One of the Chinese teachers at my school asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her. She knew of a place that sells American clothes not far from the school. I was excited that I may be able to find something in my size, which is a true battle in China. However, while most Chinese people are very small I have noticed a lot more large children. I am shocked when I walk through my elementary to middle school and the boys tower over me! I was suposta be tall in China! For the first time in my life I am average height rather than short by American standards. I guess I will have to be happy with what I have. I look at girls my size or bigger and I always want to ask where on earth they buy clothes. I know my students’ families don’t have the money to get tailor clothes made, which seems to be my only option. The tailor prices are not bad, about what I would pay for clothes in the US, 300rmb for a dress ($45) or 260rmb for dress pants ($40). But on a Chinese salary 560rmb buys food for a month! I have started to think of everything not in rmb or US dollars but in foot washes! That one dress costs as much as 15 foot washes! That’s a lot to part with!
So back to my teacher friend, she agrees to take me and one of my American friends shopping. Turns out we are going to the factory that makes all these designer clothes to be shipped out to the US. She knows the owner and they have a small room of sample dresses that they will sell before they ship out. We wind around what feels like 10 floors of spiral stairs. Dodging piles or trash on the floor and covering our mouths from the stench of nail polish remover. We turn the corner and you see rows and rows of dresses being packaged. The clothing racks they let us look through had everything! All business style dresses, suites, skirts and blouses. I am searching for sizes when I notice, the labels; Coco Channel, Nine West, Anne Taylor, Oscar de lerento, armoni! We both go crazy like kids in a candy shop grabbing everything we see and snuggling with all the beautiful silks. I ask if there is a place to try them on and that’s when the fun begins! There is a shower curtain in the corner between the clothes racks and some machine that they push over and shove me behind. I feel like I am trapped with a plastic bag over my head and start to sweat profusely! I don’t want to fight with the curtain to go find a mirror so I trust the opinion of Roz who is trying her clothes on as fast as possible hopping to get the heck out of there as well.
Just like in America only a few of the million things I tried on fit well and my teacher friend looks so disappointed when I decided only to buy 2 skirts. Next we went to another factory with the same kind of set up. This one was a little less classy meaning no shower curtain dressing room. So my teacher pushes one of the clothes racks over and tells me to squeezes behind. I find a beautiful silk black and cream printed skirt and my teacher goes and bargains for me. That would be my preferred shopping method. Someone else tells me how much I should pay for it and they talk to the vendor and get the price down for me. Oh yes I enjoy someone telling me I am pretty in everything I put on as well, Thanks Roz!
SO 3 skirts and no tops later there is only one place left to go, Wal-Mart! Funny thing is that the Wal-Mart clothes in china are considered Western brand name! SO, suddenly Cherokee is name brand and relatively expensive. Me and Roz attack the racks of clothes searching for anything that is not in small! We both end up with 3 new shirts. It isn’t until we get home and do our new clothes fashion show, that we realize we bought the same shirt in different colors! And another one of her shirts is the exact one I bought a few weeks earlier. That is want I am talking about when I say there are slim pickings for real-woman sizes!
So back to my teacher friend, she agrees to take me and one of my American friends shopping. Turns out we are going to the factory that makes all these designer clothes to be shipped out to the US. She knows the owner and they have a small room of sample dresses that they will sell before they ship out. We wind around what feels like 10 floors of spiral stairs. Dodging piles or trash on the floor and covering our mouths from the stench of nail polish remover. We turn the corner and you see rows and rows of dresses being packaged. The clothing racks they let us look through had everything! All business style dresses, suites, skirts and blouses. I am searching for sizes when I notice, the labels; Coco Channel, Nine West, Anne Taylor, Oscar de lerento, armoni! We both go crazy like kids in a candy shop grabbing everything we see and snuggling with all the beautiful silks. I ask if there is a place to try them on and that’s when the fun begins! There is a shower curtain in the corner between the clothes racks and some machine that they push over and shove me behind. I feel like I am trapped with a plastic bag over my head and start to sweat profusely! I don’t want to fight with the curtain to go find a mirror so I trust the opinion of Roz who is trying her clothes on as fast as possible hopping to get the heck out of there as well.
Just like in America only a few of the million things I tried on fit well and my teacher friend looks so disappointed when I decided only to buy 2 skirts. Next we went to another factory with the same kind of set up. This one was a little less classy meaning no shower curtain dressing room. So my teacher pushes one of the clothes racks over and tells me to squeezes behind. I find a beautiful silk black and cream printed skirt and my teacher goes and bargains for me. That would be my preferred shopping method. Someone else tells me how much I should pay for it and they talk to the vendor and get the price down for me. Oh yes I enjoy someone telling me I am pretty in everything I put on as well, Thanks Roz!
SO 3 skirts and no tops later there is only one place left to go, Wal-Mart! Funny thing is that the Wal-Mart clothes in china are considered Western brand name! SO, suddenly Cherokee is name brand and relatively expensive. Me and Roz attack the racks of clothes searching for anything that is not in small! We both end up with 3 new shirts. It isn’t until we get home and do our new clothes fashion show, that we realize we bought the same shirt in different colors! And another one of her shirts is the exact one I bought a few weeks earlier. That is want I am talking about when I say there are slim pickings for real-woman sizes!
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