Dear women’s clothing manufacturers: We want the rest of the blouse, please

I caused a ruckus at a clothing store and it was awesome. Many things emboldened me to create this commotion. Foremost was that the disturbance was a good 1,600 miles away from where I live.

The distance pretty much guaranteed that I’d probably never see anyone again in the vicinity of the ruckus, and that’s fuel to behave in a way you wouldn’t in your hometown. If this were a math equation, it would be distance + strangers = verbal freedom.

It all started very innocently. I was in a store, meandering around and commenting (or maybe ranting) to myself about the fact that cropped blouses are still in style.

I’ve been raging against cropped blouses for at least two years. The top three reasons why I hate them are as follows:

1. Why would you take a beautiful blouse and cut it in half?

2. Who is the customer for this blouse? As in, who would buy a blouse that exposes your midriff while standing, sitting and would make bending over and not displaying body parts you’d prefer not to flash impossible?

3. Why does half a blouse cost the same as a full-length blouse?

As an addendum, I don’t think many people are buying the cropped blouses because clearance racks are jam packed with them.

An addendum to the addendum: When sales associates try to get you to embrace the cropped blouse, they say things like, “You could add some fabric to the bottom.”

Excuse me? When I buy a blouse, I don’t want to go to the expense of adding fabric to make it wearable in public.

Another response those associates try out: “If you pair the blouse with high-waisted pants, your stomach would be covered.” Umm, no thank you. As a general rule I don’t buy pants where the zipper starts at my bra line.

Unbeknownst to me, my ranting about cropped blouses was overheard by two women who eagerly joined in. Both were bewildered by this fashion design travesty.

At first I was taken aback and made a note to myself that I needed to work harder on keeping my inner monologues from escaping out of my mouth. Then I felt joy. I had found my people: fellow cropped blouse haters.

These two women were full of righteous anger, and I was there for it. At last, I wasn’t the only one with these emotions. As we animatedly shared our distaste for the cropped blouse, we drew other women.

It seems that the cropped blouse had been a festering fury that needed to be released. In a matter of minutes seven women were united in indignation.

Two sales associates came over to see what the hullabaloo was about. Soon they joined us and expressed their distaste for the offending article of clothing. One even confessed, “We can’t give them away.”

At that moment we were women united in a burgeoning movement called “we want the rest of the blouse.” It was heady stuff. I even started a “we want the rest of blouse” chant. It only lasted about 10 seconds but, still. It does technically qualify as a chant. Right?

Slowly we all went back to shopping, but not before all of us promised to carry on the fight.

I don’t know what the future holds but I’m hopeful that someday soon the cropped blouse will be relegated to the “horrible fashion ideas perpetrated on women” dumpster. Fingers crossed that barrel jeans will also be in that trash bin.

Reach Sherry Kuehl at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com, on Facebook at Snarky in the Suburbs @snarkynsuburbs, on Instagram @snarky.in.the.suburbs, and snarkyinthesuburbs.com.

This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.