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I really want to buy clothes and accessories online, there are usually some great deals, but for the life of me I can't. I've been burned one too many times when something looks great in pictures .... and vice versa. I also get overwhelmed by the number of options.
However, ecommerce clearly is the way. You save so much time for obvious reasons. But I also hate returning shit and going through the 1 hour amazon scroll session again. On net, I think the time/bandwidth I spend on either balances out.
I suppose I'm not good enough at shape rotating to make a good enough guess.
Also fuck these slenderman ass bigfoot models they use for the pictures. I'm a "average" sized guy. ~5"10, 32" waist, 32" legs, etc, And YET, I buy pants with those exact same dimensions and they are literally too skinny to barely fit my arms? I'm not even fat or huge. I mean mannequins are usually of gigachad proportions, and the models are sticks? Where is the sweet middle?
Buy from brands that offer free returns and exchanges. This allows you to try on clothes and keep what fits. Don't be afraid to take items to your local tailor.
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Some brands, especially thoughtful ones, provide measurements at waist thigh ankle for pants. Measure that against your existing pants.
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What brands are you buying? If you're buying random chinesium on Amazon you shouldn't be surprised if it's all fucked up.
When I need new clothes I usually check LL Bean, Banana Republic, or Uniqlo (t. millennial). YMMV, but it's usually a good starting point, and they at least tend to have more colors than black, beige, gray, greige, navy, and white.
Also, especially for tops, put some consideration into what colors actually look good for your skin and hair color.
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Amazon is really hard to buy decent clothing from. I've tried buying stretch knit dresses, which is the easiest thing possible to fit, and they were still off and basically unwearable, high waisted for a very short, wide person in that case.
The thing to do is to find a company that makes things that fits you, and then follow that company, specifically, for seasonally interesting items and deals. I like Uniqlo (and 5'10" sounds like about what they model their Western men's sizes on), but of course tastes and clothing needs vary. This may be Uniqlo specific, but I do have to follow their collections and collaborations, and buy things the day they launch, because those tend to be the most interesting and best made. They once sold out of a skirt I was interested in within an hour of going live, so if I really want something I have started paying attention to launch times and buying right away. However, their online return policies are awful.
Completely anecdotally, my experience has been the opposite. But I'm looking at menswear, not dresses. In particular, I found a business casual shirt that fit me well in my closet, and I was able to find the exact same brand/size on Amazon. The first one fit, and I've since bought a few extra colors when the price is reduced (I might grump a small amount that even these change slightly over time, and that back pleats on men's shirts seem to be out-of-fashion these days). I've also bought quite a few pairs of jeans in rather the same way, which saves rummaging through the racks at the store to find the right size: there are surprisingly few longer-than-wide pairs of pants at modern American stores, but Amazon always has them in stock. Socks don't have much variation in sizing, either.
In terms of athletic wear, a few years back I bought a pair of running shorts for a good price on a whim from a Chinese brand I hadn't heard of, and they have honestly been some of the best I've used (not a connoisseur). I've since bought a few more (and a couple of other items), and not been disappointed. Sportswear in stores, especially anything sport-specific, is generally comparatively expensive in stores near me.
Admittedly, I can imagine works for me primarily because I'm trying to buy identically-cut garments, which I'd bet only works for male fashion.
Yeah, that sounds like a good use case for Amazon.
I've become accustomed to clothing offerings being incredibly unstable, hence the buying within half an hour of launch behavior. I once bought a dress with some kind of rayon crinkle fabric (what my mother's generation would call "broomstick") that has held up really well, and was my daughter's comfort item for most of a year. I searched to see if I could buy a similar fabric for her, or another dress in that fabric, but I've never seen it again. The same brand and line offered a new broomstick series in the fall, but the fabric was completely different.
My husband and I have found pretty good hiking clothing, and especially footwear at https://www.sierra.com. It's somewhat discount, and has a bunch of brands that I hadn't heard of but have held up fairly well. Also a fan of Duluth Trading Company -- they aren't that cheap, but everything I've gotten there has held up very well. I got a jacket on sale that fits over three other layers without being especially bulky, keeps the wind and snow out, and has lasted six years so far with no signs of giving out. Also a plaid shirt that has a little microfiber strip sewn in for lens cleaning purposes, which has been helpful, which doesn't seem like it will ever wear out. But it does look very upper Midwest hiker.
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I know this is a typo, but it's a fun mental image. "Ahhhh, why don't these fit?!" as you shove your arms into teen girl sized skinny jeans.
You can get good results buying basic shirts online. Tee-shirts, polos, henleys, casual button ups. These can be bought size unseen.
Full on dress shirts - you need to figure out which brand / size / fit works best by trying a bunch on in person, but then you can reliably order direct from that brand online. Same for pants.
If you want to look good you have to do two things:
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From what I can tell, based on advice from my far more fashionable brother and what I've read online, is that your best bet is to buy clothes and then get them tailored to fit.
Probably far more expensive wherever you live, but if you want a proper fit that's sized to your exact proportions, there's no better alternative. Maybe buy slightly too large if you're looking at something online and then do so.
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