Sizes: frustration in numbers
Shopping around for plus size clothing on an island can be quite a frustrating experience. Having limited plus size specialty stores around, there are a handful of stores which I tend to go into when I’m shopping around (unless of course I shop around on line), because I know that those carry plus size and 14+ items.
Therefore adding more frustration to my limited shopping options is not exactly the cherry on the cake I might be looking for.
What added frustration am I referring to? Sizes! I would be perfectly content were I to go shopping a hundred times, knowing that a size 18 would actually always fit me! However sometimes, low and behold, a size 16 squeezes in! Or… shock… horror, a size 18 is beyond tight, that a size 20 or even 22 is the only option.
I am aware of the fact that different styles and different fits usually also determine the way an outfit fits and wears, but why should two different brands and stores consider a size 18 a size 14, or vice versa? It confuses me, and I’m sure it confuses a lot of people, especially when shopping online. This is one of my, very few, pet peeves which makes me sometimes quite frustrated.
I don’t know whether other plus size women, and women in general for that matter, experience this often, or whether it event bothers them. Would it be such a big deal if clothing companies agreed on sizes, and streamlined what all of them considered the measurements to be for different sizes?
Comment by About Curves
I think you’re right…we standardize our sizes so that our customers always know the same size will fit, but that’s not true across the board. And what makes me feel worse is that for many companies the decision is connected to the emotional satisfaction of fitting into a smaller size. Like one company I know of that sizes their 2X as a “Medium.” It seems pretty unethical.