On a path a Michelle Jones type situation

Clothes and Shoes, Oh My

The way I dress has changed so much over the past two years it’s astounding. A complete wardrobe change is a byproduct of losing 185 pounds (to date). None of my old clothes fit anymore but they also don’t fit me anymore by and large. That is to say I’ve had a complete style makeover. Part of that comes from having a completely different body. I can wear things now that I couldn’t fit into before, there are many more clothing options open to me. Another and perhaps larger part of this stylistic change comes from changes in my personality. I’m older, more settled and more aware of how I dress and why but also I’m much more comfortable with myself, both because I’m more comfortable with my body and because I’m much, much happier than I’ve been in many years.

Completely building a new wardrobe from scratch is a time and money consuming project. So I’m slowly building up my clothes collection and thinking about and developing my style of dress (I can’t believe I just typed that sentence, how pretentious am I?). Having never been interested in clothes much before I’m really starting at the beginning here. Two things I do know though: first, I very much enjoy wearing skirts and dresses now. This is a shock to the system but I’m just going with it. Second, I will not now nor will I ever wear uncomfortable shoes. I’m not wearing anything pointy toed or high heeled. I want to wear comfortable cute shoes with swirly skirts like Amelie.

I can’t pull off Amelie’s cuteness but I may be able to rock some Docs with the new skirt I just bought the other day and cop some of her general style concepts.

The point of this rambling story is I need clothes and shoes and I still don’t really know where to shop for them. Most of my recent clothes have been bought at J. Jill (I like this store), Eddie Bauer, and LL Bean. All pretty conservative places. I need to branch out, I just don’t know where. The “hipper” shops here in town cater to women who are still much smaller than me. That is to say I still can’t fit into there clothes for the most part, with the exception of Clay and Cotton, which I love. There have to be some good online stores, any suggestions? Also any suggestions for cute shoes to wear with skirts and non-jeans pants that don’t force your feet into unnatural and uncomfortable positions? All information is appreciated please and thank you.

Shoot me an email w/your Doc size- I’ve got a pretty nice pair I picked up used but don’t quite fit me- I’m trying to rehome them.

I have a whole portion of my closet dedicated to wrinkle-free button downs, mostly striped, from Eddie Bauer. All from the outlet store, of course.
Every time I change jobs I rethink the whole style thing. When I last transitioned from blue collar to white collar, I stepped it up a bit, but now that I’m comfortable here and have a good enough reputation amongst my coworkers that it doesn’t quite matter so much, I’ve slid back towards the more casual. But then I went on an interview the other day and had to do it all up and… ugh.
Part of me wonders that if I just spent a little more to shop at, say, Banana Republic that I’d be fine (since I can do that now). But then I actually set foot in an Ann Taylor Loft and I felt huge and I wanted to leave immediately.
I did finally find pants (Dockers!) that actually fit my ass, and I bought them in several different colors. It makes a world of difference to like your clothes and be comfortable in them.
That said, I’m wearing jeans and the short-sleeve-over-long-sleeve t-shirt combo today. Hey, it’s Friday.

Yeah, as much weight as I’ve lost and as good as I feel now I still think I’m too large for Banana Republic. I might be able to squeeze my ass into their largest pants but I’m not sure. Skirts I can probably do better with and you may actually have inspired me to go see for myself.
I’m with you on the Eddie Bauer wrinkle free shirts. LL Bean makes nice ones of those as well so you might check out the LL Bean website.

Hi Michelle. Just checking in – haven’t been over here to your blog for quite some time. But as always, I enjoy it when I am here. Looks like the “get healthy” endeavor has been really successful! I am poking around your site to learn more about your journey on that path, but I do not see much. Do you have a blog or online journal about this at another URL? I would like to read more…
j9

I don’t remember what the privacy controls are set on so some of the stuff might not be viewable but for a while I wrote about health/fitness/weight stuff on Vox: http://michelle.vox.com/