For most guys, finding a pair of pants that look good is pretty much a two-step process:
- Find the color
- Find the size (and sizes have only 2 numbers--length and waist)
In terms of different fits, there's only one--relaxed, straight-legged (to sum it up). Yea yea, there are skinny jeans for guys as well, but those don't count. The PREDOMINANT kind is the loose-fitting kind. (We're not talking about the metrosexual here--just the average guy.)
On the flip side, for girls, it is a much more complicated process:
- Find the color
- Find the fit (e.g. for jeans, this could be: skinny, straight leg, flare leg, boot leg, wide leg, and boyfriend--the loose-fitting guys jeans I was talking about earlier, but made for girls)
- Find the size
- Repeat 1-3 if necessary
- 1,3,5,7,...
- 0,2,4,6,...
- 24, 26, 28, 30,...
At first glance, it's only one more steps than for guys. But with the added step, the complexity increases by a lot. Imagine there are 3 different colors for a type of guys pants and 10 different sizes (for simplicity sake). That's 3 x 10=30 combinations.
Now imagine there are 3 different colors for a type of girls pants and 4 different fits and 10 different sizes. That's 3 x 4 x 10 = 120 combinations!!
No wonder girls spend so much time at the mall! It's a wonder how they can pick anything out at all! With that in mind, now add clothes, shoes, and accessories...
Gahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Too many choices!!!
Let's look at this issue more closely. For men, "business casual" boils down to:
- button down shirt (short or long sleeve)
- pants
- dress/nice shoes
To make mens' life easier, their shirts all come pre-packaged in nice little rectangular plastic bags with the size (collar size and shirt size) written on there. There is no scrambling racks, searching through every tag to find the right size (but they do potentially have to dig through the pile of packaged shirts). For men, all they have to do is look for the right color and the right size--and BOOM! They're done. There's no such thing as "trying on".
Men's pants we've already discussed. Consensus: pretty straightforward.
Dress shoes? Well, I guess there's a pretty wide range of dress shoes for men, but in no way shape or form do the variety in terms of shapes even begin to compare with that of womens dress shoes.
Now let's take a look at women's "business causal". This could mean a number of things:
- button down shirt, pants
- tank top, cardigan, pants
- button down shirt, skirt
- dress
Here are just a few examples:
For example, it took me 3 WEEKENDS to find a pair of dress shoes! I am not even kidding--3 weekends!
What the hell took me so long?
Well, first, I couldn't decide what kind of shoes I wanted. Should I get high heels? platforms? 1 inch? 2 inches? no heels? black? tan? red? oxfords? mary janes? pumps? loafers? boots? leather? suede? canvas? (You'd be surprised at how many kinds of women's shoes pass for "business casual").
It took me literally hours to finally decide that I wanted a pair of black shoes with no heels.
Yay, the hard part's over, says you.
Nope.
After walking around for a bit, I realized this: most women's shoes with no heels look like men's shoes and are ugly. (Not saying men's shoes are ugly though.) I'm not kidding. It's really hard to come by a feminine looking pair of shoes when you're in the "little-to-no-heel-comfortable" category--the category I was in.
Here's where the trying-on actually happens. After trying on a bunch of different pairs, I decide on a pair--"hmm, this pair is comfortable and looks good." Well, I was wrong about the "comfortable" part on 2 occassions. For some reason, every time I buy a pair of shoes, and wear them at home around the house for a bit, they either (for whatever strange reason) don't fit anymore, or become insanely umcomfortable. X_X
Well, if you don't succeed, try try again, the saying goes. So today, I was back at the mall again, trying to find a pair of shoes that meet my requirements. And I'm happy to report that I (think I) finally found a pair of shoes that I love and don't think I'll return!!
I found a pair of Franco Sarto patent leather flats (with a slight heel)--comfortable, professional, and looks great! :)
That said, my point is still, however, that there are way too many choices out there for women in terms of clothes, shoes and accessories and that can definitely be a bad thing in terms of efficiency!
3 comments:
Girls sizes have to be more complicated. Where would most women rather buy from, a store that told them they were a size 6, or one that told them they were a size 10? Since most women try their clothes on (again and again) while at the store, it doesn't matter what size is actually on the tag anyway. Men however tend to want to put as little energy in shopping as possible, and hence don't try things on. So if they get a size 36 x 32 pants, and its too big they're pissed. Who cares if the store is telling them they're skinny because now they have to go back and return the darn things. They'll probably be so mad at having to go to the store again that they don't buy anything from that store ever again.
So in short being lazy is the way to go.
for guys there are pretty well defined standards of what looks good, so there's really no need to put in a lot of effort (providing that the guy himself doesn't really care).
i myself, though, consider more things than you're giving us credit for. i'm a hard fit, so i have to weigh the size mismatch with how it looks/how comfortable it is. Also, guys do have styles (fit of jeans, material of clothing, etc.
...and then there's also the fact that many women generally remember what their fellow women wear, somehow making it a faux pas to be seen in the same outfit too often (or even more than once in some case! ...I never understood why this was such a big deal). Which in turn leads to women having to repeat the whole "shopping" process more often eh?
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