Bloody clothes sizes

[flick]

Women's clothes sizes make no bloody sense, even when you look at them in inches.

There's a top I want to buy, which the designer-maker says is:
- size 12 bust 36/38" waist 26/28" hips 38/40" ("so quite big")
- size 10 bust 34/36" waist 24/26" hips 36/38"

I just measured myself, and my measurements are 38/30/37. I wouldn't say I'm currently bigger than a "quite big" size 12 (the size 10 trousers I bought in M&S the other week are somewhat worryingly baggy about the waist, although they are casual), but I thought she might be basing the size numbers on an old pattern, so I had a look at the M&S website:
- size 10 = 34/27/37
- size 12 = 36/29/39
- size 14 = 38/31/41

So, do I assume that the designer is lying as much as M&S does, and in the same direction, or that her sizes are accurate...?

Sigh.

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I've been in a panic because of the way that all the clothes shops say that waist sizes are 8-10 inches less than bust and hip sizes, and I remain determinedly barrel-shaped. But when I actually went shopping I discovered that this was more or less complete nonsense. I also observe that most other people I see shopping do not have the spectacular hourglass figures that standard sizing would suggest.

At any rate, I'd email the designer and ask for the actual size of the garment, which will certainly be bigger than the stated size, and then make a judgment based on the fabric.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

It's jersey, so I'm going to risk the 10. Fingers crossed....

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I've always found M&S sizes out of step with everywhere else (and have to take three sizes into the changing room to make sure one fits). At one time, when I was buying size 16-18 trousers everywhere else, I had to squeeze to get into an M&S size 20-22 (which was when I stopped buying at M&S).

I've never been able to get my 36" bust into anything smaller than a 14 blouse - more usually a 16 if I don't want the buttons to gape.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I just don't bother with tops that have buttons, because they either gape or are hugely too big for me. The one exception to that is the shirt I wore for wedding, which was a size 16 (iirc) that I had taken in. I say taken in, the poor woman re-stitched every seam in the thing, from what I can tell.

I think M&S is one of those shops where you have to be The Right Shape for the clothes (and the shoes).

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

I don't have tops with buttons because they are buttons, obviously and therefore evil and smelly.

I am now a size 20 short in M&S trousers and a large in LandsEnd, I seem to have developed a LandsEnd wardrobe, the T-shirts fit me very well.

My walking trousers are a 20 or a 22, same with the base liners, mostly from Mountain Warehouse.

FF

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

I hate sizing. I had to take back a pair of size 14 casual trousers at Monsoon, and get the 12. But the Primark 14 skinny jeans I bought only *just* do up. And I loathe and detest trying clothes on in shops, so it's all even more fraught.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I've become somewhat resigned to the fact that the size numbers vary so widely, and usually deal with it by only buying clothes in M&S. I just boggle that the actual measurements on the sizes are also meaningless....

[shuripentu.livejournal.com]

ISTR coming across an article/post by someone who measured trouser waist diameters and compared them to the stated diameter and found they were mostly lying. :P

[ajr.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right.

Even when dealing in actual recognised measurements, the bloody things lie. I get my trousers from Gap, usually. They state the measurements in inches. But they're actually at least an inch, maybe two, bigger than what it says on the label.

Likewise, the one and only time I ordered clothes off the internet, I measured myself, picked the size based on the measurements stated, and they still didn't bloody fit right.

In short, shopping for clothes sucks. Massively.

[shuripentu.livejournal.com]

I'd always got the impression that women's clothing sizes were all vague and made-up anyway: it's all variants of "oh, about this big *handwave*" with a number taped on.

Incidentally, this (http://sizes.darkgreener.com/) is a potentially useful tool for clothes shopping – and you can see from it just how arbitrary clothing sizes are and how much they vary!