Who Cares about an Oxford Comma?

Vampire Weekend reference aside, I got a recent request for a post about where to find Oxford shirts. The complaint is one I share: I can never find one that fits properly, and that doesn’t leave the horrendously embarrassing gap at my bust giving the world an extra profile of my whitey-white bra. A fellow commenter recommended L.L. Bean, and I was delighted to see that they have expanded their plus size options, and my first thought was their close competitor, Land’s End, a store I have patronized because of their very consistent reputation for quality. There are items I picked up in their secondhand outlet nearly a decade ago that are still in good shape, that’s how good the quality is. Also, Julie C., if you’re reading this and remember what I said to you about LL Bean our sophomore year of college – I take it back. I also recommended Hollywood tape for that gap.

From hunting through the Fat Chic clothing search for Oxford shirts, I think that the problem is one of rebranding. Classic Oxford shirts are being rebranded as simply “white blouses” and things being sold as Oxford shirts look more to me like big shirts with no resemblance to the original. Besides, I can see an Oxford shirt maybe being dyed a solid color, but plaid? Seriously?

Also, old standby brands for conservative/classic pieces like Liz Claiborne are keeping the Oxford shirts for 14 and below, but in plus sizes they’re putting pleats on the shirts. Perhaps this is fine for the flatter-chested of the plus sizes – I might be OK – but for the many busty gals out there some other choices need to be made available.

So I don’t know conclusively if there ARE quality plus size Oxford shirts out there. But they’re out there – but either a) they’re not labeled Oxford or b)they’re labeled Oxford when they’re not.

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Tags: blouses, Liz Claiborne, oxford_shirts, white_blouses, woman_within

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.