After the windowsill-leaping escapade which left a giant rip in the hem of Hummus Girl's Chinese dress, I started to wonder: where else could I buy more Chinese clothing that's closer than, say, Guangzhou? I landed here, where I found some surprisingly low prices, especially for women's dresses.
I really wanted to purchase something for myself. I bought a dress on Shamian island...think I paid around $8 for it (gasp)...but I've never liked it. That whole shopping experience felt stressful to us--the bargaining, the pressure to find all the right souvenirs and remembrances of China, the angry, grieving baby in my arms, etc. So I wound up with a pale lavender, satiny dress. Terrible color on me, thigh-high slit, and quite frankly, just does not connote positive emotions for me. Am I putting too much pressure on that poor dress? Perhaps.
Right now you might be thinking Oh, get real. You just needed an excuse to shop!
Whatever.
So here's a fairly recent photo of me. This will be important later in the story.
I ordered two dresses, hoping they'd fit, nervous to buy something without being able to try it on. Had suspected maybe the dresses ran small, so I ordered two dress sizes up from what I would normally wear.
Aren't they pretty? The red one is a fine corduroy! How 'bout that? And the blue one is cotton with a bit of stretch. I like dressing up, but hate being uncomfortable. These dresses are shorter and more practical, so I can wear them more often.
I am thrilled to report that they both fit perfectly! Like they were made for me! A very pleasant surprise.
Also a surprise? This.
Can you read the tag? XXXL. Apparently, according to Chinese fashion standards, I wear an XXXL. (Take a look back at the photo of me if you need to.) I am going to try my best to find that hilariously bizarre rather than annoying, and will celebrate that I now have two new Chinese dresses that I love and will wear happily!
9 comments:
Ha! They are beautiful! We bought some XXL and XXXL clothes for friends and one was horrified that she couldn't fit into her XXL Chinese blouse. I regretted not taking the tags out before distributing our gifts, but we thought it was funny that the sizes were so different. Enjoy your dresses--and thank you so much for the link to that fantastic site! I'll have to do some shopping.
Maybe the tag refers to the size of your heart... :)
Yeah, that's it!
So funny! I'm 5'10", so imagine how I looked in off-the-rack Chinese dresses. Thigh high? Try hip-high!! So we had them make me one...a decent one that covers me. Had it had a tag, I 'm sure it would have been size "giant". :P
Enjoy your new duds!
Cute! XXXL...for you...hmmm....I don't think I'd even be on their charts...;-)
Love the new dresses, J!
XXXL??? Maybe it was girls sizes!!
Lol!! It's "infant sizes"!! Love the dresses!!!
This post cracked me up! Whenever I can find some weird off-sized brand and somehow I can fit into a size 2, I always buy as many as humanly possible. Not sure my vanity could have handled an XXXL. But, obviously you are not that size, so you are rockin it, I'm sure!
i choose to believe it's girls sizing, though even then i imagine you'd get by with a medium. :) beautiful dresses, no matter what the tags claim!
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