I love everything about Christmas from the food to the presents. This year was a nice one for me and my mother got me more than I ever expected to get. As well as the gloriously large box of Guylian chocolates to really help me chub up for the New Year and a beautiful Celtic cross, my mother also bought me some new sleepwear and underwear from La Senza. The dressing gown with little read robins was heavenly and the pink slipper boots are great...
Even the bikini briefs were a perfect fit. But the bras... ouch!
First of all, I want to state that I have a very positive body image. Like all women I have my moments, especially after Christmas when you do tend to start piling on a few pounds and your bras a bit more snug than usual. That said while I am not skinny I have a very nice little shape going on and, fortunately, when I do put on a couple of pounds it always seems to go up equally on my hips and my bust. It is my waist that gets a little chuckier, but again I still have a waist.
Here is my profile:
HEIGHT || 5 ft 5 in (165 cm)
WEIGHT || 140 lbs (67 kg)
BMI || 23. 3
BUST || 38.5 in (97.8 cm)
WAIST || 29 in (73.7 cm)
HIPS || 39.4 in (100.1 cm)
From this you can tell I am of average height and a healthy weight. Now according to the BS 3666:1982 – the British Standard Designation for Women’s Wear – I am a Size 16.
This is of course ridiculous.
Clothes wise, I have never bought anything larger than a Size 14 (US 12/EU 42). This is for many reasons. First, I tend to buy a lot of my clothes online and Size 14 is the one I KNOW will always fit me, which is handy is the shop in question does not do a free returns deal. Secondly, I like my clothes to be baggy. Thirdly, if I do buy clothes from shops I rarely have time to try them on in fitting rooms. And finally, probably the strangest reason of all, I feel that sometimes the bagginess makes me feel comfortable and, dare I say it, very secure.
My actual size, the clothes size that I prefer when I want my clothes to fit me properly, is Size 12 (US 10/EU 40) although I can fit quite comfortably into a Size 10 (US 8/EU 38). Most of the time I admit that I cannot see the difference between a 10, a 12 and a 14 especially if we are talking about a jumper, a blouse or a stretchy tee-shirt because the material gives way for slight weight differences. It’s only logical given there isn’t a woman alive who does not change her proportions, even those with high metabolism. I could probably squeeze myself into a Size 8 if I wanted (and I have done it, as I said earlier, just to prove to myself I could).
Yet here is the real reason I prefer Size 14: it’s because my relatively small frame must support D/DD breasts and I prefer to try and minimise their size rather than expose them. This has always been my feeling ever since I was fifteen-years-old and some forty-year-old pervert nearly fell over his shopping bags in Lakeside because he was staring at my chest. Even before then I preferred to hide them. When I was just eleven-years-old I already had 34B breasts and all the girls made fun of me. I hated it, and it has rather warped my view of clothing.
I figured a long time ago that I’d rather wear larger sizes and minimise the size of my bust than wear smaller sizes and flaunt them.
I am certain that by the British Standard Dress sizes, I am supposed to be a Size 14 to 16. The fact that I take a Size 10 through 14 really just shows the influence of Vanity Sizing. Just because I am labelled with a Size 16 doesn’t make me any fatter than if I were to be labelled with a Size 12; the only difference is the stroking of one’s ego.
I have seen a lot of articles about Vanity Sizing but the one I keep coming back to is the one on Retro Chick. In it the blogger describes how she went into TK Maxx and tries on Size 12 dresses, all of which fit, but according to the British Sizing Standard she was anywhere between a Size 14 and 18 despite having never brought an item of clothing larger than a Size 16. The article goes on to talk about issues such as the NHS/BHF and their unrealistic look on the measurement of women’s waists, and I would highly recommend you all read it. I have linked it at the bottom of this post.
Anyway, this article got me thinking about clothes sizes like I never have before. I started to wonder whether simply buying a Size 14 because I know it’s definitely going to fit my measurements was necessary. I started to wonder whether I did indeed fit comfortably into tops and trousers of smaller sizes, like a Size 10.
Mini Experiment
Yesterday I went to Lakeside Shopping Centre to enjoy the sales. Going early in the morning to avoid any afternoon crowds I treated myself to a Mocha Flake at Costa before heading off to some of my favourite clothes shops. The shops I visited include in this order Dorothy Perkins, Topshop, Primark, Miss Selfridges and M&S. I tried on tops and jumpers in each shop to see what were the smallest size I felt most comfortable in.
Here were the results:
Dorothy Perkins || Size 10
Topshop || Size 10
Primark || Size 10
Miss Selfridges || Size 10
M&S || Size 8
Conclusion: Having once believed myself to be a Size 12/14, it turns out I can fit quite happily into a Size 10.
This needs to be investigated further.
I fully intend to visit these shops again in a few weeks to try a more reliable way of testing clothes sizes; comparing them via dress size. So I will write up my findings when I get them for this experiment. All I will say for now is that women should stop worrying about their clothes sizes because they truly can vary between different shops.
The other night I looked up as many of the Sizing Guides for each individual shop I visited that I could. I also looked up the sizing guides for my favourite online shop, The Fashion Union.
Here is what I found:
So I AM a Size 14! Or a Size 12. So, I say throw out your tape measures, throw out your pre-conceived ideas that you are one size or another and just put on the size that suits you best.
Links
