Any woman that’s ever shopped the high street will know how vast sizing discrepancies can be between different stores – even more so when you’re in pursuit of a decent pair of jeans.
For 18-year-old Chloe Martin from Glasgow, one shopping trip proved to be the last straw.
The teen took to Twitter to share a photo of five different pairs of jeans, all supposedly in a size 12. Only, it’s starkly obvious that the waistbands are drastically different, even though some pairs are actually from the same high street retailer.
“Incase you’ve ever wondered why women get so frustrated with our clothing sizes – every pair of jeans pictured, is a size 12 [sic],” she wrote.
“And you know what’s even funnier, the very bottom pair fit me perfectly, the 2nd pair from the top, are too small, how does that even make sense when the top pair is bigger????”
It’s clear to see that the jeans, from New Look, Pull & Bear, Bershka, George, Matalan, Bershka and New Look, are totally inconsistent in measurement, and the problem seemed to resonate far and wide.
The tweet has since garnered almost 110,000 retweets, with many women sharing their frustrations of sizing changes in high street stores.
Speaking to the Metro, the teen said that the problematic variation in clothing sizes could be fuelling body dysmorphia amongst women.
“I was surprised that a tweet about jeans could reach so many people, but I feel like women are so sick of being made to feel larger than they are because of clothing store sizes.
“High street stores target young women to buy their clothes and they’re giving young women the impression that they need to go up a size when in reality it’s the store’s fault.”
Just less than a year ago, high street brands such as River Island and New Look signed up to Shape BG, a campaign to standardise clothing sizes in the UK.
There’s no word on the results just yet, but if universal sizes are introduced to the UK, it can’t come a moment too soon – we’re tired of taking three pairs of jeans in the changing room.
