There was an interesting 15 minutes on day time television yesterday. The crew were discussing the problem with the sizing of clothes. A viewer went to a number of high street fashion stores to purchase a pair of size 16 jeans. The idea was to show the viewers that a size 16 in one store was not necessarily the same size in every other store. Now you may be wondering about my interest in size 16 women’s jeans! Well, it is the sizing issue that interests me.

I need to buy some track suit bottoms. I wear them all the time at home as casual clothes and although they are a little ‘chavvy’ I feel very comfortable wearing them. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on them as I’m not making any kind of fashion statement. I just need them to be comfortable.

Here is where the problem lies. I know my leg length and waist size(!) and have scoured the clothes hangers in the sports wear shop. The sizes they show are: extra small (XS); small (S); medium (M); large (L); extra large (XL) and even extra, extra large (XXL). But what does that mean?

I’ll check the size chart.

What size chart?

There isn’t one.

So how do I know what size I need? Without a size comparison chart, what size does (M) or even (XXL) refer to? I thought that I should be medium so picked up three branded and one unbranded pair and proceeded to the changing cubicle. Guess what? Only one of them fitted properly. The others were either too baggy or too tight. How convenient was it that the only pair that fitted was the most expensive branded pair. I came away empty handed and very stressed… again.