Argh, clothes shopping

I had some insole made for me by a biometric podiatrist, they were the most uncomfortable things I'd ever worn, I was told to stick with them as it took a while to get used to them. I stuck with them for about a week and then threw them away as I could barely hobble about at all and I'd never had such pain in my feet.

I too have high arches. Only found one make of shoes with enough support. I bought some insoles to try in trainers and ended up putting them in slippers as I work from home. I can recommend them.

I also have wide feet and high arches.  After shopping in countless shops and trying different brands, in the end Clarks are the best fitting shoes for me.  They may cost more than many brands but they fit and are comfortable.

Fast fashion is a fairly recent thing, I think only since the 70's or 80's? Before that clothes were made to last and were comparatively more expensive, but much better quality. People also made more of their own clothes, I remember even in the 90's that womens magazines would have dressmaking and knitting patterns in them, you could also buy wool, fabric and haberdashery more easily too. My gr gr aunt was a seemstress, back then almost everybody wen to someone like her for thier clothes if they had new ones, rather than hand-me-downs.

this is why posh people tailor make their clothes. so it is made to fit them.
standard generic clothes in shop is cheap and rushed, it never fits as its not made to fit anyone but to be a average guess.

they get it so wrong at times... i have trousers which seemingly the leg size was made for a person with 8 foot long legs despite it being like 30 inch waist the legs are like so long they arnt made for a human. i roll them up but they ripped a bit and i cut the bottom off a large amount and they are still too long lol

then i remember seeing shirts in asda a long time ago.... they were so wide you could put them over a car, it was more like a huge tent... size medium too that lol 

people whine about chinese sizes being too small but i actually think chinese sizes are more normal and reasonable unlike our weird sizes that lack consistancy where a medium can be like normal some times but then outrageously big other times that you can make your car wear it.

Nylon sets my teeth on edge, I remember when nylon sheets were popular, horrible catchy scratchy toenail things, ugh!

Even seeing the word makes me a little shuddery!

TheCatWoman said:

I will probably send one back as I'm not sure if the strappy bits will bite my toes.

Oooh, kinky! Sounds like something a politician would do...

I've got high arches too and insteps, most shoes are to flat if you know what I mean. Our M&S is tiny and dosen't seel many clothes its mostly food, I have to go to  Llandunno  for a bigger M&S and I hate going there, its like visiting another planet!

I've been expensive and ordered two pairs of shoes from moshulu today, although I will probably send one back as I'm not sure if the strappy bits will bite my toes.

Shoes are hard for me to find too. I usually have one  pair of tennis shoes for the school year, and one pair of sandals for the summer. Last year I went through two pairs of sandals because one of them fell apart. This year I got my shoes from Costco. They are black Adidas with gold stripes. I absolutely love them, except for the fact that they have round laces, which means they always come untied. Once I decided to take Penny (my dog) for a walk, and my shoes were untied before I reached the end of my driveway. Hmmm... Maybe I can use my gold shoes again next year if I get new laces?

I have one word….  NYLON,

  ( shudders and has to bite both lips)

I have wide feet with remarkably high arches, finding comfortable shoes is a nightmare. There is a range of Australian shoes that M&S stocks, 'Airflex', that are better than most for me.

Shoe shopping is a nightmare too, shops rarely have my size or the colour I want, I'm fed up with assistants coming out of the stock room saying they've haven't my size but would I like to try one 2 or 3 sizes smaller, I mean WTF? I buy my shoes from Moshulu or Hotter now they can both be ordered online, they do mens shoes too, i've found them both to be well made and reliable

For me, shoe shopping is even worse than clothes shopping. Why does everything have to be done through the shop assistants?

I've just found what has worked over the years, then I buy copies of it over and over online retailers. I can stomach Costco and 2nd hand stores but most big box stores are vortexes of shifting patterns of product displays, gratuitous noise, unpredictable and voracious humans and eventually, down the rabbit hole of shutdown (one of my forms of meltdown).

I can go to 2nd hand stores where I can feel things and see a wider variety. If there was something I really like I can find out where to get it and, again just get copies.

Trouble recently has been manufacturers change the patterns, sizing, and fabric too often without notice! Or they quickly become hard to find. I am back in the flux like you are. I will have to make it a object of my attention, which resent.

Good hunting. !

I've managed to find someone who will make clothes for me they'd be in the £50 to £80 price range and she will take patterns from clothes i already have, She has similar problems with clothes to me, her legs are longer than mine too. She's as appalled as I am at the poor quality and lack of choice of many clothes, so I think I can trust her to do a good job.

Ugh, sounds awful for you. I hate clothes shopping, or any shopping actually where I have to go in to the shop. Shops are not autistic friendly environments. Normally they are packed, hot, have loud music and the store assistants keep trying to talk to me lol. 

I try to do online ordering for clothes whenever I can. Going to the shop in person is a stressful and exhausting experience. 

T said:

I get those kinda paranoid thoughts that people are looking at me and judging me, so I want to melt into the background with the most generic clothes ever.

Yes, me too! That's why I mostly wear clothes from camps or teams.

That sounds awful. Most of my clothes are either worn out because I wear them so much or brand new because I hate them. All of the clothes that I wear often are "place clothes", meaning I got them from an experience that I had. Some examples from my winter clothing are my 2 youth group fall retreat shirts (from different years), my swim team shirt from last year (the only two sports I'm somewhat good at are swim and cross country), my music shirt from Choir, and my camp shirt from last year (which is smaller and less warm than all of the others). Those are pretty much the only shirts I wear, because I'm afraid to wear plain-color shirts and I've never liked shirts with words on them. Also, I feel like I can't buy new shirts because everything seems like a crop top these days. Pants are a whole different story. I have to get them from stores and I can't wear jeans. Soft jeans are all too small for me because they're made for kids. I mostly wear leggings, but even those are hard to get right. My legs are too long for pants that fit in the waist, but when I buy longer pants, they are too wide in the waist and I feel like I'm constantly pulling them up. I'm really excited but also nervous  for warmer weather, because all of my shorts that I wore last year are not the type of pants that I wear now, so I might be stuck with just skorts. Also, I'm in that middle age between kids' and women's clothing. I totally understand how you feel, not being able to find clothes that fit and you feel good in is awful.

I know how to take patterns from clothes I already have, it's really quite simple, or it is to me anyway. Laying is good, but only if the layers are long enough to work, it's no good having layers that all end just below my boobs.

It's not the seems that I have problems with but the fabrics themselves, some give me really bad electric shocks, some just set my teeth on edge.

Not being stupid, I do go back to the places where I've previously bought clothes, the main place I used to buy from has really gone downhill in terms of quality and finish, but massively up in price. They also seem to be obessed with huge patterns and dayglo colours.

As every sewing machiine I've ever had hates me, from old foot treedle, hand cranked and various electric models I think ever getting to grips with them is a battle I no longer want to repeat.