Monday, August 20, 2007

Pencil Skirts and Condescension

I hate shopping at American Apparel. Certainly, they stock excellent basics, and some of their non-basics are even mildly covetable. But walking through that store is torture, torture! I mean, God, I had no idea there were enough hipsters in the city of Richmond to fully staff even one of these shops, but I guess you'd be surprised. The place just exudes purposeful condescension, which is something very difficult for me to stomach, especially from a very hairy cashier who is smugly wearing shiny black short-shorts. I suppose he was being ironic, as hipsters are wont to do. I was not impressed. Also, when did everything turn shiny? Is that really necessary? Aside from the ubiquitous golden leggings which I will never mention again, there were bikinis and leotards and other things that I feel don't need to be shimmery. Oh, and on the checkout counter, there was a box of those dreadful eighties aerobics headbands (in metallics, natch) that are meant to be worn around the forehead of the type of girl who decided stringy bangs were a great idea and Kirsten Dunst is a real inspiration. Niether of which statements are true, by the way, but American Apparel begs to differ. Sigh. Well, at least I am satisfied with the jersey pencil skirt that I finally went out and bought in gray. It really is lovely. It's just, gracious, I hate actually entering the store. I think I may have to perform all future transactions on line. Those shop clerks just make me want to roll my eyes and say oy vey. And I am not even Jewish.
Maddy

p.s.- In case you need them, here are some visual aides.

Good:

Bad:


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15 comments:

indigomast said...

I know what you mean they really took the shiny, metallic trend and ran with it ....way to far.

Anonymous said...

Why does everyone hate hipsters so much? I'll admit most of the indie/scenester crowd is quite pretentious, but their fashion sense is forward and rule breaking. Its caught on , gone mainstream and they still look great. If you don't like the hipsters, quit dressing in their fashions.

Emma said...

Me likey that skirt.
And Anonymous- perhaps pop a Xanax? Maddy's just expressing her opinions. You know.
Like how you're supposed to do on blogs?

Anonymous said...

Haha, you brave womyn! I'm still a bit terrified to step in there. I've managed Urban Outfiters, but AA- no thx.

Amy said...

I've never had to brave the store, none being anywhere near me, but given their somewhat spastic sizing I think I'd prefer to try stuff on if I had the choice...

Bella said...

hahahhahahah....thats my response to the gold shiny leggings...

Anonymous said...

This post could have come out of my head, I swear. It's brilliant, and accurate and perfectly captures why I never shop at that godforsaken store.

Alison said...

Those shiny gold half tight/half legging monsters frighten me. A lot.

ps. Oh and look at that we're both from a Richmond! Sure, different countries but does it matter? No, surely not.

Isabel said...

I'm always intimidated by the salespeople because they are so hot. Luckily, I've never seen a hairy person wearing short shorts there either. Let's blame Dov Charney!

Ellie Lee said...

omg ewwwwwwwww
gold LEGGINGS?!!!!

wendy said...

haha i completeeeely agree.. i always expect to be greeted by a wave of unwashed-for-several-days-stinkiness everytime i go into AA.

and eww... hairy and in short shorts...

ineedmoredrama said...

but... but... i like those gold leggings. in fact i have that exact pair. ah well, i guess someone has to buy it, and that someone was me lol

WendyB said...

I think those metallic leggings are looking good on a lot of people! :-)

Courtly Love said...

Whatever, the gold leggings are fab. ;]
Just not when worn as pants, but that's usually the case with leggings.

And the attitude you're mentioning, is pretty much the reason why I stick to shopping at the website!

The Spicers said...

I finally ventured into my AA store last week, and the combination of dirty, grimy retail space, and employees too cool to wait on customers was a real turn-off. AND their soft-porn advertising just makes me sad. Did you see the one with the sad Asian girl who looked about 14 in the topless swimsuit? It just screamed "help me, I've been sex trafficked" to me...