Fashion No Man's Land?

lmhbuss

So...my Lane Bryant jeans are about to fall off of me...and they are the smallest size Lane Bryant carries. I was all "Yay! I get to shop at regular stores now and have more options!" Then I hopped on the Mod-Cloth and E-Shakti websites...but according to their sizing charts I'm still in the plus sizes. :huh: I've never been as small as I am now (as an adult) and am a little confused. If I'm too small for the plus sized stores but still larger than the regular sized stores, where exactly do I shop? Is there some sort of fashion no man's land where women my size just have to wonder around for awhile in realllly baggy clothes until they get down a bit smaller? :laugh:
Seriously though, where do those of you who have only just eeked your way out of the plus sized area shop?

ProjectYummyMummy

My sister has this theory that you buy the smaller size and squeeze into it. LOL! I thought it was funny at first, but I've been forced to give it a try. I was a UK 16 for a long time. But now I'm poking so many holes into my belt, I've just decided to try on the size 14's that have been in my closet for about a month. They are so uncomfortable around my thighs, but at least they fit my waist better. So every morning, I have to dance a little jig to get into my jeans. (I figure, at least I burn a few more unplanned calories, right?)

Unfortunately, there seems to be no solution to your problem. Either buy smaller belts, or make a squeeze.

Congratulations on the weight loss, though. Why not take advantage of the sun and wear more dresses? Size is a bit less of an issue with dresses usually.

EveyRose

I was blessed with a mom the grew up during the depression and made sure all of us kids know how to do basic sewing. I have not found any place that really has clothes that fit me so I do a lot of my own alterations to make them do so. As my jeans get loose I take the waist in as many times as I can while they are in good shape. If you don't sew you might look into a shop locally that does alterations most chareg by the hour not piece and can be very reasonable. For tops and dresses I have a devil of a time for anything work related that I don't want my chest to be totally obvious in, 90% of the people I work with are male mechanics and the last thing I want is their attention! Watch tags closely on how much stretch material is in them and try everything on, if it looks about the right size but the tag size looks wrong try it anyway, no uniform coding for sizing between manufactures and what country they are made in....I have several dresses that are size 13 most fit right, some are a smidge big and others there are no way the zipper is going to close in the back...for those they have to be darn cute and I change out the zipper and put in corset lacing to wear what I want!

seltzermint555

My advice is to try a lot of different stores. Check out clearance racks especially. I just transitioned out of plus totally but for like 8 months I felt very "in between" to be honest. Lane Bryant sizes generally run huge. I still have some 14 jeans that are perfect on me from other brands/stores even though I wear 12 and 13 mostly now...but 14 jeans at Lane Bryant simply fall right off...they're that much bigger! I LOVED Macy's when I was at size 1X and 16-ish. They had so much 1X clearance, I think because a lot of women wear 2-3X or start heading to misses for XL, but I think 1X is definitely a size category of its own.

For me Target was the trickiest...for quite some time, I was finding all of the plus tops & dresses massively too large for me but still could not wear the misses and juniors XL or even XXL. Now I am in those, but it took quite awhile, there was a gap for me with Target where I just couldn't wear their stuff in general!

Good luck!

rml_16

You need to walk into a real live store and actually try things on.