Does size really matter?

The Sweeper

...when you're shopping for clothes?

I don't think men have this problem, because their clothes are sized in inches - so a 30 inch waist is a 30 inch waist. There are slim-cut and baggy-cut styles and I don't think they encounter this as much, but...

Women: say you're a size 10. You find a pair of trousers you really like, pick out the size 10, go to the changing room and: the zipper is a big wide open V and no matter how much you suck in, you CANNOT get it to close. Do you move up to a size 12 because you like the item, or do you banish it to the rail and shop somewhere else?

There are a number of 'pet hate' type threads circulating on boards at the moment, and they feature complaints like "big girls in belly tops" and such like. Personally, I think women who've become attached to a particular size, regardless of changes in their body shape, fall into that category - like they're a size 14 and haven't realised that a size 12 gives them camel toe and a gaping shirt front half way across their bust.

So will you buy a size up to get the right fit, or do you end up being miserable if you've had to shop for a 10 instead of an 8, a 12 instead of a 10, a 14 instead of a 12, a 16 instead of a 14 and so on upwards?

squealer_m

I find sizes very confusing.

I am a size 11. so some size 10s will just fit me and some size 12s are huge.

I mostly have this problem with jeans.

With pants or tracksuit bottoms I just give in and buy the 12, but jeans are impossible because too big jeans look awful, kinda like overalls!

So sadly I am one of those girls you will occasionally see with her belly hanging out over her jeans. I tend to avoid wearing them though.

One day I will be a size ten... maybe!

My back size for my bra is nearly a 38, I was trying to explain to my friend that I buy a 36 because I refuse to give in and be a 38 with deluisons of losing weight!

I also have some cheap size 10 "incentive pants" that are supposed to encourage me to lose that last bit of weight so I can wear them!

Civilian_Target

Actually - it may sound funny but 30 inches is not always 30 inches. In jeans I could take a 32" or a 34" waist depending on how it's made. In the leg, sometimes 34" is enough and sometimes 36" is still too short! In t-shirts I can be medium or large. in shirts I can be 16" or 16.5", and then to complicate everything your physique is constantly changing so what fitted 6 months ago might be too baggy now, or too small.

And then you have the problem that clothes shrink/expand in the wash!

Karl Hungus

MinesBIGSLUT wrote:

I don't think men have this problem, because their clothes are sized in inches - so a 30 inch waist is a 30 inch waist. There are slim-cut and baggy-cut styles and I don't think they encounter this as much, but...

Oh we got this problem I can tell you. I will always try on a pair of jeans or trousers before buying, because the sizes really do vary a ridiculous amount. I've quite honestly got pants that vary in size from 32" to 38".

Faith

I have a pair or Levis that are slightly too big for me, but they're really comfortable. I tried on another style of Levis in the same size and I couldn't even NEARLY get the zip to close. It's ridiculous.

Generally, though, I really hate going up a size. If I love the item, and know that it'll look great in the end, then I will, but usually I'll just give up on it.

daiixi

I just bought a top a size bigger than I'd usually buy but I love the top and there was no way the smaller size was going to fit. I've also just bought a pair of black boots which are the same style as my brown boots but the fit is completely different.

Caryatnid

squealer_m wrote:

I find sizes very confusing.

I am a size 11. so some size 10s will just fit me and some size 12s are huge.

I mostly have this problem with jeans.

With pants or tracksuit bottoms I just give in and buy the 12, but jeans are impossible because too big jeans look awful, kinda like overalls!

So sadly I am one of those girls you will occasionally see with her belly hanging out over her jeans. I tend to avoid wearing them though.

One day I will be a size ten... maybe!

My back size for my bra is nearly a 38, I was trying to explain to my friend that I buy a 36 because I refuse to give in and be a 38 with deluisons of losing weight!

I also have some cheap size 10 "incentive pants" that are supposed to encourage me to lose that last bit of weight so I can wear them!

Is there such thing as a size 11? How do you know you are a size 11? Anyway. Please wear the correct bra size for your back. You'll only end up damaging your back, wearing bras too tight.

Try buying different styles of jeans. A lot of jeans aren't sold as sizes 10/12/14 etc, but with inches measurements. I'm sure you can find a pair to fit you if you shop round. Like a 'small' size 12 or a 'big' size 10. Unfortunately clothes companies don't seem to have a universal size that they stick to.

squealer_m

Caryatnid wrote:

Is there such thing as a size 11?

Generally there isn't. I think I saw size 11 in one band of jeans which I have now forgotten!

Caryatnid wrote:

Try buying different styles of jeans. A lot of jeans aren't sold as sizes 10/12/14 etc, but with inches measurements. I'm sure you can find a pair to fit you if you shop round. Like a 'small' size 12 or a 'big' size 10. Unfortunately clothes companies don't seem to have a universal size that they stick to.

Thats generally what I have to do. Generally the best I can do is hipsters. Jeans with high waists just won't work for me.

NoDayBut2Day

One of my friends doesn't even *look* at sizes when she's shopping for clothes; she's found that a wide range of sizes can fit. It depends on the clothing item, as well as the brand...

It's confusing.

jester77

It's the same problems for guys as well, even from the same label. I was buying a pair of jeans last weekend and trying on different stlyes, same label. The waist varied from 31 to 33 depending on style. I don't understand how they can vary so much as 32 inches is 32 inches and not 31 or 33!

Nightwish

I hate vanity sizing in clothing. I am a size 10 in most places but I've 2 pairs of flares of the same brand name and one's a 12 and the other a 10. I wouldnt be the person to put something back on the shelf because I've to go up a size. If I like something enough I'll get it. Bra's however are another story altogether. I cannot find anywhere that sells them (for a reasonable price) in my size

Shellie13

guys think nothing of going up a siz, down a siz etc...
Girls are horrified at the thought they may have put on weight (even if they havent!) and refuse to try a size up as if thats "givin in" (yes im aware im sterotyping horribly so slap me!)

as well girls tend to vary more hips/wasit/bum wise than men!

snickerpuss

If i like something i couldn't give a toss what size it is, i'm gettin it.
I rarely find stuff i like in my size anyway.
I'm learning to make my own clothes now. Score.

rainbow kirby

I wear what's comfortable. Sizing is just plain arseways in most shops anyway.
/shrug

Tree

trying to find nice stuff bigger than a size 16 is a total bitch

kittex

I'm an 8 in Penney's, a 10 in Dunnes and New Look, a 12 in Top Shop and a 14 in another UK chain.

All silly. A TV programme was done about 5 years ago which took seemingly identical sizes from shops all over the UK and Ireland and measured them. About 2.5 inches differences in the guidelines I think it was.

Because that's all they are - guidelines. There's still no legal requirements for standardisation of sizes.

grimloch

That doesn't explain the inconsistancy in the size of mens clothes though, one would think that an inch is a pretty definite measurement.

As it stands, the entire thing just annoys me to no end. When I see a pair of trousers I like, I have to grab at least two pairs of them which generally means I have to harass a shop assistant or track one down and then proceed to harass them to get them to fetch me a pair from the back room. Hassle and inconvenience for all involved parties.

Luckily the leg length seems to be fairly standardised these days but the sooner these manufacturering sorts learn to use a measuring tape in an accurate manner the sooner we can all start buying clothes from the internet.

Sangre

Why do you assume people with the same size waists will have the same size hips, thighs and calves? Sizing will never be totally uniform.

Siogfinsceal

its so rare for things to fit me anyway. Im a size 9 i think. I have a tiny waist but much bigger hips so finding things to fit is a night mare -they either fit my waist and are too tight on the hips or they fit my hips and are massive on the waist. I am also only 5'2" so everything is too long for me. I did recently get a pair of size 8 jeans in oasis that fit and are not too long I was delighted.
As for sizes - depends on the shops in some im an 8, others a 10. Shops like Morgan etc - their sizes are tiny!! Whereas Awear and dunnes are bigger fittings. Theres a difference between being a different size in different shops and going up a size in teh same shop you already have clothes of a smaller size from. When it comes to going up a size in a shop I guess it has to do with your attitude to weight gain - if you gain weight and go up a size to me buying clothes in that size is a way of resigning yourself to being that weight. ? rather than getting back to teh size you originally were (provided that was healthy!)

Kolodny

I'll buy what fits me regardless of how depressing it is to buy something in a size bigger than I normally would. Unless I put my clothes on inside out, no one is going to be looking at the size on the tag are they, so what does it matter? I have known women who refuse to believe that they've changed shape at all since their late teens and shoe-horn themselves into jeans and dresses at least 2 sizes too small, muffin-tops, split seams and boob overspill all over the place. I can't see the point. Does the joy of convincing themselves that they haven't gone up a size or two in 10 years outweigh the fear of bursting out of their clothes in public at any moment?

The Sweeper

I'm with Kolodny on this one. That and I can't understand people who think buying a larger size is 'resigining themselves to that weight'. If a size 10 doesn't fit you, it doesn't fit you. End of story. Buy something that fits. If you lose the weight, treat yourself to new clothes in a size that fits you. Just because you can still get it on/up/closed/tied/fastened/around/zipped that doesn't mean you're not going to have an arse like a bursted couch in it.

I'm tall and I drink beer, and my size doesn't bother me enough to start dieting and going to the gym, so I'm never going to see size 10 again, even though I was a size 8-10 all the way through university. Most things in my warderobe are a 12 or a 14 now - but if I was 'teen paranoid' when it comes to women's sizes, I'd still be squeezing myself into crotch-splitting jeans and surreptitiously opening a top button under the table after eating.

(As an aside, I know someone who's a size 26, she's the sister of a friend of mine who'd be a size 4 to size 6. They went clothes shopping together recently. It was an education for the titchy one - for the first time, on entering a specialist plus size store, she was subject to the snide comments, critical looks and bitchy sniggers her overweight sister has been subject to when shopping in the high street.)

Siogfinsceal

MinesBIGSLUT wrote:

I'm with Kolodny on this one. That and I can't understand people who think buying a larger size is 'resigining themselves to that weight'. If a size 10 doesn't fit you, it doesn't fit you. End of story. Buy something that fits. If you lose the weight, treat yourself to new clothes in a size that fits you. Just because you can still get it on/up/closed/tied/fastened/around/zipped that doesn't mean you're not going to have an arse like a bursted couch in it.

I'm tall and I drink beer, and my size doesn't bother me enough to start dieting and going to the gym, so I'm never going to see size 10 again, even though I was a size 8-10 all the way through university. Most things in my warderobe are a 12 or a 14 now - but if I was 'teen paranoid' when it comes to women's sizes, I'd still be squeezing myself into crotch-splitting jeans and surreptitiously opening a top button under the table after eating.

(As an aside, I know someone who's a size 26, she's the sister of a friend of mine who'd be a size 4 to size 6. They went clothes shopping together recently. It was an education for the titchy one - for the first time, on entering a specialist plus size store, she was subject to the snide comments, critical looks and bitchy sniggers her overweight sister has been subject to when shopping in the high street.)

my argument is that if you are normally a size 10 for example in a shop and find that you are a 12 you have a choice - buy a 12 and resign yourself to being that size (at which point your other clothes probably dont fit if they were the smaller size) or excercise/lose weight and get back to your original size. Im not suggesting people wear clothes that dont fit

MinesBIGSLUT

MinesBIGSLUT wrote:

...when you're shopping for clothes?

I don't think men have this problem, because their clothes are sized in inches - so a 30 inch waist is a 30 inch waist. There are slim-cut and baggy-cut styles and I don't think they encounter this as much, but...

Women: say you're a size 10. You find a pair of trousers you really like, pick out the size 10, go to the changing room and: the zipper is a big wide open V and no matter how much you suck in, you CANNOT get it to close. Do you move up to a size 12 because you like the item, or do you banish it to the rail and shop somewhere else?

There are a number of 'pet hate' type threads circulating on boards at the moment, and they feature complaints like "big girls in belly tops" and such like. Personally, I think women who've become attached to a particular size, regardless of changes in their body shape, fall into that category - like they're a size 14 and haven't realised that a size 12 gives them camel toe and a gaping shirt front half way across their bust.

So will you buy a size up to get the right fit, or do you end up being miserable if you've had to shop for a 10 instead of an 8, a 12 instead of a 10, a 14 instead of a 12, a 16 instead of a 14 and so on upwards?

What I hate - I was shopping yesterday - is that all my size 14 trousers are literally falling off me but size 12s are often too small. It's highly annoying. They should have in-betweens! I had to wander around the 30-31-32 sizes of jeans in a shop yesterday =/ I hate clothes shopping these days.
At least tops are usually not a problem... not quite so much...

Miss Fluff

I think size is a very individual thing. I know one particular girl who is exactly six foot and is Amazonian in her beauty yet all her clothes are a size 16 and I wouldn't consider her big, more a beautiful, tall, strong woman. On the other hand I know a couple of girls who are a size 10 and could only be classed as overwight little barrels. So I really think it depends on height, figure etc.

Lynfo

O I know how you guys feel, I'm a size 10-12 (on a good day:D ) however, my favourite pair of jeans are a size 8 (supposedly) and are too big, I also have a denim skirt which is a size 12 but no matter how much I suck in, it will not close on me.
I'm quite small - 5'1.5" (half inch is very important when you're as small as me!) and I often shop in petite sections, however what the manufacturers don't seem to realise is that just because you have teeny weeny legs, doesn't necessarily mean you have teeny weeney bellies & boobs - I often find gorgeous petite tops that have the perfect sleeve length, but won't close over my (moderately sized) chest!:mad:

Miss Fluff

Another thing that drives me mental :mad: is that I have a tiny waist and big arse so when I get trousers to fit my ample bootie, the waist measurement is normally gaping around my midriff. Grrrr.

hunnymonster

poi: odd sizes (9,11 etc) are used specifically for jeans and even sizes for everything else. I think it originated in the USA but I don't know the reasoning. Many chains use even sizes for everything though.

My problem is that I'm different sizes all over. Legs and bum are barely a 10. Waist is a 12 and boobs can just about squish into a 14. (on average)

I have to admit that if I saw an outfit I liked and that fitted, but I was thinking hard about spending my hard earned cash on it, seeing a 10 label on it might sway me where a 12 wouldn't. stupid reasoning I know but that's the truth

The other thing is of course that women's sizes can vary so much within any given month depending on their cycle.

Faith

hunnymonster wrote:

My problem is that I'm different sizes all over. Legs and bum are barely a 10. Waist is a 12 and boobs can just about squish into a 14. (on average)
.

Yeah, me too. My thighs and hips are between a 10 and a 12, while my bum is barely a 10, so jeans are always baggy around there and look stupid unless they're baggy all the way down. I'd usually take a 14 on top, for the sake of my boobs, but if it's a shirt (or something that has to be fastened), I'd generally need a 16 before I can get it to close over my boobs.

Seraphina

i was in bershka on saturday, i was amazed as they had wide leg jeans where everywhere else is only skinny style stuff

i bought 3 pairs of jeans, an 8 a 10 and a 12, which all fit me perfectly

Dreamsphere

well, i wear a 16 somtimes, but at other times i need an 18 for comfort or to fit properly. but im lucky i don't really look fat, i just look curvy. its mainly hip area that goes for the 18 but ontop it would be the 16. i like the way i look.

hunnymonster

Faith, I've started sewing up the front of my blouses around the boobs area. Means I've got to put them on over my head but it does get rid of the button strain in that area.

Stheno

Means I've got to put them on over my head but it does get rid of the button strain in that area.

Oooh good idea, I have that problem with shirts, that gappy button.
Got a really nice shirt in Dunnes a few weeks ago and it fits fine apart from the gappy bit.

doctor evil

Size means F*ck all, fit is what counts. There is no such variation in shop to shop not to mention peoples different shapes!.

doctor evil

Miss Fluff wrote:

Another thing that drives me mental :mad: is that I have a tiny waist and big arse so when I get trousers to fit my ample bootie, the waist measurement is normally gaping around my midriff. Grrrr.

Same here!, if it fits the hips its mahoosive around the waist. Belts all the way.

Winnie001

What pisses me off is :

1) shops that only seem to stock jeans in size 26-30..............and no bigger, whats that about!
2) trousers with legs that are really long - just because waist size is bigger doesnt mean that legs are longer!

In response to original questions......there was a time when I wouldn't go up a size out of vanity - that jump to size 14 nearly killed me! Now Im at the stage where if I needed a larger size in a brand that I normally fit into I think that would push me to diet rather than buy the larger size. However if it comes to Zara etc I really wouldnt care if it said it was a size 20 becuase I know that the sizes are messed up!

The Sweeper

In terms of fit I recently discovered Jasper Conran Debenhams - and bought three pairs of his jeans. Perfect everywhere for me - waist, bum, hips, thighs and length. Everything in his current line fits me in the same size - so much so I'll actually buy something without trying it on. John Rocha at Debenhams, however, in the same size, sags on my ass and doesn't close around my boobs. Bah.

Faith

Gah, yeah, jeans that are too long drive me insane. I buy them for the shape around the shoe, and if they're too long, I just end up with a pair of straight legged jeans, not bootcut or flared. It completely defies the point.

madhitchhiker

i don't mind sizes. if it doesn't fit me well then go for a smaller or a larger size till i'd get one that fits me. what's the deal?

darkflower

madhitchhiker wrote:

i don't mind sizes. if it doesn't fit me well then go for a smaller or a larger size till i'd get one that fits me. what's the deal?

i agree! comfort first before anything else.;)

DilbertPartII

size does matter. the smaller the size, the better self-confidence you'd feel.:)

Siogfinsceal

doctor evil wrote:

Same here!, if it fits the hips its mahoosive around the waist. Belts all the way.

I have the same problem - big hips small waist. try oasis and also H&M are good as they have jeans in every size - instead of just 26 and 28 they have 25, 26 , 27 , 28 etc so