I've Lost My Sense of Style

Remember that scene in Lady & the Tramp where the Scottie dog, Jock, is explaining what's wrong with the Bloodhound, Trusty? How he lost his sense of smell? Well, I felt that way tonight at the mall, except instead of losing my sense of smell, I felt like I had lost my sense of style.

My husband is sitting right next to me and I think he thinks that the metaphor I just used is a bit ridiculous and over the top, but whatever. He was not with me in New York & Co. as I wandered around looking lost for 45 minutes. And the store is NOT that big. I seriously had no idea what to buy - not one clue. So I just bought what I came in for - two pairs of pants - BOGO. No tops, no accessories. Because I was absolutely clueless on what to buy, even though I just wrote a pretty good post on how to transition a wardrobe into fall.

It's easier for me to just write about fashion and go online and dream than to actually go out and buy real things to fit my all too real body. The actual purchasing of clothing items poses all kinds of anxiety for me, for some reason. Am I making the right decision about these shoes? Should I buy this in black or jump in on the lima bean colored bandwagon? Is this shirt cute and funky or just flat out hideous and tacky? Oh my, look at my muffin top! It gets to the point where I would much rather run away than face my demons at the register...or, more truthfully, my demons in the dressing room.

One of the timeless questions women ask is why in the world would they make dressing rooms the way they do? Isn't the point of the store to sell the clothes instead of ushering women into tiny caves with zero space, awful lighting, and three way mirrors? NO ONE deserves to see their body in a three way mirror, y'all. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. And anyone who studies their hind end in a three way mirror and still decides to buy those pants - well, you have a pat on the back in my book!

And what is up with the sizes? I feel like the sizes in stores just shrink, shrink, shrink. I would rather think that than to think the other option...that I have just gotten a whole lot bigger. Luckily, there are shoes...shoes never fail, whether you're a size 4 or a size 10. Maybe from now on, I should just skip the clothing store and head straight for the shoes. We'll see how that works out.