It’s frequently said that shopping for jeans is a nightmare, not made easier by the cramped dressing rooms with flimsy curtains, constant probing by commission-hunting sales assistants and capricious sizing. It was the latter point that’s just gone viral on Twitter as one shopper laid bare with a single photograph the fluctuating meaning of a ‘size 12’ from brand-to-brand.
Do Primark Jeans Run Small?
‘In case you’ve ever wondered why women get so frustrated with our clothing sizes - every pair of jeans pictured, is a size 12,’ Chloe tweeted alongside a picture of seven jeans with waistbands that vacillated not by millimetres but by inches. Her jean selection represents a cross-section of the British high street, with pairs from George at Asda, Pull & Bear, Topshop, Bershka and Primark.
She added in a later Tweet, ‘And you know what’s even funnier, the very bottom pair fit me perfectly, the 2nd pair from the top, are too small, how does that even make sense when the top pair is bigger????’
With 216K likes, 109L retweets and over a 1,000 comments, she proved she’s not alone in her frustration. People echoed their grievances, one person shared a picture of size 4 jeans equally as wide as a pair of size 10 shorts while another griped that she wears size 27 jeans but a Large top with an XS top.
Do ASOS Sizes Run Small?
Channel 5 investigated the disparity in sizing across the UK marketplace in a documentary called Shop Smart Save Money for Christmas. The findings showed M&S had the most generous sizing, followed by Next.
Are Topshop Sizes True To Size?
At ASOS a size 16 was found to have a bust measurement of 103cm, which was 4cm larger than Next. Meanwhile, size 8 bottoms at ASOS and Topshop were substantially smaller than H&M.
The message is clear: sizing is inconsistent and there is no hope for regulation. While the EU offers guidelines, each store has its own set of fit models and pattern blocks, which determine its internal definition of dress size.