Shopping for clothes is usually an extremely frustrating experience for me. Differences in the shape of my body, and in my ability to get certain items on and off independently, mean that I have to be very particular about the styles I select. People think I'm being overly picky or stubborn, but it's really just that I know my body and I know what works and what doesn't, and it seems that as time goes on, the fashion world moves further and further away from the styles that work for me. I really wish they would stop that.
But sometimes, I manage to be in the right place at the right time, and have a really satisfying shopping excursion, just when I'm about to give up.
Since the weather has cooled off, I have been searching for some new winter pants to wear to work... well, and everywhere else. The several pairs of cotton jersey knit pants I have been wearing for the past few years have definitely seen better days. They've shrunk, thinned and faded from years of washing, and they have holes in them from puppy claws and teeth. So I've been looking for something similar, but it seems the style this year for elastic waist pants is an extra wide waistband, which is usually not stretchy enough for me to pull down, and a low-rise waist which pretty much makes thong underwear mandatory - and I'm sorry, but I don't do thongs. This is all I've been able to find.
Since I had to go to Target anyway the other night, I decided to look there for pants, even though I've never had much luck with clothes shopping there before (though I absolutely love the store for everything else). Well, this was one of those rare occasions, when I was in the right place at the right time.
Before I even got to the pants, I saw a dress I really liked, so stopped to look at it. It was a long halter dress, brown with purple and teal paisley. It had been marked down, and then marked down again, for a final price of six dollars and twenty-four cents! Yeah, that went in the cart. Then I noticed that they were having a clearance sale on summer items, so I started sifting through the racks. I wear a lot of plain, solid color tee shirts - by themselves in the spring and summer, and then under my sweaters and sweatshirts in the fall and winter. I found one of these, in navy blue, for less than two dollars, and a cute shirt with ruffled cap sleeves for seven and change. When I finally got to the pants, I was disappointed to find nothing but more of the same low rise, wide waist uselessness... until I spotted a display of Hanes mix and match sweats for $6.49 each. The pants had boot cut legs, so they didn't really look like sweatpants. They did have the wide waistband, but it was plenty high, so I decided to try them on anyway.
PERFECT! They fit like a dream, are super comfy, and the waistband is stretchy enough in spite of itself. Plus, being sweatpants, they're much warmer than the thinned-out pants I've been wearing. The only thing I was disappointed by was that they only had one black pair in my size. I grabbed a navy blue pair also, but would have gotten another pair or two in black if they'd had them. That's okay, though, because I'm sure I can find more online. Finally, my hunt for pants is over.
To recap, I got two pairs of pants, two shirts and a dress, all for less than $29. Thank you, universe, for giving me a break!
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