Huge bike shop, limited women's cycling apparel

[nuliajuk]

...I appreciate TE exists and hopes as an online retailer/supplier, you will be there. But from a standpoint of paying customs brokerage fees for US pkgs. bound for international customers, I'm not keen at this time.

Admittedly I am a shopper that buys clothing in person, not online.

T.E. uses the postal service, not UPS. (Yes, I've been burned by UPS.) I ordered shorts from them and didn't have to pay any customs fees. Unfortunately, they didn't fit, and the postage back was a bit pricey, but if I'd kept them it wouldn't have been much more expensive than buying from a local store. So why don't I buy from local stores? Because they only offer tiny sizes. The assumption is that any woman who rides a lot must be a lean athlete, size 10 or less.

[breeze]

I wear casual skorts to work for much of in the summer. I don't care to ride in a bike skort, though I have seen a lot of women wearing running skorts this year.

There are several of the casual/dressier skorts (for tennis or hiking?) that I like at REI (Royal Robbins, Isis brands) as well as at Lands End and Title Nine. The Royal Robbins discovery skort in particular is one that I've worn while teaching, traveling, and jumping on a trampoline (though not all at the same time!) and it seems that there's more of a selection in the past year or two.

[shootingstar]

I wear small sizes across all types of clothing, cycling and non-cycling. Usually small sizes are either lst gone or they are last sold from a clothing line.

It's become a bigger problem (literally) in the past few decades because even a size 0-2, the top may be too wide: because I've inherited narrow shoulder width, back width, my bone frame is just smaller/petite.

But great: I didn't know there would be regional market differences, availability of clothing styles. Maybe if a woman hasn't actually seen a type of garment on other women in her area, she might not know or who to ask for recommended suppliers/retailers.

I'm just using skort as an example and it's practical, since it allows women jogging and cycling to wear something that they perceive as more flattering, if they feel self-conscious about their thighs/butt.

***********But really, the topic is much more broader on practical women's cycling clothing who want mid-priced range stuff and just want to cycle comfortably without wanting to look too "athletic"....just to get to work or go grocery shopping by bike.