I’ve been buying more clothing online lately, and, like most clothing purchases, it’s a completely random guess around what size to order. To wit: I recently got a trunk from Trunk Club with 5 pairs of jeans in it, all of which were the same size. Upon trying them on, they ranged from “can’t even zip them up” to “fits decently” to “too big.”
But what I’m really asking about are those size charts, where they list their sizes and supposed inch measurements to which those sizes related. I recently bought a pair of bike shorts, sized in S-M-L sizes. I almost ALWAYS wear the same size in bike shorts, so I was about to order that size. But then… I look at the size chart. According to that, my normal size would have been HUGE on me. I was like :dubious:, because if anything, I’ve found sports clothing are sized too small, not too large. But I went ahead and ordered the recommended size. Result: could barely get them on over my hips, zipping them up was not even a possibility.
Indeed, even when I returned them and got the size I normally would have ordered, those are even on the edge, I may return them because though they fit, I wanted something a bit more roomy. Again, according to their own sizing chart, these should be so big on me that they would fall off the minute I let go of the waistband.
Am I just shaped weird? Anyone else have these issues? I more or less order by gut feeling and it works out 70% of the time. But why even publish size charts if your clothing obviously doesn’t adhere to them?
Every time I try to buy clothes online I regret it. Yes, the charts are completely useless, and of course, sizes mean nothing in the world of women’s clothes. I don’t know how anyone does it without just ordering all the sizes and returning the ones that don’t fit.
Have you tried being a male? Then it’s a lot easier. Failing that, that’s just the way the industry sizes women’s clothes, arbitrarily. It sounds awfully inconvenient, though at least most online retailers now do free no questions returns.
I need to remember that dress pants run tighter than jeans, but always forget.
I don’t know how long they have had it, but I recently noticed Amazon has a metric for sizing clothes, where reviewers can rate how well something “fits as expected”.
Yes, because as best I can tell, I am a mutant freak of nature when it comes to body type. I have a sewing machine, so I take my best guess, knowing that I may need to nip and tuck
I am sometimes in between M and L. M is too small and L is too large. And it gets worse when ordering from abroad. I found out recently that my 5-foot-8, 143-pound self was considered “Size XL” when buying some sports clothing from a Chinese seller.
Sometimes Amazon clothing doesn’t have an actual size chart - it uses a generic Amazon size chart. I just chose this random dress and yep, generic Amazon size chart. It in no way is going to be a reliable measure for the actual item. I try to look for items like these leggings from Torrid that have an actual Torrid size chart linked.
Sometimes people are super awesome and put pictures of size charts that were on their items, or that they found elsewhere, in the comments.
With regards to “fits as expected” I often find myself seeing just as many “I was swimming in this!” comments as “This didn’t fit over my leg!” for the same items. So frustrating!
I do kind of sympathize with clothing makers, tho. I mean, my body couldn’t be more oddly shaped. I’m 5’8" (so, I’m “tall”) but also have an extremely short inseam (27"). I’m fat but not curvy. My torso is long and my boobs are, I dunno, robust but not shapely? I don’t know how anyone could make clothing to fit me and anyone else simultaneously, but they do try…
They should post measurements of the actual clothing items, that way you can compare them to clothes you already have that fit you. Good eBay sellers do this for things like suits and leather jackets. Lands’ End does this with all their clothes. It could cut down on returns if everybody did this.
Even in the store, you can’t guarantee that 2 items with the same size printed on them will fit the same, especially in pants. Manufacturing standards are just to sloppy. Gotta try on every darn piece before buying.
As a short man, there’s no such thing as “pants that fit.” But when shopping online, this actually turns out to be an advantage; I just buy what looks good in the correct waist, and whatever the shortest length leg there is (it’s going to be too long no matter what). When it arrives I hem the legs myself. Shirts are easier because I prefer them big anyways (plus, I don’t know how to alter a shirt; that wasn’t covered in my two semesters of Home Ec in high school ;)).
You are not alone. They are useless and unless you hang out with models that are perfectly proportioned, I do not, no woman is built the way these charts work. The timing of this is perfect because my teenage daughter and I just had this conversation the other night when she was looking at ordering some clothes. It’s frustrating a lot of the time.
Women’s clothes are poorly manufactured and poorly sized. Women vary in proportion more than men do. (Men have three basic shapes, muscular, skinny, or round; women seem to have about fifty.) And women’s clothes are expected to fit just right, while many men get away with things that sort of fit. It’s a stupid mess. Do what works.
Isn’t that what the size charts are? Supposedly, they are clothing measurements that the clothing manufacturer sizes their clothes to.
Yeah, that’s typically what I do. Still, it’s just so stupid. Seems like given the push to sell everything online, someone would figure out a way to size clothes that actually works.
I agree - the sizes are all over the place. In most stores, a women’s small is 4-6, medium 8-10. But there are a couple of stores where a small is a 6-8 and a medium is a 10-12.
The most frustrating thing about ordering online is reading the reviews. There will be a bunch of reviews saying that the item is true to size, then there will be some that say it runs small and then some that say it runs big. Not helpful AT ALL.
I also notice that for some reason black jeans in the same brand and style always seem to fit a little tighter.
Amazon recently bought the small software company my SIL works for. The software they produce allows a customer to describe various measurements, not just waste and bust size and including weight and height, but also others and produces a body type and size recommendations. Assuming the software works properly (something I cannot judge), it should go a long way to solving the problems in this thread.
Yep, I can be multiple sizes and that’s always been the case. It’s one of the reasons I very rarely order online. I like John Lewis for their size guides, but they still sell products from multiple brands, so I’ve had fails from them too.
I’ve also never bought Levis or Gap jeans because they have inch sizing, like for men’s clothes, and I haven’t a clue what mine are. I’ve tried, believe me, but nothing ever seem to be quite right. Can’t remember what my waist size is right now, but I once meaured myself, ordered he right size, and they were still wrong. I think there might be just as much obfuscating of sizes with supposedly objective inch sizing as there is for “size 8” or whatever, for women’s clothes anyway.
Then there’s small, large, etc. Once when I was 5’6" and 108 pounds (7 stone 10) a scathing shop assistant told me they didn’t carry clothes large enough for me. WTF?
I guess if there were reliable online clothes sizing for women then the high street clothes shops would be in even more trouble than they already are. Having to send stuff back is a huge hassle. Admittedly it’s more difficult for me than most people (disability) but it’s an extra chore for everyone.
It has become even more ridiculous in recent years. Sizes are far from uniform across brands, and vanity sizing has gotten out of control. I have a skirt from J. Crew that I bought probably 15 years ago, in the size I always used to wear. Nowadays that size from J. Crew is huge on me. The SML type of sizing is even worse. I can wear anything from XXS to M, depending on the brand. Crazy.
No, most size charts tell you the size of the body they’re supposed to fit. The garments are bigger than those numbers. They don’t help much because different brands have different notions of how much bigger a garment should be than the body it’s supposed to fit on. And brands often have different lines of slim fit, regular fit shirts and so forth.
I’m talking about posting the actual measurements of the garment itself. Once you have a few things that fit you well, it is much easier to find other things that have the same dimensions.
That’s a hassle and it runs up shipping costs which the consumer ultimately has to pay one way or the other. Also, I wonder what they do with all those returned clothes. Do they just resell them as new? That would run the risk of them selling soiled clothes.