Saturday, January 20, 2007

How to buy size 14 clothes on sale (really)

Once upon a time when I was a size 14 and thought I was the biggest blob on the planet (now of course I wish for those heady skinny days) I used to get really irritated in clothing stores that seemed to sell out of their size 14 or large items within a day and were filled with extra small and small sized clothes (sizes 8-10) that inevitably were heavily discounted at the middle or end of the season. It just wasn't fair!

Now that I am a little larger I buy a lot of my clothes at stores that specialise in sizes 14+. I went to the sales last week and while I did reasonably well (3 skirts and 4 tops from Taking Shape for well under $200 in total), I noticed something else. Like all clothing stores, most of their sale items were in the “extra small” and “small” sizes which in the plus-size world generally translates as sizes 14 and 16. So if you happen to be a size 14 and visit a plus-size store, you can not only pick up a good bargain in clothes that actually fit but you can also have the satisfaction of walking around wearing a genuine “extra small” labelled garment. (Very silly I know, but also satisfying on a superficial level.)

For instance, the MySize clearance store in Richmond had good work shirts that I paid $60-$70 for a few months ago for only $9.95 – if you happened to be a size 14-16.

I can't wait until I am a tiny size 14-16 again and can take advantage of such bargains.

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