Plus Size Doesn't Stop at Size 28

I do most of my shopping for clothes online. Not because I really want to, but because it seems to have become a matter of necessity. I had an experience just the other day where I went into a store that says it carries sizes from 14 to 32 looking for crop pants. The capris pants I have no longer satisfy me now that I’ve learned that a fitted pair of skinny jeans is actually really flattering. In the entire store, in the middle of May, there was not a single pair of crop pants in my size. Everything stopped at either a size 24 or size 26. I am… larger than that. Not as large as I think I am (which I’ll write about someday), but larger than what was available to me to try on.

Women’s clothing sizes are difficult to navigate no matter what size you are. There’s no standardization and the sizes aren’t really based on anything. A size 20 in one store or in one brand of clothes isn’t equivalent to a size 20 in another store or brand. Same thing with a size 4X or 5X.

Take this size chart from my post on Monday:

Remember that 124 cm = 48.8 inches; 120 cm = 47 inches.

Now compare that with this size chart from Women Within (an online warehouse that carries a variety of plus size brands):

Size 5X in the other chart is roughly equivalent to a size L-1X in this one.

I’m pretty lucky. I’ve been measured professionally a couple of times, so I actually know what my measurements are. But not everyone does. If we do routinely check the size chart before we order something, many of us are likely to be guessing. And god forbid the photos actually show a body like mine, or a variety of bodies, so we can get an idea of how the clothes might look.

So, I can’t go into a store and try anything on, and I can’t get an idea from pictures if something will look good on me. All I have to go on is my instincts and experience. Which means I end up wearing the same types of clothes all the time because it is too much of a risk to try to branch out. The wrong kind of fabric might not have enough stretch for my stomach or my thighs. Or a shirt might not be long enough to cover the round part of my belly or be too tight on the arms.

Brick and mortar stores that carry plus size clothes have to do better. Whether the larger sizes aren’t in the stores because they only ordered a couple in each style and over buy on the smaller sizes or because they simply don’t care to cater to those of us on the larger side of the spectrum, they have got to start realizing that we exist and we have money to spend. If only they would put our sizes in their stores.