Color me relieved

[torquill]

One big obstacle I had in the job hunt (others being illness, intimidation and having to fill out job apps) was the fact that I no longer had any nice clothes that still fit me. I've been ripping my silk shirts because my shoulders are broader these days, and my hips have changed shape. So I kept thinking that even if I did get a bite on an application, what the hell was I going to wear?

I don't do it like Malcolm, but I can still say, "Problem solved".

cadhla asked me to run her to the fish market today. I was being lazy, recovering from yesterday, but I figured, why not? So we were chatting about how I need to go out clothes shopping, and she offered to help.

First stop was a little place over in Park N Shop, but I looked at one of the tags and said urk. Nice clothes, looked like they might fit, but most of them were 100% polyester. Synthetics won't make me break out in a rash, but they do itch... and they just aren't comfortable. Given that being comfortable for a job interview is, well, kinda important, cadhla suggested we try the Coldwater Creek store that my mom had mentioned, as it might have more natural fabrics.

We trekked over to Walnut Creek, plunged into Broadway Plaza, and found the store. I was not encouraged by my initial impression (salmon and coral seem to be the colors right now) but we browsed, she started picking things, and I added a few to the pile.

When we finally got to the dressing rooms, I ended up apologizing for getting so many things to try -- I don't think I've seen a fully attended dressing room since I was ten. The attendant smiled as she unloaded me, hung my things up in a spacious cube, and asked my name. (cadhla discovered later that my name was on a little post-it on the doorframe.) Then we started with the fashion show thing.

It was like a buffet; we went back and refilled after eliminating things in the first round. One shirt fit poorly in such a way that cadhla dubbed it the "Miami Vice" shirt; it looked like the shirts the drug dealers on Miami Vice are always wearing, cotton things that are tight in all the wrong places. But we ended up with two pairs of pants, three knit short-sleeve shirts/undershirts, and two long-sleeve overshirts (which were both linen)... The damage was more than usual but less than it could have been. The colors are good, one of them being a light aqua which I never would have expected would work that well on me. The pants accommodate my hips without assuming I have no waist; the shirts are large enough in the shoulders while making me look, somehow, even more fit than I am. I don't know how they do that without being tucked in, but they do.

These are the kinds of clothes I had thought nobody made. It always feels like the only large women's clothes are for fat people... now I know that really isn't the case.

Now all I have to do is wait until the color scheme changes again, so that I can look into buying more clothes which flatter me. It's a different look, and it'll take some getting used to, but it allows me to dress up without feeling grubby or like I'm bursting out of my clothes. This is also more expensive than Slave Nation Army plus the occasional pair of jeans... but hey, I need that sort of stuff to garden in anyway. It'll hardly go to waste, and I won't be replacing my entire wardrobe.

Now to finish off those apps, armed with things to wear. I need to get shoes and a purse-like object, then I'm really set.

Comments

[packy.livejournal.com]

Yay, clothes that fit!