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Original poster

Either H&M are bonkers or I am delusional

131 replies

SharingMichelle · 29/03/2016 06:19

Grabbed this skirt last time I was in H&M. Not terribly exciting, but I thought it looked useful. Picked up a size 14.

Couldn't be faffed to try it on. Was in the queue to pay when I looked at it again and decided it was cut on the small side so I switched it for a 16. Am generally a fairly standard 14 with the odd 12 thrown in on a good day. Oh well.

Got home. Couldn't do the bloody thing up!

Back to H&M. Switched the 16 for an 18. I have never worn an 18 in my life. Tried it on this time, just to be safe. Horrendous!! Could squidge my tummy to death and get it done up, but all buttons gaping. So tight it was indecently short.

They didn't stock a size 20! I switched the blasted thing for store credit and came home.

Surely I can't have jumped from a 14 to a 20 without noticing? H&M are bonkers, right? Please could someone reassure me? Or set me straight? I am rather bloated at the moment, but my old clothes still fit, so surely...

OP posts:
Aramynta · 29/03/2016 19:53

Don't fret! I had this same issue in New Look recently.

I picked up a size 10 and 12 in the exact same skirt. One of those denim high waisted, button down aline things. With both of them I could just do it up. They both fit exactly the same. Double checked the labels etc.

I went out picked up another size 10 and 12. The 10 just fit and the 12 was too big. Finally got a size 12 that fit, as apparently a size 14 skirt doesn't exist in NW's world.

To sum it up, I picked up three different size 12's and none of them were the same size. And I am not convinced it was just a labelling error Hmm

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 29/03/2016 20:00

dd is a primark 6-8 and they are not known for their generosity ...about 6 years ago we bought coat from there , that was a size 14, i presumed it was age 14 but no....it's a women's 14

so it's not a new thing from them.

I've also had this in tesco....tried on a 14 summer dress...a bit nippy and revealing as it was a flimsy thing so i thought i'd try the 16...only I could not even get that one zipped up, so there is just no consistency with sizes these days even in the same store!

oldlaundbooth · 29/03/2016 20:00

Michelle

Bloody Costa!

That's good to know!

A coffee was three quid on Warwick services!!! 3 quid!

FellOutOfBedTwice · 29/03/2016 20:03

It's definitely not just you. I'm a 14-16 with massive boobs but stretchy dresses in the above sizes almost always fit over them. Brought a dress in there at Christmas in a 16 and it wasn't just that it wouldn't do up over my tits, I couldn't get my tits in it! They were just poking out of the front, not a hope in hell of the buttons meeting anywhere near each other let alone doing up!

UnmentionedElephantDildo · 29/03/2016 20:07

They're probably using older patterns.

I weight a good 2 stone more than I did in the early 1980s, but still wear the 'same' size for most clothes. Yes, vanity sizing has eased it that much.

Quiero · 29/03/2016 20:13

I think H&M are a size smaller. So a 14 is normally a European 42 but in H&M a 16 is a Europan 42.

This doesn't explain the inconsistency though. I find New Look exactly the same. I have size 12 Jeans that are massive and a size 16 skirt I can't get past my thighs. Very frustrating.

CreamCrackerundertheSettee · 29/03/2016 22:47

The inconsistency is irritating. I'm not bothering ordering from them online anymore as things are either huge or tiny. You'd have to order in 3 or 4 sizes to have a chance of one of them fitting.

insan1tyscartching · 29/03/2016 22:54

Dd is a size 6 to 8,religiously 6 in Miss Selfridge and Top Shop,in H&M size 12 jeggings were so tight she couldn't breathe so went to M&S where she was size 6 again. Funnily enough though age 12 to 13 in H&M fit her perfectly Hmm

BennyTheBall · 29/03/2016 22:57

At Christmas I bought some coated leggings from New Look and some pleather ones from H&M, both online, both size 10.

The New Look ones were a perfect fit, the H&M ones wouldn't go over my thighs and made me feel like ten tonne Tessie.

WellTidy · 29/03/2016 23:52

M and s does a version of this skirt, OP, and it is normal sizing!

thelittleredhen · 30/03/2016 00:26

I'm a size 8 dress anywhere else, H&M I'm a 14! Don't mind too much but do worry about who fits it the actual size 8s....

thelittleredhen · 30/03/2016 00:26

I'm a size 8 dress anywhere else, H&M I'm a 14! Don't mind too much but do worry about who fits it the actual size 8s....

triomamma · 30/03/2016 10:41

It's pity!

UhtredRagnorsson · 30/03/2016 11:03

I never have a problem with H&M. They seem truer to size than most high street stores. And they don't make clothes for people with in feasibly long legs. I don't have a problem with Zara either other than that their clothes are obviously made for giants with stilts for legs and they often don't do an XS in stuff that is sized S, M, L... H&M kids clothes are oversized - their age 14 stuff is huge... My 17 year old DD1 finds it too large (and she's an 8-10) and my 12 year old DD2 is still wearing H&M 9 year old jeans. Which aren't too big although the leg length may be too short soon.

UhtredRagnorsson · 30/03/2016 11:12

littleredhen - I think it's the other way round actually. Very few places make clothes that aren't too big for the actual 6-8s. We all have to wear clothes that are too big, because of vanity sizing. There are very few shops that still sell clothes that actually are the smaller sizes. I'm the same size I was in the 80s, I still have a few clothes from then, they are much smaller than allegedly size 8 stuff now. In the 80s, you couldn't get size 6 anywhere on the high street. High street shops introduced size 6 to allow them to shift everyone 'down' a size. But now that has been made bigger too. I'm an 8. I was an 8 in the 80s I'm the same size now. But according to most high street shops I'm a 4 or something, and yet I'm the same size I've always been. Luckily I can wear kids' clothes most of the time.

EricNorthmanSucks · 30/03/2016 11:12

DD who is a perfect Top Shop 6 has to try on anything and everything in H&M.

She recently bought three shirts in the sane style but different colours and one was an 8, the other two a 12!

EUrine · 30/03/2016 11:13

I have a theory about this, it's so you HAVE to go in store and this fall for up selling and buying stuff in a whim unlike internet shopping.

EricNorthmanSucks · 30/03/2016 11:15

That said, I think when middle aged people bang on about vanity sizing, they often don't take into account how much larger young people are these days.

Broader shoulders, taller, bigger feet. It's not just all about weight gain.

stinkysnowbear · 30/03/2016 11:21

Weird. I find the opposite. I am a 6 in H&M but an 8 everywhere else.

UhtredRagnorsson · 30/03/2016 11:51

Eric I am well aware that some young people are like a different species these days. I sometimes feel like a little twig roaming the land of the giants. But I'm not a twig. It's not me that is off the scale. And in many cases it is actually about them being overweight (after all they don't have size 9 or 10 feet), and it's not a universal thing, plenty of young people are not like that. And it is clearly vanity sizing if the shops as a whole decide to call a size 16 a 12, or whatever, so as to let the people who would be size 22 or something like that can call temselves a 16. They had a choice - to make the same size range of clothes but add bigger ones, or to stop making the smaller clothes and replace them with bigger ones. Many shops have gone the latter route which is fine for the bigger people but pretty crap for those of us who now have to mainly wear kids' clothes! And then when people complain about the small number of shops which do sell smaller clothing...it's really annoying. I really don't care what they call my size, I just want them to make and sell clothes in it.

mudandmayhem01 · 30/03/2016 11:58

Hear, hear, most clothes are enormous these days. I end up buying kids clothes too. Come the revolution and a reintroduction of nationally controlled sizes!

MerryMarigold · 30/03/2016 12:05

I seem to get most things in supermarkets and they are enormous. I have a size 14 jacket from the 70s (my Mum's) which I can barely squeeze into. A size 14 in Sains, and I look like I'm wearing my big sister's hand-me-downs.

And don't get my started on kids' clothes. Ds1 is 10.5 but going through a growth spurt. He is slim. I had to get him age 11 trousers with adjustable waist. Even on the tightest the elastic will go, they are swimming on him. Dsis said he looked like those weight loss ads when people put on their old jeans and they are 10 sizes too big!

Notonaschoolnight · 30/03/2016 12:07

Not just me then I'm a proper 14 but the 14 jeans wouldn't go near me so I ordered the 16 and they didn't fit either had to take them back too

sportinguista · 30/03/2016 12:20

H&M are really small, I'm a 12 and a 14 is tight on me from there. I tend to avoid TBH. The kids sizes are not generous either.
New Look I end up with a 14 too. I'm no longer sure what size I am anyway. I need to loose weight anyhow...

UhtredRagnorsson · 30/03/2016 12:30

H&M kids sizes are not just generous they are huge.

I do wonder how people can be so convinced they 'are' a certain size if that size doesn't fit them in lots of shops.