Can you buy and wear off-the rack without much alteration?

I guess I'm a funny size, I can only wear one brand of pants with any reliable hope of a good fit, and dresses and shirts tend to be too small in the arms (when sewing for myself I always have to size patterns up in the arms and down in the bodice and skirt) and too long in the waist with the bustline set too low. I can get the one brand of pants and t shirts and that's about it unless I'm feeling really patient and my bank account's pretty flush.

My bestest female friend, the one who looked enough like me to be a twin when we were growing up, has the opposite problems- she's too tall for everything, her (bra) cups runneth over (no really, she got a professional fitting lately and she's a G!) and she's got nassitol. She buys men's pants to deal with the no butt issue, but as far as shirts go she's pretty much out of luck- anything that fits in the chest is enormous everywhere else, and she's not a small girl. Apparently the assumption is that large breasts are only included in the morbid obesity option package.

Do other people- women but I'm also really interested to know if men put up with this crap- have such issues, or am I very very lucky?

I was wondering this today, as I tried on nine- NINE!- outfits and was pleasantly surprised that one actually fit and was in-budget.

Mens' slacks! I started wearing my BF's old ones he'd outgrown (gotten too fat for, at our age). Found some that fit perfectly and occasionally were a bit long in the crotch, but otherwise much better than womens' slacks. I have a flat butt, no waist and a tummy.
They put the waist and inseam size on mens' slacks too!! He's a bit taller than me but we're both short and have the same inseam length.

Shirts are OK except that as a petite large size, I need shorter arms and bigger shoulders & ribs.

Unfortunately, when you are a petite and go into large sizes, over size 14, they think you are huge all over, and I'm not. Doesn't seem to be anything.

long enough for me. I have on occasion shopped at "tall girls" stores, and sometimes those pants have to be hemmed up! In a regular store, though, I really have to search to find pants that that don't fit me like highwaters!

Have you tried Old Navy lately? I went in there the other day and was pleasantly suprised that the tall jeans were actually long enough! I'm an in between kinda length, and the regulars are usually about an inch or so too short. The talls come down to the bottom of my foot barefoot, and with my usual shoes,are absolutely perfect!! AND they have a bit of a stretch to them!

Next time I need jeans, I'll check 'em out.

really gets everyone else in my family mad too. I can pop it off the rack and wear it.

as did one of my exes... like your friend, she has very large breasts (natural, I might add. :) ), and was forced to wear loose shirts that made her look overweight. (granted, last time I saw her, she had gained a lot of weight... so she might not have that problem anymore.)

I have some very odd proportions for a guy too. I'm very 'big-boned', and I mean this literally. I am only average height, but I have a very large bone structure. Wide joints, broad chest, wide shoulders and hips, ect. Back when I was really skinny I looked very knobby. :)

And because I spent the first 23 years of my life without a car and therefore had to walk everywhere I go, and after I got a car I started working at a warehouse and lifting heavy things every day, I have rather thick legs, and now rather thick arms as well. Add on to that the fact that I have a slightly longer than average torso, and slightly shorter than average arms... and it's damn near impossible to find pants OR a shirt that fit me properly. Anything that fits over my shoulders is far too long in the arms. Anything that is slender enough not to make me look twice as fat as I am won't fit over my arms. Shirts that are long enough to fit my torso are too long for my arms. Shirts that are short enough not to hang off my arms are too short for my torso. Pants that aren't loose around my waist are too tight to pull above my thighs. Pants that are roomy enough for my thighs fall off my waist. I have to wear baggy pants because nothing else works. And finding a long-sleeved shirt that fits my arm length and width, along with my shoulder width, and are long enough that I'm not showing exposed belly every time I raise my arms... yeah, that's a bit of a task.

I've recently started looking for a new job, which meant that I had to find a some nice button-down shirts that fit me. Believe me, that was quite a task. Thankfully I'd already managed to find a nice pair of khakis that fit me as well.

I'm starting to realize why superheroes wear spandex. It's because nothing off the rack fits their body proportions.

I have to be extra careful with dresses though. My wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses that I have worn had to be altered a lot, but perhaps they make them that way so the store can make money off of alterations. The issue that I have with dresses is that my chest is about a size 10 while the bottom part of me is a size 4. What makes this even worse is that my rib cage sticks out more than most people. Probably for best fit, I would have dresses altered. I usually either get a dress with a little bit of stretch or accept that it is going to be a little loose on my hips.

I'm 5'10 and skinny, so it's hard to find a suit that fits right off-the-rack. As for regular clothes, certain designers fit me better than others. It varies depending on what I'm looking for.

:)

so i always need to get at least a large or an extra large and it will through through the shoulders but the rest of it will be like a tent.

I guess I'm lucky - I never thought about it or realized how many people couldn't. :blush:

It's my broad shoulders and bull neck that cause it. :crazy::silly:

I can pretty much wear anything in medium, size 8-10 range. :D I'm an average 5'6".

:hi:

:hide:

but before I had many problems. Pants which fit at waist & in hips were too long in stride and length, tops which fit my boobs were too long in sleeves and too wide in shoulders. The "Women" section clothes were too big, Misses were not proportioned correctly and petites only rarely come above 16 (I wore 18P when I could find them.) 10% weight loss and I could wear 14 P, and now that I am down even more I can find all kinds of neat stuff. Tops can still be an issue, because I still have DDD cup size but much less fat across my back so still easier than before ..

There are still times when i just can't find anything, though

Because MEN'S clothes--even those off the rack--are more customised than ours. And usually cheaper, and usually cost less to dry clean.

I grew up in the 60s--literally, I was 6'1" by 1969 when I was 14. D'ya think there was anything anywhere that fit me? Luckily, low-rise levis were unisex at that time, which is when I discovered that men have it so much better than we do. Shirts have the buttons on the proper side, and there are neck sizes as well as overall sizes. The buttons on women's shirts start too high for me (I've got the longest torso in the world, I swear!) and women's jeans were always too short or too tight around the hips until recently. Men's are proportioned waist to length: why don't we have that???

(Mot to mention men's swimming trunks, one of the best kept secrets from us for years!)

My theory is this: men shop with the idea that clothes should fit THEIR bodies. Off the rack, or at the tailors', men can find stuff no matter how podgy or tall they happen to be! Women try on clothes from Size Zero to Size 28 and our self-esteem goes down the toilet if the stupid, cookie-cutter, made-in-China-by-sweat-shop-workers-doing-piecemeal don't fit our unique forms. Once again not so subtlely telling us we don't measure up unless we have a perfect bod.

Naomi Wolfe's book "The Beauty Myth" somewhat addresses the topic, pointing out that women will spend more money the more dissatisfied they are with their appearance. All this sizing is just a marketing ploy to make us part with our $$$$$

I have to buy nearly everything in the petites section because I'm short with short proportions. If I buy any type of shirt or blouse in my size except button-front, I can be guaranteed that if it's a style I like, it'll fit. :) Pants are a different story, though. A size 8 is NOT uniform for every style or manufacturer, and it's not even the same within the same manufacturer's different range of styles. :( I have found two styles that I love and fit properly, and I'll stick with them. :)

Oh, and I never wear one-piece dresses because they look horrid on me. I have to buy separates (blouse/shirt and skirt) if I'm going to do that. (The only time you'll catch me in a skirt is at work. :P)