What Size Do I Buy??

When I buy clothes I don't tend to have the time or hands free to be able to go into the changing rooms to try each item of clothing on.

Most of the time when I am clothes shopping, I have the kids with me and they do not have the patience to stand around and wait for mummy to do a little fashion show for them. I've tried before and it turns into a battle of keeping little hands of clothes and hunting for other children inbetween the rails of clothing.

For this reason, I like to be able to go into a shop, pick what I want off the rails, pay and then leave again.

However I have been steadily losing weight and getting back into shape over the past few months, my size 12's were getting bug so I needed new clothes and I wasn't sure what size I would need.

First shop I ventured into was Peacocks, browsing through the sale items, I came across a pair of purple trousers, being my favourite colour I had to have them, being the classy lady I am, I tried them on underneath my skirt out on the shop floor, in my defense I couldn't squeeze all four children into the changing cubicle. To my surprise a size 8 fit, over the moon doesn't cover it, I haven't been this size since I was 13 years old!!!

Next shop I went to was Primark, well who doesn't love a bit of primarni. I picked up a pair of jeggings  but thought I best try them on as they were slightly different material, well in primark it turns out 10 was the winning number, with this in mind, I continued to pick up another couple of pairs of jeggings in a size 10, assuming because they are from the same shop that the sizing would be the same......

When I got home I thought I would compare the trousers, I was intrigued as to how I could be a size 8 in one shop and a size 10 in another.

Just take a look at the picture on the left.


Can any of you explain to me how the size 8 trousers from Peacocks and the size 10 trousers from Primark mange to be almost the same size??


No wonder they both seemed to fit me, the measurements are practically the same.






This wasn't the worst bit though.....

I decided to try on the other pair of jeggings I got from Primark, to see what the colour looked like etc

Boy did I have to breathe in, to be able to wear these, I wouldn't be able to eat a smidgen of food during the day.

The picture on the right shows both pairs together and as you can see, there is a significant difference in size.

I would say the darker pair are nearer to a size 6 than they are a size 10.



What I would love to know is how do shops get away with selling clothes that differ so much in size?? When you look at size guides online, they all seem to use the same universal sizing and measurements for waist, hips and bust, this would lead you to believe that all the clothes would in turn be of the same size, obviously not the case.

I now have to make a return journey to Primark to get the bigger size jeggings because I really would like to be able to eat and breathe whilst I wear them!!!

So my lovely readers, what shops have you had trouble with when it comes to finding the right size of clothing for you, do you tend to stick with the same shops so that you know what you are getting, do you really know what size you need to buy??

xxxx