I received a really nice pay raise not long ago. Not a promotion, just a pay raise that got me up into the bracket I should be in doing the job I’m doing.
Since then, I’ve really tried hard to dress the part of the professional I’m supposed to be. Our office dress code is business casual with jeans on Fridays, so I’ve improved my wardrobe by adding nice linen pieces and a couple of suits.
It’s no secret that I’m a weighty woman. Too many years of sedentary life and indulgence in calorie laden foods have swelled my once generous curves to Michelin Man proportions which means that when I shop for clothing, it must be what is euphemistically termed "plus size clothing". So many designers of said clothing tend to take what’s suitable for more proportionately shaped female bodies and make it bigger in all the right places. All too often that makes us look even larger than we are, and in my opinion, sloppy as well. Certainly NOT the image I’m trying to project.
I hate shopping in malls. I love shopping online. That doesn’t always play out well when it’s clothing involved, but I’ve been fairly lucky in that respect. I’ve found a couple of online purveyors of my sized clothing that have stylish, practical and suitable clothing that FITS. Silhouettes is one such place and Blair is another, both carrying clothing that is suitable and has pockets which is a personal must-have as far as I’m concerned.
When I need more formal wear than either of those two have available (usually at Christmas they have a nice selection, but you know and I know that’s not the only time of the year you might need fancy dress), I can shop at Midnight Velvet which always seems to have fancy dress available.
I can say that I’ve only ever returned one item to any of these places and that wasn’t because it didn’t fit, but because it arrived too late for the event I had purchased it for. The company was gracious about the return and promptly credited the purchase to my credit card. All three of these companies have similar return policies, so I don’t think I would have any problem returning items if needed. Blair also has a nice selection of men’s clothing as well as house wear items. My only complaint with Blair is that some of the items I’ve purchased were not wrinkle resistant. I hate ironing, so that’s another requirement for me along with pockets.
I hope that if you find yourself in a similar situation to mine, that you’ll give one of these fine places a try.
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