A woman has called out high street retailer H&M on social media for its ‘ridiculous’ clothing sizes.
Lowri Byrne, from Swansea, took to Facebook on Thursday 25 May to call out the brand after she struggled to fit into a size 16 of one of their dresses - when she usually buys a size 12.
“Please sort your sizes out because this is absolutely ridiculous,” Byrne wrote.
“I’m a size 12 and small busted, and today in an H&M store I had to ask if this dress came in a size 18 (it didn’t). The dress I have on in these photos is a size 16, and I could barely breathe.
“Not only was this annoying because I wanted to buy this dress, but so many women take what size dress they buy to heart. If I was one of these girls (thankfully I’m not) requesting a size 18 dress would seriously devastate me.”
Byrne continued: “When I asked if this dress came in a size 18 the store assistant said: ‘Ah yeah, you have to go up a couple of sizes with these’. A couple! Going up three to four sizes surely should make you realise that you need to seriously sort out sizing.”
And other social media users shared with Byrne that they have encountered the same problem in H&M.
“I’m ‘too fat’ for this shop because of the sizing,” wrote one commenter. “It’s ridiculous and a big problem for influential young girls - it could have awful affects to some girls’ confidence.
“This annoys me so much. H&M sizing is ridiculous, their clothes are lovely but with my large chest I can’t get into a single thing unless it’s very elasticated.”
Another posted: “I’m a size 16 and can’t get anything nice from there because of their sizing.”
However, some commenters believe that the problem is more widespread than just H&M.
“I have found this with a lot of places not just H&M,” one commented.
“It’s just a number people! Because there isn’t any industry standard for sizes, one cannot just claim to be a ‘size 6’ and say that H&M is wrong,” another wrote.
However, according to government advisor Dame Carol Black, unregulated sizing in clothing shops is having the opposite effect - fooling the public into the thinking they are thinner than they really are.
“You think you are a size 10, the shops are really fooling you. The new normal is very scary,” she said at The Hay Festival, according to The Telegraph.
A spokesperson for H&M told HuffPost UK, that they “hugely value” feedback from customers such as Byrne.
“It is only ever our intention to design and make clothes that make our customers feel good about themselves, any other outcome is neither intended nor desired,” they said.
“H&M’s sizes are global and the sizes offered in the UK are the same in all the 66 markets in which we operate in and online.
“As there is no global mandatory sizing standard, sizes will differ between brands and different markets.
“Our dedicated, in-house sizing department works according to an average of the sizes and measurements suggested by the markets we operate in. H&M sizes are continually reviewed by our in-house sizing department.”