One Woman’s Viral Photo Encourages All Shoppers to Forget About Sizing

Who hasn’t felt like crying in a changing room when the clothes they’re trying on in their usual size just don’t fit?

We shouldn’t need reminding that clothes sizing is often utterly meaningless. Earlier this year, one size 12 woman proved as much by having to go up four dress sizes from her usual 12 to a 20. Then there was Lowri Byrne, a size 12 woman who called out H&M for its “ridiculous” sizing policy after trying on a size 16 dress that left her feeling like she could “barely breathe.”

And now another shopper is illustrating on social media the point that the little numbers on our clothes labels mean absolutely nothing at all.

Katy, who goes by @Wodthefork on Instagram, documents progress on her health and well-being on the social platform. She was clothes shopping at Express one day and decided to try on two pairs of jeggings in the same style but in different colors: one in black, one in dark blue, both in the exact same size.

Now, you’d think that because the only difference between the two was their color, both pairs of jeggings would offer the same fit, right? Er, not so much.

While the dark blue jeggings were a teensy bit too big, Katy was unable to pull the black pair over her thighs. Go figure!

Sharing a side-by-side image of herself trying on the two pairs, Katy used the accompanying caption to call out clothes sizing everywhere.

“LOL sizing is SUCH bulls***,” Katy wrote. “These are both a size 10 short from express in their low rise leggings. Literally the same store, cut, size, etc. The one was a hair too big & the other didn’t even go over my thighs. like WHAAAT?!”

Katy goes on to explain that she wanted to share the images to prove to others that sizing shouldn’t make a difference to the way we feel about our bodies.

“There are times I’m a small, times I can’t even muscle into a large, times a 10 falls off my hips & times, like this, it doesn’t even get past my thighs,” she continues.

“Sizing is silly … no one will know if you had to bump up or down because of the cut, style, or likely completely wrong sizing on the store’s part. You mean so much more than fitting into the smallest size you can. Our value should never come from a number … on the scale or in our clothes.”

So the next time you find yourself trying to squeeze into something in your “normal” size, remember Katy and her same-size-different-fit jeggings struggle and know that you’re not alone.

Sizes are just little numbers on a label. Don’t let them upset you and certainly don’t let them define you. If you need to go up a size or two in a certain store, so be it. No one need ever know. Choose clothes that make you feel good when you look in the mirror, not when you look at the label, and take sizing with a very big pinch of salt. In fact, forget about the sizing!

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