I asked Pepper Mill about LB last night. She says that, while there IS a lot of polyester at Lane Bryant, it’ws not exclusively poly, and if you look you can find good gotton stuff and blends.
She’s aware of the sizing differences, but she knows what size she is in LB and in other stores, and it’s neither confusing nor flattering.
She says that the underwear selection is great, though.
I don’t usually shop at LB because they are more expensive, and trending a bit younger, than I usually wear, though I do go in and check out their solid color shirts and wait for clearance sales. But my coworker shops there a lot and very reluctantly let herself get measured for the Right Fit jeans a few months back (reluctantly because she is very self-conscious, and the clerk was a guy) and she was totally amazed at how well the jeans fit…she said it was the first time in her life she can remember anything fitting her that well.
Yeah, you definitely can’t buy Right Fit off of the website, and even if you get measured in store you’ll probably still need to try different sizes on. Once you find the right size though, everything seems to run true so you can order online without fear.
The first time I looked at RF jeans, I guessed that I was a 6 or 7, tried to try on a Red in both sizes and an 8, and couldn’t even get any of them on. After hearing a lot of raves about the fit, I went back and got measured by someone who worked there. She recommended a 7 or possibly 8. This time I went to the dressing room with both sizes in all three cuts, and discovered that I was a Blue 7 Tall.
I wasn’t displeased with what I had been wearing, but these were far, far better cut for me. I now own several pairs of jeans and dress pants in this system, and I was bitterly disappointed to find out that they aren’t making shorts in it yet. I’m sure that there are plenty of women out there who don’t fall into one of their categories, but it’s still a big improvement over the one-cut-fits-all approach.
A proper conversion chart will never work, by the way. And any attempt to call them by normal sizing would be a joke. Note that I said that I can’t even get into a Red 8, while I properly wear a size smaller in Blue. I wasn’t exaggerating. I couldn’t fit them over my hips.
I don’t consider this to be true vanity sizing. That’s what happens when you call what should be a 14 a 12W. No size 20 is going to try on a RF 5 and believe that they’re really a size 6 despite what all their other clothes say.
Blah —
I found an LB coupon just last night, ($25 off of a $50+ purchase) so I stopped in, hoping to find some shorts. I got some last summer that I love.
Almost every rack has a sign “Shorts, $29” and in tiny little print (for some styles).
Ok, I figure I can wade through the rack and find which styles have a $29 price tag on them. Nope. Every single pair is $45. So I ask the saleswoman. How do I know which styles are on sale? Answer - There is no way to tell. Customers can’t tell. Salespeople don’t know. You have to scan it, and see how it would ring up.
I put down about $100 worth of clothing, in a pile in front of her, told her I wasn’t going to put up with that scam, and walked out the door.
Blah —
I like my right fit jeans. I agree with Risha that they aren’t vanity sizing. It is a completely different system, so they needed different numbers. I am a yellow, and the jeans fit me (bigger waist, smaller hips) better than any I have ever found.
Yeah, I never thought it was vanity sizing either. Just “this is a separate system” sizing, where the number is only part of the equation.