The day after we got here, we went to the mall. I had been looking forward to it for MONTHS since the only place I'd been shopping was the BX/base exchange. The BX is not my favorite place to shop because a)there are very few cute things and chances are everyone else has them too and will undoubtedly wear them on the same day that you do and b)they pride themselves on giving us low prices... on like DKNY jeans or something that are normally $120 and marked down to $75...to me this is not a deal, because I would never pay $120 or $75 for a pair of jeans. Give me a $30 pair of jeans marked down to $15 and I'd be happy.
But, despite my deep desire to go shopping, when we got here, it turned out that shopping really wasn't my thing. I went into JC Penney and David went downstairs to buy jeans. I stayed upstairs to buy jeans. 20 minutes later, David comes up with 4 pairs of jeans. I had tried on about 30 pairs of jeans and hated them all. They were either way too big, way too small, a little too low-rise, had ugly sparkly things on the back pockets, or I didn't like the color of the stitching. Maybe I was a little picky...but my new theory is to buy TWO pairs of the same pants whenever I buy pants, one to hem for wearing with flats and one to hem for wearing with heels, so that means I need to really love any pair of pants I buy. We went to NY & Co. and tried on another pair or two, but by then I was just tired, depressed and convinced that I had morphed into some strange shape while I was away, destined to never wear another pair of jeans again.
Until yesterday... maybe it was because I re-read Confessions of a Shopaholic the other day... I was ready to shop again! First we went to Target (well, first we went to Eat at Joe's Crab Shack) I wanted to look at the shoes first, since all I brought here were running shoes. Here's my impression of me walking through the shoe section at Target yesterday, "Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Weird. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly." Shoes at Target are hit or miss, and I guess yesterday was a big miss. I tried on jeans that were way too low-rise. You can tell that jeans are way too low-rise (for a fairly conservatively dressed adult anyway) when the back pockets are placed so that rather than being on your tush, they go halfway down the back of your thigh. David thought maybe I needed a larger size. I refrained from breathing fire on him and allowed him to get me the larger size, knowing full well that I was not suffering from some sort of body image distortion, but rather some trendily (and strangely) made pants. But I obliged and tried on the larger size, which obviously didn't work either. I settled for a cute green shirt with a navy blue and green scarf (on sale!) and we headed to the mall.
I went back to NY & Co., because it's one of my favorite stores AND it gives a military discount. There was a shirt in the front display that I had thought was cute last time I was there, and now it was almost 1/2 off! I picked up a few full-priced items and then I saw it... A WHOLE ENTIRE WALL of $9.99 items! That was just what I needed...I picked everything I thought was cute and headed for a fitting room. The jeans...same jeans that I tried on a few weeks ago...I tried those on again too, and what do you know? They looked great. Everything looks better when it's on sale for $9.95!! I ended up getting 2 pairs of jeans, 6 tops and a belt all for the same price as the 2 pairs of jeans would've been had I paid full price. I SAVED $184.29! I felt like that CouponMom that I saw on Oprah a few weeks ago! And it turns out I don't hate shopping after all!
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I'm with you on the jeans thing. Why is it so hard to just find plain 'ol Levi's style jeans anymore?? I don't want low rise, show your tush, boot cut, sequined pockets, no pockets, crazy stitching, super tight, bell bottom, crazy jeans!!!!! My favorite place to buy jeans thus far has been Old Navy though it is annoying when you finally find a pair you like, go back and buy the exact same jeans in the exact same size and they don't fit for some reason!!! I have some 6's that fit great and some 6's that I bought later (without trying them on of course because I already had the same jeans) and I can't get them past my thighs!!! UGH!
Shopping for me used to be so simple. I was a size 10, and everything in shops that was a size 10 fitted me. It might not always suit my appearance, but it'd fit.
Then I went to Italy for my year abroad, came back and finished Uni, and each year, put on a little weight until I was a size 12 for trousers, and a 10-12 on top (usually a 12 for wool things). But jeans? Oy! In GAP, a 30 inch I think is a 12, the 32 inches a size 14. The 30" is a little snug, the 32" is half falling off me. I don't tend to like jeans elsewhere, so pretty much only buy GAP ones (in the sale though, so anywhere from £9.99 to £19.99).
What really took the biscuit for me, was trying on a skirt in GAP. A size 12, should have fitted. The zip wouldn't even do up an inch, even when I hitched the skirt up to the top of my ribs (so that the start of the zip was over the narrowest part of my waist). I ended up with a size *16* of that skirt, for it to zip up, and even then, it sits too high on my waist. I have a similar design skirt ALSO form GAP, and that is a 12. Bought maybe last year. How can one store have nearly identical skirts, and I need 2 sizes bigger for it now? I am NOwhere near a size 16!
(all these are UK sizes btw, so I'm like a size 8 in US terms).
I think you'd like the Next sales here - clothes half price, over the summer and Christmas sales. But it gets way busy for them, the shop's hyped them up a it, and some open at like 4 or 5am.
For shoes, I pretty much only shop at Clarks. Not as cheap as some of the cheaper places around here like Barratts, but the shoes fit properly and are better made. You pay for the quality and looking after your feet.
Glad you got good shopping this time you went though!
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