The perils of international purchase

[nineveh_uk]

If there is one thing that the EU ought to have done and has failed to do, it is to standardise the labelling on women's clothing. I don't care which system we adopt, but when 38, 40, 42 are the same size** depending which country of various adjacent countries you are in, it is unhelpful.

Which is to say that the mail order clothing from this post has arrived. Alas, though the ski jacket is a very acceptable shade of pinky lilac, I gambled on the sizing because they didn't have mine and it is far too small. I knew that was a risk, because they didn't have my best guess as to my size, but it is so small that it might be that they did have my size, it's just that my assumption the Czech Republic uses German sizing rather than French was wrong. However I suspect that two sizes up will be far too big around the ribs (for some reason ski jackets always are. Come on, amateurs are not built like Olympians), so I may not bother trying again. Annoyingly the retailer has some gorgeous Halti jackets and I know what size I am in those because I borrowed my sister's, but if I ordered one it wouldn't arrive until I was actually on holiday. So I think that I might leave it for now and see if there are any sales when I get there.

Naturally, after the above, the Norwegian thermals I bought in the same order put the "long" into "long underwear", and I am going to need to chop 1.5 inches off the legs and fold back the wrist cuffs a bit. But I am keeping them because they are otherwise excellent and the only ones I've seen that have wool on the outside and polyester on the inside, so they should manage to be warm and not smelly and not itchy. The latter can never be guaranteed, but fingers crossed.

Comments

[clanwilliam]

In fairness, that's a nightmare across UK sizing as well. When I was a very fit UK 12-14, (M&S 12, New Look 14) I was an occasional 10 in Laura Ashley. I ventured into H&M because I'd seen some lovely trousers. I took a couple of size 18 into the dressing room to get an idea.

They would not fit over my thighs.

A couple of weeks later, I was bitching about this and a friend said "Was that x line in H&M? S can't fit into any of their stuff either!" (S, his wife, is a consistent 8-10 back when that was a consistent definition. And she'd tried on the 18 too.

Jaeger's resurgance was primarily down to picking a cutting model. They got an early 30-something and suddenly fashion editors were buying like mad. Because two models, aged 34 and 17, with the exact same pattern measurments have different surroundings on said measurements.

[tree_and_leaf]

M&S seem to have changed their sizes recently, too. I bought knickers there the other week, and while size 12 used to be a good fit for me, they are noticeably too big. And I haven't lost weight, either.

[nineveh_uk]

The M&S knickers I bought last year were definitely a bit bigger than the knickers I bought a couple of years ago in the same style. Though I think it was at least partly design.

[nineveh_uk]

I can cope with weird shop sizing - I mean, it's unbelievably annoying, but I am used to it, and at least I know where to start. But when the official measurements for a 38 in one country would be a 40 in another and a 42 in another, that adds an extra level of madness before even getting to the idiosyncracies of design, block, and target market! So I wasn't annoyed by Helly Hansen because I know that Norwegians cut for slightly taller people, but I am still not 100% if my Czech 36 was a German 36/UK10, in which case, just slightly bad luck they cut smaller than I was hoping, but I knew I was taking a risk, or if it was actually intended as an 8 equivalent in the first place. Who knows?

I didn't know that about Jaegar, but it makes a lot of sense given their market. I can't buy from LK Bennett, because their back is too short, and I've never been able to work out who Monsoon cut for, but it isn't me!

[antisoppist]

It makes me want to travel round the world until I find the country whose clothes fit me, whereupon I will buy all of them all at once but I fear no such place exists.

[nineveh_uk]

I fear that a country where clothes are guaranteed to fit is probably the ultimate fashion fantasy.