To want shops to label clothes-sizes using a numerical system

[PrettyCandles]

We've got a perfectly adequate system - 12, 14, 16, etc - so why use S, M, L, etc? Especially when what the letters represent can vary from shop to shop.

And even more especially when L = size 16.
16 is hardly large! Isn't it the average size in the UK?

Oh, and, go on then, really rub it in by labeling sizes 18, 20, 22 etc XL, XXL, XXXL etc!

Why can't shops just stick to the numerical system?

16 is large though.

i steer away from shops that use 1 2 3 as i know i won't fit anything!

In a lot of high street shops L is a size 14.........that is taking the piss somewhat and more than a little bit depressing. I agree they should just stick with dress sizes........YANBU.

Cereal.......whether or not 16 is large depends on your stand point. 16 is large against a 10 but small against a 30 IYSWIM.

yes but take your size 16 arse into zara and topshop and you will feel large!

yes would be helpful. sizing varies so ridiculously now. you have to check every size chart on the net and some aren't even to close to others.

topshop is the worst of the lot am wearing a size 12 top now and have to get 16s from next, very weird

There should be some kind of standardisation of sizing. How many hours of time would it save if people didn't have to try on the wrong size?

The average size of women in the UK is 14-16...so technically 16's not large, surely as the average, it's medium

You're right though, Zara and TopShop seem to think that large is more likely size 12!

Actually, I find it odd that people use the, '16 is the average size of a UK woman' to somehow justify it as not being a large size. No- if the average woman in the UK was a size 30 then that would undoubtedly be considered 'large', the fact that it's 'average' changes nothing!

Whilst it's annoying that places like Topshop do have ridiculously misplaced sizing, the kind of 'average' person most likely to shop in there (lovely slim teens and general under 30s!) will find that the sizing is probablky more appropriate for them. I don't really see how Topshop being marketed for slim people is any different to a shop like Evans, which markets its products to larger women.

Evans advertises itself as selling clothes for larger ladies........Topshop doesn't market itself as only selling clothes for skinny teenagers. basically I think the problem is that highstreet shops such as topshop and zara don't design their clothes with post-children bodies in mind .

Ive found some nice size 16 things in Zara nd Topshop. I find it wierd that such shops stop at a size 16 though. Very sizeist ins't it?

I've been in shops where a S=6 M=8 L=10 recently. Large is a 10?!

I love Topshop clothes, and I've had two children. There's no such thing as a standard "post-children body", everyone is different.

I do think it's annoying that sizes vary so much between shops - I can be a size 8 in some places and a 12 in others.

arsesandoldlace - I found that I'm a size 10 maybe a 12 sometimes and in this shop the larges were tiny and I couldn't even get them on!

Arse (), I was horrified when a teen's clothes shop labelled their clothes in the manner you described! Surely this kind of thing encourages anorexia??

I'm roughly a 16. Have had a couple of things lately (am pg) that won't fit or won't last my bump long. Got some stuff from Asda delivered yesterday and they are HUGE. not sending them back as I'm sure I'll grow into them but how do people manage to shop online with such a difference.

Even if all shops use 8,10,12 etc they are still not standardised. I tried a pair of size 6 jeans on in next and they were too big for my post 3 children arse but other shops (monsoon, topshop) I am an 8 or a 10.

Even size 8, 10 whatever are actually different measurements in different shops. In M&S, the sizes are very big imo, so an 8 is actually closer to a 10. Whereas in shops like Topshop they are smaller. There is no consistency

xpost

Topshop does advertise itself as being for younger, slimmer people. Just look at their adverts. Sure, they could broaden their appeal by offering more lines in bigger sizes but the issue is that sometimes by trying to appeal to evrybody you end up appealing to nobody. Teenagers/ twenty- somethings dont want to get their stuff where their mum does.

Shops that use SML system generally mean "small for our target market", "medium for our target market" etc. Target market is usually fairly apparent from window display. I do not need to try on the clothes in jane Norman to know that I am not what they had in mind

Why can't we just have the inches measurements that men do? An inch is an inch is an inch. It would solve the problem of an evens 12 being the same as a top shop 16 and an M&S 10 and a new look 8.

Or whatever. I don't know that's how the sizes are, but I do know that a size is not a single size in inches no matter where you go.

or metric, i have no clue about inches

I wish they'd actually say waist sizes etc. Would make shopping much less painful. And stop all this bollocks about different manufacturers having wildly differing measurements for the same sizes.

In my wardrobe I have trousers from a 12 to an 18 that fit me, in no way can that make sense.

I hate vanity sizing.

standardising sizes wont do anything positive for anyone. human bodies are not standard are they?

OASIS have started to do this, as well as still doing the 12-14-16 on some of their range and it drives me mad, I have no idea what fits me in there anymore. I think its a cheaper way of manufacturing the clothes for them, even though they still charge us the same. What's worse is when you ask their staff, what is a M and they don't know the answer, grrrr

No, but at least if sizes are standardised then you won't be a size 14 in one shop and a size 20 in another!