Thursday, 22 February 2018

Shopping with sensory style

Stephs Two Girls February 22, 2018 ASD, autism, autistic, clothing, fashion, PDA, Primark, sensory, sensory issues, Sensory Processing Disorder, SPD

Today I did something with Sasha that I never thought I would do. We went into a changing room, and she tried on some clothes! This is relevant to my recent post about sensory issues.

Could she be the next Primark model?!

More specifically, we went into the changing rooms at Primark, and she admired their cubicle curtains which are black on one side and teal the other. She then asked me to wait outside the cubicle so that she could come out with the clothes on and do a grand reveal. It's funny how children always seem to have the ability to surprise you, isn't it?!

Thanks to everyone who responded to my previous posts on Facebook about struggling to find plain short sleeved jersey dresses for Sasha in a bigger size. I had lots of replies, and following those I did more online searching. I'd already got two dresses from H&M after someone reminded me of their online shopping option, but sadly they have ended up slightly on the small side after washing and drying.

I looked at a wider range of other stores on top of the usual High Street mainstream options; Next and Marks and Spencer had already been covered so I moved on to Joules, Fat Face, Seasalt, Boden, Lands End, Gap and Amazon. Nothing suitable sadly; I haven't had chance to check the big supermarkets yet, but I'm hopeful of finding one or two there in the run up to summer.

Today though, by employing some clever tactics, I made it out with Sasha for a shopping trip which I knew she wouldn't enjoy. A few days ago I'd ordered nine pairs of school shoes online with fingers tightly crossed that at least one pair would be suitable - thankfully, one was. That meant I needed to return the other eight pairs which didn't fit her, and that involved going to four different shoe shops and the Post Office!

Bear in mind that I'm lucky if I manage to make it into one or two shops if I'm ever out (very rarely) with Sasha, so this felt like a big mission. Once we'd sorted the shoes, I persuaded Sasha into Debenhams to look for a dress for her. I found just one, by Jasper Conran (not cheap, lucky me) which may do the trick as it's super soft... trouble is, it has long sleeves. So I bought it anyway, and will do my best to alter the sleeves by cutting them short and sewing - guess I have to start somewhere!

Then, as we were about to leave town, I remembered that a couple of people had suggested looking in Primark, as they thought they had seen T-shirt dresses in the adult section. Sasha wasn't overly keen but I swept her in and amazingly, as we passed a few racks of summer clothes, Sasha stopped at a sleeveless top with BUTTONS ALL THE WAY DOWN THE FRONT.

I totally resisted the urge to say 'seriously?!' and I searched the rack for the smallest size - Primark do a size 4 in adults, which is pretty small. I thought it might still be a little large (especially as the top had a slightly low V-neckline) so I suggested she tried it on in the changing rooms. I didn't for a second think she'd agree... but she did!

I quickly whizzed around the store looking for anything else that might be suitable. There were a couple of T-shirt dresses but they had straight skirts, which I suspected she would find too restrictive (she did, but it was lovely to see her in something different if only for a minute!). I suggested some shorts for summer might be good, and she agreed to try those on too.

Sasha was in high spirits, walking up and down the corridor in front of the mirror with her new clothes on as if she was on a catwalk, we laughed a lot, and it felt like quite a special mum-daughter occasion that I didn't think we'd ever have in this way. Sasha said the buttons felt 'a bit weird, but I'm sure I'll get used to them, as this is going to be my favourite ever top that I wear all summer!'

So today we left town with two button-up tops and 2 pairs of shorts. They're not exactly colour co-ordinated, and yes I'm sure she will wear pink with the orange and whatever takes her fancy, but as long as she's comfy, who cares?! She's probably got more fashion style than her mum anyhow..

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