Why don’t they make pants for “normal” women?

Avantika Agarwal goes pant shopping and discovers that they don’t make jeans for “normal” women anymore.  

The biggest trial in my life is shopping for pants. I avoid it like the plague and dread having to go buy jeans, linen pants or even formal trousers. Why? Because they don’t make them for normal women anymore. And while people may have doubts about the normalcy of my mental state, i’d like to believe that physically, I could be categorized as normal. Whatever normal is.

So i’m neither thin nor obese. I’m what they call *khaate peete ghar ki* or *healthy* (in the most euphemistic way). That, coupled with the curse of the Indian body type (which was designed, i think, only for sarees), makes it nigh impossible to find that perfect pair of pants. Why? Because pants have a mind of their own. Which is as messed up as the people designing them.

Pants today look good only on the mannequins wearing them. Which means, that for those same pants to look good on a human, she needs to have proportions like that – extra long legs, almost no ass, a tiny waist. And what do I have? Neither of the above. Suffice to say, it’s sheer torture inside the dressing room.

With formal trousers I never know what i’m supposed to look like. Maybe because i still haven’t managed to find a good pair in all these years. There seems to be nothing out there that doesnt make me look like a short dumpling with a giant bottom. And if my derriere does look good in a pair, the thunder thighs grab your attention. No, don’t visualise it. I can’t afford your therapy.

And don’t even get me started on jeans….. The problem starts much before the trial rooms. For some reason that I seem to have too much sense to understand, people manufacturing jeans have all decided that wanting a pair of jeans that actually reaches the waist is like asking for the moon and a couple of stars. No really. Try looking for  a pair of jeans that is mid-waist. The sales people will look at you with pity. Almost everything out there (at least in the women’s section) is low waist. Straight leg, slim leg, boot cut, all in low waist. And pardon me if i’m being difficult, but i really have no interest in joining the group of women who make you cringe every time they sit, bend or do anything but stand ramrod straight. You know *exactly* what i’m talking about don’t you? Yes. That.

So yeah, I hate shopping for pants. They just don’t respect fat. Or being healthy as i’d like to call it. And if you’re a skinny female reading this, please to not try and disagree with me. I might decide to sit on you and you know you will break.

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Avantika Agarwal is a contributing writer at Bombay Wire.  In her words: I’m a chronic doodler and stationery-whore who has risked time, money and self-esteem to try and make money off my artwork through Yellow Buffalo. When not panicking about all that I have undertaken, my time is spent reading, looking up baking recipes online (only looking, never making anything), and valiantly trying to keep my potted plants alive (and failing miserably). I’m also on a perpetual diet which tells you how well i do at it. I can be followed on Twitter and other blog posts can be read here.