Clothes shopping for older lady

[mommyatty]

My MIL basically hasn’t bought new clothes since I quit shopping with her when DD was born. DD is almost 6. What this means is that in the Texas heat, the woman is wearing jeans, a tank, and a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up. This drives me bat shit crazy because it means she constantly bitches about being hot, she looks like an idiot, and I’m seriously worried about taking her anywhere we have to be outside because heatstroke is a real thing.

We are taking her with us to HHI in a few weeks, and this week I just bluntly told her we need to go shopping for appropriate summer clothes because our entire vacation is going to be spent outdoors and she’s going to die if she tries to wear jeans. She happily agreed and then told me she hasn’t shopped since we stopped shopping together.

So now... where do I take her? She’s probably around a size 16 (I’m guessing), refuses to wear most shorts unless they are very long, and tends to wear pantyhose which defeats the purpose of finding cool summer dresses. J Jill? Loft? Macy’s?

[akafred]

My MIL lives at TJMaxx and Marshalls. But any of the (slightly) nicer department stores like Kohls or Macy's would work.

[supertrooper1]

Chicos and The Dress Barn. I would look for capris or light cotton pants.

[mustardseed2007]

Chicos for sure. Macy's too?

[sdlaura]

Do you have any outlets near you? My MIL isn’t big on shopping but loves when I take her to the outlets near me and we go to the Banana Republic outlet, Gap outlet, and Ann taylor outlet.

[mae0111]

Talbots has nice summer clothes for that age. If you have an outlet anywhere near you the deals are decent. And the clothes last forever.

[2chatter]

Kohl’s, J Jill, Chicos, Soft Surroundings (the last one is the best one - plenty of “resort wear” that can double as every day but made out of breezy fabrics so she won’t melt).

[mommyatty]

We ended up hitting the mother lode at J Jill then found a few more pieces at Chico’s. I was surprised we didn’t end up at Kohl’s or Macy’s.

I’ve never heard of Soft Surroundings. We will have to look for that around here!

She ended up with a few long sleeved shirts in very light fabrics, a cute long black dress, a few nice tees, and two pairs of Capri-length pants. No shorts because she wants very wide legs, not straight legs. She has a couple of pairs of khaki shorts she can wear, though she says they are a little too small now.

[rere]

Wow! We must be SIL. Tell mom I said Hi.

[HeartofCheese]

You could also grab her some shapewear. If she's me 25 years from now, it's about chafe prevention when it comes to skirts and dresses.