'', so I do extend sympathy to you on that front. It's a lot easier than it used to be.
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Well, I am just the opposite of you-I am under 5'3″ with short legs. If I buy petites, I still have to cut about 2 inches off the leg. I even have to cut off capris, because they hit at that unflattering (at least to me) mid-calf length. It is a good thing DH was/is not a “leg man.” I think the actress Catherine Catz is adorable, but she has legs just like mine.
Then, the problem on top is that I am big. (Fortunately, DH was/is a “boob man.”) I even had breast reduction surgery 24 years ago and went from a DDD to a D. (It was supposed to be a C, but the doc goofed-maybe he was a boob man in more ways than one!). He removed 3-1/2 lbs. of breast tissue. Now it is possible for me to buy tops, but they are still hard to find. When they fit in the boobs, they drape over my shoulders. And, of course, the sleeves are always too long. I just roll them up.
I made all of my own clothes in the '60s and '70s-making from scratch was easier than all of the alterations I had to make. It was cheaper to sew then, too. My wardrobe is smaller than yours, but I am retired now. It certainly wasn't any bigger than yours when I worked outside the home.
About bras-I got lucky about 2 years ago. I bought 4 at one time when the fitter found them on the clearance rack-and they fit! I told her: “I need bras, but I am on a super-tight budget. Please look on the clearance rack first”-and she did! They are something I would have passed right over if I had been looking. The 4 together cost under $55 and are quality underwire bras. I am still wearing them, although I'm losing weight and they are getting a little loose. BTW, when you are big, you wear out bras faster.
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6'2″ , of enormous norkage and long legs, horrendously overweight (currently size 20) but have started dieting. I think my wardrobe is even smaller than yours. Most of my clothes purchases are supermarket, which means all my jeans are ankle length! I wear a lot of men's tops for the length. I hate clothes shopping with a passion and usually have to be forced to go when clothes are holey.
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I am enjoying your blog after discovering it earlier this morning.
Reading the comments on this post, it seems that it doesn't matter what size or shape you are, it is very hard to find clothes that fit off the rack in all the vital body parts! I am an average height and weight (167cm, 63kg) but my waist is proportionately bigger than my hips and boobs, so any shape that has a defined waist (pants, skirts, some dress styles) is likely to be baggy at my hips and/or chest if it fits my waist, yet I am not overweight and don't want to appear that way due to baggy clothes!
This is one of the reasons I love to sew many of my own clothes - either from scratch or adjust thrifted or sale items. It is certainly possible when you sew your own clothes to take account of your own fit requirements at the cutting stage, and there is so much information available now online to teach you everything from the basics to couture techniques, much of it for free via blogs. It is also entirely possible to pick up cheap fabric, remnants or repurpose items found at thrift stores (buy large dresses etc in a print or colour you like and cut your pattern pieces). I have also discovered a thrift store dedicated to fabric/patterns/needlework type crafts a few suburbs away (Sydney, Australia), where I can buy patterns for $1 and fabric for around $3 a metre - this could amount to a lovely dress for less than $10 in a size and style that suits you - and probably made to last better than what you can buy. There are also heaps of really nice indie patterns available online as well as a plethora of free patterns. For example, Lekala patterns are around $2.50, delivered by pdf and custom drawn to your particular measurements - I haven't used their patterns yet, but have seen many successful items on the inter webs! Perhaps worth a try?
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At one point in time, I made every stitch I wore except for shoes and socks. Now that I cannot sew for a few reasons, I feel like I am wearing someone else's clothes when I buy clothes. I cannot stand long enough to shop in a thrift store. Besides, larger clothes are either too shabby or to formal. I don't work. but, even when I did, I work the same thing winter and summer. A sweater set and cardigans made most of the difference in the seasons. All clothes were originally good clothes that eventually were around the house and shopping clothes. Then they went to the category of only for the yard.
Right now, I have plans to make a bra or two…lol. My one that I made about 15 years ago is on its last leg. I only wear a bra if someone is paying me to work. Otherwise, I don't. However, with summer coming, I cannot hide under a cardigan. So, something is needed to cut down on the jiggle factor.
I bought several stretch velvet pencil skirts, one red, one navy, and one black. Of course, people don't wear those in the summer any more, but they will make good holiday skirts when I lose weight.
Since I can alter anything, I have often bought something in the wrong size and dirt cheap at expensive stores. Then, I really have a special outfit. Oh, I do have a suit jacket that I wore with the black velvet pencil skirt that I paid $1 for at the yard sale.
I made my first pattern when I was about 12, way back when I did not know other people did not make patterns easily. So, one day, I made a pattern in several sizes and took them to a boutique. They sold! And, I got more orders. Well, I am feeling nostalgic now.
When I make the bra, I will post it on my blog.
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