Brands most guilty of vanity sizing?
 

I know that the sizing system as a whole is more or less useless anymore, but just out of curiosity and for the sake of discussion...which brands have the most extreme vanity sizing, in your experience? Which ones are closest to "true sizes?"

American Eagle jeans fit my body the best, so I have been wearing them since I was 14 (I'm 22 now). Since I was 14 years old, I was a size 12 in American Eagle. At my highest weight, I was stuffing myself into those AE 12's like an overfilled sausage. I had a rubberband that connected the button to the button hole, lol. I absolutely refused to buy a pair of 14's. That was one of the wake up calls that I really needed to get a handle on my weight. I'm now a size 0 in AE jeans.

It seems that American Eagle is fairly guilty of vanity sizing. I'm easily a 0 at Gap, Aeropostle, and Abercrombie. Size 0's at Old Navy will button and zip up on me and fit well enough, but I'd probably get a size 2 for comfort reasons. I thought that was kind of odd since people always point the finger at Old Navy for having outrageous vanity sizing.

I've often heard that wedding dresses and formal dresses are closer to true sizes than street clothes. My wedding dress is a size 2 (David's Bridal), and I recently had a military ball where I wore a size 1/2 dress from Dillards. So if a 2 is my true size, I'd have to say that Old Navy has been the most accurate store for me.

Any thoughts? Again, just out of curiosity. Sizing is such nonsense these days it's hardly worth paying attention to, but kinda fun to point out the most guilty brands anyways :p

I actually just posted threads similar to this recently:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/100-...ty-sizing.html
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/100-...nts-sizes.html

Basically, long story short I had bought two pairs of size 14's at old navy and was shocked that they were too big (so maybe I'm a 12?). I wonder if they could have vanity sizing in the larger sizes and are more true to size in the smaller sizes?

I heard somewhere that H&M and Zara are more accurate (I have on old H&M size 12 pair of pants that are just a little bit too tight still but I have a size 14 skirt that fits perfectly so I think my "true size" is 14 then :shrug:).

Don't really have much to say on vanity sizing, but I wanted to say that I went to a Zara when I was in Puerto Rico this summer and loved it! Sadly the closest one to where I live is in Chicago (a 6-8 hour drive, not sure since I've never been there) so I have not been able to shop there since. I just found out that they are launching an online store in the US in mid 2011 and am totally excited. I really recommend it, that place is awesome!

Zara is nice, if a little overpriced. Realistic, average European sizing. No dice for short people though :'(

H&M caused a sh!tstorm when they flipped their sizes a few years back. They were generous and vanity-sized around 2004 and then somewhere maybe 2006 or so their sizes suddenly shrunk and there was an uproar.

If your sizes carry on getting any more generous over there everyone will be wearing a 0, 00, 000, 4x0... I think we need to go back to the drawing board. Then again the UK doesn't make a whole lot more sense because essentially we start at a 6 - there's nothing below 6, why not start with zero?

There's a lot less variation in small sizes because if you are already climbing into a zero they reckon your ego doesn't need a lot of flattery, but go further up to a US12 or UK16 and you can get much more variety. A 16 is the last size before "plus sized" here, so it's in manufacturers' interests to squeeze as many bodies as they can into the 16.

I think there's also more variety in shape at larger sizes. At a size 2 you might be a natural apple, pear or ectomorph (straight) but since wherever your body fat settles there isn't much of it most size 2 people are the same size and shape. When you get to a UK16 an apple might have a waist 6 inches bigger than a pear and a pear's hips could be 6 inches bigger than the apple, so to try to accommodate that variety they cut them big in both places and fill them with spandex in the hope that the waist will not drop off the pear (it always does!) and that it will do up around the apple.

I think one way to tell is to look at their sizing guide and check your waist size to see if it matches up. Calvin Klein seems to be generous with their sizing...

I don't know, I think Old Navy sizes are huge! I'm a 6/8 there but an 8/10 most other places. I'd say Old Navy, Gap, Ann Taylor and Banana Republic top my list, Target too. I think just like everything else it's going to depend on your shape as to who's clothes fit you best and who's seem like vanity.

I've always found Old Navy to run a bit large, but I boycotted them years ago when they stopped selling fat girl clothes in the stores around here and only made them available online. I don't get insulted very easily, but Old Navy definitely managed to offend me.

I find Gap to be the worst offender, by far. Really, for my size, I should not be wearing so many Smalls. They aren't consistent, either, because I have everything from an XL to an XS in my collection of Gap clothing.

I am another who finds Old Navy SMALLER not bigger. But I also find them extremely inconsistent.

Catherine, I agree about Gap. Gap is a big offender. I run L to XS as well. They used to be known for running small.

I think Kohl's is a big offender too.

I think it has to do with the actual cut of the jeans, tbh.

Most of Old Navy's jeans have spandex in them for extra stretch. That means they will run a bit bigger. But I've noticed lately that they are getting away from that a little more, and more and more jeans don't contain that stretch. I have a size 10 from Old Navy that fit very tightly when I first put them on, but within a few hours they are falling down. By the end of the day I can pull them off without unbuttoning them. I also have an older pair of Old Navy jeans that I bought about 7 years ago :o. They are a size 10 and I can't get them up past my hips. They are low-rise jeans, which run slim at ON. Even when I first bought them my butt was hanging out and I had muffin-top. :(

In some styles of Levis I'm a 12, and others a size 6. When I put my goal measurements into it, I'm anywhere from a size 6 to a "loose fitting" 2. They don't have the little My Virtual Model thing where you could try on their jeans and put in your measurements anymore though. :(

Your body shape plays a huge factor in how certain brands fit. I find that Kohl's and Dress Barn run large. I'm currently a size 5/6 in jeans and XS in tops but at Kohl's and Dress Barn I can squeeze into smaller.

New York and company is a giant offender. The XS shirts in there just hang on my frame. The size 0 pants are spacious. I agree Calvin Klein is big as well as several of the Kohls designer labels (Daisy Fuentes, etc). I think the seven brand of jeans is fairly true to size. My legs are toned I weigh 116 at 5'6" and get into a 26 (us 3) in that brand. Gap, Old nay, Calvin Klein, Ann Taylor, Express, etc i fit very easily into a 0. AE brand 00 and 0 fit...but they sure stretch out by the end of the day and I have to keep pulling them up. I find that some of the smaller stores are forever 21 (however they can be very inconsistent) and H&M. I wish we would move to a european sizing system--that might make things less confusing overall.

Old Navy and Target are by far and away the worst I've found. Old Navy's clothes also stretch horribly. Items that fit or are even a bit snug when I try them in the store are falling off of me later (literally, my pants fell down at work:o). Interesting that someone mentioned Ann Taylor, I guess it's all in your perspective. Their 18 runs just slightly smaller than an 18 at Torrid or Lane Bryant, so from the plus size perspective, I view Ann Taylor as true to size. But I suppose comepared to, say, J.Crew it does run quite big.