To think clothes sizes in high street shops have gone off the rails!

[SweetMagnolia423]

I was out shopping yesterday and wasn’t looking for anything in particular but as you do, went into a couple of high street shops and tried on some jeans and combats.
Firstly, tried on a pair of ‘comfy’ wide leg jeans in my size 12. Put them on and fgs they looked awful. Cutting right up my backside. Even with the elastic bit of waist band at the back, they still felt uncomfortably tight. All of my clothes are size 12.
Anyway, moving onto the next store and I spotted some cargo pants I have been eyeing up for ages. Picked 2 pairs of EXACTLY the same size 30/30 (30 waist/30 leg), but different colours. Tried the first one on and no joke, the legs were sooo wide I could have made sails out of them. I looked ridiculous and the waist was so loose I could swing them around. They were that bad I was convinced I had somehow picked up the wrong size but I checked the label and it’s definitely 30/30. Tried the second pair on and completely different fit. Actually did fit better.
while this was going on, my OH was shopping and bought a second pair of the jeans he was actually wearing cause he wanted a ‘spare’. He literally walked and picked and bought the exact same jeans size/colour/style without trying them on. Got home, put them on and they are huge! Have to return them…

I bought some jeans from New Look. 30 leg as always. Except every single pair in this shade that says it's a 30 leg is not a 30 leg. They are all 28 leg. Me and the store assistant went through them all with a tape measure. We don't know if this will always be the case or if it's a faulty batch. For now I've bought them in a lighter shade which should also be a 30 leg but is a 29 leg 😂 I can get away with that but 28 really is too short. The next size up is a 32 leg which is far too long for me. And yes, I measured the 32s and they are all infuriatingly accurate at 32 inches.

Apparently it's the same for dark jeans

That’s interesting about darker shades being smaller!
Zara- size 6 in all light blue jeans, 8 in the black.
Also noting if you read the measurements on their website that is absolutely vanity sizing.

I've lost 3 and a half stone since September and have no idea what size I am. I have clothes ranging from 12-18 and can wear them all. I walk into a shop and have to pick up 4 different sizes of anything I like and just keep going Goldilocks style until something fits.

I referred to myself as Goldilocks yesterday in River Island 😂

I have the same problem as your DH! I just want a second pair, exactly the same as the ones I have but now I have to drive down to the actual shop. Kids clothes are just as bad, age 5 to 6 in Sainsbury's is two sizes bigger than age 5 to 6 in M&S so you can never really be sure what you're going to get. It makes online shopping a waste of time.

Some of this would just about be OK if we didn’t worry about the size labels AND could actually try a range on. But you can’t. Shop stock is poor, particularly for short or long lengths. So you look at an item online and have to guess. Piecing it together from little clues like the frame of a model nothing like yours and the reviews if there are some (if people are saying the arms are too short, that’s a good sign for me). Currently I have a pair of jeans and a cardigan in three different sizes (to decide between) as there was no way to know if they would come up big or small.

It’s tedious and terrible for the environment, as is all this cheaply produced clothing.

Jeans are particularly tough, especially as pps said as there is so much variety in denim fabric and you can’t feel it online. And then they don’t even meet the specifications.

I have a cardigan in Large from Zara and a T-shirt from M&S in a size 6 and everything in between 🤷‍♀️

Plus most of the models online don't wear the clothes properly.

I wanted a smart coat for a for a funeral in January, some of which would involve standing outside with it buttoned up due to the weather. I wanted to know how the front would hang to make sure it went with my dress.

Loads of models online had the coat opened and slung off one shoulder, or they were doing some kind of stepping out pose with the open coat swinging forwards or standing slouched with the coat open and one hand in their trouser pocket and the other hand on their head.

It was impossible to find someone just standing straight with the coat fastened, like how normal people wear a coat.

YANBU I completely despair of shopping. Zara is absolutely bonkers. I’m a size 10 on bottom, sometimes a size 12 if I want a bit of baggyness. Went to try a size 14 on in Zara as someone warned me the sizes are small and couldn’t get them past my (slim) thighs! I was so annoyed. Why do they do this?

My dd bought a pair of size 6 jeans on vinted the other day. They were hanging off her. I'm a size 10 usually I tried them on and they were a little bit roomy but fine. They are lovely jeans so I will wear them but teenage dd isn't impressed.

I can’t online shop either. Aside from the fact most models don’t look human, the stupid poses they do often obscure half the clothes! Why can’t they just stand still? I don’t intend to spend the day looking behind me is I flick my arms out or rest my hand on my chin so why are you posing like that? I can’t see the fucking top I wanna buy!

Zara online used to note ‘this fits small, size up’ or vice versa but that seems to have gone. Ditto ‘model is x height and wearing x size’.
The positions they pose in are LUDICROUS.

Yep.

Look at this one. Stand up straight woman I can’t see the dress!

I LOVE your user name @APATEKPHILLIPEWATCH ❤️

@ dottiedodah
“my late MIL used to despair at dresses 👗 losing their pattern due to cutting (she was a professional dressmaker)but all like that now really”

I couldn’t agree more. I too am an M and S shopper - I’ve had to return dresses because a tiered skirt was so badly cut that the pattern was noticeably on a slope. As for matching up patterns or stripes - no chance! I’ve even had to mend holes where seams haven’t caught properly, leaving a gap! Buying things online is just a lottery - and trousers have been “guess the size” for a long time now.

Well I think they’ve gone bonkers in the sense that they’re enormous. I’ve been 8-10 since the 80s and now I’m buying a 6 in everything. Back in the day 6 was miniscule. I don’t agree Zara sizes small, I’d say they come up normal to large. It’s just that it’s a European brand and it hasn’t supersized the way U.K. brands have - although they have maybe a bit. French brands are the same - the brands I’ve worn since I was a teen are still the same sizing.

It's very annoying and nothing new either, even as a student I always had to buy bigger in places like h&m and smaller in M&S etc

Oh don't

I ordered a Next size 6 white fitted shirt

You could have put two of me in it

I ended up having to buy AGE 11 boys

I hate Next for this. River Island isn't much better

It’s ridiculous and so varied even in the same product! I used to be able to just buy my size and know it would fit now I have to try everything on first before I buy. Might be me getting older but my body shape hasn’t changed that much!

I have a cardigan in Large from Zara and a T-shirt from M&S in a size 6 and everything in between

Zara’s sizes are like dolls’ clothes so that doesn’t remotely surprise me.

My ten year old daughter - reasonably tall but skinny - is now wearing Zara size XS adult. Trousers are far too long but tops and shorts or skirts are perfect. This is not me deluding myself about my child's figure either, she has always been in the bottom 25th percentile for weight and above 50% for height. Ten years old. There's no way supposedly adult sizes should fit a child of that age unless they are outsized. Something very wrong there.

My weight varies regularly for medical reasons. I have a pair of Zara jeans in size 16 that only fit me when I'm a size 12 - and this is not vanity sizing, they are significantly smaller than they should be.

Trading standards could equally standardise the traditional women's sizes though. Waist size can still be disputed, because shops could argue that a 30 inch waist needs a 31 inch pair of trousers...

Why dont they just label them a smaller size then?

Even within the same brand sizing varies wildly

Im a 12/14 but within same brand I’ve had a 12 that swamps me and a 14 I can barely zip up.

This. I recently attempted to buy my mother a cardigan from M&S. All I wanted was to see the cut and the length. Not one of the models wore a cardigan like a bloody human. They tucked the cardigans into their trousers, wore them with nothing underneath (sometimes raising their arms so you could see their naked midriffs, how very helpful) sat heavily slumped forwards or slouched far backwards with their legs wide apart, had hands stuffed in their pockets, wore the bottom two buttons undone for no apparent reason (sounds minor but they looked ridiculous), sat completely to the side with the front completely obscured from view. And a lot of images were too close up to see anything at all.

The photographers don't appear to understand that people are trying to use the product imagery for reference.