2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

TwibbleDee

Shopping with my mother is a dangerous, dangerous thing.  The good news is...she covered it all.  I now have a light blue suit jacket, skirt, and dress (we didn’t get the pants, as I’m notorious for dragging hems through the mud), a denim look suit jacket and skirt, a pair of navy slacks and a pair of black slacks, and a windbreaker-type hoodie that is will act as a light rain jacket and folds into a pouch that will it on my waist when hiking and such.

Is this abuse of the system?

I suppose I should hunt down where my “real” shoes have ended up and have appropriate hosiery/tights to go with everything before too long...

Laura_Elsewhere

Coo, lucky you! Well, if your mother chooses to spend her coupons on you, then that's up to her...  

Tell me - I am obviously used to the American 'pants' meaning trousers, but what's the difference between 'pants' and 'slacks'? 

TwibbleDee

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Tell me - I am obviously used to the American 'pants' meaning trousers, but what's the difference between 'pants' and 'slacks'? 

Pants would include all long trousers, including jeans, cargo pants, etc. slacks would be the nicer, dressier pants for wearing to the office and such. 

diminua

My boots died – the sole is coming away. Not terribly surprising given that I bought them last autumn and have worn them consistently not only through that winter but all this summer just gone, every time I went out – and that’s included some long treks across the commons, along the Thames, and some spectacularly muddy parts of the London Loop (the recently ploughed field somewhere in Essex was a particular highlight, as was the flooded River Crane yesterday, which is when I realised I had a problem because my sock was getting wet.)

They could probably be glued, but I can’t see that being effective for very long. I do have DMs, but I can’t comfortably walk more than a few miles in them. So, new boots have been ordered for click and collect, very like the ones I had, and I’m going to take the 5 coupons off now – I’m down to 32 – but will put them back on if the boots don’t fit.

TwibbleDee

diminua said:

My boots died – the sole is coming away. Not terribly surprising given that I bought them last autumn and have worn them consistently not only through that winter but all this summer just gone, every time I went out – and that’s included some long treks across the commons, along the Thames, and some spectacularly muddy parts of the London Loop (the recently ploughed field somewhere in Essex was a particular highlight, as was the flooded River Crane yesterday, which is when I realised I had a problem because my sock was getting wet.)

They could probably be glued, but I can’t see that being effective for very long. I do have DMs, but I can’t comfortably walk more than a few miles in them. So, new boots have been ordered for click and collect, very like the ones I had, and I’m going to take the 5 coupons off now – I’m down to 32 – but will put them back on if the boots don’t fit.

Are they decent enough boots that a shoe repair place could resole them perhaps?

diminua

TwibbleDee said:

Are they decent enough boots that a shoe repair place could resole them perhaps?

Thanks, I don't think so, but there's nothing to be lost by trying. I'll take them in and ask. 

Laura_Elsewhere

TwibbleDee said:

Pants would include all long trousers, including jeans, cargo pants, etc. slacks would be the nicer, dressier pants for wearing to the office and such. 

How interesting! In Britain, I think slacks is very very rarely used for anything worn by younger people - an older, larger woman might buy elastic-waisted slacks for comfort, but it's a kind of sign of being older, I think. 
For men, slacks means informal but not jeans or chinos or another kind of named trouser. 
I asked My Intended (having a son aged 24 this week, he is slightly more down wid da kidz than am I...) and he thinks 'slacks' is not really used much at all over here nowadays. 

It sounds like they have very very different meanings either side of the pond! @PipneyJane, what's the Australian take on slacks?
I love the way I learn things in here!  

PipneyJane

Slacks are definitely dressy trousers in Australia and New Zealand, @Laura_Elsewhere.  I don't know any Brits who use the phrase now but I remember a mention of it in a British 1970 Annual that my sister had.  (Not sure whose annual, just one of the girls magazines.)

When I used the word "slacks" in the 1990's, nobody knew what the hell I was talking about.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

New hiking boots ordered - but for My Intended and therefore on his coupons  

We did our first 5-mile proper hike today, 3 others planned Tues, Thurs, Fri, and longer ones next week. Having gone over it in detail for a fortnight or more, M.I. hadn't thought to tell me his walking shoes are not even a tiny bit waterproof...! So poor thing, he was in thin socks and wet shoes from the start. 
So I have ordered him a pair of Merrells, and he should have those, and have worn them in, for next week when we do four days of longer hikes...

(He goes back to working from home p/t after that, so I forced him to agree to these two weeks of four-days-of-hiking in order to get him properly fit again after his surgery. He keeps insisting he's fit, but then is incredibly tired when he does do something, and has to admit to it, so these hikes should properly build some fitness and stamina. We're not fell-running - this morning we did 6.2 miles in just under three miles - but it should make a real difference to his sleep pattern and to his general health - and to mine!! I have hopes of getting my BMI down below 35 (it's been 35 or above for years and years) in the next fortnight, and by the Nw Year I would love to have it below 30... 
I think of it as doing my bit to support the NHS, ie doing what I can do to not-need them! I can walk, I can eat less sugar, those things help the NHS a lot more than banging a saucepan ever did...)

PollyWollyDoodle

Great to hear that MI ( or should that be YI? 😀) is feeling well enough to walk those sort of distances, Laura. I think I might need a rest day between two of those though.  

My mother would have used the word “slacks” to mean casual trousers, women’s rather than men’s. I don’t think it is in current use in the UK these days – but then everything seems to have a specific name, palazzo pants, pedal pushers, cargo pants and don’t get me started on the different varieties of jeans. That’s why I prefer to buy from charity shops, it’s less confusing!