I Get into Fashion! Continued

Moran spends the rest of the Fashion chapter describing the hell women go through while looking for clothes. Getting depressed while gazing in fitting room mirrors. Buying completely unsuitable items in fits of desperation, only to realize when you get them home that you will never ever wear them. Not being able to find anything with sleeves. Few women find shopping fun, which may be why online shopping has increased; it is more pleasant to try on clothes in the privacy of your home, where no one will hear you cry.

The last complaint I found really interesting because that seems to be a common complaint among British women. The Guardian has a blog called “The Invisible Woman” geared towards older women who feel invisible because of their age. One post generated a string of comments about how impossible it was to find t-shirts with elbow-length sleeves, something that can be easily found from American clothing companies such as LLBean. Most posters (whether from the U.K. , the U.S., elsewhere) agreed that it is hard to find attractive clothing that fits older female bodies and more mature lifestyles, despite the economic power of the aging Baby Boomer generation.

The misery of ill-fitting clothes is compounded by the criticism received by the women who wear them. While Moran mentions how British female politicians are chastised for their wardrobe mistakes, I remember Hilary Clinton. It seems as though every time the poor woman trims her hair, unflattering photos of her appear in the news and she is denounced for her appearance. 

I hope as more women become fashion designers and reporters, more clothes will be designed to accommodate the wide range of women’s bodies and lifestyles. Models look more like real women and less emaciated.  Perhaps women politicians will even receive coverage of their job performance rather than their looks.