In search of a mythical suit
For almost a year, I’ve been trying to buy a
nice suit. I don’t like to buy online because I don’t fit the
cookie cutter body of even plus size wear and going to the post office to
return anything is one of my levels of hell.
I've pretty much given up
on department stores ever having plus size business wear, not to
mention the poor quality of materials, or the fact Macy limits which
malls have plus size wear other than sweat pants (they should just stain it with chocolate ice cream to complete the stereotype). Plus size stores have sizes but not the selection. It's disturbing that a person size 12 and under can find a variety of styles. I bet it would be easier to find a business suit in maternity wear that in regular plus size.
My solution will most
likely have to be to go to an expensive boutique. The good thing is I have the finances to
purchase something from them without breaking the bank.
But I have to wonder about my poorer sisters
who don’t money to buy a nice suit and have to hope the outfit they
pick from the internet fits or hope for a lucky find at a
department or close out store. I have to wonder when I hear about fat
people in poverty. Is it because it’s so hard to find affordable,
nice clothes that they look like a joke at an interview? There’s a reason why the only time I was somewhat
fashionable (or at least wearing clothes other than jeans and a
tee-shirt as I considered myself a fashion misfit who refuses to wear
trendy clothes) was when I had access to the plus size consignment
store Re/Dress and the Fat Girl’s Flea Market. The loss of Re/Dress
(which BTW is reopening as a Fab online store and maybe even a brick
and mortar one) left me to really only have the Fat Girl’s
Flea Market (Now called to the Big Fat Flea for so fatties of all genders
can have clothes.)
I love the Big Fat Flea. Even as someone who
hates crowds and last year because it was on Mother’s day I had to go
in the mad rush beginning, I went home with a decent amount of
clothes, but no suit. While they have lots of clothes and I
always come home with a variety of clothes, finding exactly what
I need is again luck. Still it’s sad that I have to get the
majority of clothes from them because the department stores and most
plus size stores have failed me.
The Big Fat Flea is coming back to New York
City on June 9th in a new Venue at New York University Law School.
(BTW NYU Press is the publisher of the fabulous Fat Studies Reader). If
you live in the area, get yourself there. Buy entire new wardrobes
for next to nothing and tell the department stores to suck it.