Anatomical Challenges


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It seems that Rana and I share yet another feature in common - being short-waisted. Being short-waisted means that the phenomenon of low-rise jeans (just the ones that sit below your belly-button: not the ones that you can't sit down in) are a source of good cheer. Of course, at some point I am sure the tides of fashion will flow back to the eighties (cue the screaming) and we short-waisted ones will not be able to find trousers that don't come up like corsets over our floating ribs. Perhaps we should stock up.

Everyone has their own anatomical challenges and benefits that make things difficult or easy, but I have to say that a combination of short waist, long legs (just long enough so that regular pants are a bit on the short side, just short enough so that "talls" have to be hemmed), broad shoulders, and short arms seems to be a really odd random selection from the old genetics piñata. Proportionally speaking, I am a T-Rex in human form! Put it all together, and it's no wonder I find handstand difficult. Put it all together and it's no wonder I find clothes shopping next to impossible.

I like being well-dressed. There's a certain feeling for me that comes with being well-turned-out. It isn't a cure-all for foggy-mindedness, but I have to admit I feel mentally sharper and more capable when I don't look like a slob. But finding clothes that fit and look good seems to be getting more and more difficult. Perhaps it's my body, perhaps its clothing manufacturers, perhaps it's some combination of the two.

But from the groans and moans I hear from my friends and from the other dressing rooms when I venture into clothing stores, the vast variety of body types makes clothes shopping difficult for everyone - everyone but skinny teenagers, it seems. I say let's all just dress in salwar kameez and forget about fashion. Who (besides Teresa Nielsen Hayden) is with me?
Posted: Thursday - April 14, 2005 at 08:34 AM         | |

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