
Dear Fashion Designers and Womens Clothing Merchandise Buyers,
I went shopping last night in a store. Not online, in an actual store. This is rare for me, but I needed a few (gravity fighting) garments that aren't easy to purchase online. That part of the excursion was successful. My size, in stock, several of them, and on sale. A rare occurrance for which I am grateful indeed.
Then, I started looking around. My husband has a couple of special occasions coming up, and I thought it might be nice to wear something besides the dress that I've worn to every funeral and wedding I've attended for the past three summers. So I checked the dress department. Much to my chagrin, it is the same old story. The dresses have lovely fabrics, there are many with very classic prints and designs. The clearance prices are fabulous. Yet again this year, all of them are still, yes still, sleeveless. Dresses haven't had sleeves--not even short sleeves--for at least three summers at my local store.
Don't get me wrong, they are great dresses, but have you SEEN my upper arms? I'm a hard working woman with upper-midwest, Norwegian-American genetics. Yes, there are probably plenty of very slim women with these genetics. However, I seem to be built to withstand the cold. My upper arms are thick. Heck, my upper body is thick. I can haul a 50 pound feed sack and sink fence posts as well now as I could twenty years ago, but there is ZERO Madonna-upper-arm tone going on with that muscle.
Do you really want people eating meals at wedding receptions and other special functions with my upper arms in FULL VIEW? I mean, at the pool in a bathing suit is one thing. There are several other women at the pool who don't go to the gym either. But me going sleeveless for dressy occasions? Uh, no.
So then, dear designers, merchandise buyers and retailers, you have somehow become aware of this problem, and decided to do something about it. Next to the racks and racks of sleeveless dresses, you offer the cute little just-below-the-bust length cardigan sweaters to wear over the sleeveless wonders. HELLO? These skin-tight shrugs further emphasize my pre-existing conditions. There is not a foundation garment in the world that will hold it all in so it can be covered with something skin tight. Something may explode!
While it would be fabulous to have my forty-something mind in my twenty-something body (you know, those clueless years where you are a size 6 and are SURE you are fat), it just didn't happen. I like to eat, and yes, I have an occasional cocktail or beer. I have a lot of self discipline in a lot of areas. One of those areas is not around a pizza.
I exercise regularly, my blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels are super healthy. I just happen to be a middle age woman with a thick figure. Put some dang sleeves on the stuff already. I need a new dress.
Looking for the second part of the Summer Sale? Please read on....