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Morning ladies, just passing some sad news of nobody heard.
Catherine’s plus size stores is closing all it’s brick and mortar stores. (Only store I can buy bras and pantyhose at)I guess the covid took a toll on them.
Secondly, lane Bryant is filing chapter 11, said they are remaking open , but we all know what happens next…..
I’ve only bought PJ’s at Catherine’s, However I’ve bought a ton of panties, both sexy as well as plain ones there. Both will be missed.
Well bankruptcy doesn’t mean closing. Often a company will file and hope another buyer comes along to take over. If none come, then it’s usually the end. Plus sometimes they file to help with restructuring, so it might not be done just yet.
Saw this in the news this morning. The parent company – Ascena Retail Group file for bankruptcy Thursday the 23rd of July.
They are closing 877 of their 2800 stores, including all the Catherine’s. The Catherine’s brand and website are being sold to City Chic Collective, an Australian company. All 600 Justice stores – which cater to girls and preteens – are closing as well, along with some Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant and Lou & Grey shops.
The article says they are also pulling out of Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. They started as Dressbarn and closed those stores late last year. Apparently the coronavirus really disrupted their sales, and they owe a lot of money to the malls where there stores are, as well as to others.
Since the bankruptcy was just filed yesterday, I bet a bunch of the folks in the stores don’t know yet, or are just finding out. I’d guess if you’re a regular Catherine’s customer you should visit now, or at least when they announce their inventory reduction sales. For the other stores, I’d just watch. If your Lane Bryant doesn’t have a lot of traffic, or is in a mall versus stand alone or in a smaller shopping center, I’d watch them too, just in case.
Yes I was a little saddened by the news that Catherine was only going online but I prefer toward over Katherine’s and being that I have a Catherine’s imma Torrid credit card LOL I did find out the Lane Bryant sister company of Catherine’s will honor the catherines credit card at Lane Bryant so not too bad 💋
I managed to get into the Lane Bryant outlet in New Hampshire as well as a couple of regular locations that were having 80% off closing sales and came away with some great deals. It was a little sparse and there were no panties left in 18/20 or bras that I could fit in comfortably but I did get 3 dresses, several tops, a skirt, a few pairs of tights and a couple of pairs of high waisted shaping panties. I even found a pair of shoes that I wore the next day although I got a blister on the bottom of one of my big toes for some reason. I also got a coupon for 15% my next online order and 50% off one item in one of their remaining stores.
Overall last week in the places I found that had dressing rooms open I was able to try on more outfits for my private album. My other shopping haul was at Torrid, where I found a couple of cute bralettes, some panties, a skirt and a pair of nylon workout leggings. I’m running out of storage space and I’m also going to have to watch my budget as well going forward, but I did have a good week.
Christine
Most of my shopping yesterday was at Savers and Catherine’s, which were in the same plaza where I went and of course neither had a dressing room open even though I was underdressed for the occasion despite the blazing heat and humidity here. I stocked up on wire free bras as well as a gorgeous black bodysuit at Catherine’s at 70% off, then crossed the lot to Savers and put some money down there for a couple of blouses, a dress, a skirt, some stockings and a couple of pairs of shoes. The Macy’s at the nearby mall didn’t have a dressing room open either and I already utilized the one that JC Penney had open last week so I went for dinner and called it a day. I was in a black Lane Bryant 3/4 sleeve blouse and lime green Gloria Vanderbilt jeans over a black nylon Lane Bryant strapless bra and black nylon Torrid panties with a floral print front, with black ankle boots over grey knee high stockings.
I’ve been progressively shaving off the hair on my legs, arms and chest with a Gillette Body razor and on the latter I’m almost down to fully bare skin, so next shower I’ll use the hair removal cream to finish the job. My job has been intensive enough that I’ve actually lost weight despite not getting into a gym, so hopefully that will keep going.
Christine
My main objective for today was checking out what was left on offer at my nearest Lord and Taylor as the venerable chain is in the midst of their going out of business sale. The discount range is still in the 20-50% range so considering how pricey their merchandise was I’ll wait at least another week and see if it’s marked down further before I take the plunge on anything, especially since all sales are final and their dressing rooms are closed due to the pandemic. I did spot a few nice things as I was pawing through the racks so hopefully some of them will be there next time.
I was out and about in faded blue denim Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and a white belt over pink Vanity Fair full nylon panties and nude thigh highs with lacy silicon grips along with my black Magdesian kitten heels, paired with an untucked pink cotton blouse over a white Catherine’s bra filled out with my forms. After my visit to Lord and Taylor I went elsewhere in the mall to JC Penney to try on several dresses and a jumpsuit and pick up a few more pairs of the Maidenform Girl 2XL panties in different colors and patterns from the ones I already have. Despite the late start to my afternoon it was still a productive day for me.
Tomorrow I go renew my membership in the hole in the arm club, my name for donating platelets at my nearest Red Cross blood donor center, something that I’ve been doing for a few years now although I’ve donated whole blood for years before that. My blood type is A+, which I’m told is ideal for platelet donation, which gets rushed to cancer patients. Since both arms are immobilized for close to 2 hours I bring a tablet and catch up on my latest K-drama.
Christine
Back when I began dressing fully femme at 18, I didn’t need Catherine’s or Lane Bryant’s. Then after over 20 years of not dressing, I began again. I had grown somewhat over that time. The few items of old clothes I had left would not fit me.
I was fortunate in that I was still able to buy clothes in department stores that fit. Still, I was almost large enough where I thought Lane Bryant’s was going to be on my shopping list. I had been there several times looking around. Some very nice things, but much was clearly to large for me.
I bought several dresses at Dress Barn. Sadly, they are no longer around. I had bought countless pairs of pantyhose, panties, bras and dresses at JC Penney. They are still around but haven’t sold their house brand of pantyhose in several years. Then of course there is Kohl’ s, Macy’s and a few other department stores still hanging on. I’ve bought things from all of them.
A very sad day for me was when Payless Shoes shut down. Over the years, from the time I was 17, I had purchased easily hundreds of pairs of shoes from them.
So many great stores have faded from the landscape. I have so many great memories of things I had bought at them and was so excited about, as well as the many scary but extremely exciting experiences I have had while buying those things and wearing them.
I made a return trip yesterday to Lord and Taylor and their stock hadn’t diminished appreciably as their discounts were still in the 25-50% range, although they did have a few racks of as-is merchandise at 75%. More importantly they had one set of dressing rooms open on each of their two floors so I was able to try on some very nice dresses.
My outfit of the day was a pair of Levis 711 distressed skinny faded blue jeans with my black flower patterned thigh highs showing through the holes in front and black knee high boots. On top I layered a purple Croft & Barrow sweater over a white Apt. 9 turtleneck, and all this over an Olga lavender print 44D nylon bra (35002) and Vanity Fair solid lavender nylon high cut panties (13108). This girl definitely felt good.
Christine
About 20 years ago we were friends with these two people. One was a child hood friend of mine and the other was the wife of a friend. At the time they both worked for Donna Karen. The woman friend was a hosiery salesperson, and always had pantyhose and stockings in her Tahoe. We went out with them one night and on the way to dinner her and my wife were talking about pantry and hoseiery. My ears went deaf to what my friend was talking about to listen in on the pantyhose talk. So we eat and leave the restaurant. When we get home she jumps out opens her tailgate and starts handing my wife bags and bags of DKNY pantyhose and stockings! Heaven for me!!!! Must of got 30 pair of all types of pantyhose.
my other friend was a headhunter for DKNY, and he would invite us into nyc for “special sales” only open to employees and family. We spent about 4 hours there and filled up 4 of those giant ikea bags with hose, panties, scarfs, stockings. MAN WAS I IN HEAVEN!
Lord and Taylor’s discount range is now up to 40-60% but their stock was still decent when I stopped in today to try on more dresses. Went underdressed in black bra and panties, black garter belt holding up black stockings with lacy tops and in the dressing room I put a tight black bodycon slip to help hold in my gut. Earlier I spent some coin at both Kohl’s and Savers and despite the fact that MA allowed fitting rooms to reopen neither chain has done so yet although I did use the one at my local JC Penney yesterday.
I have my annual physical first thing tomorrow morning so I’ll turn in now.
Christine
The discounts at Lord and Taylor are up to 50-75% so when I went yesterday I decided to pull the trigger and score a leopard print knee length skirt along with some knee highs and liners at 50% off so I only spent just over $23. The skirt was among 3 that I tried on along with 4 swimsuits; the latter are the category going for 75% off so they only had one rack left of those and their lingerie section is getting a little threadbare (no pun intended). It won’t be much longer so if you still have a Lord and Taylor close to you get there soon while the selection is still decent.
My outward attire for the day was mostly from my most recent thrift store haul: a white acrylic 3/4 sleeve cardigan over a navy blue blouse and black Lane Bryant slacks over a black thong and filled out black Catherine’s bra. Most of my walking around was in grey open toe block heels and since it was a little chilly out I also wore a tan overcoat. I’m quickly running out of space in my room for all my feminine attire so I’ll have to come up with something soon. As it is most of my shoe collection is stored in my car but that’s not a long term solution either.
On the plus side I’m not quite as plus sized as I was when the year started. Before the pandemic I was around 300lbs but since I started delivering for Amazon, a job that is physically demanding, I’ve dropped to around 270 on my 6ft2in frame. I’m slowly incorporating other feminine touches on my 3 off days as I go along, such as shaving off as much of my body hair as possible once a week and wearing press on nails. Having to wear a mask in public means not having the expense and hassle of makeup for now, but I’m now thinking of some select pieces of costume jewelry, which may necessitate doing the once unthinkable: getting my ears pierced. Since I keep what’s left of my own hair close cropped, a byproduct of my 6 years in the Army National Guard, I could wear wigs out if I wanted although the synthetic ones I have now don’t quite allow me to pass in my opnion so an upgrade is likely soon. I’ll keep everyone posted on my progress.
Christine
Lord and Taylor is the final days of their going out of business sale and the discount range is now up to 75-90% so I went a little overboard today. What inventory is left in the NH location I went to was confined to one floor and I didn’t get a chance to try anything on beforehand, but more on that in a bit.
On the other floor they were selling the fixtures so I spent $35 on a full sized female mannequin and as many skirt hangers as I could pile into a medium size plastic storage tub. It took me two trips to the car as I disassembled the mannequin for ease of transport, not to mention concealing the torso in one of the largest plastic bags that they had left to avoid disparaging glances in my direction.
As for my main haul, I shelled out over $145 on 2 pairs of tights, some panties (all at 75% off), several dresses, a couple of cardigans to pair with two of the dresses as well as a few blouses (at 90% off). Between today and using the 50% off of dresses coupon at Savers over the weekend I’m pretty much spent out for a while, but I’m a happy girl nonetheless.
Christine
When I got home a few hours ago I unpacked the car of everything I bought today. I’m still in the process of setting up my wardrobe in the spare room next to the one I sleep in but it’s a work in progress. In addition to the closet that’s already there I also acquired over the past several months 3 plastic storage drawer units, 3 shoe racks and 2 portable wardrobes, both of which along with one of the shoe racks I still have to assemble. I did reassemble the mannequin in the spare room as well and put a maroon bralette and maroon panties on it, then put a maroon sweater dress on over it. With all the skirt hangers I got today along with the dozens of plastic hangers I have bought over the past few months I hope to be able to organize everything properly.
Christine
Lane Bryant is still open. Their filing was a restructuring filing. So you not have a Torrid near you? They’re amazing as well. Smaller, more modern collection, but sized for bigger ladies. Plus the salespeople don’t judge, go out their way to help, and will call you whatever you ask them to. They even will size you as well if you need it.
I stopped in our local Lane Bryant yesterday and talked with the manager as I shopped around a bit. Our store is staying in business, but many, many others are closing their doors, including all of them in Mexico, Puerto Rico and some other places outside of the U.S.
She told me about the restructuring too, so some of us will still have their wonderful outlets and access to proper sized and well fitting outfits. So, go out to your local shop, en-drab or dressed, and get to know the staff.
PaulaF
My local store stays fairly busy, so I doubt they’d shut it down unless the entire company shut down. It and Torrid are my new best friends for outerwear and bras most likely as my local Catherine’s has already shuttered and I don’t know where else to go. But panties? I don’t need expensive ones. I just wear Hanes bikini style from Walmart/ Target.
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