RL things I love

Aria

Sooooo, I recommend the following retailers:

Pennington's & Addition Elle -- same company, shipping out of Canada. Their prices look pretty steep on the web, but remember that you're converting CAD to USD if you're in the US. The shipping sucks ($12.95 CAD) and the return policy is a pain for international customers, so I'd recommend buying just basics that they make in many colors/patterns for your first order, so you can figure out your size. I highly recommend their In Every Story slim fit/ankle pants. They fit as well as the pixie pants at Old Navy do, are actually cheaper after conversion rates (really!), and despite chub rub, have not pilled nearly as badly in the thighs as most of my pants. If you watch for a sale, you can legit get them for as little as $17. Bonus? I have 4 pairs; three have fully functional pockets.

ModCloth -- They were unfortunately bought out by Jet.com, which is owned by Wal-Mart, and specialize in quirky to such a degree it can spill from cute straight over into "What the actual fuck?", but they have a really liberal return policy and will even give you an extra $5 if you accept store credit instead of a refund. I like the Charter School sweaters, but size up if you're plus size. They ran small, then changed manufacturers so they run true to size, but also shrink more in the dryer. Size up.

Talbots Woman -- Insanely pricey, but they regularly have 30% off or 40% off sales, and reliably have discount gift cards on Gift Card Granny. That post I made about getting $600 of stuff for less than $300? All Talbots. I like their Pima cotton tees, which have not faded despite lots of washing, and -- again, combining sales and coupons -- their Audrey cashmere sweater. I think I got mine for $70 down from $169, which is still a splurge, but not at all unreasonable for cashmere.

DressBarn -- Being my size, I hate shopping at a store with "barn" in the name, but their Westport jeans are $36 and do not leave a giant gap in the waist. Also, no bullshit mini pockets that barely fit lipstick. Also, they have BOGO sweater sales every year.

Macy's -- Again with coupons and gift cards. I recommend the Charter Club brand sweaters (the cashmere drops to, like, $49 on Black Friday) and their black dress pants. Real pockets, $34.99 'everyday value' price, though that sadly means no coupons.

JCPenney -- Yeah, really. That JCPenney. The Worthington line has cute work trousers in about six colors and regular/curvy cuts, and short, average, and tall lengths. The pockets fit my giant keys, y'all. They also have a series of 3/4 sleeve button ups that go up to 4X if you've got, to quote Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, "them heavy boobs" and don't want button gap.

eShakti -- All their dresses and skirts have pockets. Seriously, all of them. All of them. For a $10 upcharge, you can also have something cut to your exact measurements, which is nuts. Watch for 30% sales. I recommend going one size up.

Ann Taylor Loft is apparently also going into plus sizes, but I haven't tried them yet. Old Navy has plus size, but I've never had anything I've bought there hold up, so the low price tag us great until I have to replace those pants three times. ASOS Curve and Eloquii also have some nice stuff, but it's usually buried under more pages of shirts with weird sleeves and dresses with odd ruffles and just general garbage than I have patience to scroll through. YMMV.

Sunny

@aria

I think DressBarn is changing their name to something less offensive. The ones out here are at least. I only know this because I have had 3 different people PM me on FB to tell me this because they recollect my flailing and 'WHY WOULD YOU CALL A DRESS STORE THAT' as super amusing, apparently.

Aria

@sunny THANK GOD. I like their pants, but every time I go in there, part of my brain is mentally preparing me for some asshole to moo at the fat girl going in.

Auspice

I will share:

Torrid for underwear. They have the most fucking comfortable ones I have ever found. I forget which site (it may have been Buzzfeed tbh) had like, a list of 'most comfortable panties' and theirs topped it for plus-size. And they are. I'm like, legit sad that I'm about to size out of them.

'Cause I mean, c'mon: https://www.torrid.com/product/batman-cotton-boyshort-panty/11438715.html

BATMAN.

But I recently bought a bunch of new ones ('cause I like the 'buy 5 get 2 free' deals) and their 0 is just about to be too big since they are like JUST RIGHT and the one pair I got in a size 1 (IT HAS A OUIJA BOARD ON THE ASS I COULDN'T NOT GET IT OKAY) is kinda def too loose and I can never wear it with a skirt or else it will just fall off mid-stride. And the 0 is supposedly equatable to a size 12? So maybe I have lost more weight than I thought? Or maybe they just have a very liberal size 12. I just know my size 16 jeans are still way too tight in the thighs. (And everything else I wear are yoga pants and leggings. But the yoga pants ARE really loose in the waist so...........I dunno. I just don't buy clothes like, EVER if I can help it.)

Sunny

@aria Right?

god now I want to say udderly ridiculous

Aria

@auspice I also have Batman knickers. They are from Target. So there's a pretty solid chance that on any cold day, I'm sitting in my finance office in my pricey Talbots sweater and my trousers from the stodgy old lady store and..... the Bat signal on my butt. Or the Millenium Falcon. Or Wonder Woman. Or Muppets. It's ridiculous and childish and it makes me laugh. And they never match my bra, and I don't care. Because as I once told the lady in my local Sephora "I'm convinced that women who can do winged eyeliner in one go are like women whose bra and panties match without several days of careful laundry planning. They're not like regular women. They're some kind of witch."

ETA: Speaking of which. HerRoom.com for bras. No store, like, EVER lets you use coupons on the good plus sized bra brands, like Wacoal or Natori or Chantelle. But! If you don't care what color they are, you can filter down to what's on sale or discontinued clearance. And their filter also lets you shop by characteristics like lined/unlined, J-hook closures, style, etc. It's like the Amazon warehouse of boob-holders. Though I also once got an $80 Chantelle bra on Amazon for $21 because apparently no one likes pastel yellow?

Arkandel

@aria A while ago me and my buddies were changing after a baskeball game and they saw I had Hulk underwear on.

One of them went "so when you take it off you turn into Bruce Banner!".

You know, that's a fucking good burn. I'm not even mad.

Auspice

@aria I think the whole 'matching bra/panties' thing is silly. Yes, for dates, sure.

I wear more interesting/wild socks to make office / business-casual jobs easier to handle. THEY CAN'T POLICE MY SOCKS.

Kanye Qwest

My company has added more comprehensive care for mental health to their insurance offerings, and partnered with a network to provide resources for mental health and counseling, etc, to employees. For a corporation, they really aren't so bad sometimes.

Ganymede

@kanye-qwest said in RL things I love:

My company has added more comprehensive care for mental health to their insurance offerings, and partnered with a network to provide resources for mental health and counseling, etc, to employees. For a corporation, they really aren't so bad sometimes.

Not all fiefdoms are full of corrupt shitheads.

JinShei

Mkodcloth won't sell to eu or uk now.

Templari

@auspice said in RL things I love:

@aria I think the whole 'matching bra/panties' thing is silly. Yes, for dates, sure.

I wear more interesting/wild socks to make office / business-casual jobs easier to handle. THEY CAN'T POLICE MY SOCKS.

Well. That depends on the career field, really.

Thenomain

Any time that a scripted game in Table Top Simulator can make @EmmahSue say "that's hot" is a good day.

Cupcake

@Auspice My only beef with Torrid is that their stretch jeans really do streeeetch. I sized down to begin with, and they've still ended up with a tendency to slide down my hips. I'll probably by another pair and size down even further to compensate for the stretch.

Their bras, however, are a gazillion times better than LB's.

Auspice

@cupcake said in RL things I love:

@Auspice My only beef with Torrid is that their stretch jeans really do streeeetch. I sized down to begin with, and they've still ended up with a tendency to slide down my hips. I'll probably by another pair and size down even further to compensate for the stretch.

Their bras, however, are a gazillion times better than LB's.

I've only bought t-shirts, undies, and a coat (I found one the other year in Spring on crazy deep discount: usually around $100, I got it for $12!!) at Torrid. I usually hit Old Navy for jeans.

Thanks to cup size, I gotta go specialty for bras. I usually do Breakout Bras for those, but that's out of loyalty to their brick-and-mortar location which is in a city I used to live in and the ladies that worked there were just amazingly lovely and helpful. They were just the absolute best. If I absolutely need a bra RIGHT NOW and BB isn't having a sale, I'll dig through Amazon (since I don't care if I end up with something Neon Yellow and Pink ...... which yes I do have one in exactly those colors).

Aria

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is amazing. Go see it.

Ganymede

I really like the new Castlevania series on Netflix.

Paris

@ganymede The second season is pretty hilarious.

Bobotron

@paris That's my plan to watch tomorrow night. AHHHH.

Paris

@bobotron It's absolutely worth it. I occasionally found the dialogue and pauses a little awkward, and they kind of went for a Game of Thrones feeling that imo you get more in the second season, but it's still really good imo.