Sunday, May 6, 2012

APC Sample Sale

It's been a long and very strange semester. My book is in (and I'm now just waiting to hear from the board), I'm working on other projects and I've managed to fall behind on way too many things. I'm still trying to get through the email backlog and to make matters more complex, I've had a cold, stomach upset and picked up pretty much everything my students have had this semester. Add to that, I had my first real brush with identity theft when some unknown person stole my debit card number and used it to open an amazon.com account. As I have my amazon account linked to my debit card, they sent me an alert, I called my bank and the card was canceled. The problem was timing. I was about to leave for a trip where I was spending one night in a hotel and was left with the cash I had and no way of getting any more (I have stopped using credit cards and cut up the ones I had). Net result, I had to pay for a hotel in cash, beg them to accept and eat Dunkin Donuts bagels as that was all I could afford to buy at the station. Not fun.

On another note, for the first time in weeks, I actually engaged with clothes and shopping this Friday. Not that my abstemious mindset has been unwelcome--I've been so busy I've barely thought about fashion other than in my academic work and teaching. My clothes encounters have largely involved picking a denim skirt and Steven Alan/Rag and Bone shirt each morning, grabbing a cardigan and my trusty blue Tocca coat and heading out to work--a result of early morning classes and long days that demanded practicality. My hypothyroid related weight gain has finally stalled but there's been no weight loss so a lot of my closet is effectively unwearable until I get back to a fighting weight. It's funny the difference 5-10lbs can make.

I did, however, go to the A.P.C. sample sale with my friend Emilie. She found a lot of good stuff, texted me, we met and I grabbed dress after dress, happily thinking these would work with tights, in the summer, in the spring and the autumn. At $50 a pop, I wondered how I could go wrong. Except I could. Forget the 5-10 lb weight gain. A.P.C. cuts do not accommodate frames with shoulders or wide backs so none of the dresses fit and I felt like a large beached whale as I struggled out of size L cotton dresses. Even worse, some had dropped waists with no zippers or fastenings beneath the small openings at the neck so the dresses wouldn't fit on any conventional human body. Now granted the stock was old (as you'd expect for the price)--probably 2008-09. But the sizing was insanely small and I don't think I was the only person struggling to get out of cotton dresses that were otherwise very me (a me with no shoulders or hips, that is). I have no idea who their fit model is but there's something very annoying about brands that make their size L fit a large size 6/small size 8. Indeed, it was enough to put me off shopping. I did get a green suede wallet for $30 but there were three dresses I really loved and would have adored if they had just been slightly wider in the shoulders/upper back and I would have worn them for years.

2 comments:

joyce said...

APC can fit so strangely. I find their dresses are usually too short for my taste, and you're right about the shoulders. Then sometimes I'm swimming in a Medium coat or sweater. Consistent sizing across collections is not their strong suit.

Marti said...

I think its better that you ended up with only a wallet. I haven't been happy with the wear on any of my APC pieces and they have SUCH terrible sizing. Moya I highly suggest interval running and possibly investing in a Nike fuel band as it tracks all your calories burned, steps and gives you a daily goal.