It is feared young girls could develop a negative sense of body image by finding they are size 12 in some shops, but 20 in other stores
The changing room challenge may be less about weight and more to do with High Street sizing, which is all over the shop.
This can make shopping a chaotic, frustrating and exhausting experience but there is also the worry unrealistic sizing can convince healthy girls they are overweight.
The clothes that fitted ranged from an 8 to a 16.
In H&M I couldn’t zip up a size 10 black dress but a 16 fitted perfectly. By contrast, a 10 stripy dress in budget chain Primark fitted well while its 16 felt like a tent.
It was similar story when trying on tops.
So there was only a slim chance that skinny jeans would be a different story in the wide variations on size.
In Next, skinny black jeans, size 8, left me plenty of space for dinner but at New Look the same size wouldn’t get past my thighs. Even a 12 was still a very snug fit.
Next door at River Island in Brighton, I could only squeeze into a 14 in jeans but a flowery long-sleeved top in an 8 fitted like a glove.
At Topshop and M&S a size 10 pair of skinny jeans slid on with ease.
Marianne Gray - a typical size 12 - encountered a similar problem.
The 29-year-old, with a 37-30-39 figure, had a similar experience buying a £24.99 fitted dress at H&M and taking it home to try on. She could barely get it past her knees.
She took it back and Marianne, who is a normal 12, found a size 20 was “almost perfect”.
She said she would not shop at H&M again.
A OnePoll survey for the union GMB found 92 per cent of women don’t fit into the same size clothes but 82 per cent wanted standardised sizing.
Fed up by the variation, computer programmer Anna Powell-Smith created website, What Size Am I?, which promises to tell women the size they really are in different High Street stores, using their bust, waist and hip measurements.
“I did a study of body image and was staggered to find 20 per cent of women would prefer to have heart problems if they could stay slim.
This is the way we’re breeding our young girls – that small is healthy.”
New Look declined to comment.
A River Island spokesman said: “We don’t fit against other retailers but use models we believe best representative our customers.”
The different measurements used by shops
SIZE 10
TOPSHOPB 87cm/34.5in
W 69cm/27in
H 92cm/36in
PRIMARK
B 87cm/34.5in
W 70cm/27.5in
H 94cm/37in
H&M
B 84cm/33in
W 68cm/ 27in
H 92cm/36in
NEXT
B 86.5cm/34in
W 71cm/28in
H 95cm/37.5in
NEW LOOK
B 89cm/35in
W 70cm/27.5in
H 95cm/37.5in
RIVER ISLAND
B 88cm/34.5cm
W 69cm/27in
H 94cm/37in
DP
B 88cm/34.5in
W 70cm/27.5in
H 94.5cm/37in
M&S
B 87cm/34.5in
W 70cm/27.5in
H 95cm/37in
SIZE 12
B 92cm/36in
W 74cm/29in
H 92cm/36in
PRIMARK
B 91cm/36in
W 74cm/30in
H 98cm/39in
H&M
B 88cm/34.5in
W 72cm/28.5in
H 96cm/37.7in
NEXT
B 90cm/35in
W 74cm/ 28in
H 99cm/39in
NEW LOOK
B 94cm/37in
W 75cm/ 29.5in
H 100cm/39.5in
RIVER ISLAND
B 92cm/36in
W 69cm/27in
H 94cm/37in
DP
B 92cm/36in
W 74cm/ 29in
H 98cm/38.5in
M&S
B 92cm/36in
W 75cm/29.5in
H 100cm/39.5cm
SIZE 14
TOPSHOPB 97cm/38in
W 79cm/31in
H 102cm/40in
PRIMARK
B 96cm/38in
W 79cm/31in
H 103cm/41in
H&M
B 92cm/36in
W 76cm/30in
H 100cm/39.5in
NEXT
B 94cm/37in
W 79cm/31in
H 105.5cm/41.5in
NEW LOOK
B 99cm/39in
W 75cm/29.5in
H 105cm/41.5in
RIVER ISLAND
B 97cm/38in
W 78cm/30.5in
H 104 cm/41in
DP
B 96.5cm/38in
W 79cm/31 in
H 104.5cm/41in
M&S
B 97cm/38in
W 80.5cm/32in
H 105cm/41.5in
SIZE 16
TOPSHOPB 102cm/40in
W 84cm/33in
H 107cm/ 42in
PRIMARK
B 102cm/40in
W 85cm/34in
H 109cm/44in
H&M
B 96cm/37.7in
W 80cm/31.5in
H 104cm/41in
NEXT
B 99cm/39in
W 84cm/33in
H 110.5cm/43.5in
NEW LOOK
B 105cm/41.5in
W 86cm/34in
H 111cm/44in
RIVER ISLAND
B 103cm/40.5in
W 84cm/ 33in
H 110cm/ 43.5cm
DP
B 102cm/40in
W 84cm/33in
H 110.5cm/43.5in
M&S
B 102.5cm/40.5in
W 86cm/34in
H 110cm/43.5in
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