If you're a woman who wears a size 8 or above, shopping for clothes can be a stressful experience.
One British woman, Ruth Clemens, recently shared her experience of trying to find a pair of pants at H&M in an open letter on Facebook.
"I was browsing your sale items in your Leeds store and spotted this pair of kick flare jeans," she wrote. "They were only a tenner - bargain! - and a size 16. I'm normally a size 14 on my hips (occasionally 16 if buying trousers) so I thought I'd try them on. It did not go well."
Clemens continued by explaining that the retailer's largest size is a 16 (the U.S. equivalent to a women's 12. For larger sizes, women are directed to the "Plus" section which, according to Clemens, "is very limited in store and does not offer the range of styles for the fashion-conscious."
Clemens wrote that her 5-foot-11-inch height doesn't make shopping any easier, but that H&M's "unrealistically small" jeans certainly don't help the shopping process, either.
"I am not overweight (not that that should matter)" she wrote, before asking, "Am I too fat for your everyday range? Should I just accept that accessible and affordable high street and on-trend fashion isn't for people like me?" Clemens's top was also a piece from H&M -- the seemingly tiny crop top, though, was apparently a size medium.
Her experience is sadly not a unique one, and she is by no means the first to call out women's clothing retailers on ludicrously-sized items.
To H&M's credit, they responded to Clemens' post the following day:
Hi Ruth, thank you so much for your feedback. We are sorry to hear about your experience in store recently. We always want our customers to have an enjoyable time when shopping in store and to leave feeling confident in themselves. At H&M we make clothing for all our stores around the world, so the sizing can vary depending on the style, cut and fabric. We value all feedback and will take on board the points you and other customers have raised.
While the prompt response was a positive and polite one -- and H&M did also reach out to other commenters on the Facebook post with similar responses -- it didn't quite address the glaring issue that conflicting clothing sizes can contribute to conflicting body image issues for young women.
Clemens made sure to include a direct, and very necessary request in the open letter: "Sort it out, would you."
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