Okay, before we start, let’s get this one out of the way.
Everybody is hard to fit.
Every. Body.
If you’ve watched more than one episode of What Not To Wear, this is just review.
I’m “hard to fit,” you’re “hard to fit,” even that 5’6″, narrow-hipped, 34C, Size 4 cousin of yours with average-width feet and zero cellulite is… what, Class?
Hard to fit.
Why? Because of mass-manufactured clothing. Efficiencies of scale have lots of benefits, but custom fit is pretty much, by definition, not one of them.
Have you ever gone house hunting in the historic district? If nineteenth century bedrooms even have closets, they have been built to hold, like, four dresses, a girdle, a nightgown, a couple of 7-cent jars of Dr. Schticklemeyer’s All Purpose Liniment and a hat.
When everybody owns four dresses, no one is expected to wear more than four dresses, everybody makes the four dresses or gets the four dresses made exactly to her measurements, and it’s not prohibitively expensive because it’s only four dresses.
However, just in case you’ve been in a coma for the last 110 years, I have news for you. The world you knowed is gone.
If you’re lucky AND smart AND you spend a ridiculous amount in sticky, laminate-covered dressing rooms with drapes that don’t go all the way across, you might be able to find two or three brands and/or styles and/or cuts that work for you at least 54% of the time.
In sum? We all have fit issues. That said, some of us* have more of them, and some of them are more frustrating than others. Let’s vent together. I’ll go first.
I’m short. But there are petite sections. Things can be hemmed or taken up at the shoulder.
I’m busty. But there’s always Bravissimo.
I have really, ridiculously short fingers. But if I look, I can find size Small gloves. Ditto wide calf boots.
I have big hips and/or a small waist. But stretch fabric helps. And– at least theoretically– jeans and skirts and whatnot can be taken in at the waist.
But there’s one thing that really stumps me.
It’s not how “narrow” my waist is, it’s how short. There’s only about 3.5″ of vertical space between my ribcage and my hipbones. So really wide belts are out, but that’s no big loss.
My problem is dresses. Even stretchy dresses that have a fighting chance of fitting both my hips and my waist present me with several extra vertical inches of fabric around my midsection.
Por ejemplo, this Calvin Klein dress in a size 8:
Okay, you say. Luckily for you, Michelle, Calvin Klein makes petite sizes!
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The Pretty Year 