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5 Tips to Successful Online Fashion Shopping
There are ways to predict how well something will fit before you even try it on
Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash
If shopping for clothes in stores is frustrating, you might worry that online shopping, when you can’t try anything on, could be a nightmare. Yet the success of fashion-peddling websites such as Net-A-Porter or Amazon shows that it can be done seamlessly. Here, Elie Sullivan and Charles Warren, the founders of 2662 New York, a collection of sure-fit luxe separates sold online, give you five tips to successful online fashion shopping.
1. Know (by measuring) your body
Have someone take your measurements (bust, waist, hips, arm length, height, inseam, etc.); write these numbers down for safekeeping. Now, shape: Are you curvy? Do you have a round or flat butt? Knowing these details helps you assess how styles will fit your body.
2. Understand what you are looking at and if it will work for you
Some websites give information about the models shown in the pictures — such as their height. If you’re 5’2” and an item you love is modeled by a woman who is 5’10”, do a reality check. If that item comes in Petite, that might be a better option for you.
Customer reviews, especially if they include the customer’s height, body shape or age, are great for guiding your purchase.
3. Familiarize yourself with the details
Examine style notes, fabric composition, and size and measurement charts. Knits, or woven fabrics with a touch of Lycra, are more forgiving than 100% cotton poplin.
Learn what the store or brand’s letter or numeric sizing corresponds to in terms of body measurements. Not all size charts are identical.
4. Purchase the item you want in two sizes
See which one fits best and return the other one. If you love one piece and it comes in different colors or fabrics, buy more.
5. Don’t be afraid of alterations
Thirty dollars to shorten the hem on a fabulous $750 dress is worth it. Your dry cleaner might have a seamstress or tailor; your best friend might know someone, too.
Elie Sullivan and Charles Warren refuse to consider a size-10 woman as “plus-sized.” To read more about their new fashion line, which is designed to fit for real women’s bodies, check out our profile piece, “Reinventing the Way Clothes Fit” in the June 2018 issue of TheCovey.
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Andrée L.
What I find most frustrating is that two items in the same size from a given retailer often don’t fit the same. Because they were made by different manufacturers for that retailer.
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