The Perils of Being Short-Waisted

I actually started this post over a year ago, but thought it was too self-indulgent. But spring-clothes shopping has brought it all back to me. So here goes.

January 26, 2016

Being short-waisted is quite the challenge. Chairs are never high enough, it’s hard to see over the steering wheel, and the arms on office chairs make it tough on your shoulders, because your arms are at an awkward angle as you work. Every time I eat at a restaurant, I feel like asking for a booster seat.

And the clothing issues! You can find a shirt that fits perfectly in a regular size, except for being too long. If you go to that same size in petite, the shirt is not only shorter, but tighter. It’s like clothing manufacturers think a Size 8 Petite means Size 8-Minus. So you end up buying the shirt in a larger size anyway, and it still swims on you—it’s just shorter.

And forget buying dresses. If the dress is sleeveless you could pull up the dress at the shoulders; but since that never really works, you always have to wear a jacket to hide the alteration. And if the dress has sleeves—forget it.

Maybe I’ll start a new trend: The pinking-shears look. Since I’m not handy at alterations, I’ll just whack off the bottoms of the shirts with pinking shears and hope that it’s true that the fabric won’t ravel.

And even if it does, what the heck. I’ll just say that it’s supposed to look that way.