Finding pants that fit
By Bridgette Raes
Okay ladies, first let me say that I feel your pain when it comes to finding pants that fit. If you are one of the women who is convinced that there are not a pair of pants out there cut for your body, trust me, you are not alone. What is it with fashion these days? It seems that finding pants that fit is more challenging than ever. There is not one client I have worked with who doesn’t seem to grapple with finding pants that fit well. From my plus-sized clients to my slender and fit ones, it is never easy. This article will help figure out how to find your best fitting pants. But let me preface my advice with this disclaimer. I can guarantee that the suggestions I am making in this article are not going to solve your pant issues perfectly. If it was then I wouldn’t spend huge amounts of time with my clients in the dressing room. Truly finding pants that fit is all about trial and error. But what this article will hopefully help you do is navigate the experience with some tips that I have found to work.
How to find pants in the store
Ok, so you hit the stores and are completely overwhelmed by all the merchandise. Take a deep breath and start one rack at a time. If you see a pair of pants you like, grab them. Secondly, don’t just grab the size that you think you are, take the size smaller and larger than what you wear. In the day and age of glamour sizing, it is hard to know what size you will wear. And as we all know, there is nothing worse than having to run and get a different size once you are naked in the dressing room. Grab every pair of pants that jumps out at you, even if you aren’t completely sure. If you are doing this right you should have armfuls of pants to try on.
Customer service people in clothing stores may not always be the most helpful but they always are with me. Why? Well it isn’t because they know who I am, but when I shop with clients I start loading up my arms with merchandise. Any sales associate will run at the opportunity to service you, and if they don’t, simply ask them to start a room for you. Think this only happens at high end stores? Think again - I get service like this at Club Monaco and Banana Republic, J-Crew and Anthropologie plus many other mid-range price point stores. If you want to ensure that someone will start a room for you, it is always better to shop during off-peak hours like weekdays before 5pm, and early mornings on the weekends. When shopping during peak hours you may find that nobody will be available to service you.
This exercise of loading up on pants is particularly effective if you shop at a department store where there are several brands to choose from. Go through all of the different labels and grab their pants. I don’t care if you grabbed black pants from one designer, grab a pair in several sizes from another designer as well, you never know whose label is going to fit you best. If the pants are hanging there and you like them, grab them.
What to do once you get into the dressing room
Most people don’t just shop for pants, usually they load up on other things as well. So when you get into the dressing room and you are staring at your loaded dressing room of things to try on, always start with pants. I don’t know how it happened, but when I started shopping with clients I would always begin with pants. What was a fluke idea became genius because, as you know ladies, the emotional turmoil of trying on pants can be really challenging. By starting with pants you have all of your physical and emotional reserves in tact.
Start with one pair in the size you think you wear. If that size doesn’t fit, great - you have the size up and size down right there to try on. As you discard a pair of pants because they don’t fit or you don’t like them, simply hang the garment outside of the door of your dressing room either on the doorknob or a hook if it is there. This way the sales associate knows that you are letting them go and can see it while she is walking by. The sales associate may knock on the door and ask you if you want him or her to take the items that you have chosen to hang on the door. Just tell them yes and that you will be continuing to leaving the discards outside so she will know to take them without disturbing you. This will also keep the sales associate at close range if in fact you do need her to run and get something for you. Also, by immediately casting out the ill-fitting pieces your head can get cleared up and focused on what you still have left to try on. I will tell you many times when I am working with a client and we have a dressing room full of clothing I often feel like an air traffic controller trying to manage the comings and goings of all the merchandise. It is easy to get confused.
After you have tried on all of your pants then you can move on to the fun stuff like skirts, knits, jackets etc. These pieces are always a lot less draining to try on.
Get your butt in that dressing room and stay there.
One of the things many of my clients have told me is that if I wasn’t with them they would have run out of the dressing room in despair way earlier than I let them. And it makes sense. I mean, who doesn’t feel discouraged after trying on a few pants that you can’t get over your thighs? But trust me, get your butt in that dressing room and don’t come out until you have gone through everything.
Let’s get serious for a moment about pants. I have worked with clients of all shapes and sizes. Even my most fit clients who work out regularly have looked bad in a pair of pants. So it is time to start turning the tables on the pants and recognize that it isn’t your body that isn’t right for the pants, it’s the pants that aren’t right your body. Everyone’s body requires a different fit in their pants. And if my clients who have amazingly fit bodies can look dumpy and overweight in a certain pair of pants, then I rest my case.
Believe me, I know how horrible it is to look bad in a pair of pants. Second to trying on bathing suits, pant fittings can be a devastating experience on the psyche, but the only way to finally find your best fitting pant is to eliminate the ones that don’t work. On average I bring in at least ten to fifteen pairs of pants into a dressing room with a client, and we go through all of them before we find the best ones. Yes, it gets frustrating, and yes, my clients usually at some point feel hopeless about it. But when we do finally find the right pants it is a great moment, but we had to wade through the bad ones before we found the good ones. This is why I encourage you to not be run out of that dressing room by a few ill-fitting pairs of pants. Keep yourself in that dressing room until you have tried on every pair you have brought in.
Find your label and stick with it
The reason I mentioned earlier that this pant exercise is particularly helpful at a department store is because it helps you find a label of pants that fit you. So many times while in the dressing room with a client I have said to them, “Ok, you are an Ellen Tracy fit.” Or, “Ok, we definitely always want to go with Anne Klein for your pants.”
If there is one important thing that I learned about the fit of pants, I learned it while a designer under the tutelage of my design director Jerry Dellova, the mastermind behind the label Barry Bricken, who are famous for their pants. Jerry used to tell me that pants are about fit, not necessarily fashion. Over the years of working with him we would run the same well-fitting pants that sold well and people counted on season after season. We wouldn’t touch the fit of these pants because many of the Barry Bricken customers grew to count on them.
Barry Bricken isn’t alone with this mentality and many designers, once they have a well fitting pant, stick with it and offer it in many fabrics and colors. Secondly, like Barry Bricken, designers stick with the same fit model for the fit of all of their pants. So the reason it is important to find your label of pants that fit is that unless a designer decides to change their pant fit, you can count on the fit of the pants fitting your body, season after season. So once you go through the process of finding the label of pants that fit your body the hard work is over, and you can pretty much always go back to that same label and have success.
Tailoring
So you find a pair of pants and you are thrilled because you look great in them, but you notice that they would fit even better if they were nipped in at the waist, or had a hem. Don’t despair, tailoring today is part of the process. I once had a client who was frustrated by the fact that she was spending a considerable amount on pants but was still expected to pay for tailoring in addition. It was a bit challenging for me to explain to her that in today’s world many women cannot just buy a pair of pants off the rack that will fit them perfectly. Once I showed her what a minimal nip in the waist or hem would do for the way she looked in the pants, she immediately agreed to the slight tailoring. Yes, it can be frustrating that pants aren’t perfect right off the rack. Sure, I would love all of my pants to be perfect - but they aren’t. Many times I bring my pants right to the tailor before bringing them home. I am always more comfortable when they fit my body perfectly.
Mid-range stores like Banana Republic and Club Monaco will actually hem for free. They won’t do other alterations like taking a pair of pants in at the waist, but if you only require a hem, take the store up on their offer to provide you with this service. Other stores like Bloomingdales or Saks Fifth Avenue (along with other higher price point stores) have tailoring on premises and will send a seamstress right to your dressing room to fit the pants for you. You will usually have to pay for this service, but there is a great convenience in having the store fit for you right there. After a week or so the store will contact you and you can either pick the pants up or they will ship them to your home.
Pants and you
Like I said, finding pants can be an excruciating experience that has no easy answers. Truly it is a game of trial and error. I also realized recently that we can’t even ask our friends where they get their well-fitting pants because it is unlikely that the pants that fit our friends will fit us. There is no road map that will lead us to pants that fit well, we really need to be patient with it and trust that in the end we will find that well-fitting gem that fits and works for our bodies.
(c) 2005 Bridgette Raes Style Group
Okay ladies, first let me say that I feel your pain when it comes to finding pants that fit. If you are one of the women who is convinced that there are not a pair of pants out there cut for your body, trust me, you are not alone. What is it with fashion these days? It seems that finding pants that fit is more challenging than ever. There is not one client I have worked with who doesn’t seem to grapple with finding pants that fit well. From my plus-sized clients to my slender and fit ones, it is never easy. This article will help figure out how to find your best fitting pants. But let me preface my advice with this disclaimer. I can guarantee that the suggestions I am making in this article are not going to solve your pant issues perfectly. If it was then I wouldn’t spend huge amounts of time with my clients in the dressing room. Truly finding pants that fit is all about trial and error. But what this article will hopefully help you do is navigate the experience with some tips that I have found to work.
How to find pants in the store
Ok, so you hit the stores and are completely overwhelmed by all the merchandise. Take a deep breath and start one rack at a time. If you see a pair of pants you like, grab them. Secondly, don’t just grab the size that you think you are, take the size smaller and larger than what you wear. In the day and age of glamour sizing, it is hard to know what size you will wear. And as we all know, there is nothing worse than having to run and get a different size once you are naked in the dressing room. Grab every pair of pants that jumps out at you, even if you aren’t completely sure. If you are doing this right you should have armfuls of pants to try on.
Customer service people in clothing stores may not always be the most helpful but they always are with me. Why? Well it isn’t because they know who I am, but when I shop with clients I start loading up my arms with merchandise. Any sales associate will run at the opportunity to service you, and if they don’t, simply ask them to start a room for you. Think this only happens at high end stores? Think again - I get service like this at Club Monaco and Banana Republic, J-Crew and Anthropologie plus many other mid-range price point stores. If you want to ensure that someone will start a room for you, it is always better to shop during off-peak hours like weekdays before 5pm, and early mornings on the weekends. When shopping during peak hours you may find that nobody will be available to service you.
This exercise of loading up on pants is particularly effective if you shop at a department store where there are several brands to choose from. Go through all of the different labels and grab their pants. I don’t care if you grabbed black pants from one designer, grab a pair in several sizes from another designer as well, you never know whose label is going to fit you best. If the pants are hanging there and you like them, grab them.
What to do once you get into the dressing room
Most people don’t just shop for pants, usually they load up on other things as well. So when you get into the dressing room and you are staring at your loaded dressing room of things to try on, always start with pants. I don’t know how it happened, but when I started shopping with clients I would always begin with pants. What was a fluke idea became genius because, as you know ladies, the emotional turmoil of trying on pants can be really challenging. By starting with pants you have all of your physical and emotional reserves in tact.
Start with one pair in the size you think you wear. If that size doesn’t fit, great - you have the size up and size down right there to try on. As you discard a pair of pants because they don’t fit or you don’t like them, simply hang the garment outside of the door of your dressing room either on the doorknob or a hook if it is there. This way the sales associate knows that you are letting them go and can see it while she is walking by. The sales associate may knock on the door and ask you if you want him or her to take the items that you have chosen to hang on the door. Just tell them yes and that you will be continuing to leaving the discards outside so she will know to take them without disturbing you. This will also keep the sales associate at close range if in fact you do need her to run and get something for you. Also, by immediately casting out the ill-fitting pieces your head can get cleared up and focused on what you still have left to try on. I will tell you many times when I am working with a client and we have a dressing room full of clothing I often feel like an air traffic controller trying to manage the comings and goings of all the merchandise. It is easy to get confused.
After you have tried on all of your pants then you can move on to the fun stuff like skirts, knits, jackets etc. These pieces are always a lot less draining to try on.
Get your butt in that dressing room and stay there.
One of the things many of my clients have told me is that if I wasn’t with them they would have run out of the dressing room in despair way earlier than I let them. And it makes sense. I mean, who doesn’t feel discouraged after trying on a few pants that you can’t get over your thighs? But trust me, get your butt in that dressing room and don’t come out until you have gone through everything.
Let’s get serious for a moment about pants. I have worked with clients of all shapes and sizes. Even my most fit clients who work out regularly have looked bad in a pair of pants. So it is time to start turning the tables on the pants and recognize that it isn’t your body that isn’t right for the pants, it’s the pants that aren’t right your body. Everyone’s body requires a different fit in their pants. And if my clients who have amazingly fit bodies can look dumpy and overweight in a certain pair of pants, then I rest my case.
Believe me, I know how horrible it is to look bad in a pair of pants. Second to trying on bathing suits, pant fittings can be a devastating experience on the psyche, but the only way to finally find your best fitting pant is to eliminate the ones that don’t work. On average I bring in at least ten to fifteen pairs of pants into a dressing room with a client, and we go through all of them before we find the best ones. Yes, it gets frustrating, and yes, my clients usually at some point feel hopeless about it. But when we do finally find the right pants it is a great moment, but we had to wade through the bad ones before we found the good ones. This is why I encourage you to not be run out of that dressing room by a few ill-fitting pairs of pants. Keep yourself in that dressing room until you have tried on every pair you have brought in.
Find your label and stick with it
The reason I mentioned earlier that this pant exercise is particularly helpful at a department store is because it helps you find a label of pants that fit you. So many times while in the dressing room with a client I have said to them, “Ok, you are an Ellen Tracy fit.” Or, “Ok, we definitely always want to go with Anne Klein for your pants.”
If there is one important thing that I learned about the fit of pants, I learned it while a designer under the tutelage of my design director Jerry Dellova, the mastermind behind the label Barry Bricken, who are famous for their pants. Jerry used to tell me that pants are about fit, not necessarily fashion. Over the years of working with him we would run the same well-fitting pants that sold well and people counted on season after season. We wouldn’t touch the fit of these pants because many of the Barry Bricken customers grew to count on them.
Barry Bricken isn’t alone with this mentality and many designers, once they have a well fitting pant, stick with it and offer it in many fabrics and colors. Secondly, like Barry Bricken, designers stick with the same fit model for the fit of all of their pants. So the reason it is important to find your label of pants that fit is that unless a designer decides to change their pant fit, you can count on the fit of the pants fitting your body, season after season. So once you go through the process of finding the label of pants that fit your body the hard work is over, and you can pretty much always go back to that same label and have success.
Tailoring
So you find a pair of pants and you are thrilled because you look great in them, but you notice that they would fit even better if they were nipped in at the waist, or had a hem. Don’t despair, tailoring today is part of the process. I once had a client who was frustrated by the fact that she was spending a considerable amount on pants but was still expected to pay for tailoring in addition. It was a bit challenging for me to explain to her that in today’s world many women cannot just buy a pair of pants off the rack that will fit them perfectly. Once I showed her what a minimal nip in the waist or hem would do for the way she looked in the pants, she immediately agreed to the slight tailoring. Yes, it can be frustrating that pants aren’t perfect right off the rack. Sure, I would love all of my pants to be perfect - but they aren’t. Many times I bring my pants right to the tailor before bringing them home. I am always more comfortable when they fit my body perfectly.
Mid-range stores like Banana Republic and Club Monaco will actually hem for free. They won’t do other alterations like taking a pair of pants in at the waist, but if you only require a hem, take the store up on their offer to provide you with this service. Other stores like Bloomingdales or Saks Fifth Avenue (along with other higher price point stores) have tailoring on premises and will send a seamstress right to your dressing room to fit the pants for you. You will usually have to pay for this service, but there is a great convenience in having the store fit for you right there. After a week or so the store will contact you and you can either pick the pants up or they will ship them to your home.
Pants and you
Like I said, finding pants can be an excruciating experience that has no easy answers. Truly it is a game of trial and error. I also realized recently that we can’t even ask our friends where they get their well-fitting pants because it is unlikely that the pants that fit our friends will fit us. There is no road map that will lead us to pants that fit well, we really need to be patient with it and trust that in the end we will find that well-fitting gem that fits and works for our bodies.
(c) 2005 Bridgette Raes Style Group
posted by Unknown @ 4:13 PM
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