We Need To Talk About Inconsistent Sizing For Women’s Clothes

Yes, the stereotypes ring true for me. I am a woman so, naturally, I love shopping.

It's honestly something I view more as a hobby. Hear me out, I really love to get clothes secondhand or go for pieces that others look at and not think anything of at first glance.

I really view my clothes as more of a "collection" and they are really important to me.

However, like many women, I struggle so hard with sizing. Every store seems to have different scales or ways they size their clothes and it is just so annoying and honestly next to impossible nowadays to get something you know will fit the way you want.

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Why This Is Frustrating

Not only does this make online shopping a real gamble sometimes, but with fitting rooms being closed due to COVID, this is especially hard. You go to a store, grab the size you usually would at other stores only to get it home and it fits completely different.

I know so many women who absolutely DREAD shopping for pants because the sizing is just so absurdly inconsistent from brand to brand. Heck, even different styles in the same store often are different sizes.

For example, I am a size 0 in jeans from Target (I really don't know how), a size 2 at other stores, a size 5 at WalMart (don't knock it, nobody is "too good" for some cute pants at an affordable price), a size 4 at American Eagle and a size 10 at H&M.

We'll get to H&M later, trust me.

This is frustrating because not only is it so discouraging trying on what feels like a million pairs of pants only for none of them to fit but also having to walk into a store and NEVER know what size you'll actually need to get.

It's Not About Being Insecure...But It Doesn't Help

Let me just say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having to size up if it means you get something that fits you comfortably. That number on the tag has proven time and time again to not really mean much, right?

However, we all know the unrealistic beauty standards that are shoved in our faces all the time and if you are already insecure about your body or are still learning to love it, this can be really discouraging and I totally get it.

I am one of those people learning to love the body I have and I will admit, there are times I have sat down and cried in a fitting room because my "normal" size didn't fit like it used to...Now I sit and think, why am I letting myself be made to feel like crap over a stupid number on a stupid tag?

Some Things That Can Help

When I worked retail at a consignment store for women's brands instead of more "teen" brands, I learned quite a few distinctions that really helped me fight those fitting room fears.

First, women's sizing is typically numbered in even numbers, while teen or juniors' sizing is numbered in odd numbers. Aside from 0, that would explain why there are often some discrepancies in how sizing fits you!

Also, women's clothing is designed with more curves in mind and different silhouettes so depending on what you are looking for should dictate the section you look in.

Each brand caters to different people and different styles, the unfortunate part of that is that some do cater to specific body types and base their sizing on that, which is sad. They will make the tags say something way smaller or bigger than what it is depending on how they want you to feel, the message they want to send or the people / body types they want wearing their clothes.

I'm not sure if H&M fits into that category but they are one of the worst offenders of having such bad sizing discrepancies within their own inventory! A size 10 in one section fits completely different than a size 10 in another.

All in all, the number on the tag really means nothing and if you are into thrifting like I am, that's where it really gets fun and where you can learn to just look at the item, how it fits and how you feel in it.

We make our clothes work for our bodies, we don't make our bodies work for our clothes...but if companies could make it as easy as the guys have it, that'd be pretty cool.