What size am i?

I think that Anna Powell-Smith has made every women shoppers life a lot easier. For those of you who don’t know Anna was a regular shopper just like us, however she got so sick and tired of sizing problems on the high street that she devised a website to help women.

The program asks women to enter their bust, waist and hip measurements, then calculates what dress size they shpuld go for at a range of high street retailers, including Marks and Spencer, Karen Millen and Zara. It will also suggest to its users which shops are likely to have something suitable, this allows shoppers to avoid hunting for a dress in Whistles if Karen Millen offers a better fit.

Size Problems in Karen Millen and other high street retailers.

I was reading an article in the daily mail which showed me the massive difference between sizing in different retailers. It was shocking to see this size chart and how all theses sizes vary and to think that they are all on our high streets together.

This chart shows that Next have the smallest sizes on the high street, closely followed by Karen Millen and French Connection. This article showed me that you could easily be a size 8 in one store and a size 12 in another, this is making shopping trips very stressful with a lot of zip wrestling!

Are you a different size in every shop?

Every women will remember this moment, whether its recently or a while ago. You are standing in your underwear desperately trying to attract the attention of a passing shop assistant the dress you have says your size on the label but it wont zip up, yet in the store next door the dress you tried on in your size was gaping at the waist.

Why? This is because there is no standard sizing in the UK, each shop has its own sizing guidelines, confusing right?

Sizing in the high street makes shopping exhausting and sometimes a depressing experience. Whilst I was out completing a comp shop and gathering information i discovered that Marks and Spencer and Karen Millen offered clothing styles for pear shaped and curvy women whereas, Topshop and Oasis cater to the less curvy and boyish figures.

So what is the truth about high street sizing?