Debating Big Clothes-Buying Binge on Holiday, Want Tips

[NotQuiteCockney]

I'm about to go to Canada, and thinking about buying loads of clothes while there. I hate most of my current wardrobe, and also, I doesn't fit.

I'm a 14 or 16. Very pear-shaped, but reasonably fit. I bicycle or walk everywhere, so probably can't wear skirts (can't be bothered with them anyway).

My default atm is capris or similar, or thin slightly loose trousers, with a fitted tshirt. Everything must be machine-washable, and not need ironing.

What sort of thing should I be looking for? Are blouse type things worth the hassle? Are there skirts that work with cycling etc?

mate, I have no clue

I had typed my standard spiel about wide necklines to balance hips and looking in What Not To Wear and How To Look Good Naked then realised it was you, who a) suits racerback vests and b) has a buzz cut, and I realised I was way out of my depth.

[drums fingers]
Shoes are always a good buy. And jewellery.

I can post the spiel if you want...

Oh, I have big shoulders, so hips are reasonably balanced. (How did you remember I suited racerbacks? I keep forgetting that.)

Hair is velvet-short today, very bad mood this week (bed bugs, travel, the usual drill) and cheered myself up by shaving head and then going out for drinks in drag.

Spiel is good.

Shoes no use, I am a 9, so mostly wear men's shoes. I might get jewellery a bit.

I like a few Canadian brands, and a 14/16 is closer to average there then here, so buying clothes is easier. I think. Also, there's less risk of wearing the same thing as everyone else, if I buy it there, and wear it here!

hehe - remembered the racerbacks because you went off to Primark on Mare St to buy some and gave me a moment of Hackney Nostalgia (used to live by Clapton Pond).

spiel runs thus:

Have you flicked through What Not To Wear (though the book is better - most libraries have it) and How to Look Good Naked for pear-balancing ideas?
Going with shapes rather than actual items in mind can be helpful, and as a decided pear myself have found tops with wide necklines thus or thus are an absolute godsend for making shoulders look wider and hence arse smaller.
A-line knee-length skirts v fetching for cycling though perhaps not entirely practical on breezy days.
Wouldn't bother getting blouses particularly but similarly wouldn't go out of my way to avoid them iyswim.

Get some jeans that fit properly (ones with lycra are v cyclable) as they will always look good. IIRC you wear a lot of trainers, which is fine, but make sure a) they're really really cool and b) that you do have non-trainer shoes too.

You went from Hackney to Didcot? Did you lose some sort of bet?

(Sorry, have unfond memories of Didcot. DH worked near there, we lived there for a few long months.)

General tips good. Maybe I'll look for some comfy non-trainer shoes there, too.

am so not in Didcot! (though obviously no offence to everyone who is)
no, am about equidistant between Didcot & Oxford in pleasant town with a Waitrose, a Costa, a new Fat Face and an art gallery - not quite as edgy as Clapton but we have a garden, my commute to work is down to 20min and no-one has yet pulled a knife on my bus driver or stolen my phone.
On the other hand there is one (1) good curry house and nowhere to buy milk, let alone exotic veg and paper napkins, after 10pm. Pros and cons, pros and cons...

Oh, we moved somewhere between Didcot and Oxford, after Didcot. Closer to Oxford I think. Started with an A.

Sorry I said you lived in Didcot, you were knowledgeable about it on another thread, and I thought living there was the only possible excuse for that ;-).