Wednesday, June 9, 2010

MY CLOTHES ARE TOO LOW CLASS FOR MY TOWN


Sing "My clothes are low class for my town" to the tune of "I'm too sexy for my clothes" and see how you feel...


I have been emptying out the closets of my now too large clothing. Most of it is well worn, scruffy, wear around the house kind of stuff. I do have a few things for occasions and holidays that are nice and barely worn and even a few things bought on sale at the end of the season which were never worn.


I took a dozen things to the Lotus consignment store in Pleasanton which does NOT call itself a "designer" or "upscale" store. I had done my research and I knew my clothes would be rejected in those stores. My most upscale label being Coldwater Creek!


Well, they turned each and every item down. They won't take elastic waistbands even in linen shorts. They won't take cotton summer dresses (too cheap). No explanation on the rejection of the sheath with beaded sweater combination (maybe because it was from Dress Barn Woman?) They would take the silk blouse from Ann Taylor except that they needed $200.00 worth of clothes to open an account. Th sales woman was trying to be nice - but boy did I feel like I have been told I am low class or something! And I have a tough hide about these things.


I said something to her about the styles and labels being known to plus size women (I had a couple of Silhouettes catalog dresses) and explained that the prices of the dresses don't tend to run very high unlike a lot of the designer clothes. She kind of pointed to a rack of clothes and said that they had a plus size section but the owner wanted to keep the prices up at a certain level.


So it seems that, once again, the plus size woman is shut out. I work really hard to dress well. To fit my body and look nice and well groomed. In this shop I felt I was being told that is not good enough. Designers and labels that they think are worthy don't even make clothes that would fit me. So that makes me unworthy, too - right? How else am I to feel?

I will donate my clothes to the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop and they will sell them and that's fine. But I tell you, I will never shop in those consignment stores no matter how small my size gets.

5 comments:

Karen@WaistingTime said...

Wow. All I can tell you is I am such a sloppy dresser that I would never be able to sell a thing on consignment:(

Tami said...

I always donate my clothes to the thrift store.

Good for you for cleaning out your closets.

Was it you who asked where I live? I think it was, anyway I am up by Sacramento.

Anonymous said...

What a story - that totally sucks both for you & for the women who might shop there

When I lost my big chunk of weight I donated my clothes to Dress for Success which helps unemployed, under-educated women train for jobs & learn how to interview. They have a HUGE need for larger sized clothes.

It felt like a really good thing to donate my clothes to an organization like that, and I know the whole thing was a good cause. I even had everything re-drycleaned so they showed up in pristine bags. Cost me a little out of pocket but made my heart feel good.

In fact, next time I'm ready to give up a chunk of fat clothes, I'll do the same thing with them, because it's a good organization. They have branches all over the states (although I'd carry my clothes back from France & donate in the US because they don't have an outpost here).

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I see "Round" had the same idea.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

Is there a place in your area that takes clothes for women to use on job interviews and the like. That's where I took all my mom's stuff.

I was just thinking the other day that when I'm down a size--soon, I hope--I might put an ad for someone to buy a size 18 wardrobe--I'm a bargain shopper, but I do dress fashionably and take excellent care of my clothes.