High Street clothes size lottery

Astonishingly, ALL the skirts here are a size 10. But as our test shows, the true size varies dramatically. So which store is the best match for your figure?

Every woman knows that the size on the label of her clothes sometimes bears little relation to their actual dimensions.

But now a fascinating experiment lays bare the true extent of the disparities in sizing across popular High Street brands — simply by laying items of clothing from different stores on top of one another.

After a photograph of lots of pairs of size 12 jeans went viral, revealing many inches of variation in their waistbands, we’ve expanded the test to dresses, shirts, skirts and more.

We made our own painstaking measurements of how roomy each of these items really is,

even though they are all being sold as the same size.

So why are women’s clothing sizes so confusing?

There is a standard sizing system, introduced in 1982. A woman with hips between 37.4in (95cm) and 39in (99cm) and a 35.4in (89cm) to 37in (94cm) bust, for example, is classed as a size 14.

yet our High Street shops aren’t bound to use this system, and instead make up their own size guides — seemingly out of thin air. To save you a headache on your next

shopping trip, Femail’s fashion team measured pieces in similar styles from several High Street shops, and worked out which works for each body type. We compared clothes in a size 10 each time as an example.

Here’s where you should be shopping for each item of clothing your shape . . .

SKIRTING THE ISSUE

THE pleated skirt has become a wardrobe staple for many and there are some pretty patterns and pastels now in store for spring and summer. But, boy, do the waists vary. We found a difference of 7cm between the smallest fit (at H&M) and the more roomy Monsoon design, which measured 41 cm across the waistband — but each item was sold as a size 10. The differences don’t end at the waist, either. The Zara skirt has only a 5 cm difference between the waist (35 cm) and the hip (40 cm) so would skim the body closely rather than billowing out. If you like a more flared fit that sits a little higher up, French Connection’s offering has a trim 35 cm waist with a generous 51 cm swing at the hip. If you are tall or longlegged, M&S has the longest skirt length at 89 cm, with Topshop second at 85 cm.