Why this woman wants to encourage everyone to screw the sizing

Who hasn’t felt like crying in a changing room when the clothes they’re trying on in their usual size Just. Don’t. Fit?

We shouldn’t need reminding that clothes sizing is often utterly meaningless. Earlier this year, one size 12 woman proved as much by having to go up four dress sizes from her usual 12 to a size 20. Then there was Lowri Byrne, a size 12 woman who called out H&M for its “ridiculous” sizing policy after trying on a size 16 dress that left her feeling like she could “barely breathe.”

And now another shopper has taken to social media to illustrate the point that often the little numbers on our clothes labels mean absolutely nothing at all.

Katy, who documents her health and wellbeing journey on Instagram, was clothes shopping in Express (a US clothing store) and decided to try on an identical pair of jeggings, one in black, one in dark blue and both in the exact same size.

Now you’d think considering the only difference between the two is the colour that both would offer the same fit right? Er, not so much.

Because while the dark blue ones were a teensy bit too big, Katy was unable to get the black pair over her legs. Go figure!

Sharing a side-by-side image of her trying on the two pairs, Katy used the accompanying caption to basically call out clothes sizing everywhere.

“LOL sizing is SUCH bullsh*t,” Katy wrote. “These are both a size 10 short from express in their low rise leggings. Literally the same store, cut, size, etc. The one was a hair too big & the other didn’t even go over my thighs. like WHAAAT?!”

Katy goes on to explain that she wanted to share the images to prove to others that sizing shouldn’t make a difference to the way we feel about our bodies.

“There are times I’m a small, times I cant even muscle into a large, times a 10 falls off my hips & times, like this, it doesn’t even get past my thighs,” she continues.

“Sizing is silly…no one will know if you had to bump up or down because of the cut, style, or likely completely wrong sizing on the store’s part. You mean so much more than fitting into the smallest size you can. Our value should never come from a number…on the scale or in our clothes.”

So the next time you find yourself trying to squeeze into something in your normal size, remember Katy and her same-size-different-fit jegging struggle and know that you’re not alone.

Sizes are just little numbers on a label. Don’t let them upset you and certainly don’t let them define you. If you need to go up a size or two in a certain store, then so be it. No one need ever know. Choose clothes that make you feel good when you look in the mirror, not when you look in the label and take sizing with a very big pinch of salt. In fact, screw the sizing!

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