Fashion observations

I am not a fashion expert by any means. If anything, I am one of those people fashion experts despair over. I shop for clothes rarely and sparingly. My wardrobe consists primarily of comfortable clothes. However, there is no denying a couple of observations. 1. When we came back five years ago, we saw a lot of midriffs and very low riding waistlines. 2. Now these have almost disappeared, but shirts seems to have shifted south. Now we see a lot of shoulder, cleavage and the tops of boobs. People don't seem to mind if their bra straps are seen, in fact they seem to flaunt them, if they are wearing them at all. All this is even more evident because Japanese are nowhere near so nonchalant about showing their skin. They don't even wear shorts, for the most part, except with tights in winter! I went clothes shopping today. A pretty rare event, really. While I found it pretty easy to find pants, shorts and skirts, it was a lot more difficult to locate tops that I would feel comfortable wearing. It was a pleasure to try on size S and 10 instead of looking at the 'large size' section as I do in Japan. Not that I've suddenly lost weight between there and here, by the way! Clothes shopping became a necessity because I culled my wardrobe pretty harshy before we left Japan. Paying a lot of money to ship home clothes that are very old and some no longer fitting well didn't seem like a smart move to me. So, an excuse to buy myself some new clothes, especially thinking about the workshop in Manila which probably won't be a shorts and t-shirts event. I found myself in the middle of some good sales (not because I'd planned it that way) and I didn't pay full price on anything I bought today (except the Freddo that I bought to help me through till lunch).