Scrubs Make Me Crazy (long rant)

Nurses Uniform/Gear

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I'm 24. I'm 5'5" - 44-35-44. No shrinking violet, but not a bruiser, either. I live in skinny jeans and fitted tops and I like looking remotely "female" when I step out of the house.

Normally I'm pretty laid back. But scrub shopping makes me crazy.

I do not want pants that fasten under my armpits. I don't appreciate a full-circle elastic girdle of doom slowly squeezing the life out of me 12 hours a day. I don't want peg-legged monstrosities that my 57-year-old mother would be delighted to wear. I also don't want flare-legged trainwrecks that my 13-year-old self would have found TOTALLY KEWL !!1!1! back in 1998.

I have breasts. Obviously no scrub manufacturer has ever gotten close to such things, because no scrubs are designed to accommodate them. I am not a man. If my chest is 44" around, it does not mean that my biceps are also 44" around. Neither is my waist !

Not that measurements appear to be used in scrub design. Seriously. I'm normally a US size 12 and a medium or large top. But as I wade through piles of scrubs, I find myself in medium or small bottoms, and on one special occasion- extra small! I assure you, there is nothing about me that is or ever will be extra-small. Even as my pants seem to magically shrink in the dressing room, my tops balloon to commically large sizes. Medium? Can hardly pull it on. Large? My chest is still squished into a bizarre, quadro-boobed nightmare. Extra-Large? Suddenly my chest fits, but the sleeves come down to my elbows and I could hide a nine-month pregnancy under the midsection.

I see two generations of scrubs when I go shopping. The first were designed by men, for men. They are now called unisex and are generally shapeless and avoidable.

The second generation is more deadly. It fills you with false hope, because it's marketed for women. It's supposed to be updated, fashionable, etc. Lies, all lies!

Flare-leg pants ARE NOT STYLISH. Slitting them up the side 3 inches doesn't change this.

Empire waists and "wrap tops" make 99% of women look like pregnant, blimp-boobied BEASTS.

Frenetic patterns in bubblegum pink, gathering, ruching, and bow-tying are also not the path to scrub enlightenment.

Also - and I realize this may be more of a personal tic - I want to be respected. I don't feel like that happens with sweetheart necklines, lacy bits, or ribbony-shiny trim. There is a difference between a nicely fitted top and one that simply hugs and reveals cleavage.

Brands - The Worst of the Best

Grey's. I don't get the hype. Tops fit fine but the bottoms leave me, an amply-bottomed young lady, with saddle bags pooching around my bum and hips. The super-soft material that everybody goes nuts over also hangs terribly, and seems to reverse any sort of styling that went into the garment.

Koi. Of all brands, Koi is the worst. Koi fills me with false hope and then leaves me high and dry. My issue here is not with fit but with color selection. Which seems to have been made by some demented, evil, super-villain in a darkened laboratory somewhere. Camel colored pants! Bubblegum pink tops! Strawberry colored pants! Sickly yellow tops! Lovely wine-colored pants with HIDEOUS EYE-GOUGING light-blue contrast stitching! Koi, you make me want to slit my wrists!

Urbane. Also a heart-breaker, this one. They get the closest to 'modern' fit of all brands I've tried thus far. Unfortunately, they're clearly designed by non-medical professionals and thus have no pockets. My heart breaks when I find awesome-fitting Urbane pants with NO POCKETS ANYWHERE. It's like a magic trick - guess where all the pockets have gone? And the catch is that they never existed in the first place. Sob.

So this is my scrub rant. I am young and picky and would probably pay one million dollars for a set of scrubs that made me feel like a human being while I was wearing them. I've clearly been trying on way too much at this point, and I am exhausted and scrub-less. It doesn't help that my school wants maroon-colored scrubs. The mere mention of scrubs gives me an anxious eye tic that I'm afraid will never go away. School begins in six weeks and I know that eventually, I'll have to give in and buy the dreaded burgundy potato sack. Until then ... I can only dream.

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I wear Cherokee Workwear cargo pants with tees and snap-tops over them for pockets. I have a different problem. I am built like a pear with feet and if scrub tops fit across my hips I look like a potato.

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koi or go to the gym?!

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seamstress, and DONT look at the size on the pattern envelope!......if you can find the right color and dont mind seams in odd places, premade can be, somewhat fitted......also, if your hips and butt are the same measurement that means your pants are automatically a size smaller.

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I have to disagree with part of this rant. I love flare leg scrub pants AND empire waist tops. I think they look cute!

As far as brands go, I like Cherokee Workwear and believe it or not Simply Basic from Wally World. Dickies are the worst fitting scrubs I've EVER encountered.

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Why does she have to go to the gym? :uhoh3: She has large breasts!

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Specializes in ICU, ER.

Ditto! I also have XL (40E or EE) boobs and I'm 5'6 with the legs of the average 5'2 or less person so my pants always go up to my boobs and still drag on the floor (petite pants often fit weird and make me look like a granny).

I find Mobb and Wal-Mart are the best for those of us that were blessed :rolleyes: with big boobies. Otherwise I just buy whatever and look like a dork.

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Crazier than You .. I should specify, I think the Flare/Empire combo works well on women who are generally straight from shoulder to ankles, or who don't have large busts. Those of us with ... bulgy parts ... only get the worst accentuated with these styles.

HA! I love the recommendation to go the gym. I run about 10 miles a week. I've been a DDD since I was 16. I don't think the "ladies" are going to melt off anytime soon ;).

I think the final verdict will be tailoring a set of Urbanes to suit my needs. I'll end up shrinking the sleeves and adding some pockets, but it's worth it if it lets me feel comfortable in my own skin all day long !

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Crazier than You .. I should specify, I think the Flare/Empire combo works well on women who are generally straight from shoulder to ankles, or who don't have large busts. Those of us with ... bulgy parts ... only get the worst accentuated with these styles.

HA! I love the recommendation to go the gym. I run about 10 miles a week. I've been a DDD since I was 16. I don't think the "ladies" are going to melt off anytime soon ;).

I think the final verdict will be tailoring a set of Urbanes to suit my needs. I'll end up shrinking the sleeves and adding some pockets, but it's worth it if it lets me feel comfortable in my own skin all day long !

i thought the gym comment was more likely aimed at the waist measurement.....

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The waist measurement isn't really meaningful, either. Not that i'm in love with my 35" waist, but I wear size 12 or 10 jeans (that's average!) and i keep going down sizes in scrub bottoms because the waists are too big. i.e., i would expect to wear large (or even XL) bottoms but end up in med's or small's.

if anything ... all this shopping around has made me wonder if i need to GAIN 10 or 20 lbs to fit into these things properly.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Well, I AM a granny and these oh-so-precious wrap tops and dolled-up maternity type scrubs make us mature gals look ridiculous! Nobody over the age of 35 should ever have to wear those (unless, of course, she is actually pregnant).

And why, oh why, don't they make more scrubs in stretch fabrics for those of us who are 'fluffy'? There's nothing more embarrassing than having your britches split open when you bend over to empty a catheter bag.........I once had a pair that I must've paid 40 bucks for, they were roomy around the waist and enormous in the legs, but tight through the stomach and butt. One day at shift change, I went to finish my last I & O, bent over to open the valve, and SKRRRRRRRITCH! they ripped. :mad:

And it would be wonderful for those of us who are generously proportioned on top to be able to buy scrub shirts that are long enough to cover our bellies, don't show cleavage, move when and where we move, and don't fall off small shoulders. What is with manufacturers and plus-size clothing, anyway---what makes them think that a woman who wears a size 46 top wants to show her stomach to the entire world?! They also seem to believe that we all look like defensive linemen, with big shoulders and wide backs, which leaves us little ladies with more delicate builds underneath our flab looking like we're trying to wear our fathers' suit coats.

Which is why I gave up wearing scrubs in favor of regular slacks with pockets and nice tee shirts......:rolleyes:

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"Defensive linemen." That is exactly who they are designing for!

I'm pretty sure MEN design scrub tops because it's clearly never occurred to them that a bigger top ... that's going over a bigger chest or abdomen ... will need to be LONGER to make up for the mileage. I love putting on a scrub top and getting that early 90's bare-midriff vibe. It goes well with platform shoes and bell-bottom pants ...:eek:

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