(no subject)

[unicornduke]

Just splurged on fancy underwear (2 for $50) from tomboyx and wow am I suddenly very anxious about money. I've got plenty, I even checked my credit card to make sure I'd be on track for paying it off this month. (I'm not paycheck to paycheck only because I have a buffer built in from my previous job but I'm not making much more than I'm spending. More than half my paycheck goes right to rent and loans. Sometimes I wonder if I should have stuck it out for another year at my last job but I don't think it would have been good despite the money)

I've never spent that much money on underwear and it's more than I spend on most of my clothing. I hope they're really soft.

Comments

[dragonlady7]

ooh let me know if they're good, I was dithering about them too.
uh like. not in a weird way. you know. lol.

*lies down on the floor* oh my god student loans sucked. that was so much of my life. i spent my whole 20s just a slave to those fucking loans. ughhhh. whyyyy.

[unicornduke]

haha we'll see. They've got some stuff that's cheaper, I think just different patterns that is like, last chance and at least a couple of bucks off.

Depending on how nice the underwear is, I might get some bras from them since I literally only wear sports bras, theirs look like they'd be nice for me. I know they probably won't work for you :/

My truck loan is going to be paid off within a year thank fucking god. I only have 6k dollars left on my student loans. Like I'm so close I can feel it but not actually pay it off in full because I don't have that much money on hand.

[graydon]

Waiting for the loan to die is awkward, all right. (Post Y2K, I was a long while getting re-employed and wound up about 10k down on my credit card, which was nerve wracking. Got it paid off, though.)

Not being annoyed by clothing is really important.

I tend to use Stanfield's end-of-line sales; it greatly restricts the colour choices, but that's really not important under the circumstances.

[dragonlady7]

I want to get boxers to wear under skirts, because I love wearing skirts but I don't like things to get too... breezy. My goal someday is to eliminate all shorts-as-outerwear from my wardrobe because they never fit right and they're usually way too bulky and hot. (Cargo shorts = seems like a great idea, never is! Sweat factory!)

Their bras look fantastic but just attempting to read the size chart has me pretty well convinced that no matter how good a line they talk about inclusivity, there's no way their shit will in any way suit me. But I can daydream. Actually I'm definitely going to attempt to make myself something like them.
(I might actually figure out a pattern to make myself dresses with built in bras for working in! I mean like, farm work. We'll see. Some stuff, you just gotta wear old jeans and that's how it is, but. I bet I could make a reasonable Slaughter Dress. I should make myself a rubber apron to go with for maximum Death Style Points. Surely there's an easy pattern online for it, lol.)

[unicornduke]

I'm hoping to drift more to boxers generally because I get lots of chafing in my groin area from the briefs I wear plus the jeans sometimes if I sweat too much (most of the time). Not pleasant and then I also can't wear the briefs the next day.

Yeah, the bras look like they go pretty large in chest size, but I have no idea how that translates to some of what you talk about, the band size to boob size and all that. I've only ever worn sports bras and I just have been buying the same brand and size since I was in high school. I might be a B cup? I can pass as a dude if I hold my shoulders just so, even in t shirts despite the fact that my chest has gotten larger in the past three or four years.

Ooohh a Slaughter Dress with matching apron sounds like it would be very cool. All black or patterns?

[dragonlady7]

Oh yeah, chafing is a huge issue too. IDK why most people don't seem to have that issue, because it's like, the bane of my life.

I just have stupid proportions. It'd be fine if my ribcage and shoulders were normal, but they're not, I have the upper body of a very small person except right in front where it's actually more or less proportional to the rest of me. Which is not how most of my family is shaped-- my mother has great broad shoulders and a deep chest, and I have this stupid tiny ribcage. It's maddening. I have literally an 11-inch difference between my ribs and my bust, and a D-cup is 5 inches by most measurements, so like.
Anything that's not custom made isn't gonna really fit, and you'd be surprised what works anyway (I am surprised, anyway), but mostly things don't work. Sigh.

I figure for slaughter I need a patterned dress, possibly even patchwork; a major component of what happens to my slaughter clothes is that I get bleach on them, and a pattern will handle that more gracefully than black will. The other thing that seems to keep happening is that I snag my clothes on nails, so having it be already patchwork would make it easier to repair, lol. And then if I had like, a really nice waxed-canvas or oilcloth apron, so it's water-resistant but washable-- I'd have to research materials. i could do vinyl too...
(I probably won't make the apron, we do have those stylish yellow ones that I periodically re-tailor with duct tape. The big excitement this year is that we might splash out and replace some of the ones that are notably duct-tape-full.)

The main requirement of the slaughter dress would be that it's breatheable for hot weather, has a few strategic pockets to hold shit like my watch and phone, and holds up really well to a hot water wash with harsh detergent. But I'd like it to be adorable too. Or at least humorously ugly.

Currently I wear my grossest jeans, repeatedly-mended, and a rotation of hideously misshapen and stained t-shirts. Which is the accepted uniform, so.

[graydon]

In the before times, every six months or so rec.arts.sf.composition would have another instance of the Recurring Bra Rant. That tended to result in recommending Polish lingerie companies for those with your proportions, and many more of them are online now.

You may well know this, but if you don't it seemed worth mentioning.

[dragonlady7]

I do, thank you; I'm old and in the Before Times I prowled forums and comms and scoured the Internet myself and spent hundreds of dollars importing lingerie, and even went to the UK and visited bra shops there. i know my size, and know how to find $75-100 apiece bras that give me an exquisite shape and punish me brutally for slouching. I know too how to find $75 sports bras that transform my chest into an immobile surface. These are both great things to own but most days I just want to be lightly supported so I can live my goddamn life without constantly being punished for my shape.
(and yes of course a perfect fitting bra shouldn't hurt but no bra fits perfectly for more than one wearing and I don't have that kind of budget.)

[graydon]

So that wasn't helpful of me at all.

I'm sorry.

[dragonlady7]

Ah, but it was a helpful impulse, and society as a whole benefits from those. I'm just not in a position to benefit much from it, so thank you; I'll try to pay the helpfulness forward another way. :)

[graydon]

That is most gracious of you!

Thank you.

[graydon]

If one's a reasonably constant size in adulthood, the thing with clothing starts being "how many years per dollar?" Provided one has the dollars, it can make a lot of sense to plunk down money for quality.

So you're not being frivolous or profligate! It does actually make sense to buy things which are well-made and will last.

(Also, sanity is priceless.)

[unicornduke]

I've been the same size for about ten years now, still can't shop for clothes well. It's hard to spend the money especially because I tend to destroy clothes that are "well-made". I ruined probably ten pairs of carhartt pants in four years at my previous job because they weren't actually very good quality and I ended up putting giant holes in the thighs on every single pair.

I am trying to invest in nicer stuff that will last, it's just hard to figure out what will actually last. Boots are a forever problem for me. I've got two pairs right now that are wearing out and I don't want to buy another pair but I need them. ugh.

[graydon]

Carhartt isn't so much variable as bimodal; there's some good stuff, and some cheap crap, and you apparently just have to know.

Boots, oh dear gods. I have large narrow feet; boots are a problem. I've had good luck with Danner, who are gasp-choke expensive but who will tell you the last they made the boot against so once you find one that fits you can find the other ones with good odds. They started off making logging boots in the Pacific Northwest and do make some women's work boots if that'll help with fit.

[unicornduke]

Yeah, they're jackets and stuff are amazing, but those pants were garbage. I don't get it.

Some of Danner's stuff doesn't look toooo expensive, a little more than what I normally pay but I generally pay $100 to 140 per pair of boots and then destroy them in a year or two so maybe they'll last a little longer. I just got a pair of muck boots from my parents as a gift and we'll see how long they last. I think the muck boots will help with the reason I destroy all boots: getting wet and then drying out.

[graydon]

My oldest pair of Muck Boots are 10 this year. They don't get regular use; they're a pair of Wetland boots used for birding in certain places and seasons.

The thing with boots in that style -- the structure of the boot is closed-cell foam -- is that if you wear them every working day, you need two pair so you can switch so they actually dry out. (And possibly a boot dryer.) But in general Muck makes a robust product with good traction and I've never had a problem with the waterproofness. (I do need to drop a heel cup in them so my heels don't gnaw through the lining, to the distress of all concerned.)

There are apparently trades where pants are basically disposable; Carhartt sells to those by making the cheapest possible pants because you're going through thirty pair a year. I've found the heavier stuff, the original denim dungarees and the 10oz fabric work pants, to be robust, and the 6oz fabric cargo pants I got -- out of the eleven kinds, this is not actually helpful -- were pretty good. But it does seem to be something of a crapshoot, especially if one is not basically skinny.


The Danner thing that actually fits me is the Acadia; a 500 USD police boot, but really comfortable and I can walk all day and this is not generally otherwise available. It's slanted my view of their prices.

[oracne]

I have heard that brand is awesome.

[unicornduke]

That's what I've heard too! I'm excited to try them out.