Seconding no more fake pockets. Also:
Stop making us pay more than twice what men do for lower quality product.
Start making our clothing out of decent-quality fabric. I’ve just started buying shirts aimed at teenage boys for my work so that I can get stuff that’s actually made of thick cotton. Thick, good-quality cotton shirts are impossible to find for women. I have no fucking clue what women who actually have significant busts do for that.
Start selling women’s button-up and form-fitting shirts by bra size. If a shirt is too loose for me (and they usually are), it’s uncomfortable and it chafes and so I won’t buy it. If a shirt doesn’t allow for enough boobage (how the fuck do you not allow enough room for a fucking A cup?! I get it if I’m buying mens’ shirts, but this is for womens’ button-ups. WTF?!), I just won’t buy it. Button-up shirts are safest for my job, but I don’t usually wear them because I can’t find any that are cotton, comfortable, and lacking the boob window effect. And I reiterate: I’m a fucking A cup. My breasts are small. What the fuck do women with actual boobs do?! My guess: Same as me, don’t wear fucking button-up shirts even if they’d like to and even if it’s safer for their work
Not necessarily fashion related but another major clothing-related pet peeve of mine: Start selling heavy-duty work clothes for women that are actually heavy-duty work clothes. By which I mean: Exactly the same type of product that men can get off the rack at any work warehouse outlet, cut and sized for women.
I am so fucking sick and tired of trying to find some clothes for my job and having to go through 30 or 40 stores (even some supposed specialty stores that claim to specialize in this sort of thing!) before I find something that is safe to wear at my work that also fits me and will stand up to my job for more than a month. And, just to add insult to injury, the rejects despite being made of cheaper material and being given less attention to detail and lower quality work, will still be 2-3x more expensive than what men get. The thing I actually buy? More often than not, will be close to 4x what men pay and also will be made of lower-quality and less-protective fabric. I buy shit in duplicates not just because I’m autistic and like wearing the same thing over and over (but I don’t like to smell), but also because I have no fucking clue when I’ll find something that works for my job and fits and is comfortable.
You know what I find more often than not when I go to these stores that claim to specialize in heavy duty work clothes? Pants which sacrifice function for style by being skin-tight and low-cut with paper-thin fabric made of a polyester blend. I work in chemistry. You know what polyester blends do when exposed to strong oxidizers? They catch fire and burn. I can’t wear synthetic blends to work, not because I’m some kind of a clothes snob, but because cotton is the only naturally and inexpensively flame-retardant fabric. And, fancy that, I like having skin. And usually, just to add insult to injury, they’re so skintight that even if they’re cotton, I can’t wear them to work because tight pants don’t function as appropriate PPE. Even if I wasn’t in chemistry, I suspect those pants wouldn’t last two fucking weeks on a fucking construction site or some shit. And they’re not safe for some trades any more than they’re safe for chemistry. This isn’t the 1930s - women do heavy-duty physical labor, too. And how many of those of us who don’t do you think were pushed out of it in part because the work clothing stores kept sending them the message that women who do these jobs don’t exist?
Start making lab coat sizes that will actually fit women. I am a womens’ size five to seven in my pants depending on the brand (If a brand allows for big hips and a small waist, I might even be a size four). I have big shoulders and arm muscles compared to most my size, so depending on whether or not a top I’m wearing has sleeves, I’m either a medium or a large in tops unless the brand sizes exceptionally large. But I’m 5'4". And, fancy that, like most cis women past the age of 15 or so, I actually have hips. I am so fucking sick of having to buy a size XS lab coat and leave the bottom two buttons undone because they cut it for someone who’s like 6’ tall and a man. And then my legs are inadequately protected because my hips force the coat open but if I go up a size to an S the fucking sleeves are so long on me that I have to roll them up four times and run the risk of catching chemicals in the cuff and having it snag on stuff and the shoulders are so broad that the fabric bunches and I have a hard time raising my arms past shoulder height.
I’m not that small. I weigh 140lbs. What the fuck do women who are smaller than me do? I’m not that short, either. I’m 5'4", which is pretty much exactly average in my country. What the fuck do women who are shorter than me do?
Stop making me have to fight my own safety equipment to get the fucking job done. Seriously. It’s fucking ridiculous. Only 14% of construction safety equipment manufacturers make safety equipment for women. Nearly half of women in construction jobs say it’s hard or impossible for them to find safety gear in their size. This is dangerous. People have gotten hurt. I’ve gotten hurt because my gear doesn’t fit because I can’t find gear that fits. So far it’s just been bumps and bruises from when my lab coat (which flies open at the bottom because I have hips a man of my girth doesn’t) gets snagged on stuff. What if I’m carrying a flask of corrosive material the next time my lab coat get snagged? It’s a thing I worry about.
(I swear if you tell me to “just” buy mens’ clothing and get it cut down to size, I will yell at you. I’m 5'4" and a size 5 but hippy. By the time a men’s pair of pants is cut down to me and adjusted for my hips and waist, it’s completely reconstructed and the alterations are more expensive than my throughout-the-entire-city search)
Seriously: Heavy duty work clothes that actually fit women, so I don’t have to waste so fucking much time every 6 months looking for the clothing I need to do my damn job. Safety gear that actually fits women, so I don’t have to worry that my safety gear will cause an occupational injury.
