Whats your pet hate when clothes shopping

[Windypants21]

I am trying to buy a wedding guest outfit. As I live rurally alot of this has been online. My fury is rising at the amount of items I've ordered that aren't the colour as depicted in the pictures. Makes my blood boil !!!
Cornflower blue in the picture, pale and insipid in reality . Lovely pinky pink in the picture, is washed out and drab in the flesh. Why why why ??? All that happens is you're even more disappointed when it arrives so it goes straight back and you've wasted time and effort getting it posted.
When will companies realise that to be successful they need to represent what is on sale accurately.

But doesn't it say something to retailers that despite the vast selection of shops out there it shouldn't really be that difficult to find a certain outfit for everyday women not just leggy lovelies.

I have looked for years to find a matching black or navy linen boxy jacket and trouser suit. I still haven't found one , at least that didn't cost 20 fortunes. Up to now it has been a mix and match job.

This year we have had the oversized jacket and trouser suit in abundance but even then it has been a hotch potch.

Boden suit, beautiful suit, sizing all over the place
Mint Velvet, blue suit not as pictured inspid blue and a crinkly mess
M&s lovely pink suit but jacket had no button (intentionally) and no shape, pictures had it with a belt but who in reality wants to do that unless you are a 6 ft bean pole.

There were others but similar issues. It is frustrating.

I can only assume that dealing with a mountain of returns is overall cheaper than presenting clothes accurately with full measurements, videos and ideally a range of models showing the item in full, eg with jeans showing the waistband who are also not bending over or doing something equally unhelpful.

Seasalt are good for showing items well but even then looking at the item quickly in a shop tells you far more and so much more efficiently.

As ever the internet promises you the world (including 'online exclusives') but often fails to deliver. Especially if you have a tricky figure, you basically need a course in online shopping to do it well, how to read between the lines (model height = 176cm what does that mean for me at 166cm) - because the shops aren't doing it for you.

You can try and say well I'll only shop in person, try and save my high street, but a lot of shops have closed branches, eg New Look and stock is often poor, leading you back online.

I just don't buy clothes online except very simple t-shirts, leggings and socks, because I can't be arsed with the faff if they're not right.

I hate clothes shopping in person with a passion too! It's all the getting undressed and dressed and having to regard myself with a critical eye in the mirrors that I dislike.

Yes, I can see that being annoying. I always find it weird in shops how whenever there's that one customer who has a problem, they don't put more staff on to help as the queue builds up. Drives me mad. I had a woman trying to buy something with a voucher the other day.... wasn't working and the queue just got longer and longer while random staff members wandered around obviously not concerned at all.

No changing rooms. Being told 'you can order it online'. Never having size 9 shoes.

Vanity sizing.

I'm somehow a size 4 or even 2 in some shops these days. In other shops, I've been completely sized out.

Absolutely mental and so frustrating.

Sizing being all over the place even within the same brand drives me mad.

Yep. Vanity sizing pisses me off. I shouldn’t have to return my usual size 10, reorder a size 8, and then also have to return that because they are still too big, when I’m sat wearing their size 10 jeans which are perfect. On the plus side I’ve saved money because I’m simply giving up buying things I fancy. I will instead wait until I desperately need to replace something now before buying clothes again.

I love mint velvet and buy online from there relatively frequently. I find the look in person quite realistic to what's in the pictures. BUT... the sizing is annoying. I am a size 16 with large breasts so sometimes go up to an 18. Bought a jumper from there - size L. Great. Then I wanted to buy a t-shirt type thing which was different fabric, but similar sort of style to the jumper so I ordered Large. WAY too small and I had to return it and get the size up.

Also am a little less keen on them since I went into one of their stores in a chi chi little village in Surrey. I had been at a yoga class before hand so was wearing yoga pants, a cheap t-shirt and a fleece. They were polite, but I have never felt more like a bug dirtying a store than I did that day. Needless to say, I didn't try anything on and left quickly.

I haven't enjoyed shopping on the high St, so many odd shapes and baggy stuff. I've had success buying cotton dresses from Roman online lately. The colours have been accurate and the sizing is good.
A variety of fabrics, but a fair number of tiered styles (not my choice).

Online, lack of garment measurements. I don't care what you think a size 10 is. I don't care what you think, based on your thoughts about how it will fit, what bust size the size corresponds to. I want the actual measurements of the garment, and then I can have a good estimate about whether it will fit me (because other measurements necessary to fit will still be missing). Sometimes when they do give them, they're still mind boggling. Your item is supposed to fit a size 36 chest, but its width in the chest is less than 18, so its total fit will be less than 36; how do you figure that?

Item length not provided. I don't care how tall your model is. I don't know how her much of her height is in her torso or in her legs. Will this top be long enough? (Often: no. Made for midgets much shorter women).

I wonder if retailers actually read these kind of threads and take heed.

@Windypants21 have you maybe got your colour settings too high, so things look brighter than they are? Just a thought...

A v-neck. That's all I ask. Please please make something with a v neck instead of a crew neck so that my norks don't look like an awning... 😫

Thanks but no def not, if they're too high I can feel it burning my retina ! I'm also flitting between devices and getting what appears to be the same results. Tablet and phone.

The inability of U.K. clothes shops to make dresses for ladies taller than 5'5".

I'm 5'8" and on almost all dresses, the waist is too high. They look horrible. Italian clothes outlets manage it. I am not abnormally tall. The only dresses I have that fit well are two Armani sun dresses, a MaxMara body con dress and two that have been altered to fit or made for me.

If our shops can do a petite range then why not a tall range?

I feel your pain, I had a collarless snug fit long sleeve shirt with a sharp v neck way back in the day. (Circa 1990s) I loved that shirt it looked good on its own, or under so many jackets cardigans etc, have I ever found anything similar ...nope. The vs now seem to be big and wide or very deep with a sneaky little collar of some kind or just plain loose. Maybe I'm just too fussy?

Clothes looking different in the flesh including colour and material

Sizing. I have trousers from Zara that are the same trousers but different colour, ordered at the same time and some are too big, some too small and they are different materials

Also all shops doing the same clothes, and the same fit. I'm a size 10, but curvy. Large arse/thighs and boobs but small waist. Every fucking pair of jeans/shorts is cut the same for someone who's straight up and down. So they are either tight on the thigh or big on the waist.

Also yes all clothes being shown on slim, no boobed women. I want to see how the clothes look on someone with a stomach or boobs. How does the cut sit on different body types.

This doesn't resonate with me at all. I can't think of anything I've sent back in years other than 3 dresses where I was too vain to order the correct size - and even then it was for a replacement, not a return.

I can't think of anything I've been disappointed with; if anything items often turn out to look better than on the websites.

I'm not trying to be a smartass here ...what is your secret ...are you checking out the sizes better or are you better clued in about what works for you and what doesn't? Are you curvy/slim or like to wear loose clothes...same size top and bottom ?

The fact that there isn’t standard sizing is the worst. Have to get a range of sizes just in case. I’d buy more of vinted otherwise…

M and S online stocks labels not on the shop floor which was news to me a few years ago got some Jaeger trouser which I love collected them from local store, saved me the hour plus over to MK

The most annoying thing is going to “size guide” and all that’s there is a table of generic numbers which you KNOW are just the standard size measurements and nothing at all to do with the actual size of any actual garment in the shop. Why do we never acknowledge that they’re pie in the sky! I assume the actual clothes are cut to a size guide so why not let us know what that is, rather than some airy-fairy notion of what a size 10 might or might not be?

T-shirt necks too high.

Tops or t-shirts that look promising on the rail then you realise they have "Be kind" or "Harvard university" on them.

Tops, dresses and sleeves that are too short (but admittedly that's because of me and my long waist and gibbon arms)

Polyester gah. So many nice designs off the table because of that.

Things that seem to be black at first glance but then you realise they're navy.
And too much blue in general. So many items come in white, blue, a different blue and maybe a beige or one interesting/bright colour. I don't suit blue at all and it does my head in.

Also yes all clothes being shown on slim, no boobed women. I want to see how the clothes look on someone with a stomach or boobs. How does the cut sit on different body types.

This annoys me especially when buying bras. M&S has the option to filter for larger sizes. Brilliant. except... they only ever show the bloody bras on women who look like they're a 32C. Drives me absolutely mad.

Actually, to add to that - I think if a bra shop could actually find a way to offer useful advice and bras based on the reality of different breast shapes, they'd make a fortune.

eg, my breasts are relatively perky but large and tend to spill sideways. They also don't really have a gap between them. So I need bras that are less about lifting on the vertical and more about pulling them in on the sides without squishing them together too much.
But instead, they all seem to think that large breasts are all the same.

I know women with small breasts with similar complaints. They want a bra that will lift or they want one that will separate or whatever.