Size matters

I'm trying very hard to like American Apparel, I really am. I know that they ought to be right up my street: simple shapes and lines, minimal decoration, bright colors, and non-sweatshop labor. I can overlook their "long-limbed teenagers wearing knee socks, showing their pants, and looking sultry" approach to advertising because it's so very trite and thus inoffensive. And I have bought a couple of dresses from there, lovely polo dresses that, I like to think, are highly suitable for the office. Or would be, if they were both the same size! Despite buying them on the same day, from the same store, both with the same size label, one (the purple) is bigger in cut than the other (the green). Both fit, but the green reveals considerably more VPL than the purple, making it unsuitable for work under the rules outlined in the previous post.

How can it be that difficult to get the sizing right? American Apparel aren't the only ones at fault here. I found a fabulous pair of trousers in The Gap a couple of years ago -- they fitted beautifully through the waist/hips and hit the top of my foot just how I like. I asked PJ to pick up another pair the next time he went to the US and provided careful instructions: product code, picture, sizing. He did as he was told, bought the trousers back, only for me to find that they're an inch shorter in the leg and tighter on the waist. Yes, I know -- I thought maybe I'd put on weight, too, but it was the leg length that clinched it for me. A side-by-side comparison showed that the 6R was a different size in each case. Complete waste of money.

I presume they're cutting quality control checks as an inessential overhead, but both The Gap and American Apparel ought to be making their money by selling well-made basics in bulk. You should be able to dash into any store, pick up a handful of t-shirts or jeans or dresses in your size, and know that they will fit. If you have to try on every item "just in case", what's the point? And to order online, you have to be confident that the sizing is standardized, or else clothes shopping becomes even more of a painful crap shoot than it already is.

Nobody needs to see my VPL.