Women's sizes

RobertsBrown

My wife lost the ability to know her size in things long before she lost the desire to shop for clothes.  Ergo, I had to learn what her sizes were.

I had no idea that you ladies had such an insane and illogical system for measuring yourselves!

Why is it that jeans can be in inches for waist/inseam (like men) or sizes 8, 10, 12...lnfinity. Is it a size 18, or 18W?  S, M, L, XL, 2X, 3X.  Letters?   There are sizes in letters?!?  And of course the stores have 'normal' sizes in the middle of the store, but go over the magic line and it's an Easter Egg hunt for the 'large' or 'Plus' sizes.  Why hide them?  Have you looked around? We are not tiny stick people in America.

I had to appeal to helpers for bras, but then we quite wearing bras, so that got easier.  And why are there ladies shoe/sock sizes that look like men's sizes but are not?

then, of course, Chinese made clothes are not necessarily correct or the same.  So, you have to try stuff on, which was impossible during Covid and now impossible because, well it just is.

How do you manage to dress yourselves?

Life in women's fashions is quite an adventure.

Pat6177

Yup, it is an adventure! I went to Kohl’s this summer looking for a pair of Jean capris. I bought 3 pair - all were different sizes! And I tried all 3 on in the store. I thought I would try them on again at home and return one or two of them. Nope, I kept all 3. They ea fit a bit differently but I wear all 3. Fit varies by store, by brand, by style by season. No rhyme or reason.

Ed1937

I'm finding that men's clothing is not much different. As an example, I wanted to order some underwear from Amazon. I typically wear a size 36. Size choices were 32 - 34 or 36 - 38 for me. I didn't want any that felt like I was wearing a tourniquet, but also didn't want them too big. 36 - 38 seemed too big, but 32 - 34 seemed way too small. A box popped up telling me that men my size usually order medium (32 - 34). Guess I'll have to get a camera slide on my laptop. I didn't know they were checking me out. Anyhow, I ordered 32 - 34, but only ordered one pack. They fit snugly, but were comfortable. I ordered more. I hate shopping.

toolbeltexpert

Rb thanks for this post, I was shopping for my dw yesterday, lucky for me I had been trying to keep up with what she likes. Lee riders 18wp. But now 18 pounds later I am gonna try an 20wp. Wp means Womans petite.  Petite doesn't necessarily mean small, it's more about the inseam. But it is crazy. I know all her favorites and took pictures to help me remember. Her feet have swollen so much that she went from a size 9 to a 11 wide.  But I wish there was more standardized systems.  I buy multiple of the things that are good for her,I learned that here.

Jo C.

That sound you hear in the background is me laughing maniacally!

So many clothing stores have closed, so many larger stores have not got great selections and sizes?   Pathetic and not at all standard, especially in women's clothing.  I had my clothing, my mothers, MIL, and GMIL clothing to be concerned with; those three had dementia.

As for 1X, 2X, 3X, Ha again!  Some too big, some even at 3X too small.  One time I bought four really, really nice women's shirt blouses from a really nice upscale catalog for my mother in a 3X wanting a generous fit for her.  Well; the bosom buttons would not cover and weirdly, the arms and armholes were made VERY narrow.  Cannot count the times I have had to send things back and this was even after taking measurements and using catalog size charts.

Used to be much easier, but so much is made "off shore" in other countries and the purveyors are all trying to maximize their profits without attention to quality or customer satisfaction, that it has made the situation extremely difficult.

One of my pet peeves over the last few years is trying to buy tops and winter sweaters for myself.  In trying to save money on fabric while making huge numbers of garments, the companies are using the length of a top to be only 26 inches long; some only 25. Well; that means that one cannot bend over or reach up without skin showing; the garment is just too short for any sort of large movement at work, at church, in company, etc.   Also too short to lie nicely on top of skirt or slacks. 

If ordering from a catalog, it is best to take measurements according to the fit chart and then order the right size and one other in either larger or smaller depending on body build; of course that leaves an item having to be sent back; but at least one will have hopefully obtained a useful garment IF the quality is good.  Fabric, seams, etc. can be very different from pictures.  So tired of trying to get good finds in stores; they just are not as consumer friendly as in prior years.  And . . . just try finding women's classic sorts of clothing; that is in the minority for professional women.

AARGH!

J.

Ed1937

My biggest gripe is that when I want to buy a long sleeved shirt, jacket or something else with long sleeves, they seem to be made for men who are around 7 feet tall. I'm not even 6 feet tall, so sleeves are usually longer than what I'd like. Did I mention that I hate shopping?

Beachfan

I like shopping for jeans at Chico’s.  I wear a size 1.5- - sounds tiny, right?  Don’t be fooled.  

On a lighter note, during College, I worked from Thanksgiving until Christmas at a free gift wrapping station in a high end department store near my home.  There was a nice cocktail lounge/restaurant next door and on Christmas Eve there were usually “holiday luncheons” attended by businessmen (and women) where the liquor flowed and frivolity abounded.  The gift wrap station was located in the ladies’ clothing section.  I could always count on one or two procrastinators breezing just before closing and needing a last minute gift.  I modeled handbags, held up pajama sets, bathrobes, and twirled and struck a pose in expensive coats, because.”you are about the same size as my wife.”  SOLD!  I never knew how well the gifts were received, but the tips were great.  

loveskitties

The other thing you have to watch out for with clothing purchases is that you can buy 2 of the exact same item...one may fit and the other not.  

This is due to the fact that when being cut there are many many layers of material so that when "sliced and diced" the parts on the top of the pile may be "exact" to specs while those on the bottom may be bigger or smaller.  

You can also have variation due to the "sewing" process.

If you get an item which is too big in one area, it is sometimes cheaper and less headache to take it to seamstress (many dry cleaners have them) and have it altered, than to play the guessing game with a reorder.

jfkoc

Thanks for that explanation...I got several pairs of pants with different inseams.

Stuck in the middle

It used to be, the more you paid for women's clothes, the smaller the size printed on the label.  When my wife wore a 6, I bought a nice dress for her that she admired in a downtown shop window.  It was huge - in the expensive brand, she only wore a 2!

It seems to be random now.  I guess that's so women can waste an entire day trying on everything in the store.

Men won't do that.  If clothing stores had drive-up windows, we would use them.  "Gimme some pants - supersized."  "Want sox with that?"  "Yep, add a large order of sox.  And a coffee."

GothicGremlin

Ha! Welcome to women's shopping! For the record I hate shopping too. I'd rather go to the dentist.

I've run into each of these problems all of you have listed - buy two of the very same thing, and one is still different from the other. Some stores I wear a small, some a medium, and one goth store I really like I wear a large because the sizes run so very small.

And now I shop for my sister, who hasn't lost the ability to shop, even though she's now at Stage 6. She's got completely different tastes in clothing than I do, looks good in colors that I couldn't dream of wearing, and sized very differently. I don't have a good eye for whether something will fit her or not, so I'm always getting the wrong size, and then sending it back, reordering, never quite sure what I'm going to get.  Amazon is such a mixed bag for clothing.  I'd rather take Peggy to a department store and have her try things on, but those days are long gone.

toolbeltexpert

Stuck I like your idea,I want tater tots and do you carry long belts, I'll take 2 of those.

Joydean

I really have enjoyed all the shopping experience’s. My dh is 6’4”, so buying knit shirts I have to buy X-Large so the sleeve’s will be long enough. I haven’t shopped for myself in about 2 years. Sadly in the last year I’ve been loosing weight (my doctor really got on to me, I was not trying, just have a hard time with food) I really needed to buy some pants that would stay up. Went to a couple different department stores this week. I was looking for just simple pair of jeans. I decided right then and there I now hate shopping. I’ve always worn size 4-6. When a 0 doesn’t fit and sales lady said maybe we should go to teens department I left the store and came home! So disappointed.

sandwichone123

Find something that fits--you still can't replace it! This was men's clothing. My dh only had one pair of jeans that really fit--Lucky Jeans skinny fit. Went to get some more this year--they've been bought out and don't have those sizes any more.

ImMaggieMae

Thank goodness my DH never met an LL Bean or Land’s End catalog he didn’t like. In years prior to the dementia he ordered a lot of very nice clothes, many of which he didn’t often wear. So the only things I’ve ordered for him in the past year are pull on pants and cargo shorts in kind of a light sweatshirt type material that are easy off and on when changing. I’ve ordered size M and they’ve all fit so far.

Women’s sizes are utterly confusing. It used to be that my normal thin size was a size 8. Then they seemed to make everything larger. I gained about 15 pounds and 8 is now my large size. Without the 15 pounds I’m a size 4. Years ago, even when I was down to my “skinny” weight I couldn’t fit into a 4. I remember the first time I tried on a pair of size 4 jeans in a store and they fit perfectly. I was so delighted, I bought 3 pairs in different styles. I guess clothing manufacturers had a method to their madness!

Kibbee

When I met DH he was quite the clothes horse.  He was a white collar licensed professional and really enjoyed dressing up and looking the part.  But nowadays comfort and easy on / easy off are the new watchwords.  Elastic waist shorts in the summer, and elastic waist sleep pants in the cooler weather.  No jeans!  Too hard to help him in and out of, and navigating the snap / zipper quickly enough to use the urinal is pretty much impossible.  Tops are T-shirts, with a zip front hoodie added on cooler days.  Easy, and his entire wardrobe can be purchased at Walmart and Farm & Fleet.