NEXT: 5 different sizes from 6 to 14
NEXT is a High Street staple and a big player in the online market, so I have high hopes for their sizing.
When I check my statistics against their measurement guide I see I should be a 12, so I select a pair of navy trousers (£30), a cool linen top (£22), a print dress I think will pack well for holidays (£30), a goes-with-everything cropped jacket (£48), and a shirt dress that looks perfect for work (£50).
The size 12 trousers gape at the waist, but they are a perfect fit in a 10. With this in mind, I try a 12 and a 10 in the white polyester shirt dress, only to find I can’t squeeze my bottom into either.
One of the things I liked about the dress was the pockets, but when I put my hands in them, the buttons strain in an unsightly way.
Only in the size 14 can I comfortably put my hands in my pockets. Far from bulking up at the waist and shoulders, it fits snugly there, too.
But when I try the same sizes in the printed dress (also polyester), the V-neck is too low and the shoulders too wide. Even a size 8 is too roomy. Finally, I settle on the size 6, which is slinky, but comfortable.
To complicate matters further, the dress is from the petite range, yet sits well below my knee. My late granny was only 5ft tall and shopped petite, but this frock would have drowned her.
The white linen-mix top gapes at the arms when I try my usual 12 and I have to go down to a size 8 to find one that fits.
Will I then be an 8 in the pinstriped jacket? No, the 12 fits me perfectly — the bigger sizes too long in the sleeves, the smaller ones too tight across the back.
A spokesman for Next says customers sometimes wear the garments differently to how they were intended, and that sizes might ‘differ slightly’ according to style and fabric. However, she adds: ‘We use the same fit model throughout the whole range, with the same grade rules, so there should be very little variation.’
VERDICT: If I’d ordered these online in my normal size, I would have been returning four out of five.