Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that "fat shops" like Evans and Ann Harvey don't do their customers any favours by making their sizes much larger than they usually are?

370 replies

MrsSchadenfreude · 30/01/2011 17:58

Was in London last week, nipped into both. Tried on jeans in Evans, even a size 16 was too big (and I am SO not a 16). Went into Horrible Ann Harvey, Polyester Queen, and overheard the woman saying to a customer, "No, the sizes come up much bigger than in regular shops. If you're a size 16 in M & S, there won't be anything here to fit you."

Is this not going to lull porkers (I am one, I am allowed to say that) into a false sense of their own size, if they think, oh I am "only" a size 16, which is not too bad, when actually they are probably a 22+ in "normal" shops?

OP posts:
LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/01/2011 11:29

confuddled... I don't think it's patronising actually, just daft, but it obviously works from a marketing perspective.

I've not tried Bravissimo... will have to look at that site.

penelope... a porker is not an animal, it's simply an adjective and, in my view, nothing to get het up about, certainly nothing to take the OP to task over. There was nothing inflammatory in the OP and, if one looks hard enough - or not hard at all - there's something on this forum to offend everybody.

BusyMissIzzy · 31/01/2011 11:32

I don't understand why shops would alter sizes according to their target age group. Surely once you're an adult, a 10 is a 10 and a 14 is a 14, regardless of your age?

It's vanity sizing, the same reason sizes have generally gotten bigger over the decades. If I fit into an 8 I'm more likely to buy it, but if I try on a 12 and it's too small I almost certainly wouldn't buy a 14. So calling something an 8 or a 10 when it's really a 12 or 14 appeals to people's vanity. Same goes in shops aimed at larger women.

TrillianAstra · 31/01/2011 11:46

"I don't understand why shops would alter sizes according to their target age group."

No, but they really really do.

Apart from plus-size shops, I find a handy rule of thumb is that the younger the average customer, the larger a size I will need.
So M&S is big, Jane Norman is tiny (and made for people with no boobs).

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/01/2011 11:54

Next is fab though and I really like Boden, the measurements are true to what they state they are.

confuddledDOTcom · 31/01/2011 11:57

A porker is a pig fattened to provide meat (read the dictionary) so yes, it is an animal!

The sizing is not about marketing, it's about using proper sizes and not over scaling, which is how most shops that don't specialise in larger sizes or have seperate large size ranges make their clothes.

Bravissimo clothes are great when you're a bigger bust size, they make you slim and give you boobs - such a confidence boost!

MummieHunnie · 31/01/2011 12:00

When I looked at Bravissimo clothes a few years ago, it seemed quite expensive, has the situation changed?

confuddledDOTcom · 31/01/2011 12:00

Altering for age group isn't just a case of changing the size in the lable either. If you take a teen and a middle age woman who are a size 12 and compare them they're different shapes and won't fit the same clothes, even though their inches are the same. You carry weight differently, you may have had babies if you're middle aged, the natural waist line will be in different places.

If I'm making something for someone I use their measurements, not a standard for their size because there's a good chance it won't fit.

confuddledDOTcom · 31/01/2011 12:03

Bravissimo still isn't cheap and I doubt they ever will be because they don't make enough to get the bulk discounts. It's a nice splurge occasionally when you have to go up sizes to accommodate your boobs and end up looking fat and frumpy (and I'm talking about how I feel in my clothes, not how other women look because I've not thought that about other women).

Niceguy2 · 31/01/2011 12:06

I must confess I've not read all 8 pages. But isn't the answer obvious?

The size the clothes bigger so it makes a woman feel better when she fits into a smaller size. Call it what you like. Delusion even?

But ultimately thats exactly why they do it. So said fat woman can say to her friends "oooh I'm a size 16" and fool herself into thinking she is whilst her mates are thinking "yeah right....."

The last thing Evans/Ann Harvey wants is for their "cough" larger customers to go into the store and get even more depressed.

MummieHunnie · 31/01/2011 12:08

get even more depressed Hmm

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/01/2011 12:09

Well you obviously know more about pigs than I do. I still think of 'porker' as a none-to-serious jibe in relation to somebody's weight. OP didn't name anybody, it was just part of her thread.

The marketing that I was referring to is of course the vanity sizing aspect and I know it exists. It would be great if all shops would stick to universal sizing with perhaps different cuts for various shapes, but that would probably push the costs up and they won't.

I think that there are a lot of people in denial over their size and, whilst it's good for people to be happy with themselves, it's not good for them to 'make believe what isn't'. For example... Marilyn Monroe was a size 16 - she wasn't, not by today's measurements.

Peachy · 31/01/2011 12:15

maybe it works both ways?

Was an M&S 20 in September; now an M&S 14. My old Evans size 16 jeans quite literally fall down so I guess hte same there.

Had I been sticking to random shops nd struggling to get into mainstream saizes I might have given in by now but it's spurring me on not to have to buy from the plus size ranges.

Dorothy Perkins size 14 as well. Not tesco, though.

penelopestitsdropped · 31/01/2011 12:17

The op described all customers of these stores as porkers.

Jaquelinehyde · 31/01/2011 12:29

'The last thing Evans/Ann Harvey wants is for their "cough" larger customers to go into the store and get even more depressed.'

Hmm Shame your name doesn't match your attitude Niceguy2.

confuddledDOTcom · 31/01/2011 12:31

No, I just know how to use a dictionary. The PORK part though kind of gives away the fact it's something to do with pigs.

I don't care what the numbers on my clothes say, as long as they fit. I have a selection between 14 and 22. I'm a 16 which is fine for my height but I end up getting bigger sizes because I'm tall and the waist is too low. This is what I mean about scaling up. If shops say they do a tall version, they normally mean longer legs but they don't redraw them properly to allow for longer bodies. If something is made for tall women I can wear a proper size. Scaling up to make larger sizes means that you have something that is a large version of an 10, no curves allowed.

I'm not depressed about my size, I find that pretty insulting. I have long term PGP and fibro, I'm not as active as I was when I was teen because I'm not fit enough to be. I have more to worry about than the numbers in clothes.

Niceguy2 · 31/01/2011 12:38

EH? Thought I was being more diplomatic than a few of you ladies who are using words like "porker"

Jaquelinehyde · 31/01/2011 12:40

If that is you with your diplomatic hat on then for Christ sake don't ever offer your services to NATO. Grin

TrillianAstra · 31/01/2011 12:41

No, you were being patronising with the "cough", as if you wanted to say much nastier words but refrained so as not to offend anyone's delicate sensibilities.

If you had wanted to just say the sentence you could have without that little snarky cough.

confuddledDOTcom · 31/01/2011 12:50

Niceguy, how is assuming that all customers of these shops are depressed about their weight any different?

MummieHunnie · 31/01/2011 12:58

diplomatic Hmm

BusyMissIzzy · 31/01/2011 13:01

Oh I know shops definitely tailor their sizes to age groups, I just don't understand why. So 20 year olds can be a size 8, and then still be a size 8 aged 40 when they're a few stone heavier? It should all be standardised, it would make clothes shopping much easier.

P.S. LyingWitch you're my new best friend; I'm wearing Next size 8 jeans, and had assumed they were just a 'roomy' 8, but if you think Next sizes are true then that sounds good to me Grin

katiestar · 31/01/2011 13:55

PORKER IS A TERM refering only to pigs and so is of course dehumanising when applied to peopleI find the underlying implication by some posters that overweight people are in some way inferior to non-overweight people very worrying and bigotted

spongebobsquareknickers · 31/01/2011 14:06

katiestar, I missed anyone implying that overweight people are inferior to non-overweight people. Could you give me an example?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 31/01/2011 14:24

Why are so many people all hung up on a silly word like 'Porker'? Beyond my comprehension... and why are such sensitive souls posting on a chatboard?

Anybody can post where they like of course but this neverending debate over the word 'Porker' has completely bypassed the topic of the thread. Get a grip for goodness sakes... Hmm

confuddledDOTcom · 31/01/2011 15:08

Sponge maybe because they're calling them fatted pigs ready to be eaten?