It's been so long, so long. I know I haven't posted and there goes most of my small readership, but hopefully those who are using RSS will pick up this post. Huzzah! Really, I haven't had much to write about while back in the States. But I'll start back up with a tale of my most recent shopping trip.
When I'm back in the States, I like to get some new clothes items since my favorite stores aren't in Japan and also Japanese fashion only goes so far with me. You don't want to see me in full Japanese getup; you'd probably wet yourself laughing.
I've heard about how clothing designers/retailers have been secretly making sizes bigger in order to increase/maintain consumer confidence. You know, a size 2 or whatever is no longer what it used to be; a size 2 now is the same as what used to be a size 4. I wasn't sure if I believed it until my most recent venture into the mall. I used to be a solid medium. Shirts, pants, whatever. I certainly haven't gotten any smaller in the three years I've been in Japan, but apparently everyone else has gotten a lot bigger. I can't fit into anything labeled as a "medium" anymore. I've been moved down to a small, and even then things are huge.
What's telling though is that in every store, smalls are either very few or completely sold out. This tells me that either no one is a small or there are quite a few smalls who are buying everything out of the store. This is especially true on clearance racks. While there are racks and racks of M through XXL, there are (for example) three S-sized shirts.
An outrage! My only hope it seems is to go back to Japan to buy stuff that actually fits me. Hopefully without glitter, chains, and excessive fasteners.
Comments
Yay! You're back!
Here in Canada, I find that, having put on weight, I am now unfortunately a medium (which once was a large). But here it's the mediums that are in short supply. Plenty of smalls, larges and those annoying extra smalls, just no mediums.
Posted by: Maktaaq | October 31, 2007 2:23 PM
Just my luck, the one day I come online you've updated!
That explains why my dad can never get my size in the US. Sure I'm short and relatrively small, but I've found more pairs of pants in my exact size in South Africa (where the "petite" sizes are usually intended for people 1.68m tall) than my dad has found T-shirts for me in the US. The consequence: I have about 8 t-shirts that reach my knees.
Posted by: AK | November 1, 2007 3:16 AM
Yeah, try being a small guy anyway. I used to be on the border between Men's and Boy's clothes sizes. Now, I'm completely relegated to Boy's clothes, or at least anything that I can shrink the hell out of. Furthermore, Boy's clothes have degraded in quality even more since obviously nobody expects a "boy" to look good OR wear his clothes more than twice. And I'm supposed to dress professionally! Guess there are no "real" professional men in the US anymore that are less at 5'5" and/or weigh less than 140 pounds. Hey, maybe in another couple of years, even Justin will be too small to be considered a "man" in the US anymore! That, or we'll all have to just start buying women's clothing. :-)
The only thing good about any of this is that IF I can find anything to fit that actually looks half-decent, it's usually pretty cheap.
Posted by: Jansen | November 6, 2007 2:24 AM
There's nothing wrong with excessive fasteners, is there? Maybe I better return my Bedazzler
Posted by: Gryphon | November 17, 2007 8:50 AM