In hindsight, technology has a stronger influence on my clothing purchases than it does on probably any other purchasing decision. Every one of my buying sprees has come about as a result of weeks of advertising thrown in my face – and the first dress I picked up was no different.
After purchasing my rainbows, I started looking around for other cheap costumery I could mix in. I wanted more rainbows: Rainbows everywhere! I also wanted to expand beyond that. Sure, I could play dress up with costume clothes, but as I explored that more, I thought… hey, this looks good. Maybe I could keep going with this.
Internet advertising noticed.
Now, I’ll admit that I was also helping my daughter navigate buying a prom dress at the time. (She looked great, by the way.) As a result, I was browsing women’s clothing stores – both online and in person – in order to help give her a magical night. But with the combination of my rainbow buying power, and shopping for dresses anyway, I quickly became a target for low-budget women’s fashion advertising everywhere I went.
The one that ended up attracting my attention Shein. Shein is a Chinese manufacturer/distributor which offers extremely cheap clothes. As someone looking to experiment rather than buy something that was meant to last long term, I thought this was a good match: I was initially skeptical that things could be sold at the prices that were listed, but internet research showed that these sites did actually deliver what they promised.
Another aspect that comes up surprisingly often from these Chinese fashion manufacturers: the sizes are unusual. As someone who isn’t used to women’s clothing sizes anyway, this wasn’t a big deal for me: I had to go from measurements rather than expecting that “XL” meant something specific to me. Understanding the size of my bust, waist and hips isn’t something I’ve ever really done before, because I just try things on! So if you’re going to buy from these sites: Forget about reading the size labels: look at the sizing chart, every time.
In the end, I bought 4 items from Shein, keeping my budget to a maximum of $10 per item. I bought just based on browsing for a while, picking out a couple things I thought would work (and then bumping up my order a bit to pick up free shipping). Overall, the item I was most happy with was a fit and flare dress. The other items I bought were largely meant to accessorize: a long sleeve bodysuit and a mesh top that I could mix and match in, as well as a capri length jumpsuit which didn’t end up fitting at all.
I loved the dress. As a slim guy with no bust to speak of, the high neckline is a great fit for me. I enjoyed the tight fit – most of the clothes I’ve worn for most of my life are things like loose-fitting t-shirts and hoodies, so more tightly fitted clothing is a different experience, and I felt like it looked good on me!
One thing I did notice as a change that I wasn’t prepared for: women’s clothing is often short. I know I’m taller than the average woman – at 5’9”, I’ve got 5” on the average height for a woman – but even in pictures from other women, these clothes do not generally hang low. As someone with extremely hairy legs, this is something which doesn’t really work for me – especially when going for a traditional femme look! Playful, cute dresses that only come down to mid-thigh? That’s not gonna work for me!
Thankfully, the magic of high angles helped me avoid that problem. Turns out that you don’t need to worry about your hairy legs if nobody can see them!
But as I tried to take a good looking picture, I realized that there were still so many things that were missing from a more traditional femme look. Not just in clothing, and not just in my hairy legs, but everywhere: My face was scruffy! My hair was all wrong – and high angles may hide the hair on my legs, but they certainly don’t hide my bald spot!
I still had a long way to go to get to the look I wanted, but I had my first dress.
