Voluptuous Vintage Sizing – An Intro.
Posted by Mrs Darling on
If you’re new to the Voluptuous Vintage Sizing, you’ll have no doubt spotted the fact that we do things a little differently.
It’s not a gimmick or a fanciful novelty though (we do like to think it’s special, however!) and, whilst we try to provide as much sizing info as we can on both the product pages and our sizing guide, we thought we’d write a little about our sizing with a hopefully useful “at a glance” sizing that might give you more of an idea if you don’t have a tape measure handy!
As we say on the Sizing Page: it’s always a bit of a gamble when you hit the high street. You can be a size 12 in one store, and a 16 in another. Some shops have taken the idea of “vanity sizing” and really run away with it, whilst others have doggedly stuck to their same measurement system they’ve had for decades. Also: numbers. Ugh! This is exactly the same with the brands we stock, unfortunately.
I know I’ve certainly been there in a changing room trying to pull on a size that feels depressingly, bewilderingly wrong; it makes shopping miserable for many. We’ve named our sizes after some of the most vibrant, glamourous and confident women from the Golden age of Hollywood. Much nicer all round!
The most important thing about our sizing is this:
Once you know your Voluptuous Vintage Sizing, you will be able to pick up anything else in that same size, regardless of the brand or origin, and it will fit you.
We measure every item that comes into the store by hand, and then fix our Voluptuous Vintage sizing on. For the Original Vintage items this is wonderfully handy, but it’s equally perfect for jumping between our Vintage Inspired and Reproduction brands, which are made all over the world, to many different sizing systems.
The below is a rough idea of what size you could expect to go for, going on “standard” UK High Street sizing, and the rough conversions for European and US Misses sizes.
(We really do recommend going on the actual measurements on our Sizing Table though.)
As you can see, the sizes span a couple of “standard” sizes, so I, for example, would often (before Voluptuous Vintage came along!) describe myself as being a “sort of biggish 8 or a smallish 10, I guess”, which puts me as a Bette.
BUT WHAT IF I’M A BETTE ON TOP AND A DOROTHY ON THE BOTTOM?! (Etc.)
Now calm yourself. Firstly: awesome, you sassy thing! Rock your shape!
Secondly: What are you wanting to buy? Is it a dress with a loose/full skirt? Your hip size is much less of a factor there. Is it a fitted dress? Have a look at the composition of the material on the listing: if it’s got stretch then it will have Spandex or Elastane or similar as a percentage of the composition. That will help you decide if you should go for your largest measurement as your overall size, or whether you can meet in the middle, as it were. Is the bust pleated or crossover? That can give you extra leeway in that department if you’re between sizes in that respect. Many of our newer items have style notes included to help you further.
If you’re really struggling, drop us a line. Don’t forget that small alterations can make a huge difference to your clothing, comfort and confidence, and are often easier to arrange than you might think. (Indeed, if you’re shopping in the boutique we can quite often quote you then and there!)
We’re here to help, and we’re here to make YOUR figure fabulous.
Love
Miss Alexa and the VV Dolls
xx