Well, it was as I suspected. This is the corporate response:
"Thank you for taking the time to share your comments with us regarding the selection at our J.Jill retail stores. Please be assured that it was not our intent to slight any of our customers with our product selection. We do offer a service that allows you to order online through the concierge desk at the retail store, if your size or style is not available. Any in-store sales and promotions can also be applied to these orders. We look forward to the opportunity of serving your needs in the future. Should you require further assistance, please contact us via email at customerservice@jjill.com or call us at 1-800-343-5700, Monday through Saturday, 7:00 am to 11:00 pm EST."
Guys have it good – pants are in the right waist size and leg length, even if those measurements aren’t “ordinary.” They can buy shirts in neck sizes and sleeve lengths to fit, and they can get suit coats/blazers that actually fit (even if they have to be altered). When I’ve gone with my dad when he’s been suit shopping, the sales people look through what they have to fit him, and they apologize and go nuts if they aren’t able to find something that will work (he used to be 6’ 6” tall, but he’s shrunk a bit as he’s aged).
When women shop, the attitude is that if nothing fits, it’s your fault for not being able to wear the clothes. I often wonder how much women’s clothing standards would change if men had to wear pants that were too short, sleeves that were too short, darts/tailoring that was too high or too low, and then (even after you had alterations done), the garment only lasted one, maybe two, years – at the same price.
Even this email response holds the same veiled assessment: you can order through the catalog "if your size or style is not available." Why can't stores sell clothes that fit people instead of having a massive amount of junk that they end up having to put on clearance in order to shift?
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Mission: Impossible
[Cue music from TV show - DUN-DUN-da-da-DUN-DUN-da-da-DADADA....]
Partridge Creek Mall (Clinton Township, Michigan) is opening a J. Jill store. In case you don't know or haven't heard of J. Jill, they carry clothes for tall women - IN THEIR CATALOG!! - as do Eddie Bauer and Land's End.
Eddie Bauer is also opening a store in this mall; Land's End decided to open "boutique" sections in your local Sears. Neither of them has ever had a tall section for women in their stores/"boutiques", and their sales people are almost snotty about it. I should also point out that BOTH retailers maintain a nice "petite" section for women. But I digress.
Since this will be a brand new store in a brand new mall, and the possibility exists that since they haven't had a retail store in this area before, they might be inclined to listen to people who would actually shop there, I thought I would start the campaign now to see if they will put a tall section in their new store.
So.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to email J. Jill (you can email them online via their website at http://www.jjill.com/), and ask them to consider including a tall section in their new store.
FYI, there is one - yes, that's right, only ONE!! - store that handles clothes for tall women in this area. It's one of those "Tall Girl" shops (that's the actual name), but the selection is terrible with respect to any career clothes.* They carry "resort wear" style casual items, and a few suits and suit separates, but the quality is not very good for what they charge for it.
Anyway, that's my mission, too. I've already emailed them, and if you don't mind doing a good deed for those of us who can never find pants, tops, suits, jackets or skirts that fit properly, you can, too.
This post will self-destruct in 30 seconds. Good luck.
*Footnote: I once inquired at a local Mervyn's if they had any more professional clothes. When the sales girl pointed me to a section full of low-cut and clingy tops, short/tight skirts, and low-rise, too-tight-fitting pants, I said, "That's not the profession I had in mind, but thanks....." She didn't get it.
Partridge Creek Mall (Clinton Township, Michigan) is opening a J. Jill store. In case you don't know or haven't heard of J. Jill, they carry clothes for tall women - IN THEIR CATALOG!! - as do Eddie Bauer and Land's End.
Eddie Bauer is also opening a store in this mall; Land's End decided to open "boutique" sections in your local Sears. Neither of them has ever had a tall section for women in their stores/"boutiques", and their sales people are almost snotty about it. I should also point out that BOTH retailers maintain a nice "petite" section for women. But I digress.
Since this will be a brand new store in a brand new mall, and the possibility exists that since they haven't had a retail store in this area before, they might be inclined to listen to people who would actually shop there, I thought I would start the campaign now to see if they will put a tall section in their new store.
So.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to email J. Jill (you can email them online via their website at http://www.jjill.com/), and ask them to consider including a tall section in their new store.
FYI, there is one - yes, that's right, only ONE!! - store that handles clothes for tall women in this area. It's one of those "Tall Girl" shops (that's the actual name), but the selection is terrible with respect to any career clothes.* They carry "resort wear" style casual items, and a few suits and suit separates, but the quality is not very good for what they charge for it.
Anyway, that's my mission, too. I've already emailed them, and if you don't mind doing a good deed for those of us who can never find pants, tops, suits, jackets or skirts that fit properly, you can, too.
This post will self-destruct in 30 seconds. Good luck.
*Footnote: I once inquired at a local Mervyn's if they had any more professional clothes. When the sales girl pointed me to a section full of low-cut and clingy tops, short/tight skirts, and low-rise, too-tight-fitting pants, I said, "That's not the profession I had in mind, but thanks....." She didn't get it.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
One Rant For Tall Women Everywhere
Imagine you have been out running errands all day. It's cold - bitterly cold - outside. The wind has been slicing through every seam in your coat it could find, and your feet feel like you've been trudging through the icy, slush-filled puddles of the arctic.
You go home, get a nice hot bath, and when you put on your favorite pair of flannel PJs, you notice (with horror) that your pants are 2 inches too short. You pull them off, rummage through your pajama drawer, pull out another pair and... they're 2 inches too short, too.
"Nuts," you think. "I'll find my long underwear and wear those until I'm warm." Except, the lovely silk long underwear pants you bought are, alas, 3 inches too short as well. You frantically pull item after item out of your dressers, closets, even your dirty clothes hamper, only to discover that EVERYTHING is too short - the pants, the shirt-sleeves, even the shirts are all belly shirts (and while one or two would be fine, you didn't want to have an entire wardrobe of them). You reach for your winter coat, and - ACKKKK! It's too short, too!!
Welcome to my world.
Everywhere I look, lots and lots of lovely warm flannel items, pajama pants, etc., all with inseams of 28 inches. Sometimes I get lucky, and I can find them with a 32" inseam, but when your inseam is 35", well, it just doesn't feel so freakin' lucky! I'm tired of looking like a refugee from Revenge of the Nerds camp.
Thanks to Lee, I have jeans that fit. They are comfortable, long enough (until I wash them, after which I am afraid they might no longer be...longer), and they don't sit so low on my torso that I look like a plumber when I sit down. Or stand up. Or do anything except pose like a manequin in a clothing store. Unfortunately, the Lee people don't make sleepwear, or long underwear, or corduroy pants, or sweaters or anything else I could wear to work. And they're about the only ones.
Eddie Bauer used to be my friend, but alas. He got caught up in the mistaken belief that women stopped having hips and thighs. The pants he makes now are for women with no butts and pencil-thin thighs who apparently do nothing but stand in one place for hours without moving. Same at Land's End. (Don't get me started on L.L. Bean - that's a tale for another day).
Let me say it in simple words that even a clothing designer might understand: real women have hips. We have curvy thighs. We have waists. We do not like clothing designers who think we are stick figures and make clothes for said stick figures. We do not all wear a size 4. You're supposed to be talented designers - here's a challenge: design clothing that real women can wear. Yes, I know it will be difficult. You will have to make clothing that actually fits a woman's body, not a scrawny 11-year-old boy's body, but I think you can do it if you put your mind to it.
Please keep in mind that tall clothing for women is not just regular sized clothing with longer sleeves and legs, although those are helpful. Tall women can have longer rises, which means that pants and swimsuits and other things that have to fit properly "down there" need to be longer from the "down there" point to the waist to avoid injury or embarrassment. That doesn't mean "make 'Mom' pants and sell them as tall clothing." No. That means make clothing that fits those with longer rises.
Tall women also - and you should like this part - can have larger breasts and still be a size 6 or 8 or 10 in the body. In my younger days, I actually had a size 6 waist, even though I was a 32DD. Try to find clothes that fit and don't make you look like a linebacker with that profile..... In order for things to fit in the chesticle area, I had to go up, like, 2 or 3 sizes (because of the shoulders, too), only the waist part was blousing around me like a parachute because the bottom of the shirt/blouse wasn't quite long enough to stay tucked into the waist of my slacks or skirt or whatever I was wearing.
While I'm on that subject, there should be more items of clothing for tall women than just pants with longer inseams and jackets with longer arms. Tall women may have slightly wider shoulders (duh - bigger frames!), and no, going up a size is not the answer! If you think that works, try wearing a jacket that fits in the shoulders but is 2 sizes bigger everywhere else, and then look in a mirror. "Frankensuit" is the word you're looking for to describe what you see, and it is NOT pretty!
The other important thing to remember is that the waist in a dress for a tall woman is going to be in a different spot than a waist in a dress for a shorter woman. If you don't believe me, go to the petite section and find a dress. Then go to the misses' department and find the same dress. The "waist" of the dress will be in a different spot for the different sizes, right?
THEN WHAT IN BLUE BLAZES makes you think that just making the hem longer will make it a "tall" dress???????
Santa, here is what I want for Christmas. Every item in the L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Land's End, Brooks Brothers and other catalogs/stores that sell reasonably-priced, work-worthy clothing to be also available in "real" tall sizes.
And while you're at it, could I please have some nice flannel jammies that are long enough?
You go home, get a nice hot bath, and when you put on your favorite pair of flannel PJs, you notice (with horror) that your pants are 2 inches too short. You pull them off, rummage through your pajama drawer, pull out another pair and... they're 2 inches too short, too.
"Nuts," you think. "I'll find my long underwear and wear those until I'm warm." Except, the lovely silk long underwear pants you bought are, alas, 3 inches too short as well. You frantically pull item after item out of your dressers, closets, even your dirty clothes hamper, only to discover that EVERYTHING is too short - the pants, the shirt-sleeves, even the shirts are all belly shirts (and while one or two would be fine, you didn't want to have an entire wardrobe of them). You reach for your winter coat, and - ACKKKK! It's too short, too!!
Welcome to my world.
Everywhere I look, lots and lots of lovely warm flannel items, pajama pants, etc., all with inseams of 28 inches. Sometimes I get lucky, and I can find them with a 32" inseam, but when your inseam is 35", well, it just doesn't feel so freakin' lucky! I'm tired of looking like a refugee from Revenge of the Nerds camp.
Thanks to Lee, I have jeans that fit. They are comfortable, long enough (until I wash them, after which I am afraid they might no longer be...longer), and they don't sit so low on my torso that I look like a plumber when I sit down. Or stand up. Or do anything except pose like a manequin in a clothing store. Unfortunately, the Lee people don't make sleepwear, or long underwear, or corduroy pants, or sweaters or anything else I could wear to work. And they're about the only ones.
Eddie Bauer used to be my friend, but alas. He got caught up in the mistaken belief that women stopped having hips and thighs. The pants he makes now are for women with no butts and pencil-thin thighs who apparently do nothing but stand in one place for hours without moving. Same at Land's End. (Don't get me started on L.L. Bean - that's a tale for another day).
Let me say it in simple words that even a clothing designer might understand: real women have hips. We have curvy thighs. We have waists. We do not like clothing designers who think we are stick figures and make clothes for said stick figures. We do not all wear a size 4. You're supposed to be talented designers - here's a challenge: design clothing that real women can wear. Yes, I know it will be difficult. You will have to make clothing that actually fits a woman's body, not a scrawny 11-year-old boy's body, but I think you can do it if you put your mind to it.
Please keep in mind that tall clothing for women is not just regular sized clothing with longer sleeves and legs, although those are helpful. Tall women can have longer rises, which means that pants and swimsuits and other things that have to fit properly "down there" need to be longer from the "down there" point to the waist to avoid injury or embarrassment. That doesn't mean "make 'Mom' pants and sell them as tall clothing." No. That means make clothing that fits those with longer rises.
Tall women also - and you should like this part - can have larger breasts and still be a size 6 or 8 or 10 in the body. In my younger days, I actually had a size 6 waist, even though I was a 32DD. Try to find clothes that fit and don't make you look like a linebacker with that profile..... In order for things to fit in the chesticle area, I had to go up, like, 2 or 3 sizes (because of the shoulders, too), only the waist part was blousing around me like a parachute because the bottom of the shirt/blouse wasn't quite long enough to stay tucked into the waist of my slacks or skirt or whatever I was wearing.
While I'm on that subject, there should be more items of clothing for tall women than just pants with longer inseams and jackets with longer arms. Tall women may have slightly wider shoulders (duh - bigger frames!), and no, going up a size is not the answer! If you think that works, try wearing a jacket that fits in the shoulders but is 2 sizes bigger everywhere else, and then look in a mirror. "Frankensuit" is the word you're looking for to describe what you see, and it is NOT pretty!
The other important thing to remember is that the waist in a dress for a tall woman is going to be in a different spot than a waist in a dress for a shorter woman. If you don't believe me, go to the petite section and find a dress. Then go to the misses' department and find the same dress. The "waist" of the dress will be in a different spot for the different sizes, right?
THEN WHAT IN BLUE BLAZES makes you think that just making the hem longer will make it a "tall" dress???????
Santa, here is what I want for Christmas. Every item in the L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Land's End, Brooks Brothers and other catalogs/stores that sell reasonably-priced, work-worthy clothing to be also available in "real" tall sizes.
And while you're at it, could I please have some nice flannel jammies that are long enough?
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