Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Totally random tip/observation

I just discovered a way to reduce the chance I'll have a meltdown in the dressing room when shopping for clothes (one of my absolute least favorite activities).

(1) When going through the store, select every item I'm considering trying on in two sizes -- a bigger and a usual size, remembering that the size -- like weight -- has nothing to do with anything (not my discipline or my worthiness, etc.).
(2) Once in the dressing room, start with the bigger size of the item I like the best and has the best chance of looking good on me. This was my major discovery. Turns out, it really gets things off on the right foot and has me in a good spot for the rest of it.
(3) Remember that none of it is critical. It's just not.

I got lucky today and started with a kick-ass top that made every other top seem stupid. This allowed me to ask of the other tops, "Why would they make a shirt this shape?" and "What were they thinking?" as opposed to, "Why are my boobs so big?" or "Why am I so short?" The latter two questions? Nothing we can do about those things. The first two? Well, those are things that will change next week.

That's all. Just thought I'd share my random -- but major -- discovery.

Do you have other tips that work for you, or do you like clothes shopping and need not worry with tips?

8 comments:

Stella said...

I love HAVING new clothes, I just hate the process of ACQUIRING them. I do the same thing you do -- always try on the larger size first.

I also usually end up doing a silly little dance in the mirror when I'm not sure about something -- it reminds me that when I'm wearing it in public I'll probably be confident and happy, not grumpy and ugly like I am at that moment.

Carol said...

I lik eshopping I don't like trying on pants. Ever. I usually pick up a billion pairs and try them all on. I usually start with the least likely and then work my way up to most likely. Although on occasion I have been wrong and what I thought would be the best ones weren't!

Molly said...

There was a time that I loved trying on clothes. I was more carefree then. Had more free time to indulge in long hours trying on lovely things and spending lots of money on pretty things. I was also skinnier then.
Now I HATE trying things on. The only thing that works for me is to take my young son in with me. He enjoys helping me pick things (so unlike his father in this way!) and always says things like, "Mommy, I think you look perfect in that." One time I tried on a too-small top and he said, "I like that one best because it shows the most of your squishy belly!" I was almost tempted to buy the top just for him. But, i didn't.

I just found you through the purl bee and I loved your post so I had to comment...

happy shopping!
Molly

Jean said...

I have a girlfriend who has a great figure. She's not like model skinny or anything, rather she's just perfectly proportioned. When she goes clothes shopping everything looks good on her. It's totally irratating to observe this, esecially when I'm having a melt down in the next dressing room. BUT, here's the rub: because everything looks good on her, she tends to buy everything. She can't afford to buy everything. I can't afford to buy everything either but if it all looked good on me, I'd have a hard time stopping, too. So when clothing completely doesn't work on me, I remember that it's helping me save money.

Stacey said...

Hate clothes shopping - try not to do it unless I absolutely have to....

Rose Red said...

I try never to go shopping with a particular thing in mind because that means I will not be able to find it, no matter how simple it might seem (eg black pants), how long I look or how many shops I look in. On the other hand, if I have 15 minutes to duck into one store "for a look", I will always find at least 5 perfect items.

Kim said...

Excellent tip! I have a lot of clothes now, so I have a pretty high bar for buying/trying clothes. And a pretty high rejection rate which I figure only helps me save money. But when on a mission....it's hellish. Just remember to incorporate tailoring fees into the price...

Anonymous said...

Buy two items of clothing once every four years. That's my tip. - leopold bloom