Non-standardised clothes size problems!

I have what I would call an awkward figure, I'm very short (less than 5ft) and curvy with a generous chest and hips though a small waist. Since my late teens I've struggled to find clothes that fit me perfectly and often have to make do instead with whatever I can find for the budget I have. At the moment I normally wear size 14 clothes after managing in recent months to lose a few extra pounds around my middle, though my wardrobe contains items in sizes ranging from 10 to 18 believe it or not. I'm slightly smaller on my bottom half than my top due to my rather largish tummy (I half expect some days for someone to stop me in the street and ask me ...  Read the complete review

High street shops can really differ in their sizing but I've never cared THAT much, as long as i can actually fit into something! Sadly this is often not the case, which can be pretty infuriating as I'm only a size 12/14. I get most annoyed in Zara. Being a European company they don't sell clothes in UK sizes. They have S,M,L and XL. Which can be translated as child sized, size 10, size 12 and 'non human body shape size'. I usually wear an L in there but find the busts incredible small. Even without a bra a large quantity of the clothes won't anywhere near fit. And I'm only a DD which really isn't that big. But when i wear an XL it swamps me and seems to have ...  Read the complete review

I am a twin, non identical though and we always go out shopping for clothes together. Main reason is my sister is an eternal bargain hunter and can sniff out a sale rail a mile away plus I have no sense of style when it comes to clothes, I buy more on the scale of comfort and function as I do a lot of hill walking with my two dogs. The one thing we do share in common though is that a lot of clothes we try on just don't fit. This can be really frustrating. For myself I can go into shops and come out with anything from a size 10 to a size 14 in trousers and in tops I go from a size 14 up to an 18. As for dresses you can just forget it they never ...  Read the complete review

I love the idea of shopping for clothes but practically is an absolutley different thing. I often find that I am different sizes in different shops, but for me that is not a real problem as it doesn't happen too often. My nightmare is with shirts and blouses. I really hate it when I see one that I like as I know that I will not be buying it so I am gutted straight away. I also hate it when the magazines and TV shows tell us that the latest fashion is for shirts and blouses as I know I will be left out. Now for the reason they are my nightmare. For tops I am the normal size 12. T shirts, jumpers and cardigans I have no problem with as they fit perfectly. ...  Read the complete review

I love to shop online, but one big problem is that sizes just don't mean anything any more. If I had the money, I would not mind ordering 2 or 3 different sizes of an item and then sending back the excess but I am not rich and I also don't have a lot of spare time. The same goes for shopping in the high street stores, where I have to try everything on which gets really tedious, especially when you have 2 or 3 sizes of each garment and then have to keep going backwards and forwards to swap items over with the shop assistant. My measurements are: 30C - 25 -36 And yet, although my Sass And Bide jeans are a 25, I cannot fit into a 26 in Diesel. And ...  Read the complete review