- #1
Gabrielle
- 9
- 0
Bring back Giorgio Sant' Angelo. At least he designed classic styles that more mature women liked and the fit is always nice. I still have some Giorgio Sant' Angelo slacks but they're beginning to wear out. I really like the cut. Nothing seems to fit as well as it did back in the 80's. Drop the low-slung pants. Women over 40 don't want them. Cherokee used to have some real nice jeans but that company has fallen by the wayside also. Jantzen used to have a nice sportswear line. I bought some beautiful blouses with embroidery and they always fit like they were made for me but Jantzen dropped the sportswear line and they're concentrating on their swimwear. Are a lot of people browsing at Goodwill stores now simply because they just don't like what the designers are expecting the women of America to choke down? I have trouble finding colors I like. I like pastels and bright, vibrant colors. Who wants to wear diarrhea yellow? There seems to be a lot of drab colors out there. And forget the spandex already. Customer service merits a thread of its own. Won't you agree? I've asked a salesperson where to find something and he or she waves in the general direction of where you're supposed to go instead of taking you over there. If you ask if they have more stock of a particular item, they say something to the effect, "We get whatever they send us." Don't they have buyers anymore? Someone, somewhere, must have a say about what the store is carrying. Don't the buyers listen to the customers so that they'll know what the customers like or want? Come on--get real here.
Dressing Rooms Barred
I went shopping with my mother one day and it was about 45 minutes before closing. My mother found something that she wanted to try on. As she approached the dressing room, she noticed that the door that went into the dressing rooms was locked. My mother asked the salesperson in a very polite manner if she would unlock it. The woman said in a whiney voice, "Well, I'll have to unlock it" as it were a tremendous effort for her to do so. That's what I mean when I say there's no such thing as customer service. My mother used to shop at a lovely women's shop in the 40's and 50's and the sales lady couldn't do enough to please everyone and they did alterations right there. They employed their own seamstress. The sales lady would say, "Well, all this needs is a little tuck here and a little tuck there and it will fit just right." God bless that woman. May she forever be etched in everyone's memory.
Depressing to Go Shopping
A woman has to psyche herself up to go shoppiing these days anyway. It's difficult to find pretty prints and colors. My mother was telling me about the nice women's shop where her mother bought all her clothes to go on her senior class trip to Washington D.C. Why there was hardly anything in that little shop that a woman wouldn't want. Clothes were so much prettier back then. They had such beautiful sweaters, dresses, hats, everything. Remember Doris Day in Pillow Talk? She had so many changes of clothes in that movie. She was a class act. When my mother's class stopped over in New York City, my mother said that every girl in her class looked as good as anyone on the streets of New York City (and this was just a small town women's shop). They had everything she needed.
No Respect for Merchandise
I've also noticed that customers can often be very rude. I've been in the dressing rooms in Filene's and I often see things thrown all over the floor (it looks like a teenager's bedroom or something). I don't see anything wrong with leaving them on the hooks or folded on a bench or chair. The salespeople are responsible for putting them back anyway and they're more likely to put them back in the proper place although I usually do that myself unless I'm in a hurry. Some people have no respect. Rodney Dangerfield should give them a piece of his mind.
Made in America
I bought a fine gauge cotton sweater from Land's End. It was red and I finally had to discard it because I wore it out. It was a bright red and I've always liked the color red because of my coloring. I have very dark hair and brown eyes and it just seems to go with my coloring. I washed this sweater hundreds of times so naturally it's going to wear out eventually. So I ordered another sweater and I noticed that it started to pill before I even washed it. I looked at the old sweater and in spite of hundreds of washings, it hadn't pilled at all. I discovered a very simple explanation when I looked at the label on the old sweater. It said "Made in U.S." (ain't that a mouthful)? The new sweater, however, did not. I can't remember the name of the country but it was some country where they can have their sweaters made inexpensively no doubt. I called Land's End and told them about it and expressed my thoughts as to why it had already started to pill. They were willing to refund my money but I needed a red sweater so I decided to keep it anyway. I imagine they must have used a cheaper fabric.
Small Women's Shops
It seems that small women's shops are becoming a thing of the past. My mother used to purchase most of her clothes at a small shop not far from her home. She used to stop by on the day that she went grocery shopping. She found almost everything she needed at this little shop (slacks, jerseys, blouses, sweaters, nightgowns, underwear) and she didn't have to spend a lot of time looking because of the small size of the shop. The sales person was very helpful and would tell her what items had just come in and that saved my mother from having to look at everything as she had already seen most of the clothes from previous shopping trips. Older women, in particular, don't always like to traipse through a large department store or a shopping mall. It's more difficult to find things as they're scattered all over the store and they're often separated by clothing lines such as Liz Claiborne, Jones New York, etc. It makes your head swim darting from one area to the next and your efforts seem fruitless with all the merchandise that you have to rummage through. My mother doesn't like the prospect of having to travel over 50 miles to the Maine Mall in South Portland just to buy a pair of socks. Some of the closer stores where she used to shop in Brunswick and Auburn have also closed. She doesn't like the clothes at Wal-Mart. She occasionally finds a few things at Sears but not very often. She likes good quality clothes (not terribly expensive) but well made and attractive to the eye.
Dressing Rooms Barred
I went shopping with my mother one day and it was about 45 minutes before closing. My mother found something that she wanted to try on. As she approached the dressing room, she noticed that the door that went into the dressing rooms was locked. My mother asked the salesperson in a very polite manner if she would unlock it. The woman said in a whiney voice, "Well, I'll have to unlock it" as it were a tremendous effort for her to do so. That's what I mean when I say there's no such thing as customer service. My mother used to shop at a lovely women's shop in the 40's and 50's and the sales lady couldn't do enough to please everyone and they did alterations right there. They employed their own seamstress. The sales lady would say, "Well, all this needs is a little tuck here and a little tuck there and it will fit just right." God bless that woman. May she forever be etched in everyone's memory.
Depressing to Go Shopping
A woman has to psyche herself up to go shoppiing these days anyway. It's difficult to find pretty prints and colors. My mother was telling me about the nice women's shop where her mother bought all her clothes to go on her senior class trip to Washington D.C. Why there was hardly anything in that little shop that a woman wouldn't want. Clothes were so much prettier back then. They had such beautiful sweaters, dresses, hats, everything. Remember Doris Day in Pillow Talk? She had so many changes of clothes in that movie. She was a class act. When my mother's class stopped over in New York City, my mother said that every girl in her class looked as good as anyone on the streets of New York City (and this was just a small town women's shop). They had everything she needed.
No Respect for Merchandise
I've also noticed that customers can often be very rude. I've been in the dressing rooms in Filene's and I often see things thrown all over the floor (it looks like a teenager's bedroom or something). I don't see anything wrong with leaving them on the hooks or folded on a bench or chair. The salespeople are responsible for putting them back anyway and they're more likely to put them back in the proper place although I usually do that myself unless I'm in a hurry. Some people have no respect. Rodney Dangerfield should give them a piece of his mind.
Made in America
I bought a fine gauge cotton sweater from Land's End. It was red and I finally had to discard it because I wore it out. It was a bright red and I've always liked the color red because of my coloring. I have very dark hair and brown eyes and it just seems to go with my coloring. I washed this sweater hundreds of times so naturally it's going to wear out eventually. So I ordered another sweater and I noticed that it started to pill before I even washed it. I looked at the old sweater and in spite of hundreds of washings, it hadn't pilled at all. I discovered a very simple explanation when I looked at the label on the old sweater. It said "Made in U.S." (ain't that a mouthful)? The new sweater, however, did not. I can't remember the name of the country but it was some country where they can have their sweaters made inexpensively no doubt. I called Land's End and told them about it and expressed my thoughts as to why it had already started to pill. They were willing to refund my money but I needed a red sweater so I decided to keep it anyway. I imagine they must have used a cheaper fabric.
Small Women's Shops
It seems that small women's shops are becoming a thing of the past. My mother used to purchase most of her clothes at a small shop not far from her home. She used to stop by on the day that she went grocery shopping. She found almost everything she needed at this little shop (slacks, jerseys, blouses, sweaters, nightgowns, underwear) and she didn't have to spend a lot of time looking because of the small size of the shop. The sales person was very helpful and would tell her what items had just come in and that saved my mother from having to look at everything as she had already seen most of the clothes from previous shopping trips. Older women, in particular, don't always like to traipse through a large department store or a shopping mall. It's more difficult to find things as they're scattered all over the store and they're often separated by clothing lines such as Liz Claiborne, Jones New York, etc. It makes your head swim darting from one area to the next and your efforts seem fruitless with all the merchandise that you have to rummage through. My mother doesn't like the prospect of having to travel over 50 miles to the Maine Mall in South Portland just to buy a pair of socks. Some of the closer stores where she used to shop in Brunswick and Auburn have also closed. She doesn't like the clothes at Wal-Mart. She occasionally finds a few things at Sears but not very often. She likes good quality clothes (not terribly expensive) but well made and attractive to the eye.
) While you're trying stuff on, they'll pop by and ask if you need anything in a different size or color. But it's the spendier places that are like this, not the cheap department stores where they only let you in with 6 items at a time and carry jailer's keys for all the doors, then disappear just before you're ready to try stuff on.