Wanting to know what clothes size I should be looking for from now on I decided to do a quick google. I checked the New Look site, Evans and then I checked the British Standard chart as seen on Retro Chick's Blog. My grandma who has also decided to lose weight has also joined Slimming World and so we decided to look at her measurements as well.
I have some size 24 trousers which fit perfect, not tight but not baggy on the bum and falling down. I have size 22 which fit perfect not tight and again not baggy on the bum. Yet according to the New Look size guide I should be buying size 24-26. Yet the New Look trousers I have from New Look in the size fall down.
Me wearing said 24-26 trousers from New Look
What made me feel even worse was the fact that in accordance with the British Standard, which admittedly doesn't really exist in store but is still there for reference I should be in a size 30! No matter how much weight i have gained in my life I have never been a size 30 and it's really moral quashing to see that in print when you think you have done well.
So either New Look have just lied on their size guide and picked numbers out of the air at random or I have been really unlucky and bought 3 pairs of trousers which have had the wrong size label sewn in, which is pretty impossible as New Looks inspire range only goes up to a size 26 anyway.
In complete comparison with their trousers, New Look state I should be a size 18 on top. I wish. My current tops are a size 20-22. Without looking too tight (the pic above the top is tied behind my back so you can see the extent of of the gap), yet I know that if I was to try and get a size 18 on at the moment then I would either lose feeling in body parts due to the restriction to my blood flow or the seams would bust. The British Standard is a little more accurate though and puts me at a size 22.
So I guess my point is. How can a clothing size guide be so accurate with one part of your body and then so out of touch and off the mark with another? How many people's self confidence have shops ruined and sabotaged because they can't make a set guideline for their clothing sizes and then stick to it?
I'm of the personality type on which normally I would let this put me down and I would feel sad and feel like I hadn't made any progress, well all I can say now is bollocks to the British clothing industry. I'm doing well, I've lost weight, I've lost inches, I'm in smaller clothes. Whether you put me in a size 20 or a size 24 it's still apparent how far I have come by looking at me, a few numbers on a label aren't going to ruin that for me!
