Which shop do you think sells genuine sizes?

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Having been a lot bit overweight for a really long time while I want to get motivated. I plan to choose an outfit to work towards wearing as a way of keeping me motivated. Which shop sells sizes that are genuine sizes? I know that M and S has a reputation for being too generous. I have no idea about NEXT anymore. Can anyone help? I had thought Monsoon but don't really know.

Trust me, as someone who has had a baby, and yet has no hips, I can testify that whoever shops are cutting clothes for its not us straight up and down types. Teenager shops seem to all cut on the basis they all have arses and hips, just slightly less so than somewhere like m&s. Clearly clothes are cut for somewhere between narrow hips and wide hips, and thus fit nobody.

I get scowled at in some shops if I am buying for my daughter but she's not with me. (holister I am looking at you. If I want to treat her to some jeans I will and no you don't have to mention at the till the ones I've got are size 00 when I'm clearly not that size!)

Don't know what 'genuine' sizes really are any more (basically everywhere has vanity sizing vs. a few decades ago!) - but see if this helps on size-by-store: sizes.darkgreener.com

If you put in your current, or target, measurements, it'll give you an idea of what size you should take in a variety of stores.

(Plus which shops are most likely to have an appropriate fit for your shape / level of hourglass-iness in different items)

River Island. I know I'm a twelve when I fit in a river Island 12 and Asda I fit in 8s and 10s.

As someone who detests shopping and prefers to do it all online, this drives me bonkers.

I have clothing from Age 13 and a size 6 up to a size 12. All fit me perfectly. They can't all be right!

the size guides on line never work!!! Hence I now have an M&S wardrobe as I can be sure if I purchase anything from there my size is the same

Not a one. Some shops are known for large sizes, some small etc....but they're not always consistent and it really depends on your shape. For example, I have lost a ton of weight but broadened with training, so slipping on last year's cashmere sweaters (from when I was overweight) I thought they would look better: they look like I'm channelling mid 90s belly tops.

Depends how long you're targeting the weight loss (if a few weeks, by all means pick an outfit), but a shop with consistent sizes might be a good shout. Or alternatively a fab pair of jeans. For the former, I find Hobbs are pretty consistent (I am short and hourglass shaped). Reiss also reasonably consistent. Zara for example: I have a size 8 dress that fits and a 12 jacket that's too tight - I haven't a fucking clue what size I am in that shop.

Sorry, not RTFT.
Went to a funeral last week. Wore long forgotten skirt, size 16, Dorothy Perkins. Fitted perfectly.

I wear a size 10 jeans Dorothy Perkins jeans most days.

They are all shit, vanity sizing has taken over! My mum was a professional model in the '50's, measured 36-24-36, we are all heffalumps!!!!

Seriously, sizes these days are mad, I have size 10's I can't get past my knees from 70's,80's, but I wear 6/8 these days, keeps the fat birds happy I suppose!

I have a vintage dress I want to sell on Ebay. It's labelled a size 10. I wear anything between a 6 and a 12 but usually the lower end (36" hips, 26 waist). I'm trying to think of a way of wording the ad that doesn't scream "trust me, it's tiny, you won't fit in it". Actually it fits over my hips, it's just not cut for anyone more than an A cup.

maybe you have fat knees...

I'm curvy at 5ft 11 and yet to find a vanity store please do point me in the direction :)

Another that agrees they're all different. I find next comes up huge, they're the only place I've ever had to buy a size 8 and I'm a 10-12 in old money.

The biggest problem is that the shops aren't even consistent with their own labelling. More than once I've bought different sizes in the same shop.

Primark sizing is NOT reliable. Their sweatshops can make stuff either way too small or way too big. I picked up some trousers and a jumper in a size 16 (my size). I couldn't get the trousers past my knees and you could have fitted two of me in the jumper!

In the more high end the cut also means that size varies a lot so usually a 10 will fit and sometimes not

Joseph usually small fit especially trousers but slightly erratic
Nicole Farhi - big/normal
Agnes B - very weird shaping only suitable for tiny tube figures
Prada - on size and good fit shame about the price

Where I usually shop!
Whistles - true to size
Reiss - ditto
Jigsaw- tendency to big
Gap - massive
M and S - definitely big
Karen Millen - small and not for curves

They are all crap and even within one shop there is no consistency. Last week I bought two pairs of Dorothy P jeggings, both 'Eden' style name but in different colours. Both fit perfectly - one is a 14 short and the other is a 12 regular. They fit exactly the same! I'm anything from a 10 in one shop to a 16 in another, it makes no sense.

H&M and Zara are real culprits for bonkers sizing though, I can be anything from an XS to an XL in there at any one time.

I find it goes a bit by price. I am a 10 or S in Jaeger (with some room for, ahem, growth), a snug 10 or S in M&S, 12-14 or M in H&M and at least a 16 or L in Peacocks.

I know I'm a healthy size quite happy but just wish that I could pop into any shop and pick up "my" size... God I hate changing rooms

My DP just doesn't have the same issue,

no standard sizes: no 'size 10 is x cm on the waist' for example.

it is assumed that females enjoy shopping and are happy to spend hours doing it. Still, good incentive to do less of it.

the label in your knickers is no longer relevant once you are older than about seven.

There is no such thing as standard sizing. Or vanity sizing for that matter. The way shops work (it was like this 20 years ago when i was studying to be a fashion buyer at LCoF so i am assuming it hasn't changed) is that a 12 is the size they sell most of, a 14 is 2 inches/a size bigger and a 10 a size smaller. That's the way they manufacture their clothes. So a 12 is 'average' for that shop. That's why i have DVF dresses which are a 'size 18' but are actually what a 14 would be in FCUK and a 12 in Hobbs.

As the population has got bigger, the standard size 12 in each shop has got bigger. Not because of vanity but because it's easier to have 12 as the standard size for the retailers.

Teenage shop 12s are smaller as the average shopper is thinner and the more expensive shops like Hobbs are bigger purely because their average shopper is more likely to be older and therefore fatter.

I find Gap tiny as they are all so tight on the calves. So to get trousers from them i need a 16 (which then swims on my waist which is a size 10 generally) whereas i am usually a 12-14 in other shops (for my hips).

It's incredibly variable depending on your body shape, and even with a single retailer sizing can vary.

The previous poster mentioned Gap sizing as being tiny - whereas because of my build I find their clothes huge.

FWIW I find Fat Face quite true to size, ie I am almost always an 8 there whereas I can be anything between a 4 and a 10 at other retailers.

It's nothing new, been the same for last 55 years imo, like a lottery

M&S size 14 jeans now is same size as their size 18 from fifteen years ago..... I assume it all depends on the manufacturer making the garment; as so many are made outside of the UK it is open to local interpretation, especially in countries that don't generally wear western-style clothing.

Here in Dubai size means nothing to a tailor, so saying 'I'm size 14' means zilch to him and it's the same in Pakistan. So the retailer dictates the measurements for a size.

You know, it doesn't matter whether the label say 12, 16 or 42. Just buy something that fits.

I don't look at someone's outfit an think "who is she kidding? That is such an enormous size 14 she's wearing."