I’ve been a female for nigh on 24 years, but I’m still baffled.
You see, I’ve been dropping A LOT of weight since I went off my meds in mid-June 2006. I found these jeans I liked, they were a size 16M (women’s or misses??? I have no clue.) Then I lost 65 pounds. I kept with the same style of jeans (Levis boot cut relaxed fit) as I dropped weight, went down to a 14M, and then a 12M. Last week my pants started falling off again, so I headed back to the store…
…and then when I returned to the store I found myself confused. In the Women’s sizing department, I could not find anything marked a “10M,” which is what I was looking for… the sizes were WAY higher, like in the 18-36 range even though I swear they weren’t plus sizes. So I wandered over to the “Misses” section and thought, “There is no way this skinny stuff is going to fit me.” They didn’t have the “relaxed fit” in a 10M, so I tried a “stretch” fit…
This is where things get baffling. The 10Ms almost fit, but they were a might too small. The 12Ms fit very well, so I bought those. I took my new 12Ms home and compared them to the jeans that were too loose on me, also “12Ms” according to the tag. There was a noticeable size discrepancy. Even though they are both supposed to be the exact same size, the old pair is clearly bigger than the new pair. So I lost more weight, but I still have to say I’m a 12M :mad: (On the other hand, I bought these pants a WEEK AGO, and they are already starting to get loose… )
I’m just not understanding what I was wearing to begin with, and why it’s different from what I’m wearing now (other than the style). I don’t understand how Women’s sizes work and how they are comparable to Misses. If I’m a Misses 12M, what is that in Women’s? Did I somehow go from Women’s to Misses sizes without realizing it? I’m confused!
Sorry if this belongs in General Questions. It seemed mundane enough and also with great potential to devolve into griping about women’s clothing sizes, I thought I’d start it here and see where the mods put it.
You’re 24, I’m 26. Sometime in those two years, apparently, women get tired of talking about clothing sizes. Or something inside them dies. Or something.
No, there is absolutely no standard by which women’s clothes sizes are determined. If you really want a hoot, go try on a size 10 at Old Navy, then try on a size 10 from the Isaac Mizrahi line at Target. My best guess is that a Mizrahi 10 = an Old Navy 4.
I always thought the Misses section was for short people, but I could be wrong. I’m just under 5’11, so short in comparison to me encompasses a lot of people.
I actually had this same question recently. I’m at that point in my life when it’s about time to switch from Juniors to Womens. I know what size I am in Juniors, but I find I’m not at all that size in Womens. It’s actually kind of cool though. I don’t feel large, but the Juniors section says that I am. Womens says that I’m somewhere between small and medium. I like that a lot more.
You’re a fancy-pants Michigander, so maybe they do things differently up there, but here in Indiana it goes like this:
Within the same clothing line and the same “shape”, the “Misses” are the normal sizes, the “Womens” are the plus sizes, and the “Petites” are for shorter people and often run a little smaller than the Misses, to boot.
From shape to shape (relaxed, boot cut, skinny, low rider) and from line to line, though, there is absolutely no standard. If Isaac Mizrahi really did love women and really did want them to look good, he’d make a Womens line that would be a pretty close match for Old Navy’s normal Misses sizes.
Okay… this is very helpful, and makes sense when I reflect on my experience at Sears the other day.
So the trick I guess, is once you find the line you like, to then learn what their particular standards are in order to find something that fits. This is good–I know I like Levis now, and I know that I prefer the “stretch” over the “relaxed fit”… See, I just now made the discovery that the “M” after the size denotes the inseam length and all this time I’ve been bitching my jeans are too long. So now I have to find a “12S” that are stretch fit in the Misses department… :smack:
Women’s sizing in the US is insane. Misses run in even sizes (0,2,4…) and Juniors, which are smaller in the bust and bum, run in odd sizes. In theory, you could take your own measurements, see which of these general forms you conform to, and try on various sizes for each designer until you find something that works for you.
But that would mean you have to go shopping. Yeach.
I’ve taken to wearing mostly skirts, because I can just find one that’s not too long in a small or medium and then pin it up at the waist. As long as it’s a soft fabric, it will hang all right with artful darts. But I have a devil of a time finding well-fitting pants.
Women’s sizes are considered anything in the overlap range of 14 to 26 (and beyond, though those are rare) Misses sizes are pretty much 6 to 18. But an 18W is going to be cut a bit more generously (especially in pants through the thighs and butt) than an 18 in Misses. And Misses sizes are often grouped (6-8, 10-12, 12-14. 16-18) as small, Medium, large and Extra-large.
I think a lot of it also depends on your body type. You definitely have the right idea by knowing the size and style you like for a particular brand. However, you should be able to at least get in the same neighborhood in another brand. It also depends on what type of garment you are buying. Like for me, in most brands I have one size for dresses, a different size for skirts (since I don’t have to worry about length or my fitting anything over my manly shoulders) and yet another size for pants and jeans. However, those sizes are pretty consistent for me in all the brands of clothes that I buy - of course, I do tend to shop at the same 4 or 5 stores all the time.
Count me in as another frustrated person (male) who doesn’t understand it. I go shopping for my girlfriend and see a shirt that looks like it was designed for a teddy bear, marked M. Then I see another shirt that looks like it was custom tailored for Shaq, and it’s also marked M.
As we get older, things fall. There is a tendency (not hard and fast rule, but tendency) for juniors sizes to fit bodies that are as of yet unaffected by gravity, misses sizes to fit slightly older women, and women’s sizes to fit once gravity has won.
Tendency.
After that, your best bet is to find the manufacturer’s sizing chart and use that. If the manufacturer has chosen to publish their chart, it’s usually not entirely inaccurate.
“Petite” can refer to “small” generally (both width and length) or shorter proportioned (just length).
They need to change womens sizes into letters, and maybe the women won’t correlate numbers so much with actual measurements of girth. Plus they’re going to have to start using negative numbers soon. :rolleyes:
I wish they’d apply men’s pants sizing to women’s pants. From what I’ve seen in catalogs, the typical regular length of the inseam on women’s pants (when they bother to tell you!) is 29.5". Yes, that’s a weird measurement, I know. My inseam? 33". Bastards.
I buy all my jeans from the same place (Gap) and all my nice pants from the same place (New York and Company). Gap because they sell x-long inseams (something I’ve been needing FOREVER) and NY&Co sells longs that are sufficient and they have a good selection of nice clothes.
My problem is with shirt sizes, because I buy shirts from lots of places. I can wear anywhere from a small to large depending on the store. While trying on pants is always necessary, trying on shirts is now too. I usually wear a medium because my boobs aren’t big but it does vary a lot.
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