Interesting Links for 09-01-2012

[andrewducker]

• Will shareholders crack down on executive pay? (No, probably not)
  (tags: business pay uk )
• Why clothes look so much better on celebrities than they do on you.
  (tags: fashion clothes )
• EA Invokes First Amendment Protection for Video Games in Trademark Dispute with Helicopter Maker
  (tags: trademark videogames freespeech usa )
• The evil plot behind

Comments

[cairmen]

Tailored clothes: Yes. Worth every penny and then some.

(And it's comparatively inexpensive to get your favourite pieces of clothing adjusted, to boot).

[andrewducker]

Got any examples for "comparatively inexpensive"?

[cairmen]

I've not done it a lot, but my winter coat, for example, was adjusted at time of purchase for about £30, as I recall, and my suit (the jacket of which I wear a lot) was adjusted to fit me for about £40, I think (it was a while ago). I've also had a few shirts made for about £30-£50.

I'd generally expect to spend about £20-£40 on getting an item adjusted.

I'd never thought of having a T-Shirt adjusted, but reading, it seems like an obvious idea. I'll probably have whatever outfit I end up wearing at the DKLS premiere fitted.

[anton_p_nym]

There's a chain here called "Stitch It" that does inexpesive, simple tailoring. Hems and cuffs for $10(CAD) for example... with my weird, stumpy legs I've turned to them to shorten trousers and jeans several times, and even to do some simple repair work on shirts and coat linings.

That being said, this isn't something I'd do routinely as the price is fine for occasional items but would probably drive up my wardrobe costs a good 50% if I applied it across everything in it.

-- Steve wishes he could fork over for more made-to-measure or tailored stuff. It's very comfortable.

[marrog]

This is why it's been on my to-do list forever to learn to alter my own clothes. The big secret (which I tell everyone so you probably already know) to why I always wear men's shirts with fitted ladies' waistcoats is that it's not because I'm a Huge Dyke; it's because shaped women's shirts don't fit me, even slightly. By the time I've found the enormous size that will go over my washerwoman arms, the body is so tent-like that even tailoring would be a joke. The assumption seems to be that fat women are these perfectly round balls with stalks for arms and legs - I have similar issues finding trousers that fit me on the hips without gaping at the waist and can basically only wear wide-leg as a result. My whole fashion concept - which has now become for many people part of my identity - is actually shaped not by taste but by what I can physically wear.

Additionally, I recently had a (fruitless as everything cost too much) hunt in John Lewis for clothes and discovered from a woman there that the high street is now nearly two sizes

[cairmen]

That's very interesting to hear! (I evidently hadn't been around when you mentioned it before either!).

I'm still amused to discover how much vanity sizing goes into high-street men's clothes these days, too. Whilst I was on the diet last year, I needed new jeans - and discovered that M&S were enthusiastically trying to persuade me I was 2-4 inches smaller around the waist than I actually was...

[channelpenguin]

The other downside of this downsizing is that the smallest size gets larger - my BF is slightly built and wiry and often can't find stuff to fit at all now in high street stores for this reason (I have a similar issue).

[brixtonbrood]

Young women's clothes do now regularly come in size 6 though, which was unheard of when I was a young woman - the reason being of course that that's the size formerly known as 8/10. Rarely seen in grown-up women's shops though.

[strawberryfrog]

I love this bit "The investigators ... were unable to find a fault and suggested it may be down to a high-energy atmospheric particle striking one of the integrated circuits within the unit."

So basically it's the old "when all else fails, blame it on cosmic rays". Maybe it's more likely at high altitude, but it's an old excuse for a computer malfunction.

[rosamicula]

I have always altered my clothes to fit because that's what my mum taught me to do. Because of my huge norks, which were comparatively MUCH bigger than the norm in the eighties, she used to buy men's shirts for me, then shorten the sleeves and dart and vent them so I had smart, tailored school shirts.

I regularly take in the waists of trousers, otherwise ones that fit my arse would dangle at the waist. Thsi is less likely with anything I buy that's 170s or earlier, when it was still assumed British women actually had waists.

Vanity sizing means I am four and a half stone heavier than I was at 18, but wearing the same dress size. When I was only two stone heavier, I was up to twi sizes smaller. E.g I have a lot of M&S Per Una skirts in a size 12. They are four inches bigger in the waist than the size 16 M&S skirt I still have from the late 80s.

[pigwotflies]

I did the same thing with my school shirts in the 90s. Being tall (long torso, long arms) and large (16/18 then) boy's school shirts were the cheapest option for my sister and I. She's less curvy than me and looked ok. I hated looking shapeless and put vertical darts and waist shaping into my shirts. Much better.

I should get my hand in again and do more alterations. It opens up what you can buy if you know how you can make it fit. I did alter my wedding dress myself and I think I can handle most blouses/dresses/skirts. Trousers though are beyond me.