A Styling Struggle

It’s a new year once again. The holidays just passed, and with it, passed the annual holiday shopping season. Holiday shopping has always been my family’s favourite Christmas tradition, not for the beautiful Christmas decorations, but for the holiday sales, especially on clothing and accessories. After all, who would want to pass up the chance to buy a good pair of jeans for 30% off? Not my parents, and definitely not me. Plus, I have always had fun when shopping for clothes, so the discounts on them are just added bonuses. However, being a girl means that this enjoyment comes with its own set of struggles, struggles that are still very prominent in today’s fashion.

To begin this conversation, let’s start with sizing, and how it differs depending on companies. Sizing inconsistencies are apparent in all types of clothing, such as T-shirts, pants, and even the most basic clothing, underwear. Take bras for example. Being an essential item of clothing for most women, why is it a reality that many women wear the wrong bra size? It’s not crazy to assume that a lot of us probably don’t even know our true bra size. This is not helped by the fact that each time I’ve gone for a fitting, I was told that I’m a different size. Apparently, this is because each lingerie company actually has slightly different sizes, which makes no sense to me at all. After all, what good is knowing what bra size you are if it’s not even accurate in most places? On top of that, bra size also differs depending on the type of bra, a fact that is not known to most of us and is not widely spoken about either.

These differences in clothing sizes cause difficulties, not only in shopping for the right fit, but also in terms of self-esteem. Imagine a young girl excited to shop in new store, only to find out that she fits into a large instead of a medium, like usual. With the media portraying smaller sizes as “better” and “healthier”, this is not going to have a positive effect on her perception of her body, especially if she is unaware that clothing sizes tend to differ depending on the store. Not to mention, most clothing brands have a separate store for plus-size clothing, which just reinforces the idea that larger sizes are “not normal”. All of this just makes a recipe for low self-esteem and self-worth, taking away from the whole shopping experience.

Another issue with women’s clothing is material, especially for lighter coloured clothing, which is usually thin or translucent cloth. While I do appreciate this thinness during the summertime, I must admit that it does not make for very concealing fabric. I can't tell you how many white T-shirts I’ve tried on, only to realize that they were basically see-through. This is also the case for many blouses, which is just illogical in a professional sense. And of course, there are not many other options, so you better remember to wear either a skin-coloured bra or tank top underneath. Now, there is no issue with thin clothes, as long as there are other less revealing options for those who like me, a girl from a very traditional Indian family. My family members would be scandalized if I dare wore clothing that showed the slightest bit of a bra strap. Unfortunately, this is usually not an option in most women's clothing sections, so I usually hear a lot of lectures about how my clothing choices “show too much”.

Another major cause of frustration is pockets… or the lack thereof. Whether it be cardigans, jackets, or pants, women’s clothes fit into three categories. First, there are clothes with no pockets. To put it simply, they suck, because there is absolutely no chance of storing your keys or your phone or anything else in them. Next, there are the pants with the unreasonably small pockets. These are just as terrible as no pockets, because while the pockets are there, they are useless and cannot hold anything. Then, there’s the last category: clothes with fake pockets. Seriously, what is that about? To me, these clothes are the worst, just because they bring that false sense of hope. Just when you finally think you’ve found a pair of pants with pockets, they reveal the truth that their “pockets” are literally non-existent. Sometimes, it somehow feels worse than having small pockets or even, none at all. The pocket dilemma forces women to find another way to carry their things around, and behold, the fashion industry has a solution for that: purses. Honestly, I’m pretty sure this pocket dilemma is just a big scheme to push their sales, an effective and convenient way of making more money.

The only way to get around the pocket issue is to go shop in the men’s section. Of course, this option opens up a whole new level of issues, starting off with the idea of gendered clothing sections. To begin, gendered clothing sections plays into the whole idea of a gender binary, which really does not create a very inclusive environment. Adding onto that, it also creates a whole set of prescriptive descriptions of women and men’s fashion. As the women’s section has more variety in colours and styles, women are expected to have a variety of outfits for different occasions. Dressing in a similar outfit more than one time is considered to be unstylish and uncaring of appearance. At the same time, the men’s section, though more practical, seems to consist of only a few types of clothing styles, and any man who puts more effort into their clothing style is automatically stereotype as being “gay”. Thus, there is a lot of shame and stigma associated with those who try to break the gender binary,

From terrible sizing to questionable material to rigid societal expectations, we have all had our struggles with buying clothes. However, it’s not all bad, especially with the rapidly changing fashion industry. Many people are working to change these issues, and many more are breaking out of the strict stereotypes to explore fashion in an inclusive way. Thus, while styling may be a struggle now, we can hope that we are closer to a more inclusive and fair fashion industry with each passing day.

Written by Rijuta Gohil

Edited by Jaime White