Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I hate swimsuit vendors

Ack! I was over at Lands' End and happened upon their swimsuit sales.

Arrgh! On their website in choosing a swimsuit a woman can select her "Anxiety Zones" and whether she wants a "Slenderizer"! For $23 to $92. Naturally, in the men's department, a guy only selects between water shorts, board shorts, and swim trunks ($19.50 to $34.50). Functionality, not body image dysphoria!!! Just give me a comfortable suit that's plain and reasonably normal-looking and not overpriced and that I can swim in that doesn't slip and chafe and pull and break down in chlorine.

Also, it makes me angry that Lands' End charges more for women's plus sizes, but they don't charge more for men's Big and Tall sizes. I wrote to them long ago complaining about this, but perhaps I was the only one. They acted like they didn't know what I was talking about.

Nevertheless, I keep doing business with them. It's a sad state of affairs.

7 comments:

*jeanne* said...

Are their suits better for you? If that's the case, of COURSE you buy from them. They supply what you need.
When I was a single New Yorker, I went off on the telephone help girl who told me it wasn't possible to change the "Mrs." on my account's mailing address to "Ms." (I had not specified any title when I mailed in my order, but when an "on back-order" notice arrived, it was addressed to "Mrs." If you're going to GUESS whether or not I'm married, for crying out loud, you'd BETTER assume I'm a "Ms." I worked in NYC Opera Subscriptions at the time. I changed the form of address on our subscribers' accounts ALL DAY LONG. I could not believe it was "impossible" to change this on my account. Idiot pre-or-post feminine lib customer service rep!
And when my back-ordered item arrived, it came to "Ms."
I never ordered from them again anyway. Overpriced. Speigel catalog.

Fe-lady said...

I pay more for the XXL polo shirts I order my hubby from Land's End (more material, more expensive...)

21st Century Mom said...

You realize you are actually writing to Sears, right? They bought Lands End a couple of years ago. Sad but true.

I totally agree with how annoying their marketing is but we live in a world full of 'oh-my-god-my-ass-is-huge-I-hate-myself' and they are capitalizing on that.

Nancy Toby said...

I didn't notice the polo shirts were charged differently! Probably because women will order the polo shirts too!! That's actually what I buy most from them.

Yeah, I forgot Sears bought them. Figures.

21st Century Mom said...

btw - the longer men's pants do cost more than the shorter ones if the shorter ones are not pre-hemmed. Shorter cutom hemmed cost the same as the longer ones and they don't offer to hem up the longe ones.

So basically they are just a pain in the ass.

TriGirl 40 said...

So does that mean that they use the same amount of material for bigger/taller men's bathing suits (uh - scary)?

Robin said...

I never understood the need for all this slenderizing, faille material, skirts, etc. Once a suit gets wet, the body shape beneath it is pretty darn apparent anyways. So, might as well be comfortable. I guess that's the men's department secret: comfort over fashion.

For me, I've been buying the same Speedo black poly training suit for years and years. When the old one wears out, I just get a new one. If they ever stop making it, I'll be sunk!