the fallacy of buying a size too small just because it's on sale

[wasabi_poptart]

Trick Concepts sells a lovely color-changing LED hoop for only $99. I usually order my hoops from Superhooper and I'm all about brand loyalty, but the $95 LED hoops sold there only come in one color, have fewer lights, and are not color-changing. And, when it comes to lights, more is good and blinky is better.

Here's the rub, though: the Trick Concepts hoop only comes in one size: 38". Now, I usually use a 42", and I maybe could go down to a 40" if it's weighted just right and I'm wearing very comfortable clothes, but 38" is right out. Perhaps eventually, after much work and practice, I will be able to effectively use a 38" inch hoop, but it won't be tomorrow, or the day after that.

I could order a lovely color-changing LED hoop from Trick Concepts in a more realistic size, but that will cost me $175. Which, BTW, is the same price as an eight-color Supermorph from Superhooper, which I can order in any size I want and I know will be perfect right out of the bubble-wrap.

And I can't help but think of times I've seen dresses on sale that are a size or two too small, like when Oh! Said Rose used to have its Sue Wong size 8 sample sales, and I have thought "well I can just lose the weight to fit the dress" and I buy the dress and of course it never fits and I never wear it and hangs in the closet for years, taunting me and my fat and my failure, until I harvest it for fabric or cart it off to Goodwill with the tags still attached. Sometimes I give it to a friend who puts it on and it fits her perfectly and sometimes, if it's a very dear friend, I don't seethe with resentment that it does. But still. There's a pun to be made here about "waist" and "waste" but hopefully I've made my point without trying to find it.

So, yeah, if you can rock a 38" hoop, if you can wear a size 8 dress, more power to ya ... the world is your oyster and lucky you, it's all on sale. The rest of us, well, maybe we have to pay extra for something that fits, but saving $76 on something that's too small isn't worth the hit our self-esteem takes over realizing we've squandered $99 on a delusion.

Comments

[carriesnarf.livejournal.com]

I feel ya girl.

I try (and often fail) to look at it this way: the saved money and dream of the dress/hoop/jeans/etc fitting is not worth the cash I would pay each and every time I see the item and feel awful because it doesn't fit.

[waywardgaze.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I might have been a size 8 when I was ten. I do remember being in adult 12s at twelve, anyway, when I hit my adult height.

Suffice it to say most fashion, particularly in the big sales, has always been a world away from me anyway.

[messy-hair-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm seconding. I'm so happy when I find something that fits and doesn't look like grandma clothes that I'm more than pleased to pay full price.