Now I remember....

[kyrielle]

...why I don't buy from Land's End any more. I really like their tops. And I used to like them in general. But I have no idea what size to get for their pants any longer. According to their size charts, my waist makes me a 6 or 8. The rest of my body below the waist, including hips and butt, makes me a 12. If I want pants that don't fit one or another part of me, I can get those at a local store, probably cheaper and certainly faster. Tailoring the length of the pants legs is a lovely feature but it doesn't do me a bit of good if I either have to have a pinched posterior (not happening) or pants that sag about my waist (thanks, I have a pair of those already, and I have to be careful what I wear them with - something I can wear un-tucked, preferably). I suppose I could just resign myself to belts with everything but women's pants generally are not made to look nice with belts trying to pull them a few inches tighter, and I've never worn belts, so I'm not accustomed to them either. They do have sizing options to get a bigger waist relative to the rest of the pants...but not smaller. I'm just barely not overweight (sometimes I creep over the technical line), it's just the weight likes my butt more than my waist. Which is good health-wise but abysmal clothing-wise since apparently I'm s'posed to be fatter in the waist. Argh.

Comments

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

Pfffft.
I once bought a sun dress that was XLpetite. It fit perfectly. But Extra Large Petite?!
That means short and squat.

[kyrielle]

The labels are sorta grumble-worthy at times. But at least it fit? :P

[geordie.livejournal.com]

I have it so easy, I've been wearing 38/32 Levis 540 or 560 jeans for about the last 20 years.

[branna.livejournal.com]

I have the identical problem--narrow waist and very curvy hips,
not particularly long legs. Finding pants that fit is very difficult.
I did order some custom jeans from Land's End, where you can give them exact
measurements, and those did fit pretty well---but unfortunately I'm not crazy about the custom styles that they've got available right now.

[kyrielle]

Hmmm. I went to "women's clothing" and "pants" and never saw the custom options at all. They might want to link those more prominently where they apply! Thank you for mentioning them. I am not sure if they will work for me but they are worth exploring, at least. (I agree with you, the selections available are not greatly inspiring, but....)

[callibr8]

I practically live in their sport-knit cords, which are mostly cotton with a touch of spandex. What this means is that they fit *comfortably* in the waist, while expanding gracefully over my ample posterior. I was wearing such when we had dinner recently, I'm certain.

I didn't used to like knit pants, but they've been a godsend, especially with the most recent weight gains. Spandex (at least in this context) is very forgiving.

[kyrielle]

I remember you saying that, it was why I checked them out. But how much flex can I ask of them? I don't like being constricted, a pinched butt sounds no fun, but the sizes don't match my measurements.

Anyway, I now like Land's End rather less than I did before, at least, their web site. I decided to try a custom pair of pants, hit the measurements page, got distracted, came back to it this morning, took measurements, entered, submitted. Oops, session has expired. No echo of what I entered - no way back to the form; back got me the session-expired error. All the measurements? Lost.

Redid them. That worked. Browsed over to the pants to check out the sport-knit cords, then decided to go to the shopping bag to check my measurements again. IE crashed when I clicked on the shopping bag. Reopened site - custom order gone; the shopping bag is apparently stored in a session-only cookie.

Hit their 'contact us' form to report this problem. _IT_ errored out, ditching my initial report. Submitted subsequent report. Now off to do something (anything) else....

[msphat.livejournal.com]

a pinched butt sounds no fun...</>

One could totally take that the wrong way, out of context, etc....and I'm totally the person who would do so! :-D If I was taking it out of context, I would have to say that I might disagree with the statement, depending upon circumstances. Okay, enough silliness. :-D Good luck finding pants that fit!

[kfrye.livejournal.com]

I have a similar problem, and I've actually had good luck at the Gap. They have a "curvy" style that is smaller at the waist than in the hips. You might want to give it a try. Of course, you have to make sure to get the "anklet" length or your pant legs may drag on the floor.

My other bone with clothing sizes is the new trend to call "XL" sizes "women's" and the smaller sizes as "misses" or something similarly inane. bleah.