To be royally pissed off with retailers who don't stock size 16 work-out gear!

[Vagabond]

I am hardly obese but find it impossible to find anything that is flattering or looks nice. I'm just trying to get fit! That's supposed to be good? Right?

I went into Sweaty Betty only to be told that all their size 16s had sold out. Hello! Message to retailers - size 16 is the average size of British women. Where is the stuff that I WANT! So pissed off and humiliated. The sales assistant was great and apologised but still....

All I can say is thank goodness I didn't try on the size 14 she suggested! No need to heap on the humiliation, my dear

Stays on sofa, munches crisps in abject defeat

Sweaty Betty is fab. Worth every penny. Washes like a dream and is flattering - try the website.

And they also do very long lengths for tall people (oh sorry lean are tall people excluded from exercise as well as size 16 fatties?)

Good luck with the exercise. YANBU. Shops should cater for all shapes and sizes - Take note fecking Hollister (my DSD is supposedly "too fat" to work in their shops).

Thanks for the links above, peeps, they're really useful. I'm a size 18 and hate the fact I can't find comfy workout gear in my size.

Simply Be stock brands like Reebok in larger sizes.

They're opening shops accross the country too now, its not just online anymore.

YANBU to be annoyed your size isn't in stock

YABU to suggest that they don't stock it when they do but it's out of stock.

Ask them to get it into the shop or order online? I always find my size is gone because it's popular (which is why you'll probably find yours is also out of stock) and just ask them when they'll be getting in new stock.

If they aren't getting any more in then it's also unreasonable unless they're no longer making that stock and just getting rid of the rest

Cherry, wtf? You say yourself that you have trouble getting clothes to fit you then have a go at op for deluded whinging?

Glad you've backed down a bit but I struggle to understand the level of hostility aimed at an op having a wee moan about clothes shopping.

Who here has never moaned about clothes shopping?

Stop whining about being small, just buy some second hand kids clothes from a charity shop and get on with it. There's no need to be trendy you know.

(sarcasm of course, I imagine that like most women, you like to look your best and to find shopping a pleasure)

why is it ok to have a pop at small women but not big ones?

yeah whatever...

As a bloke I'm totally flummoxed by the logic or apparently lack of it with the OP.

So let me see if I understand what's happened.

OP goes into a shop. She's a size 16, they've sold out. Said retailer is now accused of 'not stocking' size 16 which plainly must be untrue or they wouldn't have 'sold out'.

In addition sales assistant suggests trying on a size 14 which OP finds for some reason 'humiliating' which also confuses me because shouldn't that be a compliment? My male logic would assume that if assistant thought you were too tubby to squeeze into a 14, she'd have kept her trap shut?

OP has said she was a size 20 and now a 16 which to me suggests she's done some sort of exercise so likely to have some gear. Why you need designer clothes to make you in the right frame of mind is utterly beyond me?? My gear consists of the cheapest stuff I could get away with from SportsDirect, a shop I hate with a passion but it's cheap and it's only getting sweaty/muddy anyway.

Lastly, why get so upset over a shop running out of stock in one size? I'm going buying a new top later. If they're out of Large and suggest an XL, I can't imagine I'd be particularly fussed about it. I'll take my money elsewhere.

That's the feminine mystique for you, niceguy....

Being offered an alternative size, even a smaller one, by a shop assistant indicates that they want to make the sale, not that they think you could squeeze into a smaller size or that it would look ok.

I think the OP is going to go to a class she feels apprehensive about and these designer clothes would act like some kind of 'armour',, give the illusion of fitting in even if OP doesn't feel like she does right now. I don't think that anybody would be looking in any event, 'old hands' are focusing on themselves and how they look and newbies are concentrating on the moves. That's my experience anyway.

I don't think the OP's first post was going to garner a lot of sympathy but I think perhaps it just wasn't very well written. I think the OP was getting 'all her ducks in a row', the designer gear was part of that and when a plan doesn't work completely, it can be unnerving.

I hope OP has found some clothes that she likes/will feel comfortable in - and more importantly, enjoys the class.

For any lurkers who are looking for larger workout clothes, JJB Sports stock up to 18/20 in loads of different styles and stock Shock Absorber bras too. Plus the JJB discount shops have 2 for 1 on most items.