I’m basically Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club, dumping my purse and my problems out right here in front of you. I don’t eat Cap’n Crunch pixie stick sandwiches, though, so there’s that.
To be honest, I’m always intrigued and interested to know what people keep in their bags. A friend of mine once pulled three unopened cans of Diet Coke from her purse. And a pair of shoes. I swear. When Emily went for her first day of filming a few weeks ago, we provided the entire cast with pens to fill out some paperwork. “Of course you have pens, you’re A MOM,” said Emily, “You always have pens. And gum.”
She speaks the truth, that child. Necessities, yanno?
Here’s what is currently in my bag: set of keys, Tic Tacs x2, TUMS x2, gum, gravol, pens x5, business cards, Zantac, epipen, Chapstick medicated x2, lip stick, lip gloss x2, wallet, anti-bacterial hand gel, hand cream, hair clips x2, bobby pins x2. (My phone would be in there, but I used it to take the photo, of course.)
Oh, and a LOFT gift card.
FOR YOU.
I will get back to this in a second, I promise.
First, let’s talk about pants.
My wardrobe has very few pairs of pants in it, and it’s not for lack of trying. I’m short, like, just under 5″2 short, and have fairly muscular thighs which are biggish in proportion to the rest of my body (thanks squats and lunges!) so most pants, well, they are built for someone else. They are either too tight in the thigh and too loose everywhere else. They are too low in the waist for my 35-year-old birthed-three-babies tummy. They are too baggy in the wrong places. They just…don’t fit me properly.
And I don’t even want to talk about the extra cost for the shortening. Always.
My friends at LOFT challenged me—they assured me that they’d be able to find me the perfect pair of pants. (Disclaimer: They did pay for my pair of pants, but as always, all opinions here are my own.)
Intrigued, I took them up on this challenge. IT CAN’T BE DONE, I said. I lugged my daughter (and my purse full of pens and gum) to the new LOFT store at Markville mall in Markham. I tried on about 45 pairs of pants, in both regular and petite. Everyone in the store—my daughter, employees, even fellow shoppers—agreed that the Petite Marisa Trouser pants are the best fit for me. There was no weird sagginess. They fit perfectly in the waist. And the didn’t make my thighs look big.
I concur.
And I walked home with a brand-new pair in black that require exactly no tailoring at all. No shortening, no nipping, no tucking.
I’m probably going back for the grey pair. And maybe the tan too.
And now LOFT wants to help you find the perfect pair of pants too!
They do have a quick 5-minute online guide to help you find the right style, but go into the store, tell them that Ali The LOFT Girl sent you for the royal pants treatment. To win, all you need to do is tell me THE MOST RANDOM THING IN YOUR BAG RIGHT NOW. Come on, it can’t be more random than the diet coke and shoes, right? I will choose a winner randomly at 9pm on Monday, September 23rd. Good luck!
67