ladyofastolat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladyofastolat) wrote2011-01-03 04:09 pm
ladyofastolat) wrote2011-01-03 04:09 pm
Entry tags:
The Quest for the Normal Person Trousers
I haven't bought Normal Person trousers for over ten years. In that time, I've only ever bought thin cotton trousers with bright and alarming patterns on them, sold from stalls at folk festivals. The main problem with such trousers are:
- Thin cotton is thin. This is nice in the summer, but not so great when walking through a blizzard, or strolling on a clifftop on a nice Orkney midsummer day, in driving rain, with a wind chill factor of minus 20.
- Trousers bought for £5 from stalls at folk festivals don't generally last for very long before the fabric gives way in places you really don't want the fabric to give way.
- There currently appears to be a national shortage of thin cotton trousers with bright and alarming patterns on them. I've searched the stalls at every festival I've been to in the last few years, and not found a single pair that matches my requirements.
As a result of the last two of these problems, I currently have only one pair of cotton trousers, and, given the cold and point 1, have been mostly living in Pellinor's LARPing trousers. (These are far less interesting than they sound. Chainmail is not involved.) Therefore today, I ventured into town to buy some Normal Person Trousers of my very own.
This was, I think, my first ever visit to The Sales. Normally, I doubt I could think of anything I would less rather do than go shopping over the Christmas holidays, but it had to be done. Pellinor bought his LARP trousers from M&S - (What? You didn't know M&S had a LARP range? "This isn't just a sword of holy smiting; this is an M&S sword of holy smiting.") - so we tried there first. I tried on a few trousers... and they were completely silly. I tried three designs, and they had all been made for women with waists as big as their hips. There was literally 8 inches of extra fabric at the waist, and only a flimsy little fabric belt thing to (utterly fail to) hold them up.
I gave up on M&S and went to the sports shop, where about a hundred thousand items of clothing had been crammed into a room the size of a postage stamp. Half the pairs of trousers I found there had no pockets - No pockets! Why???? - but I ended up with a couple of pairs that looked acceptable, bought them, and beat a hasty retreat from the world of Normal Person Clothes Shopping. With any luck, I won't need to do that again for a few years.
- Thin cotton is thin. This is nice in the summer, but not so great when walking through a blizzard, or strolling on a clifftop on a nice Orkney midsummer day, in driving rain, with a wind chill factor of minus 20.
- Trousers bought for £5 from stalls at folk festivals don't generally last for very long before the fabric gives way in places you really don't want the fabric to give way.
- There currently appears to be a national shortage of thin cotton trousers with bright and alarming patterns on them. I've searched the stalls at every festival I've been to in the last few years, and not found a single pair that matches my requirements.
As a result of the last two of these problems, I currently have only one pair of cotton trousers, and, given the cold and point 1, have been mostly living in Pellinor's LARPing trousers. (These are far less interesting than they sound. Chainmail is not involved.) Therefore today, I ventured into town to buy some Normal Person Trousers of my very own.
This was, I think, my first ever visit to The Sales. Normally, I doubt I could think of anything I would less rather do than go shopping over the Christmas holidays, but it had to be done. Pellinor bought his LARP trousers from M&S - (What? You didn't know M&S had a LARP range? "This isn't just a sword of holy smiting; this is an M&S sword of holy smiting.") - so we tried there first. I tried on a few trousers... and they were completely silly. I tried three designs, and they had all been made for women with waists as big as their hips. There was literally 8 inches of extra fabric at the waist, and only a flimsy little fabric belt thing to (utterly fail to) hold them up.
I gave up on M&S and went to the sports shop, where about a hundred thousand items of clothing had been crammed into a room the size of a postage stamp. Half the pairs of trousers I found there had no pockets - No pockets! Why???? - but I ended up with a couple of pairs that looked acceptable, bought them, and beat a hasty retreat from the world of Normal Person Clothes Shopping. With any luck, I won't need to do that again for a few years.