(Mis)adventures in jeans shopping

[badstar]

So today post-grove, Gavin and I hitched a ride over to Towson so I could look for some jeans. I won't be wearing any for at least a few weeks yet but I had a couple of coupons for Lane Bryant that basically amounted to fifty dollars off a one hundred dollar purchase that expire in a few days and was hoping to make use of them, and my couple of pairs of jeans that I have now are from like 1999 and have pretty much seen their last. I'm sad for them to go, they fit me so well and are so ridiculously comfortable, but yeah, they are worn out beyond repair.

So I've been shopping there oh, forever now, so I expect to walk on in, find my size and pull it off the rack...after all, that's what I've done in the past.

Shopping for jeans for me is a nightmare in general. I'm 5'10", and wear a larger size...but my butt and legs aren't big, so when I find jeans for my waist size, the butt and legs tend to be ridiculous. And I have a rather high waistline...between that and being tall, I tend to wear- you guessed it- long-length jeans.

So I walkeD over to the shelf and was immediately confused by the labels with sized marked 1-well, I never actually did catch how high the numbers went. ...Um, I wear a size a bit bigger than a one, that's for sure, thanks. There were signs all over extolling the virtues of their new sizing system so I looked around for some sort of size correspondence chart. Finding none, I approached the sales clerk at the register and confessed myself clueless. She informed me that you had to be measured to find your size in their system, and that they didn't really correspond to "normal" sizing, but asked what size I was and suggested that I look at a six or seven in the ones with the blue tags to start. (There are numbers for waist size, petite/average/tall for length and yellow/red/blue for degree of curviness.)

Back at the shelves, another employee comes along with a tape measure an offers to measure me...I figured that would be better with just starting with a guess based on a quick glance.

Boy was I wrong. So this girl informs me that I should wear an eight in the blue tags (most curvy) and that I should have average length. I tell her that I normally wear tall jeans and she looks at me like I have antennae and green skin or something, but hands me an eight tall blue and, regaining enthusiasm, leads me to a dressing room and tells me I should let her see them when I'm done.

Well, they turned out to be about six inches too long. But more than that, I could pull the waste band out from my stomach and find a space into which my hand could fit sideways. Oh, and i could have fit my butt a dozen times into the rear end. I show her this, and she says "I told you they were long", to which I responded "Hey, I normally wear tall size jeans." (As if i were supposed to know that "tall" now meant "circus freak". ) She informs me that I need a petite size, then runs off for the same jeans in petite before I can say anything. when she brought them back, I only agreed to try them on because this whole new bizarre system was a complete mystery to me and who knew, they might have actually fit.

The petite ones, it turns out, were *almost* long enough. another inch or so and they'd have been good. There is somehting very wrong with a sizing system when petite length jeans are just about long enough for someone who's 5'10". So glad I'm not oh...actually petite and trying to buy those jeans.

But once again, the waist was huge, as was the rear. I think at that point, she went to bring me a seven. She was going to get petite but I told her no, no petite and for the love of Bob, I need jeans with a smaller ass. So seven average red it was. Too big in the waist still, but less huge in the butt. I was ready to light stuff on fire. Then a six average red. Those fit pretty darned well near perfect. Except that they were "flared" leg- that is, huge bell bottoms. i asked if they came in something less, er, flared, and was told that they had boot cut. Boot cut would be great.

So...as it turned out, they only had six average red in black. Black jeans...not my thing. Were they faded black they may have been okay, but these were straight black. I tried them on anyway, and confirmed my suspicion...no, I don't like how they look on me. I was done with jeans. I tried on one more pair of pants that followed a normal sizing. They fit ok....but were made of a rather thin material, just wouldn't serve the same purpose as jeans.

So I left. Jeansless. Frustrated. Proclaiming that this wondrous new sizing plan blows goats (Yes, those were my words.) and wanting to tie the creator down, give them lots and lots of paper cuts, then drip lemon juice all over them while making them listen, alternatingly, to polka and Barney and Friends greatest hits. After making them shop for jeans using the same sizing scheme and a sales person who insisted that they must wear some ridiculously off size.

Anyone else on my list had similar issues with Lane Bryant and their brilliant sizing system and clueless sales people to boot?

Comments

[iamjanjan.livejournal.com]

i dont like their new sizing system either. makes no sense to me. i decided not to pursue the subject long enough to interact with the sales associates about it though.

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

Smart move on your part. Interacting with the sales girl, or that one at least, was a commitment for the entire shopping trip. She didn't just measure and suggest sizes, she followed us around and actually kept knocking on the dressing room door demanding we come out so she can see how the jeans fit (I guess just telling her they don't fit and how isn't enough, she must see). I'm glad I wasn't the one doing the shopping there, because me and my boundary issues would have had a real problem with her.

[corpslave.livejournal.com]

I don't wear the jeans from Lane Bryant, but I got a pair of 6 red petite slacks at the beginning of the summer. I still had to get a tailor to hem them since I'm only 5'1" tall. I like the jeans from Avenue because their petite length in the straight leg style fits me without cuffing them. I just went shopping for the first time since my gastric bypass Labor Day weekend and replaced my 22P jeans with 18P! By next year I won't need to go to Avenue for jeans anymore!

[blaisepascal]

Women's clothing sizes have always been a mess. There is no consistency between brands, and little consistency within a brand. The only real reason Lane Bryant is sizing their pants the way they are now (which I have only your description of) is so their customers can feel better about wearing a size 6 (Lane Bryant) rather than a size 16 (or whatever it would convert to).

If they really wanted to make it easier, they should find some way to do it by measurements similar to how mens clothing is sized. My pants are sized by waist measurement by inseam measurement. Men don't have to guess if the manufacturer considers a 36" waist to be a "6" or a "10", or if a 32" inseam is "petite" or "long" for a 36" waist. We just know that, within reasonable bounds, a 36"x30" by one manufacturer is going to fit roughly as well as a 36"x30" by another. And a tape measure at home can get me reasonably close for when I go out.

I've heard plenty of arguments as to why womens clothing isn't sized the same way, and they boil down to three basic arguments, one irrelevant, one legitimate, and one I feel is somewhat insulting.

"It's always been done this way" is irrelevant, because the system is broken, and needs to be fixed.

"Women have more variation than men, so even with changing to a different system, women would have to still try on every goddamn blouse in the store to fine a few that fit". OK, that's legitimate, but perhaps it could be addressed by adding more parameters? Lane Bryant seems to be going with waist/length/curviness as a three-parameter system, but with subjective descriptors instead of measurements. If you find that if you fit well in one six-average-red pair of pants, you will fit well in most six-average-red pairs of pants, then the system is an improvement, albeit the transition is a potentially literal pain in the ass.

And finally, "Women are too vain to use the large numbers which come with using actual measurements, saying they wear size 2 pants make them feel better than saying they have a waist of 24 inches". And men have taken to measuring their dick size in cm instead of inches "Hey baby, why don't you come to me, my dick is a size 15...". I believe most women would jump at the opportunity of getting uniform sizing even if it did mean having to measure their body.

But I rant.

If you want jeans -- and you don't have a butt or curvy legs -- go get mens jeans.

[chironcentaur.livejournal.com]

Exactly! :-)

I just about only wear men's clothes because, well, I hate women's clothes (when you're not feminine, have a morbid style and you don't like wearing tight stuff, you're not going to find much to wear there) and one of the reasons I am so grateful for that is the sizing system. Men's sizing is so nice and easy, makes perfect sense; women's, I don't get it, and the more you try to explain it the less I get it.

I won't say men's jeans are entirely uniform across the board, as I discovered the hard way one of the last times I went shopping and found out the waist size I like to get (as I have a tendency to wear my clothes a little baggy) is quite a bit smaller than I would like in "regular cut" jeans (apparently I had been getting "relaxed fit" before and never paid much attention to it; this does affect sizing and the way the pants actually fit me). But if that's the only kink in the system I'm not going to complain.

The Lane Bryant system .... that was something else. You know its way too complicated when you need the salesgirl to hover on top of you the whole time providing Lane Bryant to English translation for every pair of jeans you pick up.

[sherarara.livejournal.com]

I knew from the minute you started describing the experience that this was an LB trip.

I went into the store once and had possibly the worst experience of my life. First, the clerk said something snarky about my size. (She was significantly larger than I am, and she made a nasty comment about me being "skinny". As if! There was a reason I was in that store and not the Gap next door.)

I tried on something like six pairs of pants and not a one of them fit, much in the way you're describing. I have quite a bit of weight below my waist, but everything was still too large there. After that failed, I tried some tops, most of which fit my chest (which was enough to cause me to double take - me, fitting in a button up!?!?), but were too big in the arms and waist.

Mostly, it's really annoying to go into a plus-sized store and not have anything fit my plus-sized body. I'll agree with several other comments and love on the man pants. This summer, I bought two pairs of shorts, and both were from the men's section at Target.

[sharkycharming.livejournal.com]

OMG, I had almost an identical experience with a nasty saleswoman at Lane Bryant. WTF? Reverse discrimination!

[sherarara.livejournal.com]

WTF, indeed. I couldn't believe my ears when she said it, especially since I am not, nor have I ever been in my adult life, anything even closely resembling, "skinny". I was totally insulted, even though I felt silly afterward when I told a friend of mine; she thought I should have taken it as a compliment, but when someone gets that look in their eye when they say something about you, it's never a compliment.

Just, ugh.

[unixslut.livejournal.com]

> So I left. Jeansless. Frustrated. Proclaiming that this wondrous new
> sizing plan blows goats (Yes, those were my words.) and wanting to tie
> the creator down, give them lots and lots of paper cuts, then drip lemon
> juice all over them while making them listen, alternatingly, to polka and
> Barney and Friends greatest hits.

I've never had issues at LB because I never ask them for help - I just do my own shopping there and I go by look. But I'm short and nothing ever really fits me, so it's moot anyhow. But. I have to admit, I kind of want to be a sales person at LB after your description of what you're going to do with them... it sounds fun! *grin* Well, except for the Barney part.

[erl-queen.livejournal.com]

Oh great, that makes me much less likely to go to LB for pants, as I had been considering doing. Pants, especially jeans, are always a hassle for me, they never fit right (wide hips, short legs are my issues - I almost always have to get pants hemmed or roll up the cuffs). I thought LB might be a good idea (I'm right in the middle where plus sizes are often too big, but I still can't find much in a regular department store as far as pants go). Crap. I think I'll just stick with skirts. :)

[misswitch1369.livejournal.com]

I may have to check out the "tall" jeans that actually sound tall. I hate buying women's jeans because they aren't comfortable to begin with, but they are also never long enough, even if they are a "tall." I need a 36" inseam which is even hard to find in men's sizes unless you're a 34" waist. Sadly, I'm about a 44" waist so men's jeans aren't an option. Women's jeans are usually too high at the waist and cut into my rib cage. You've seen me; I'm long-legged and short torso'd.

The women's sizing system does need to be more uniform. I have some size 18's that fit fine (except for the length, I usually roll them up into capris), and others that I can't even get over my hips.

All this could be solved if I would just buckle down and lose the rest of my baby weight. I looked pretty good when I was at about 190lbs and a size 12. That's what size Marilyn Monroe was and she was super-sexy! But giving up my junk food addiction will be hard, especially the chocolate no-bakes and Pringles! MMmmmmmmm!!!

[marilyth.livejournal.com]

When I first noticed their new sizing system, I measured myself at home and the grid says I was a 5. I went in there and tried on 5's for them to be too big. Then 4's were a tad too big, but the 3's were a tad too small, so I'm a 3.5, but there's no such thing. I'm also a blue, because, well red & yellow just don't fit me at all. The lengths are great for me because I have crazy long legs. Sometimes the jeans are a little too long (flat shoes), but it's better than the "high waters" I've worn for ages. I've gotten used to the sizing now.

[half-double.livejournal.com]

The LB near us has this evil, evil woman who acts like she's the lord of all the land just because she has "the tape measurer." I would like to punch her in the face.

I was all excited about the new sizing when it came out, but I'm 5'0", so the legs are not so much working for me. And the sizes seem to be running quite large, because I still fit quite nicely into most of their other stuff, but apparently I'm too small for the new jeans, because I went all the way down to a 1 and they were monstrously huge. Well, they're still the only store that sells bras in the wife's size, and they have some fun underwear, but I'll be going elsewhere for pants.