Clayvember clo
Feh. I wasn't planning to join in this Clovember in May business half my flist seems to be doing, but when it comes to clo, I'm all too easily swayed. Besides, I was pleased with today's outfit, and I figured I might as well share my pleasure. As it were.
Aside from black with red and black with purple, which I do like, I prefer white with brights to black with brights. Love a bit of jewel-colours-with-white. Feels like wearing a fruit cocktail. When it comes to black, I prefer softer colours. Bit of the ol' girly/edgy juxtaposition. Make that girly element a dusky pink rose print and I'm sold.
The other notable thing about this outfit is sizing. We all know that women's sizing* is less a guide to fit than a loose algorithm drawn from the alignment of the stars when the garment was manufactured, but the garments I've assembled today (see below for dress with added layers for a cool morning forecast to turn into warmish autumn day) are impressive even by the usual surreal standards.
Take the dress, for a start. The brand is New Look, bought through the trusty ASOS for not very much. It's stretchy T-shirt material, and for the most part these days, I'm an Australian size 8 in stretchy T-shirt material. So I ordered an 8. It arrived, and as can happen on the somewhat pear-shaped saladic figure, was snug but fine on my upper body and so tight over my hips that walking two steps in it made it ride right up to my underwear line. So OK. Exchange it for a 10, right? The 10 arrived, the top half was still fine, and lo, this time I had to walk five steps before flashing my underpants. Grf. Maybe it's the shape, not the size, Salad. How much do you want this dress? I asked myself. The rose print looked at me beseechingly, and I caved. Time for the size 12. I half expected the 12 to be drooping around my upper torso like rhino hide, but it still fitted well. No longer as snug, but not at all baggy. I actually wore the 12. And spent an entire day yanking it down my thighs, which got old really quickly. By now positively muttersome, I stomped home, fished the tags out of the bin and sent the dress back for my *third* exchange. This dress is the size 14, which is *three sizes* up from what I usually wear, yet it doesn't look too big, does it? It is getting a trifle baggy around the hip bones, finally, but even I draw the line at exchanging it for a 16. It's fine. It will do. I have my cheap rose print dress, and I like it and I'm keeping it.
Then we have the denim jacket.
I love a denim jacket. Goes with almost anything, tones down the formality of any outfit but in a jaunty, cheerful kind of way. I am, however, a good 3-4" shorter than the average Australian woman, which does terrible things to the fit of my tops. As in, I can find shirts and jackets and blazers and the like in standard clothing shops which "fit", to a point, but inevitably they look a bit crap, because they're cut for torsos with shoulder-to-breast measurements a couple of inches longer than mine, with waistlines a couple of inches lower, arms a couple of inches longer, and so on. After years of wearing ill-fitting tops, I started coughing up for alterations. Which is reliable, if pricey, for T-shirts (take up hem and sleeves), but chancy and very expensive when it comes to shirts (take off sleeve, take inch out of shoulder seams, reattach sleeves, detach cuffs, shorten sleeves, take up hem...). With the advent of cheap online shopping, I've given up on Australian clothing stores and their limited, surreal sizing. These days, I order pretty much all of my tops online from the US, because the US market is large enough to warrant producing clothes proportioned for the "petite" woman (like the turtleneck under my jacket, which is a Petite Size 8). I say "pretty much", because after years of dismissal, I've found a cheaper local alternative, which is children's clothing.
I'm not as tiny as all that. 5'2" is short, but not outrageously so, and while I'm pretty flat-chested, I do have womanly hips, which preclude me wearing children's sizes in lower torso clothing. But T-shirts for girls in their early teens, if you can find some without cutesy bows and butterflies, are wonderfully cheap and fit beautifully. Jackets are mostly too small in the shoulders for me, but after years of muttering that my existing denim jackets are just too long to work over flared skirts, I strayed into an op shop (thrift store, charity shop, whatever they call them where you are) and found this denim jacket on the women's rack, labelled size 12. I frowned at it, concluded that it was definitely a girls' size 12, not a women's size 12, and tried it on. Bingo! Cropped mid-wash denim jacket for $3.
So there we have it - an actual Clayvember entry! Can't promise any more, but I feel that posting one, at least, shows willing...
*Note that even women's sizing is occasionally trumped by children's sizing, which can be madder still.
Aside from black with red and black with purple, which I do like, I prefer white with brights to black with brights. Love a bit of jewel-colours-with-white. Feels like wearing a fruit cocktail. When it comes to black, I prefer softer colours. Bit of the ol' girly/edgy juxtaposition. Make that girly element a dusky pink rose print and I'm sold.
The other notable thing about this outfit is sizing. We all know that women's sizing* is less a guide to fit than a loose algorithm drawn from the alignment of the stars when the garment was manufactured, but the garments I've assembled today (see below for dress with added layers for a cool morning forecast to turn into warmish autumn day) are impressive even by the usual surreal standards.
Take the dress, for a start. The brand is New Look, bought through the trusty ASOS for not very much. It's stretchy T-shirt material, and for the most part these days, I'm an Australian size 8 in stretchy T-shirt material. So I ordered an 8. It arrived, and as can happen on the somewhat pear-shaped saladic figure, was snug but fine on my upper body and so tight over my hips that walking two steps in it made it ride right up to my underwear line. So OK. Exchange it for a 10, right? The 10 arrived, the top half was still fine, and lo, this time I had to walk five steps before flashing my underpants. Grf. Maybe it's the shape, not the size, Salad. How much do you want this dress? I asked myself. The rose print looked at me beseechingly, and I caved. Time for the size 12. I half expected the 12 to be drooping around my upper torso like rhino hide, but it still fitted well. No longer as snug, but not at all baggy. I actually wore the 12. And spent an entire day yanking it down my thighs, which got old really quickly. By now positively muttersome, I stomped home, fished the tags out of the bin and sent the dress back for my *third* exchange. This dress is the size 14, which is *three sizes* up from what I usually wear, yet it doesn't look too big, does it? It is getting a trifle baggy around the hip bones, finally, but even I draw the line at exchanging it for a 16. It's fine. It will do. I have my cheap rose print dress, and I like it and I'm keeping it.
Then we have the denim jacket.
I love a denim jacket. Goes with almost anything, tones down the formality of any outfit but in a jaunty, cheerful kind of way. I am, however, a good 3-4" shorter than the average Australian woman, which does terrible things to the fit of my tops. As in, I can find shirts and jackets and blazers and the like in standard clothing shops which "fit", to a point, but inevitably they look a bit crap, because they're cut for torsos with shoulder-to-breast measurements a couple of inches longer than mine, with waistlines a couple of inches lower, arms a couple of inches longer, and so on. After years of wearing ill-fitting tops, I started coughing up for alterations. Which is reliable, if pricey, for T-shirts (take up hem and sleeves), but chancy and very expensive when it comes to shirts (take off sleeve, take inch out of shoulder seams, reattach sleeves, detach cuffs, shorten sleeves, take up hem...). With the advent of cheap online shopping, I've given up on Australian clothing stores and their limited, surreal sizing. These days, I order pretty much all of my tops online from the US, because the US market is large enough to warrant producing clothes proportioned for the "petite" woman (like the turtleneck under my jacket, which is a Petite Size 8). I say "pretty much", because after years of dismissal, I've found a cheaper local alternative, which is children's clothing.
I'm not as tiny as all that. 5'2" is short, but not outrageously so, and while I'm pretty flat-chested, I do have womanly hips, which preclude me wearing children's sizes in lower torso clothing. But T-shirts for girls in their early teens, if you can find some without cutesy bows and butterflies, are wonderfully cheap and fit beautifully. Jackets are mostly too small in the shoulders for me, but after years of muttering that my existing denim jackets are just too long to work over flared skirts, I strayed into an op shop (thrift store, charity shop, whatever they call them where you are) and found this denim jacket on the women's rack, labelled size 12. I frowned at it, concluded that it was definitely a girls' size 12, not a women's size 12, and tried it on. Bingo! Cropped mid-wash denim jacket for $3.
So there we have it - an actual Clayvember entry! Can't promise any more, but I feel that posting one, at least, shows willing...
*Note that even women's sizing is occasionally trumped by children's sizing, which can be madder still.