I used to love the Gap, PT, but I think the quality has actually gone down - like everyplace else. Outstanding rant on 80s workforce clothing! Amen! Back to The Gap. When I was skinny I used to shop their sale racks and get great things in size 6s and 4s. I found a black linen dress for around $10, and when I got to the register it was further reduced to $4 because it was the last one. That was a well constructed, well designed, quality dress. I used to find nice sweaters and shirts, all kinds of things, on the sale rack. Found some $6 cargo pants for DH that he still wears today. I still keep an old pair of cotton Gap khakis (size 10 or 12, NOT 4/6!) that are so beautifully worn and beaten in and great looking that I refuse to let them go. I aspire to get into those again this year. It's definitely feasible, as I'm dropping weight on my SWAMI pretty easily it seems (now that the holidays are over). But I do not harbor any hopes that I will buy the same quality of pants at the Gap again.
Why, thank you, I do try! Actually, I didn't have to try that hard because it is easy to get a good rant going on a subject that one feels is particularly rant-worthy. 80's workforce clothing really is like the firing of a pistol to this ranting racehorse!
Back to The Gap. When I was skinny I used to shop their sale racks and get great things in size 6s and 4s. I found a black linen dress for around $10, and when I got to the register it was further reduced to $4 because it was the last one. That was a well constructed, well designed, quality dress. I used to find nice sweaters and shirts, all kinds of things, on the sale rack. Found some $6 cargo pants for DH that he still wears today. I still keep an old pair of cotton Gap khakis (size 10 or 12, NOT 4/6!) that are so beautifully worn and beaten in and great looking that I refuse to let them go. I aspire to get into those again this year. It's definitely feasible, as I'm dropping weight on my SWAMI pretty easily it seems (now that the holidays are over). But I do not harbor any hopes that I will buy the same quality of pants at the Gap again.
It is interesting on Wikipedia that it says they have lost some of their customer base by veering from their original clothing and price points (I THOUGHT the prices seemed sky high when I went in there for the first time in, like, DECADES, once I was skinny enough to prance on in, but then I concluded, apparently erroneously, that, no, PT, its just that many eons have gone by and prices have skyrocketed and maybe The Gap was always pricey and you just didn't notice it as much back when mommy and daddy were paying the bills! But NO: it HAS gone up, price-wise, even adjusting for nuevo prices circa 2010 (I know, I know, we are now in 2011, but it was 2010 when I went in there). I mean, the jeans were, like $90.00 or something. What aaaaauuuuup? They are great quality but, wow. And then they had a lot of weird clothes in there, too, that weren't anything like what they used to have, but again, I attributed that to, okay, PT, it isn't that they've changed, it is that YOU are OLD and don't get the fashion of this brave, new era. They still did have a lot of great, high-quality jeans, though. And I'm fixing ta/toying with going back to treat myself to a pair or two...just in time for 95-degree weather set in again for 6 or 7 months, so that I can't wear jeans...but right now it is really good jeans weather around here, which is probably why I'm waxing so Gap.
But, I mean, they (same company/family) owns Old Navy? Talk about your cognitive dissonance! I can't reconcile this! Old Navy is like the single most annoying brand/ad campaign EVER!!!! It irks me on so many levels!!!!!!!
Back to the 80's for a second, and then I have to go, as I am now in the 2011 workforce and must do some work: my whole career/life might have been different had I not had to constrict myself into those horrible outfits at that time. I CANNOT function in panyhose, pointy-toed high heels and polyester suits with giant shoulder pads. It's that simple. Yet it was wear that or be banished from DC back to the green mountains of Vermont from whence I emerged in my batik shirt, army pants and "China slippers" (remember those?!!!). Gotta go!
"If you are on one of Dr. D's diets and it isn't joyful, you aren't doing it right." - moi -
Location: Fukushima Fall-Out Zone (a.k.a., planet earth)
P.S. I'm back in my old cargo Gap pants like you describe, after saving them for years and years as hope waned for ever fitting into them again. I fit into all my old Gap stuff!!! I still have one pair of pants, though, from the 80's, that I don't fit in yet (I'm in size 12 now, and they are size 10). The brand is called "Prime Cut". I WANT to fit into those pants again!!!! If I ever do, I'll feel that I myself will have reached "prime cut" status .
...That said, size 12 ain't bad! I'll take it!
"If you are on one of Dr. D's diets and it isn't joyful, you aren't doing it right." - moi -
Rh- Expluntherer... It means I'm an O...;-) Ee Dan
Posts: 5,111
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Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Age: 51
I can wear most things but have to cut off the tags... Some stuff I hadn't cut the tags off & was wearing just a year ago I now find I have to do the same to, so I am getting even more sensitive!!
I like clothes that let me move & have to have silky knickers if I am wearing fitted clothing, as I hate the way cotton panties "stick" to the outergarments... & I'd rather wear none, than knickers that ride up
I like linen or bamboo & prefer organic cotton or soft aged cotton clothing...
PT, you are always prime cut, whatever the size on the tag says. I don't shop at Old Navy. I haven't been in a Gap in ages. I'll try their jeans again, though, PT, if you say they're good. I do actually need some new jeans (yay!). I sure miss the Levis of old.
Possum, I've noticed there is no such thing as unformity in sizes anymore - even within one brand. You have to try everything on now, and don't flip out if it's two sizes over your "usual" size. It really doesn't mean a thing anymore. If the clothes that were loose on you are fitting a little too snugly, THEN I'd be concerned. But the sizes just don't seem to mean anything anymore.
I love wearing comfy, baggy clothes, but I don't like how I look in them. I'm not into foundation garments here, either, or tights or pantyhose, but I do like how they disappear under clothing and make everything smooth. As soon as I get home, all of that comes off - I hate feeling like a stuffed sausage - and on goes my comfy cottons. No commando or thongs for me, I like big old cotton grannie panties, lol! But only at home. And I won't let DH see me in them!
NOT ME!!! I have trouble even going from winter clothes to summer clothes at first. Because the slightest little breeze moves my arm hairs and then I have to scratch.
One thing I have recently come to love is long-sleeved undershirts. I don't think they're completely cotton--maybe some Spandex?--but it actually doesn't bother me. I like it because it's tight enough to make my skin feel secure (I think only a nonnie would understand what I mean by that). Then I wear something over it of course. But this "layering look" that's popular now has been good for me. I'll miss it when it warms up.
ISTJ, BTD since 5/05. Battling chronic Lyme disease since ~1985.
"Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial..." I Corinthians 6:12
Rh- Expluntherer... It means I'm an O...;-) Ee Dan
Posts: 5,111
Gender: Female
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Age: 51
OinV - Cheers, sorry...What I meant by "I like clothes that let me move..." is the fabric... Like I was alluding to re knickers - cotton on cotton for instance, seems to stick & you "feel" the clothes you are wearing... I like to not be aware of my clothing (apart from making sure I am wearing some ) If I am "aware" of them I feel like not having them on!!!
Swami: Hunter (66%) / RH- / ENFJ / Libra-Dragon Ee Dan
Posts: 720
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Location: Colchester, UK
Age: 36
Cotton all the way for me - can't stand the feel of synthetics on my skin
I love the feel of mohair and some lamb wool jumpers (sweaters), but can't have them directly on my skin - 'tis like a little army of ants are patrolling up and down my body ew.......
Oh, and the label defo has to come off as soon as it's through the door of my house - can't stand them scratching on my skin......
I'm a nonnie, I can't help it
Listen to all, plucking a feather from every passing goose, but follow no one absolutely. CHINESE PROVERB
I love bamboo, even more than cotton. Got bamboo socks love them. Can't find them this year. Thinking of knitting my own for next year. Don't think of myself as a nonnie,but this might be the one thing that might make me one. 70's and 80's poly t-necks. OMG they would turn me beet red. But I love cotton ones. (even with a little syn) in them. I do like outer cothing of wool, but can't wear next to my skin. Everlast bamboo socks where are you ?
NOT ME!!! I have trouble even going from winter clothes to summer clothes at first. Because the slightest little breeze moves my arm hairs and then I have to scratch.
One thing I have recently come to love is long-sleeved undershirts. I don't think they're completely cotton--maybe some Spandex?--but it actually doesn't bother me. I like it because it's tight enough to make my skin feel secure (I think only a nonnie would understand what I mean by that). Then I wear something over it of course. But this "layering look" that's popular now has been good for me. I'll miss it when it warms up.
"I like it because it's tight enough to make my skin feel secure (I think only a nonnie would understand what I mean by that)."
Ribbit, I need clothes tight enough to "feel Secure" too! I know what you mean...
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Back to The Gap. When I was skinny I used to shop their sale racks and get great things in size 6s and 4s. I found a black linen dress for around $10, and when I got to the register it was further reduced to $4 because it was the last one. That was a well constructed, well designed, quality dress. I used to find nice sweaters and shirts, all kinds of things, on the sale rack. Found some $6 cargo pants for DH that he still wears today. I still keep an old pair of cotton Gap khakis (size 10 or 12, NOT 4/6!) that are so beautifully worn and beaten in and great looking that I refuse to let them go. I aspire to get into those again this year. It's definitely feasible, as I'm dropping weight on my SWAMI pretty easily it seems (now that the holidays are over). But I do not harbor any hopes that I will buy the same quality of pants at the Gap again. 
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They are great quality but, wow. And then they had a lot of weird clothes in there, too, that weren't anything like what they used to have, but again, I attributed that to, okay, PT, it isn't that they've changed, it is that YOU are OLD and don't get the fashion of this brave, new era. They still did have a lot of great, high-quality jeans, though. And I'm fixing ta/toying with going back to treat myself to a pair or two...just in time for 95-degree weather set in again for 6 or 7 months, so that I can't wear jeans...but right now it is really good jeans weather around here, which is probably why I'm waxing so Gap.
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Some stuff I hadn't cut the tags off & was wearing just a year ago I now find I have to do the same to, so I am getting even more sensitive!!
I don't shop at Old Navy. I haven't been in a Gap in ages. I'll try their jeans again, though, PT, if you say they're good. I do actually need some new jeans (yay!). I sure miss the Levis of old. 
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