So, I thought I'd treat myself to a new winter coat. I wanted to get a North face coat as I could never fit in one before.

Normally I wear a L top and 12/14 pant, but yet XL in any of their coat were flat out too small. Let me tell you what a great feeling that was as the nice guy who was helping me got to watch me try to stuff myself into a jacket and then recommend, 'maybe you should go over to the men's coats'. (I know he didn't mean it to be nasty.)

Discouraged, I went over to the Columbia section, and while not as bad, still could not fit comfortably into an XL, so I left the store with no coat, no confidence, and completely let down.

I realize, it's not ME, it's THEM. I can only imagine how many more customers they would pick up if only they would try to normalize their sizes. Why are they made so ridiculously small?!

Know what? Even when I'm 140, I won't be buying any of their jackets then.

good for you for saying you won't buy their jackets even at target weight!

I was JUST talking to my mom about this yesterday. Though fairly small, I still end up discouraged like most women when confronted with size irregularity & inconsistency. Most days I am a small. I have learned to identify myself as a small...so any time I am even a medium, I feel my anxiety rising. Now in those eensy weeny brands that I swear are just there to make us women judge ourselves, where I am a large, I feel just that...large. If I don't fit into a large, & I go home to examine my prominent ribcage in the mirror, how am I supposed to feel? Who is wearing these tiny clothes, & how small exactly am I supposed to be before society will accept me?!

Well I have this to say. Don't wait until society accepts you. It never will. Accept yourself. Everybody is beautiful & everybody has their own shape & size. Don't get discouraged. And hey, inconsistency in sizing just gives us an excuse to try on more clothes. :-P So go to a different brand, a different store, & find what colors make your smile pop, or your legs look long, or whatever you like about yourself most prominent.

"The world will tell you who you are until you decide to tell the world" -Fat Like Me.


Sorry for the rant. :-P

Not to detract from your point, but do you have Patagonia where you live? They're really expensive, but maybe you could find a sale and they're comparable to Northface. I think Marmot makes jackets too...again, not cheap, but high quality and warm. I love my Marmot sleeping bag.

Again, not trying to detract from your point, but I live in the land of outdoor gear love (Boulder) and that's all I could think of when I saw "Northface". And I totally agree, sizing should be standardized! Not only for self esteem (I *hate* when I can't fit into a size 10, since it took me 10 lbs to get there), but also so I don't grab what I think is my size, go to the fitting room, then have to make another trek out to find a different size.

I'm so glad you posted this. I told my husband last night one of my mini-goals is to wear a Northface jacket or vest someday. I guess maybe I won't for a very long time!

I'm sorry you had to go through that experience. I am sure the salesman didn't mean anything rude by suggesting the men's dept. (guys don't think like that, in my experience).

Hope you find a coat you like soon.

I've noticed this time and time again... even back in the day when I was buffed out nicely, pre-30 (heading toward 59 now), at 5-9 and under 140. At that, I still had to squash into Extra Large! Until I left the Bargain brands and bargain brand midline stores, oh, and also the Clearance stores and outlets. Once I did that I found that I wore a medium in most clothing that wasn't Height Tailored. Down from a L in the "regular dept. stores" like the Gets and Marts. BUT I still have a pretty limited wardrobe allowance, so I invested in a couple of "nice outfits", and then filled in with the Gets and Mart junk stuff that cost nearly as much. I guess my whole lesson was "Don't Pay Attention to Size Tags!" and "Invest in who you are".. sometimes rather literally. Good Luck!

Levi's. I think they made them smaller this year.

I hopped around the house for a good 15 minutes and then flopped on the floor like a fish trying to get them up.

All makers of pantyhose. I realize I've got a lot of flab around the middle, but I'm pretty short and shouldn't have to buy XL!

Outerwear is wacky, too. I'll stay away from North Face, I guess. I've bought some things at Eastern Mountain Sports and their sizes seem normal to me (a medium fits me nicely).

There's a store in my mall called Vanity. Last year, my mother got me some really cute things from there in XL sizes... and not a damn thing fit. This was before my diet, but XL is what I wore everywhere else usually. They were Christmas gifts. It pretty much ruined my Christmas morning.

We took it all back and the lady at the desk said she usually wore a small and had to sometimes get L there. she was also tiny compared to me. So, I felt a little better.

I went back there the other day, 50lbs lighter, and still couldn't really fit into anything, whereas in other stores I'm getting into smalls sometimes (which is the other end of ridiculous, old navy). I don't understand how these stores choose to size things, it's so stupid! I also won't be going back there even when it will fit.

Lee jeans. I'm fitting into size 20 pants very comfortably now so I ordered a pair of size 20 Lee jeans. I can't even zip them up! I'm keeping them, though. I'm confident that I lose enough weight to fit into them.

I really don't understand the deal with sizing. A small should be, well, small! A medium should be medium sized, and so on and so forth. I understand why, like, juniors sizes are cut smaller because junior AGED people are cut smaller, haha. But regular women aren't and clothes should fit them accordingly. I don't even think supermodels are as tiny as clothes are made.

I agree, North Face has tiny sizing, and they would bring in so much more business if they would normalize their sizing.

I second Patagonia, I actually like Patagonia way better than the North Face. I love my Patagonia jackets! I also live in the in the land of outdoor gear love (Bend, OR), and a lot of people here wear Patagonia over North Face. I am quite a bit larger than you and wear a Large in Patagonia jackets.

Good luck to you, I hope you find a coat that you love!

This is totally not on topic at all, but yay Incubus!

I third Patagonia... Sorry, that doesn't really help

hi ladies. I have never heard of Northfacce. I don't have a lot of experience with non plus sized places at this point but I am new to Old Navy and was told by the sales girls that the Rockstar skinny jeans run weird. They told me to get a size lower than my regular size. With that in mind I bought 16 (I currently am 18)and that after they get washed they stretch. For this philosophy to be trueI'm about 3 inches too fat for them! I don't think it was a joke on me or anyone heavy-it's probablly true but in this case maybe they are sized smaller? I don't know. Suffice to say I have 2 pairs awaiting my impending loss hopefully before March.

I actually ended up getting a Lands End jacket - waterproof and windproof for about half of what the North Face jacket was.

What's ironic now is I need to send that one back, as the XL I ordered is too big.

I think it might be spring before I end up with a winter coat.

I've heard of Patagonia but never tried any of their items - I might have to do that....