Do you typically stick to the same clothing brands, or do you venture out and try new brands at times?
I ordered a pair of leopard-print jeans recently from a totally new-to-me company and brand, Dressed in Lala. I had been eyeing their stuff for a while and finally couldn’t resist the urge to give them a try.
There’s an inherent risk involved in trying any new clothing brand, as women’s sizes have a huge variance. For example, I have clothes in my closet that fit me perfectly, ranging in sizes from medium all the way up to 3XL!
This time, I guessed wrong on my size and the new Dressed in Lala jeans – although fabulous – ended up fitting me a bit more snugly at the waist than I’d prefer. I could get the jeans on and fastened, but I wasn’t sure about how they felt.
“Should I keep these or size up?” I asked my in-house fashionista and styling consultant. She said the jeans looked good, were “actually cool” and that I should keep them. High praise from our teen!
But after wearing the new jeans for a little less than an hour, I knew I had to send them back. A bit of pinching at the waist made them less comfortable than I would have liked. And I thought, why not size up?
In the immortal words of Parker Posey’s Victoria Ratliff from season three of The White Lotus, “I just don’t think at this age I’m meant to live an uncomfortable life.”
I want my clothes to be cute and stylish, yes, but above all comfortable. Long gone are my days of suffering for beauty – of sucking it in and sucking it up. I want my generous, round tummy to be held softly and not crimped or pinched. I want to breathe free and easy, whether in jeans or joggers.
There was a time when I would have cringed (and almost cried) before sizing up in clothing – and it would have resulted in a lot of self-recrimination and even self-hate. Going up a size in clothes, or a number on the scale, felt like the end of the world to me for years. For most of my life, I would have far preferred to be uncomfortable in a smaller size rather than comfortable in a bigger one.
But thankfully, I can look back on those years with a rueful sigh and then give myself a big hug for moving past that diet culture mentality. Now, I know that clothing sizes are meaningless and that what matters are how the clothes fit and make us feel. I know that sizing up in jeans doesn’t mean that MY size has gone up. And that even if it had, as long as I’m moving and shaking at hip hop class, stretching it out on the yoga mat and able to do all the things I want, need and love to do – it’s all good, baby. Bodies are dynamic and change over time.
I’m thankful that I sized up in these awesome new Dressed by Lala jeans, excited to get the new pair and above all, grateful for the realization of how far I’ve come in my self-love journey. Who knew sizing up in a pair of jeans could mean so much – or so little? Oh, and by the way, there’s a photo shoot to come when they arrive – these jeans are killer.
When was the last time you allowed yourself to wear a larger size so that you could feel comfortable without making yourself feel guilty or bad about it? I highly recommend this mental shift! Life is too short to beat ourselves up over silly things like clothes sizes.
Edited to add: two weeks have passed, the new jeans just arrived and they are WAY too big for me. Le sigh. Sometimes, you just can’t win!
