Why are you a different dress size at every High Street shop?

Are you a different dress size in every shop? We sent a perfect size 12 model to put stores to the test — with astonishing results

ALL women will recognise the scene: you’re standing in your underwear in a changing room, peeking around the curtain, desperately trying to attract the attention of a passing shop assistant.

The label on the dress says it’s your size, but it gapes around the waist so much you could fit another person in there. Yet in the store next door, a dress in the same size is so tight you can barely breathe in it.

Why? Because there is no standard sizing in the UK — each shop has its own sizing guidelines.

What’s more, many retailers indulge in ‘vanity sizing’ and label larger clothes smaller than they really are in order to flatter women into thinking they are thinner — in the hope this will make them buy more clothes.

As a result, sizing in High Street stores can vary hugely, making shopping an exhausting — and often depressing — experience.

This discrepancy prompted computer programmer Anna Powell-smith to create a website What Size Am I?, which promises to tell women the size they really are in different High Street stores, using their bust, waist and hip measurements.

Ms Powell-smith discovered that M&S and Karen Millen offered clothing for a more pear- shaped customer, while Topshop and Oasis cater to less curvy, more boyish figures.

Armed with these recommendations, we sent 33-yearold Deborah Ann Gaetano — who works as a size 12 model for fashion designers and has 38-29-39 measurements — to uncover the truth about High Street sizing.

WHAT Size Am I? can be found at sizes.darkgreener.com