Inspiration for this blog post : My daddy dearest!
To be precise, his outright refusal to accompany me and mom when we decided to shop clothes for me.
Read on why
Before we go into my case, a little prelude about women & their wardrobe shopping behaviour. (I can’t claim to know much though I am girl. Most of it based on observation. Reason: You’ll understand why when you finish reading)
TYPE 1 : The Real Random Picker.
She wakes up in the morning and pulls out whatever comes to her hand first. Though she ensures the ensemble is coordinated enough, most of the time she is real groggy when she picks her clothes for the day.
Her shopping habits: She is most likely to be an impulsive and an obsessive shopper. She virtually picks which ever clothes she likes when she sees. She has a very dim idea of what her wardrobe actually contains. When she realizes her wardrobe is overflowing, she would clean up, discard and create the same mess all over again.
TYPE 2 : The Organized Random picker.
She wakes up in the morning, stares at her wardrobe for good ten minutes and picks her clothes. An on the spur decision as to what to wear for the day. That’s her style
Her Shopping habits: She doesn’t plan her shopping exactly. It’s more of on the minute desire to go shop. Yet she knows what she has and picks clothes which appeals to her at that point of time. But she ensures her wardrobe is unique enough with no repeats.
TYPE 3 : The partly organized picker.
She decides what clothes to wear at least a day before hand. Yet there is no guarantee that she might change her decision and pick something else. Her moods reflect on her “what to wear” decisions.
Her shopping habits : She knows what to buy and when to buy,but at times a little impulse pops out making her step out of her normal pattern. Nevertheless she has her wardrobe under control.
TYPE 4 : The Perfectly Organized picker.
She decides what to wear a least 2 days beforehand. She has a schedule of “What to wear” based on her daily agenda, she has contingency clothes set apart. She has her clothes sorted based on occasions and how old they are. She re-arranges her schedule every month. She knows what she needs.
Her Shopping habit: She is a meticulous shopper. She shops to the need ( The more of “Just in time Inventory” kind of shopper). She is virtually devoid of any urges to buy that one piece of top/skirt/tee which is so tempting.
So now we have covered the basics on women shopping “Pattern” ( The topic of “What to Buy” is worth more than one separate blog post! I am not getting into that right now). But how many women are there in each category?
Type 4 is a real rarity. Type 4 kind of women are the either high stung executive or geeks.
Type 3 is rare, but isn’t unheard of. I’d say about give or take 5% women belong to this category.
Type 2 is the most common type. Say about 70%
Type 1 is not a rarity, yet not common (You get the drift!)
But a note of fair warning here, we ladies tend to shift categories over a period of time.
Now coming to why dad refused outright.
I am a hybrid between type 2 and type 3 ( Most of my friends tend to be a cross between Type 2 and Type 1! But I can’t afford to be type 1 due to obvious reasons (Read: MOM))
In chennai, there are many shopping spots where we get clothes right from dead cheap to insanely expensive.
I prefer to shop at TNagar, Pondy Bazaar and Pantheon road.
I normally shop with a particular colour or pattern in mind but I am not too rigid about it. The inspiration for that one colour or pattern is obviously a result of a tinge of jealousy from another woman’s clothes. I tend to visit at least 3 shops before I pick one dress. But hey come on! Choosing from so many colours, patterns, materials isn’t easy.
We women have almost infinite options. What do men have? Trousers (Max Shades of Black,Blue,Brown ,Cream,White), Shorts,Cargos, Shirts (Just the usual Stripes/plain/checks), T-shirts, Kurtas, Coats, Jackets? That’s almost the entire list.
Women have all the above said PLUS a whole range of skirts, tops, blouses, Various types of salwars in What-Not Colours and a long list of other stuff. And we have to shop for matching accessories, Bags! Phew! So it’s a whole colourful world with lots of options to pick from. Not an easy task.
Consider this scenario – you have a 7 storey shopping complex. Three floors are dedicated to women. One floor has sarees and traditional wear, other has readymade dresses and the last one has cosmetics & accessories. The saree section has at least 10 subsections selling various varieties of silk in beautiful colours of all possible shades. The readymade section has a minimum of 15 sub sections selling different types of clothes (The list of clothes sold probably takes up an entire page) in different colours and textures. As far as cosmetics & accessories are concerned, I don’t even need to elaborate. Multiply this combination by 5 with no repetitions (That’s for 5 more stores in that very area). Now tell me, can we have it any easier?
All said, at the end of the day we girls want to look good in whatever we wear and we take put in some effort for that. Not a crime!
Now you decide! Is shopping for us an easy thing to do?!
PS: Dear Dads/brothers/boyfriends/husbands! Be a sport!
~ Janani
@ LiveWire 