Deflating in-person shopping experience after a long time away from it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

This is 1000% weird. Especially to be impacted by models who are the less than 1% of the population. Therapy is a good place to work on self esteem and resiliency.

Blaming the victim is a very odd stance. Clearly women have been objectified since the dawn of time and it is a fact.

[Anonymous]

I have to say, the twenty foot tall Donna Karan ad at Tyson’s has me enthralled. The perfect hair, the immaculate French cuffs. If only they made crisp white button downs for a 36H rack 😭

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

This is 1000% weird. Especially to be impacted by models who are the less than 1% of the population. Therapy is a good place to work on self esteem and resiliency.

Blaming the victim is a very odd stance. Clearly women have been objectified since the dawn of time and it is a fact.

There’s no victim. Just a deeply insecure woman who needs therapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

This is 1000% weird. Especially to be impacted by models who are the less than 1% of the population. Therapy is a good place to work on self esteem and resiliency.

Blaming the victim is a very odd stance. Clearly women have been objectified since the dawn of time and it is a fact.

There’s no victim. Just a deeply insecure woman who needs therapy.

I know DCUM loves to prescribe therapy for everything but I think seeking a therapist for a deflating shopping experience might be a bit much.

Are there therapists who specialize in people who say "you need therapy" anytime anyone expresses a negative emotion? There should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

This is 1000% weird. Especially to be impacted by models who are the less than 1% of the population. Therapy is a good place to work on self esteem and resiliency.

Blaming the victim is a very odd stance. Clearly women have been objectified since the dawn of time and it is a fact.

There’s no victim. Just a deeply insecure woman who needs therapy.

I know DCUM loves to prescribe therapy for everything but I think seeking a therapist for a deflating shopping experience might be a bit much.

Are there therapists who specialize in people who say "you need therapy" anytime anyone expresses a negative emotion? There should be.

Someone proclaiming they need to stick to online shopping because their ego can’t take seeing a model is very much a good candidate for therapy. Having that fragile of an ego isn’t healthy.

Therapy is also really helpful for people like you PP that are so overly defensive at the suggestion of therapy. You’re not the OP, right? But yet you’re so offended because…a nerve was struck?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

I don’t recall Cathy punching down when someone else selected a frumpier bathing suit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

This is 1000% weird. Especially to be impacted by models who are the less than 1% of the population. Therapy is a good place to work on self esteem and resiliency.

Blaming the victim is a very odd stance. Clearly women have been objectified since the dawn of time and it is a fact.

There’s no victim. Just a deeply insecure woman who needs therapy.

+a million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

This is 1000% weird. Especially to be impacted by models who are the less than 1% of the population. Therapy is a good place to work on self esteem and resiliency.

Blaming the victim is a very odd stance. Clearly women have been objectified since the dawn of time and it is a fact.

There’s no victim. Just a deeply insecure woman who needs therapy.

I know DCUM loves to prescribe therapy for everything but I think seeking a therapist for a deflating shopping experience might be a bit much.

Are there therapists who specialize in people who say "you need therapy" anytime anyone expresses a negative emotion? There should be.

Her ego cannot handle looking at billboards of models? That (not therapy) sounds over the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

+1 The extreme insecurity from OP is really strange. When pictures of models cause someone to be so upset, you need intensive counseling.

Intensive counseling? It is not weird at all that someone who hasn't shopped in a long time, and is starting a new job in their 40s and is unsure how to dress their body for it, would feel insecure while shopping. This is not some weird outlier experience. It's a freaking Cathy cartoon.

This is 1000% weird. Especially to be impacted by models who are the less than 1% of the population. Therapy is a good place to work on self esteem and resiliency.

Blaming the victim is a very odd stance. Clearly women have been objectified since the dawn of time and it is a fact.

There’s no victim. Just a deeply insecure woman who needs therapy.

+a million.

Agreed. I have never, and will never be, a model size. I can't imagine being a grown adult and having your ego so badly damaged because you don't look like a model that you refuse to shop in stores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went shopping at the mall on my own at lunch today for the first time in a very long time (usually even if I do in person shopping, I have a kid or my husband in tow because we are on the way to something or the way home from something, so I'm distracted). I'm mid-40s and struggling a bit right now with clothes because I am looking to shift into an in-person job after years of WFH and basically have nothing appropriate and don't even know what people dress like in the office anymore. So it's a lot of looking at what's available, tons of trying on and trial and error.

The thing that struck me today was how much advertising I saw in store promoting incredibly beauty standards that just made me feel like a troll. And the thing is, I'm not. I'm a regular person but fit and reasonably attractive for a regular person. Before I went shopping I felt fine about myself. But every store I went into had these images of ultra thin women with perfect bodies and perfectly airbrushed skin and perfect hair. And seeing those images over and over as I tried stuff on and tried to make some peace with my middle aged body left me feeling really deflated. At one point I walked passed a Victoria's Secret and there was a photo of Gigi Hadid outside in a bikini that just kind of got in my head like oh my god that is so many light years away from what I look like, should I go hide under a rock?

I am aware that the fashion industry has been like this for a long time, I used to read fashion magazines back before I had kids. But I guess I was just used to it before and then being away from it and getting older, it really hit me today. Today was a useful exercise because it's nice to try things on and be able to look at tons and tons of clothes at once, but I think I will revert to online shopping only from here on out. My ego can't take it!

Just have a sense of humor. My friend and I went shopping to Tysons after having a drink. We stopped at Aritzia and she asked me if this was a children section, because everything was so tiny there. I am 50 y.o. and fit, 120 lb. While we were discussing this, there were an anorexic model looking at us from the huge tv screen on the wall. We just cannot stop laughing at it. And I love Aritzia and shop there a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Size 6 is pretty large in the fashion industry.

LOL yeah if you’re talking about Chanel high fashion Paris runway stuff. In regular stores though not so much OBVIOUSLY.

Wright? OP clearly was shopping in suburban american mall.

[Anonymous]

I went to Madewell to spend my Insider Birthday Bucks and there were zero t-shirts that weren't cropped. Madewell?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

LOL - check back when you get to your 50s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird post. I have noticed a dramatic change in “size inclusivity” of the past five years. Now there are mannequins and models of all shapes and sizes. The local athleta regularly displays skin tight spandex on a size 22 mannequin.

OP here, and I have barely been shopping in the last 7 years. I known size inclusivity is a thing in the industry and I've noticed it in ads, but I gotta say when I was at the mall yesterday, I didn't see much of it. It definitely felt like a throwback to the 90s when clothes were only advertised on impossibly thin 15 year old models. I felt extremely old and huge (I am a size 4).

The world isn't about you and making everything you see look like you. The models aren't impossibly thin, because they are that thin, hence it is not an impossibility.

Yep, this. This thread is so bizarre. I am a late 30s size 2/4 and I feel like I am thin. Pictures of women thinner than me don’t make me feel bad.

LOL - check back when you get to your 50s

My mom is 70 and is a size 2 - still at the same weight she was in high school. I seem to take after her pretty strongly looks wise so I think I’ll still be feeling pretty good at 50.

[Anonymous]

The lighting and mirrors in most fitting rooms is enough to make me NEVER shop at malls. Why on earth do they want to make me look that haggard when I'm trying on the clothes they are trying to sell me? I don't get it.