Friday, March 31, 2006

Ordering In

The Kuwait days are getting a little longer, the sun a bit more glaring, and I can't seem to keep the sand out of my shoes. Yesterday I walked around with a grain of sand under my toenail for about 40 minutes.

We don’t have Daylight Savings Time here in the Gulf, but the grayness of "winter," along with the occasional slightly damp day, is far behind us. Long sleeves are no longer necessary to keep the chill out, and have become a polite inconvenience that I don to take the bus or walk around Bneid Al-Gar. Soon they'll just be an annoyance as the days heat up.

My office's Lebanese editor and Bosnian marketer wear whatever they want, and don't worry about the length of their sleeves. But then, they don't take the bus. They have their own cars. Neither wears skirts that rise above their ankles, though. There are limits.

The editor and marketer recently decided to go halves on a mail forwarding account, and to order some clothes from the US.

"What's some good clothing sites, Marie?"

I'm no expert on this. I buy a lot of stuff off the internet, but my (lack of) financial status means I don't buy a lot of clothes. Period. Anyway, I like try things on before buying.

"Try Macys.com. And I hear bluefly.com had some stuff."

They nodded. The marketer intently studied VictoriasSecret.com.

I'm not sure if they managed to get around the requirement that many US-online sites have to have the billing address be confirmed, or if anyone cares that the billing addresses are in Kuwait. But if they did, there's one thing I'm a little worried about.

"Marie, what's is size 36 in American sizes?"

I'd found them an online size converter. But later I'd remembered that clothing sizes vary drastically from manufacturer to manufacturer in the US. I wear anywhere from a size 8 to a size 12 at home—and sometimes go as small as XS in shirts, though I'm an L in Spain—and I'm convinced that sizes have gotten larger to accommodate an expanding America, which would explain why I'm suddenly an 8.

I'm kind of glad I'll be gone by the time the American clothes arrive. It could be heart-breaking to watch them unpack all their new clothes.

1 comment:

Linda said...

You're right, American manufacturers are making clothing larger now. But there's still no consistency from one brand to another unless they are old-line catalog companies.