Note From Strut: Fitting In

We’ve all had that department-store moment when the racks of choices narrow sharply to a few meager items that don’t seem to fit. It’s times like these when I get frustrated. I deal with that frustration by asking salesclerks questions with no good answers.

Like the philosophical: “Where are the bras for women with breasts?”

Or the surreal: “Are these cups for sorbet?”

It seems that most clothing doesn’t fit most people most of the time. And really, it’s often the features that make us unique that can be the most difficult to fit.

My husband, for example, is size 40 long. That’s the size that designers use to suit male models. It’s also a size that’s almost never stocked. Mr. Linda Lacina buys up or down but frequently not at all.

Shoes sometimes can be guilty-pleasure purchases, since fit is less of an issue. Or is it? A friend in high school was so petite, she shopped for shoes in special catalogs. Or in children’s sections.

Sizing weirdness – and frustration with it – is a relatively new phenomenon; 150 years ago, no one knew their size was out of the ordinary, since most clothes were tailor-made. Ready-made clothes simply weren’t affordable for most families. You owned less clothing, but it fit.

Since the Industrial Revolution, mass-market apparel has brought with it a new experience: learning that your body type had been assigned a place on a numerical scale. You had a size, a number, regardless of the width of your hips or the length of your calves. And slowly, we began to fixate on being a certain size, or keeping clothing we couldn’t wear, hoping we’d be that size again.

In all this, our actual bodies get lost. They’re covered, perhaps, but not showcased.Which is a shame, really, because we forget to appreciate what we have. To remember the scars, nicks and curves that make us different.

Strut always has supported women of any size, whatever that might be. In this month’s Body Issue we talk to a number of local experts about the body and how we can celebrate it.We learn about media literacy, confidence and body type, and taking care of our health.

How do you celebrate your shape? I’d love to get a dialogue going about this topic on my blog. Go to strutmag.com all month and find ways to get in on an all-month dialogue with some of the brightest women in metro Detroit: Strut readers.

All the best,

Linda Lacina
Managing Editor
talktous@strutmag.com

MY PICKS THIS MONTH

On my bookshelf:

Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both (Penguin Group, 2007). Journalist Laura Sessions Stepp immersed herself in the lives of high school and college girls to reveal some chilling developments regarding what teens as young as 13 consider sex.

On my iTunes:

The Cheapest Key by Kathleen Edwards (from Asking for Flowers, Zoe Records, 2007). Her tough guitar playing and plainspoken – sometimes snarky – lyrics present some heartbreaking topics and situations.