Blue jeans, bras and bathing suits

Blue jeans, bras, and bathing suits. What do they have in common? Most women dread shopping for any of the three. Even those with advanced degrees in shopping avoid this loathsome trio.

A girl has to do what a girl has to do. The time had come. My best jeans had now been relegated to the old-jeans pile. I needed a new pair of fresh jeans. Nowadays, jeans can look stylish, or they can be ripped, cut, and raggedy — which, for some, is stylish. Biting the bullet, I set out to buy a new pair of blue jeans and survived, but it wasn't easy. The day of reckoning arrived. Entering the store, I took a deep breath and announced to the salesperson who approached, “New jeans.”

She asked questions. High-rise, low-rise, boot-cut, straight-leg, wide-leg? Stonewashed or regular? Too many choices. I just wanted a nice, comfortable, fresh pair of jeans. Jeans are my go-to clothing choice most of the time — dark in the winter and white in the summer.

Soon my arms were full of options, and I was led to a dressing room.

Dressing rooms are the worst kind of reality therapy. It's just you, your body, and a lot of mirrors. The lighting reveals every bump, bulge, and wrinkle. There I was — me and three pairs of blue jeans. I pulled on the first pair. Too tight. Strike one. The second pair required a lot of pulling and tugging, and the waistband sat a lot lower than my waist. Strike two. Now for the third pair. First leg, second leg. Thank heavens! The waist was just right, the backside felt comfortable, and the mirror looked encouraging — until I got to my feet. The bottoms were "puddling," as interior decorators say of curtains that are intentionally too long. Strike three.

Sticking my head out the door of my little changing room, I asked for a second round. My super-efficient sales associate listened to my descriptions of the failed attempts and disappeared. She was soon back, reassuring me there was hope and telling me not to give up. She was right. Bingo! The very first pair fit from top to bottom.

Checking out at the register, I thanked everyone who had patiently helped me through my jean crisis. I had one of those "Maybe I should buy two" moments as recalling past triumphant purchases of bras, bathing suits, and blue jeans. There seems to be a Murphy's Law of shopping that guarantees that when you finally find a piece of clothing you absolutely love — and that actually fits perfectly — and return later to buy another, they don't make it any more, or they've changed the style, the fabric, or even the name. I resisted.

Jeans aren’t alone in the Hall of Fame of challenging shopping experiences. Memories of trying on bathing suits are not happy ones. Bra shopping is perhaps the worst, involving measurements and letters of the alphabet. Remembering those bad memories, my jeans purchase wasn’t so bad after all.

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