What's in a size?

Size labels were designed by people wanting to do our heads in!! In my humnble opinion, that is. You have to have a fairly "thick skin" as my Mother used to say, to be able to cope with the "ups & downs" of trying to try on clothes.

I like to think that I have a fairly good idea about clothes and what I like. (as it should be for an Image Consultant, I hear you think) Anyway, there I was wading through miles and miles of clothing choices in a big name department store, when (using my 3 Step Elimination Process) I came upon not 1, but 2 things that ticked my 3 criteria. (right colour, right shape and right for me) Having found these 2 little gems, I proceeded to select the right size. Being somewhat "medium", a very nice lady found the medium in one top for me and informed me that is was indeed my lucky day. We will see, I thought! Then I found a medium in an English brand structuted shirt. (great cut and great colours for an Autumn like moi). In I went feeling fairly chipper about the whole exercise. You see, there has been and still is to an extent, a dearth of choices for us Autumns of late. However, I digress. There I was in the fitting room and low and behold if the red strips that had appeared "yellow red" in the store, seemed to become "blue red" in the different light. Always a problem when buying the colour red. I tried it on and it was OK. A bit loose, but in a good way. So, onto the second shirt. After slipping into in, there was a gap (yes, a gap!) of at least 2.5cm between the sides of the shirt at the front! it would not close! I was surprised, then mortified, then rather disappointed. I liked the shirt, but could no get my head around having to go to an XL to obtain comfortable fit. I am generally a 10 - 12, in lots & lots of other brands.
The first shirt, did not pass the natural light test, so suffice to say, I again left the store "parcel free".

I must say, I always believe in trying something before purchasing it. I just found the exercise particularly unnerving, when the size tags were so inconsistent. I accept that all brands have their own sizing, but this was too far off to be reasonable.