No woman lives in peace when we go to the clothing store and measure clothes with our size -which do not fit us- and, what happens? We have to settle for wearing a larger size believing that it is not ours, but the problem is not us and our body.
The following article was published in ELLE and recounts the situation of a woman who found in several clothing stores that the sizes are not the same, not even internally, something that happens to us very often when we go shopping.
She ended up trying on 9 clothes that did not match the size she thought she was, the story begins like this:
Last week a girl, who normally wears a size 40, criticized that, when trying on a dress in H&M had to resort to a size 44 to fit her, which adds to another complaint made last year by another woman to the same store about her sizing of jeans “unreal and arbitrary”, “should I assume that modern and current clothes are not for people like me?”public.
Going from a S to a L or from a 40 to a 46 without any explanation is not the most encouraging, nor is it very practical to have to take three different sizes of the same top to the fitting room.
Although the size is the least important, let’s admit that we all care about the size of the dress / skirt / top that we use. And that, suddenly, you leave your house with a specific size and that when you arrive at Zara you have three sizes more, it is nothing more than a way to destroy our self-esteem.
So, armed with my phone and a bunch of pants and skirts, I ducked into a dressing room to get to the bottom of this whole thing.
Before I tell you my experience, here is the size you use Zara.
XXS (34), XS (36), S (38), M (40), L (42), XL (44), XXL (46).
And this is all I tried…
1. Floral print culottes (in the image a size M)
To begin with, I didn’t want to complicate my life too much, so I tried a size M short. From the front it seemed to fit me well, but I had to keep pulling it up constantly so it wouldn’t fall off.
I had to get a size S.
2. Printed culotte (in the image a size M)
Then I tried on a very similar printed culotte and in the same size. I assumed that it would be just as big as the one I had tried on before, but oh surprise! It fit me like a glove. Perfect.
My size was back to M.
3. Dual skinny jeans (in the image a size 40)
After the disaster of the culottes, it was the turn of the jeans. I usually wear a 38, sometimes even a 36, but apparently at Zara even a 40 doesn’t look good on me. In spite of everything, I never lost my smile.
The size that fit me well in this case was 42.
4. Jeans with frayed hem (in the image a size 38)
Convinced that the type of jeans I had tried on before were not the ones that best suited my shape, I tried another pair of jeans, but this time with frayed cuffs. Size 38 didn’t fit me either, but at least I could buckle them up. Maybe one size up…
The size that fit me well in this case was 40.
5. Embroidered jeans (in the image a size 40)
There had to be some jeans at Zara that fit me. Take a look at the ones in the photo.
They seem to fit me well, right? Well, appearances can be deceiving, because, in reality, I had a lot of excess at the waist and it was like wearing maternity jeans… maybe in the end my size would really be 38.
My size in this case was 38.
6. Flowy ruffle pants (in the image a size S)
This is me trying to button up a pair of pants that are too small.
I had to choose a size M.
7. Fuchsia Vichy check skirt (in the image an XS)
I decided to try something on in a smaller size, thinking that if I hadn’t been able to wear a size 42 jeans, I would hardly be able to do it with an XS skirt, but I wanted to make sure. I couldn’t get over my amazement when I saw that the skirt fit me perfectly, something hard to believe, since the other larger sizes that I had previously tried on me were so tight that they barely let me breathe.
In this case the size XS fit me very well.
8. Asymmetric ruffle skirt (in the image an XS)
This skirt was too tight around the waist and I thought I wouldn’t be able to zip it up, but Zara is full of surprises (we’ll talk about socks another day).
My size in this case was XS.
9. Midi printed skirt (in the image a size S)
After the success with the other high-waisted skirts, I tried on this floral model in an XS, but had to try on a smaller one, so it wouldn’t fall off while letting me breathe.
My size in this case was S.
conclusion
When I go back to Zara I will have to be aware that I cannot trust the ‘X’ size that I normally wear, since, during the experiment, depending on the garment I was trying on, I had to wear an ‘X’, ‘Y ‘ or a ‘Z’. In fact, all the clothes I tried on at Zara that day ranged from size 36 to 42. FOUR different sizes.
So it would not hurt to ask the brands to be more consistent with the sizes.
Because I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t like such arbitrariness at all.
I contacted Zara in case they wanted to give their version and, to this day, I’m still waiting for a response.
Taken from ELLE
Photos: Cosmopolitan