Inlets and Outlets, Part I ~ Outlets

After breakfast, we stopped at an outlet mall on the main drag (so to speak).  We did a lot of window shopping and a little real shopping.  We started at one end of the mall and went into most of the clothing stores.

Our first serious stop was at the Hanes store.  Hanes owns Bali, Playtex, Maidenform, Lilyette, Barely There and more.  My favourite bras are from Bali.  My favourite panties are Vanity Fair (not a Hanes product).  There were some great sales.  I was disappointed that the camisoles I loved were not on sale ($17 each!) but a Bali style I'd never seen before was on sale, as were Bali panties.  They had several different styles: hipster, bikini, hi-rise, and others, and a wide variety of colours and patterns.  Panties and bras were discounted more if you bought three of each.  I only needed one bra, but Charity bought two that were on sale as well.  I also bought six panties in three different styles.

To state the obvious, it's much more comfortable shopping for bras and panties en femme.

my new bra.  Alas, not me.

The bra, by the way, has full coverage, only two hooks, and instead of wire a wide band below the breasts.  It is amazingly comfortable.

I also picked up a new Maidenform waist cinch (also on deep discount) to replace my go-to cinch which was starting to fray.

Needless to say, I didn't try any of these on at the store.

Another stop was an Eddie Bauer store where I did try on some clothes.  I didn't find any dressy clothes I liked there but I did decide I could use a pair of Bermuda-length shorts.  I didn't see shorter shorts I liked but I had two pairs of shorts: one, jeans shorts, the rivet that held the button in front fell off; the other, khaki, were tight.  I picked up two replacement shorts (which, as I said, I did try on but did not wear during the trip.)  I consider these passable when I am in non-Meg mode.

I also picked up a passable pair of black slacks which I have worn to work.  They're size S12 (I believe the S refers to "short" which I'm not but they allow for hemming; these are not the first women's pants I bought for work that were S and fit right.  They're also from their "slightly curvy" line.  They make a variety of shapes, for different hip-waist ratios.  They have a "boyfriend" line which I believe makes more sense with my hip-waist ratio but I didn't see any of those.

The 12 was a bit loose but I thought it was tolerable, even though the shorts were 10s.  Wearing the slacks to work I realised I should have gotten a 10 as well.  But I think they look fine, with only one problem: the back pockets are minuscule, fairly useless.

Again, if you're going to be trying on women's clothes, it's better to be a woman while doing so.

Oh....  Breakfast for me means drinking copious amounts of coffee.  That meant a stop at the ladies' room of which there was only one and it had about twelve miles of stalls.  It wasn't very busy but there were enough ladies there that I didn't dawdle to adjust my makeup before leaving.

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Why are we limited?

Guy belts?  No way.

I thought about this while I was in a Burlington Coat Factory store (window shopping only, alas) and I saw their belt racks.

Men wear belts.  Women wear belts.  Men wear pretty much solid belts with brass (sometimes silver) buckles in a handful of colours.  (Western wear excepted.)

Women have Fabric or leather or metal belts.  They might be solid or have a series of openings or patterns.  They might be woven.  Colours are unlimited.  Widths are unlimited.  Buckles have a variety of ways to close.  I even saw a couple where the front has two metal bits that interlock and size is adjusted from the back.

They're just belts.  Granted, for men they're often for utility; for women they're often for decoration.

But why are we limited?

More importantly, why do we allow ourselves to be limited?  I'm open to suggestions and solutions. 

I have none.

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Limitations

A few nights ago, I went to pick up the mail wearing a bright pink women's polo shirt.  It was pretty hot out and since I was alone, I had removed my sweaty shirt when I got home.  I didn't think it wise to go out wearing a cami so I put on that shirt.

It's a polo, but in a brighter colour than most men's shirts.  It lacked buttons whereas I've never seen a men's polo without buttons, always the same medium-size 3 or 4 buttons.  It was a different material and the adjusters on the cami were visible from the back, if anyone was looking for them.

It's close to passable, but I wouldn't wear it while in drab to a civilian event.  For a few moments in a (possibly empty) lobby, getting mail, it wasn't a huge deal.  I did hesitate to wear it out, thought about the situation, and looked at worst-case scenarios, just because that's what I always do.

This is a polo shirt.  Just a polo shirt.

Polo shirts are menswear that were adopted by women.  A woman can pick up any men's polo off the rack and wear it without a second thought or second glance.

If I want a polo shirt I can wear when in drab, I have to consider
* colour.  And it has to be not only "acceptable" but solid.  Even striped men's polos are fringe.
* sleeve length.  No cap, not even too short sleeves, although a bit short is passable these days.
* sleeve style.  Simple hem.  No fancy buttons, elastic, slits, ruffle, or anything else vaguely interesting.
* pockets.  Zero or one pocket, on the left side.  Too small a pocket doesn't work either.  Nothing super fancy, like a button on the pocket.
* waist.  Like sleeves, a simple hem.
* collar.  Turn-down collar has to conform to normal button-down shirt collar style.  3-5 buttons, all "normal" shirt size.  No oversize buttons, or row of tiny buttons or snaps,  or drawstring, or anything else you can imagine.
* torso.  Can't have any darts.  Can't be too short.  Must be "normal" cotton; no see-thru material, or silk/poly, or anything else.
* badge.  The polo horse, or designer initials (or frog on a cart) is OK.  A little flower or teddy bear or whatever the designer has lying around?  Sorry.  No.

It's a polo shirt!  It started in the men's department!

And that's the point of this rant.  It's a shirt.  Men wear shirts.  Women wear shirts.  Men have a choice of one style, a dozen colours.  Women have at least ten choices in each category I listed above, and hundreds of colour/pattern choices.  I'd conservatively estimate a billion possible shirts.

I have a bit more to say on this, but that'll be tomorrow.

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