Liz Goes To The Tailor

I have issues with pants. It goes like this.

• My pants don't fit.
• So I donate them to the thrift store and buy new pants.
• My pants don't fit.

It was this last round where I almost immediately was like, Crap these pants I literally JUST BOUGHT don't fit, to get me to go to a tailor. Because:

• I'm of average height and weight (5'4" / 140 pounds), I should be able to buy pants that fit off the rack.
• I've never gone to a tailor, and I was really nervous about it.
• It is task of Herculean proportions for me to get stuff like this into my schedule.

The morning I went I literally had to pry myself out of bed earlier than I should have been getting up to run to the tailor and then run back home and then run somewhere else. Seriously, I don't have time for life stuff, it's absurd. I've got two sweaters in my trunk that need to be dry cleaned and a pair of shoes with a heel issue - My goal is to get that taken care of in this calendar year. Meantime, I'm down two sweaters and a pair of shoes.

But I got my butt to the tailor because my level of distress over not having a single pair of pants that fit me had reached absurd proportions. Like I was afraid my pants were going to fall down at work, and I had pairs that took a belt that were literally looking gathered at the waist. I could pull them off without unzipping them.

Not because of massive weight loss, mind you, but because to get a pair that fits in the hips, I have to buy a pair that swims in the waist. Don't even get me started on finding normal-sized short lengths and low rise pants in a department store issues. (Seriously, if a pair of pants touches my waist, I immediately want to shred them it's so unbearable.)

So. Going to the tailor was a pain, but not too bad. I had to pull on every pair, he marked them with chalk, and then I managed to drag my ass back there yesterday to pick them up. I tried them all on, and most of them are a vast improvement. A couple now seem too tight, but they were the cheapest pairs that were already not really designed correctly for hips and I'm a little puffy today, so they're probably, hopefully fine. I won't wear pants that show any creasing or pulling in the crotch area, so we'll see.

And honestly, the other three pairs now fit perfectly, and that's more pairs of pants that fit than I've ever owned in my entire life.

Comments

[Genie]

I just went to the tailor for the first time recently to get some dress pants lengthened. I bought them knowing I would have to take them to the tailor and it scared me. :) I know have 6 pairs of fancy dress pants, though, that I'll actually wear since you know they ... FIT ... now.

[Super K]

Ann Taylor Loft has a great fit for curvy girls. I have the same hip/waist problem with about a 10 inch difference between the two measurements! But the Julie fit in their pants works well for me.

[jamy]

I am with Super K--the Ann Taylor "Julie" works for me pretty well and I have a more than 10in diff btwn my waist and hips. I also find that a lot of Talbot's pants work (at least in my size: 16W, I never have to get them altered). Talbot's can be great for work and they have an outlet section on their site that has low prices.

Otherwise, I go to the tailor. Be warned though, some tailors are better than others. And even at my regular place when one of the assistants did the job, he did it poorly. It takes a very skilled tailor/seamstress to do this particular alteration well--taking in the waist but leaving enough room for the hips. When you find a place that does it right, stick with them!

[Barry]

I have to say that it puzzles me that clothing for adult women is often cut as though it were for the proportions pre-teen girls. There's a market for the latter, but there's a [adjective]* market for the former, too, for proper-fitting clothes for women who are proportioned the way women are (and should be) proportioned.

It's not that way for men's clothing, at least not in my experience. I can buy trousers online from Lands' End, I specify waist and inseam, they arrive... and they fit. Yay.

It ought to work that way for women, too.

--
* I kept trying to come up with an adjective to describe the scope of the market, here, but after sticking in, and removing, "huge", "wide", "enormous", and "broad", I decided that they all gave the wroooooong impression of what I meant....

[lizriz]

body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}TypePadYeah, I guess I should buy pants that fit except for length and then get them hemmed, but I find it really annoying to think that I *have* to go to the tailor, so I've been going crazy trying to buy pants the right length... Which never fit at the top!

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[lizriz]

body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}TypePadHm... I will have to try that. Last time I went to Ann Taylor loft I tried to buy petite and they were too short.  Maybe if I buy regular and then - sigh - get them hemmed.

[lizriz]

body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}TypePadOK, adding Talbot's to the list of places to try...  But hopefully not anytime soon.  I *hate* shopping for pants!

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[lizriz]

body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}TypePadlol

You know, it's weird, because I am a size 8/10 in juniors, and it actually really annoys me that the "womens" section changes all the sizes (and sells pants that go up to my under arms instead of low rise).  So I do wish there was one size scale, but a wider variety of cuts and lengths within that. Or, like you say, something like a Men's Warehouse for women to buy work clothes where the fitting is part of the store. I mean, basic work pants just shouldn't be that difficult.

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