All about the sizes

When I was in London the last time, I had to buy a couple of work out clothes because I hadn’t gone prepared for a week of gym.  So I go to Primark, because I was told that is where I will get my gym wear at a cheaper price (I have to convert it to Indian Rupee, remember). What I did not expect was the size differences. I know of it. But I never had been clothes shopping anywhere else. So I had no idea that I would be in so much trouble. In India, the sizes are XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL etc. I usually go for L because I don’t like exact fit clothes. I like my clothes a little looser. But over there, when I went to the T Shirt section in Primark, I was perplexed because there was a size 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 etc. How the hell am I supposed to know this kind of size now. I tried asking a sales girl over there and she said ‘Google is your friend’. Honestly that is what she told me. So I asked my friend to google it ( that did rhyme, did it not?) and found that I may or may not be size 12 or 14. I am not a big fan of trying out clothes. Standing in the queue to the fitting rooms and trying them out and retrying…naah. When I am with my friends, they do force me to do that so that I wont regret it. But when I am going shopping on my own, I just pick it and bill it. Since I always pick the bigger size I know for sure it will fit me 😉 Very simple logic. So imagine my horror when I had no other choice than to try the fitting. After some mumbling I take a couple of them in different sizes and go in search of the fitting rooms. To my horror, there was a queue bigger than the billing section. What did I do? I tried the size 14 on top of the tops I was wearing and it looked like it fit even with the 2/3 layers of clothes I was wearing. So logically it wouldn’t be too tight if I wore it on its own. And having decided that size 14 is the size for my T Shirt I went to the billing section to stand in that smaller queue.

I have also had some disastrous purchases when I have done my purchasing online. I still have that one shirt which is marked L but is fit for my first niece (in a couple of years). I have no idea how that shirt can be marked as L. There is always a huge risk when we buy clothes. I am not sure about Men’s sizes and if they have the same problem. But I have heard other women facing the same kind of issues. I am in awe of people who purchase perfectly fitting clothes and shoes online. Hats off to you people.

Why this rant all of a sudden? Because of this video on Vox’s YouTube channel which explains the same confusion as mine and also explains how the sizes get changed over ages and brands. No wonder I am always confused.

This problem isn’t just with the clothes. I am currently going through some tough times with regards to ring sizes. Why wont people have some universal standards with regards to all these things. As if there isn’t already enough to do that conversion formula/table.