EDI: We Need To Talk About Retail Fashion

 

What's wrong with this picture? At first glance it looks fine but a peek underneath shows a vast disparity between the idea of a suit for women and for men.

This particular rant is about retail and e-tail: when a man wants to buy a suit the whole lot is available as a package. 

I realise that women have a wider choice of options because we can wear skirts and dresses as well as trousers, but shouldn't "suit" mean a package where there's a matching skirt or dress to go with the jacket?

Retailers and e-tailers lie to us by pretending they have women's suits for sale in their shops and websites. They don't. They have the components for suits that you then have to make your best guess at online or in the shops. They don't come as a package. So while the blogosphere is alight with writers waxing lyrical about the wondrous suits available to us, the truth is very different when you actually try to buy them.

Basically, if you're a size 16 or over your best bet is Marks and Spencer, and you have to physically go there. Why? Most of the clothes we have in this country are cheap crap from China or some parts of Asia. Look, people, my body shape is "Beymax with boobs." Asian proportions are different. So the clothes they make don't sit right on us.

What if you get all patriotic and decide to buy British? It's too damn expensive. Sparks it is, then.