Clothes shops

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Why don't I have an interest in clothes shopping? Why does the environment in clothes shops make me feel more anxious? How come most NT women who I know are so into clothes and fashion, and I'm not?

Today I was at a shopping centre with my mum, and as soon as my mum saw a new big clothes shop (three times the size of Sainsburys, full of all women's clothes), she was almost drooling and said, ''I've got to go in there, meet you in the DVD shop in half an hour'', and off she scattered in great desperation to get into this shop. For about 5 minutes I actually stood outside this so-called fantastic shop and kind of laughed at all the women scurrying in and coming out with enormous bags full of clothes. A lot of bored men looked at me with empathy!

But it's not a good thing really. I often wish I was a bloke, because I feel that ''liking clothes shops'' is a common stereotype for young women of my age (well, all women really, but apparently I'm stereotypically supposed to be obsessed with it).

Why do so many women kill for clothes shopping? What's the big deal? I'd rather spend half an hour in the DVD shops, where people seem more calm. In clothes shops I find women push me out of the way just to look at one rail of clothes, when they've got the choice of all the other clothes in the shops.

I prefer book stores myself. Especially used book stores. Just try to get me out of a good used book store in only half an hour. It can't be done.

There's one used book store that is about 350 miles from me that I dream of going to. The problem is that I'm not about to drive 350 miles each way just to go to a book store, even that one. I figure if I ever do go there, I may have to get a motel room for a night or two so I can spend more time going through it and may have to ship the books I buy back. The book store is owned by Larry McMurtry, the author of "The Lonesome Dove" and "The Last Picture Show". As I understand is, it occupies four separate buildings in the town square of Archer City, Texas.

Women love the clothing stores, I love the bookstores.

I like to shop online. Then I dont have to say "no thanks im just looking"

Me too, I prefer online shopping.

I could clothes-shop all day long! You'd never guess it by looking at me, though. Clothes/fashion/sewing/costumes has been my obssession since about age 10. I never really got good at sewing, though. My mom scolded me so much for bothering her sewing machine* that I developed an aversion to it and I still feel like she's about to yell at me at any second while I'm trying to sew. Dyscalculia derailed my design career.

*She thought I was going to put the needle through my finger or something like that.

I'm pretty sure I read something about this being "downsized".

I enjoy clothes shopping

At the event I'm going to my partial boyfriend is going to have to deal with my shopoholic-ness.

I don't usually like to shop but once I see stuff that looks good on me I get really into it.

I don't like clothes shopping. When I'm looking for something in particular, I will often home in on the depts I'm likely to find something in. I can't be bothered going through rails and rails of clothes to find something. I just will not enter certain shops, like TKMaxx and Primark. I'll go into Debenhams and head straight to Mantaray, look at their sale rails, then John Rocha, Red Herring and maybe Pineapple. Then, I'm out of there.

For girls who despise clothes shopping, may I offer you some advice? Never, ever, EVER look bored in a clothes shop. Other girls hate you for it, and will laugh at you and get their friends to laugh at you too, by tapping them. It's happened to me before. I've only got to show even a teeny bit of disinterest in the clothes shop environment, and somebody notices and decides to rub it in by giving you funny looks then tapping her friend or friends to show them that you are looking fed up.

You can either say ''if I'm that funny why don't you film me and put me up on You've Been Framed?'' or just stare at them to acknowledge that you have noticed them taking the mickey and then they might stop, then walk away.

I used to be the same, I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Only now that I'm 15, I love few things more than looking at clothes, trying on shoes, and dreaming of having the whole shop as my wardrobe.

I never liked clothes shopping. When I was a child my mom used to take me to the big cheap stores, those were stuffy and noisy places. I always had a headache after half an hour - later on my head already started to ache on the way into town, because I knew where we were going to. When we finally had internet access in the year 1998, I refused shopping and ordered my clothes online for a few years.
Today I need to enter shops again, because most modern clothes don't fit me, so I have to try on everything. But I made up a few rules:
- No shops with loud music!
- No big stores for longer than 10 minutes.
- When I feel I get a tunnel vision or the ground seems to be shaking, I go home as soon as possible.
- Conserve environment, save resources, were your clothes until they fall apart!

I love clothes, but I've never been that much into fashion, I'm more interested in the artistry and craft. I've had interests in needlework since I was a child.

But I detest shopping in stores or shops for clothes. I feel self-conscious - especially in fitting rooms - and I want to peruse on my own and make choices in private. I buy mostly online, and have ever since the world wide web made it possible. Before that I did a lot of catalogue mail order shopping. Even these days, retired and always home where I wear plain t-shirts and shorts, I buy most of my clothes, including socks and undergarments, online.

Last edited by SpiritBlooms on 15 Sep 2012, 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I like clothes but I find myself buying the same sort of clothes over and over again. I don't like going to the shops though. I feel uncomfortable and anxious when a sales person comes up to me in order to help me and I feel even more anxious when there are lots of people in a relatively small shop. I am an obsessive compulsive internet shopper. Since I don't see the point of spending a lot of money on one pair of jeans or a top for instance, I am always on the hunt for bargains. On the internet that is, not in the shops.

Women are trained to be obsessed with there looks. Looks mean a lot to NTs. It creates a message and it helps to project that non-verbal message to other people. Since women are expected to look good, they go crazy for clothes that'll do that. Likely all the women were scurrying around at a sale. It took me a while to understand fashion.

I do like clothes. I like to look nice, and I like to have clothes that suit me and fit nicely and make me blend in, et cetera. But I've always hated the actual shopping. You don't have to love shopping to love nice clothes. I know people who love their food but hate cooking.

But I'm not the sort of girl to be fanatic about clothes. I know some typical girls of my age and younger who can't resist buying something each time they set foot in any clothes shop. They act like they have no self-control, as though buying clothes is a serious addiction. I do wish I was more like that. I think my mum would be happier, being so she likes clothes shopping herself and would love a daughter who loves clothes shopping too, and having shopping sprees together. But instead I go around with a bored, sulky look on my face, looking beyond everything I see and not paying attention to the clothes in the shops. If I am in a good mood and can focus more on clothes, it still doesn't feel natural to me, and I kind of get embarrassed, for explainable reasons.

Also I have a friend who likes to go into every charity shop in town, and there's about 8 or 9 charity shops. I find charity shops rather boring. A quick five minutes in a charity shop is fine with me, but my friend takes ages. She looks at each item of clothing one by one on nearly every rail, then starts looking at clothes she doesn't even like or wouldn't wear, making me wonder if she's forgotten that time exists, or if she's delibrately wasting time. I get bored easily in shops. I like a quick whip in and out, just skim my eyes on the items rather than just standing there gazing at stuff, and I believe that you can spot things just as easily when skimming through, then stopping to specifically look at things only that catch your eye.