THE DAILY BLADE: Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man, When It Comes To Clothes Shopping?
One of The Stiletto's pet peeves is that at similar or lower price points, men's clothing is much better made than women's. For instance, on a man’s striped or plaid shirt, the pattern is carefully matched at shoulder seams and the breast pocket; a woman’s striped or plaid shirt looks like it’s been slapped together using fabric remnants (probably from a man’s shirt).
Since the number of her pet peeves (fourth item) rivals that of Adrian Monk's, The Stiletto is always relieved to find someone else who is also ticked off about the little things that tick her off, in this case the gender inequality of quality in ready-to-wear clothing. Here's a great article by The Wall Street Journal's Christina Brinkley on the subject:
Unlike men, women frequently settle for garments that don't fit well and don't feel good.
Sometimes, women have little choice. It has long been an irritating truth that men are offered better-quality clothes for lower prices. Many fashionable women's clothes - including plenty sold at luxury prices - are made relatively cheaply. "Women do get shortchanged in the market," says Patrick Gigliotti, a menswear salesman at the venerable Boyd's Philadelphia department store. Some women who value well-made clothing have even resorted to shopping in menswear departments.
One reason for the quality difference is trendiness: Because womenswear is more faddish, there's a perception in the fashion industry that the clothes will be thrown away more quickly. Indeed, fast fashion has trained a generation to seek out throwaway styles.
Yet tailoring should matter. Women are always looking for clothes that will lift their bottoms and smooth their bulges. That's exactly the kind of magic that tailoring works. Luckily, with a little education about the way sophisticated men shop, it is possible to buy good-quality womenswear.
Brinkley also suggests several indicators of a garment’s quality to look for before taking it into the dressing room (does the fabric stay wrinkled when you scrunch it?; are there loose threads or ragged seams?; is there enough fabric at the seams to allow the garment to be let out?) and when you try it on (do pants bag at the knees when you squat?; does the fabric of a jacket pull across the torso?; do buttons on a blouse gap?).
In addition to these tests, The Stiletto sits on the bench in the dressing room to see how high skirts and pant legs ride up when she crosses her legs, or how low the neckline of a blouse plunges when she leans forward – and also how the skirt or dress “moves” as she walks towards and away from the mirror and twirls (not that she does much twirling in real life, but it’s impossible to properly sashay down the street unless there’s a slight swing in a skirt or dress).
Isn’t This What Maalox Is For?
“Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq,” The New York Times, January 4, 2011
The Stiletto Scoops Best Of The Web Today (Again)
On her Web show, Katie Couric decried a "seething hatred many people feel for all Muslims” in the U.S., and advocates a Muslim version of "The Cosby Show" ... The ratings should rival that of the CBS Evening News in a race to the bottom.
- "Couric Jumps The Shark," The Stiletto Blog, January 3, 2010
Katie Couric of the "CBS Evening News" has a suggestion for her network's entertainment division ...a Muslim version of The Cosby Show ... This promises to be the greatest thing for network ratings since--Katie Couric!
- "Kate And Allah," OpinionJournal, January 4, 2010
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