Grrrrrrr clothes sizes....dont they make you mad!!!

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MizElz

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I have an incredibly battered old Harry Hall jacket that I decided to replace today. Went to my favourite saddlery, and found the modern equivalent (Harry Hall) and also a similar one made by Dublin for around the same price. My old jacket is a medium and if anything, is a little too large, so I picked up the HH medium.....and it wouldnt even meet!
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Tried the large, and although that did zip up, it was very tight. In disbelief, I tried the XL, and that would have been the size I needed. I was so disgusted that I put the HH coat back and tried on the Dublin (in a medium
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) and it fit perfectly!

How do they work their sizes out? I seem to be a small in Musto, a medium in Dublin/Caldene and an XL in Derby House and now, Harry Hall. I've come to expect random sizing in high street clothes, but not horsey stuff!!!!
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I was mortified the other day when i told assistant I was a size 12 and asked to try on a pikeur show jacket. It wouldn't meet either
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She went off and got one 2 sizes bigger which was a 42? (apparently a 16!!!) and it fitted perfectly if a little long in the sleeves, roomy at the shoulders, but probably fine for jumping! I was mortified. I am catigorically NOT a 16. I was a 14/16 last year but worked very hard and lost a stone and a half to now be a 10/12!. I actually felt insulted!.
 
I find this whole clothes size business very scary! I am only 5' 3" a size 10 lower half but have a large bust so normally end up buying a size 14-16 for the top half (and cut the labels out!) I don't think of myself as big BUT when trying on horsey gear like you i seem to end with a L or XL. Now i know that there are a lot of larger girls than me - how on earth do they cope? It is so demoralising, also they do not seem to be allowing for the fact anymore that most of us horsey girlies have muscles!!!!!!!!!
 
I was mortified when buying breeches at the weekend... my beautiful euro star breeches are (when converted to UK sizes) a 16 but swamp me so i picked up this nice pair of Mark Tood (demin style ones) in a 14 got home tried them on and wooo they were tight so took back for bigger size. Bigger size fit ok so decided to measure them up against my eurostar ones that are labelled "as the same size" as the MT ones and to my amazment there is 3 inches difference in the waist!!
 
Yep I find this and have given up going on labels now. I bought some HH jods the other day and I am a size 14. I got the 32s and they are slightly too big for me but my sis is a 30 and there is no way on earth I will get in hers.

It is demoralising. I'm trying to lose weight at mo after being on steroids for nearly 6 months and that is bad enough without clothes being mislabelled and making you feel a fraud/enormous.
 
Im a size 10 and it infuriates me when i go shopping and some clothes are a size 14 before they fit!!!

Makes me mad as eventhough i am a healthy size, it makes me feel awful when i need sometimes up to 2 sizes bigger, im left there thinking surely i have not put on that mush weight!!!
 
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Yep I have come to the point where I dont care what the label says, if it fits well and looks good I dont care!!
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Best way to be!
 
I think clothes sizing is pretty random these days!

But spare a thought for someone with the opposite problem - I am 5ft5 but only weigh 6 stone and the only UK size that comes close to fitting me is size 4, which is virtually impossible to find in the shops, except very occasionally in 'petites', which are then way too short for me as 'petite' means under 5ft3!!! Even size 6, which I can wear if it has a lot of lycra in it, is often very hard to find.

I can sometimes find children's clothes that fit me, but again it's all too short, and I feel a right prune trying on clothes surrounded by 10-year-olds! I get some funny looks from their mothers, too!

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I've been getting the impression that some shops at least are sizing their clothes smaller - ie calling something an 8 that is really a 10 or 12!

Before anyone protests that I'm lucky, I should make it clear that I am not 'slim and glamorous': I am way too thin and it's not attractive.
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I have to say, I think clothes sizes on the whole are getting bigger as people get bigger. I often buy children's clothes to avoid VAT - modern kids clothes are funky! I am a shorty though, so don't have any problems with length.

With regards to the HH jacket - perhaps your old battered 'friend' was a gents size medium? That would explain the size discrepancy.

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I know exactly where you are coming from on this one! Was in Derby House a few weeks ago with my husband and had a brief look at new hacking jackets. My "old faithful" is 19 years old and getting slightly tight (much to husband's delight - he thinks it hilarious that middleaged spread is catching up with me). I tried on a 14 and couldn't do it up! TBH a size 16 was not that much better! Now "old faithful" hacking jacket is a Harry Hall 14 but as stated above 19 years old! I know in my wardrobe I have clothes that fit me well that range from size 12 to size 14 with a very occasional top sized as large but please I am no way a size 18!!!!!

Mark Todd breeches are a particular bugbear of mine. The old style Gisbourne I was always a size 30 but bought a pair of the new style denim ones on the net size 30 and they were so tight they looked indecent! But my Cavallos are a size 30 and fit me great! Bought a pair of Toggi size 30 breeches and after riding in them I get the saggy droopy bottom syndrome and husband says it looks as if I could get a sack of spuds in the bum!!
 
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