H&M is making its UK sizes bigger following years of complaints

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H&M has announced that it is finally making its UK sizes bigger following years of complaints from customers.

Shopping for clothes can be a dispiriting experience, especially when it feels as though almost every high street store has different sizing.

In particular, H&M has been faced with widespread criticism over the years from shoppers who claimed its sizes were considerably smaller than expected.

Now though, the Swedish high street store has announced that it is finally updating its sizing to bring it in line with standard UK measurements.

“Following customer feedback, we are taking the steps to change our womenswear measurements to be in line with UK sizing, for example the previous measurements and fit of a size 12 will now be the measurements of a size 10,” a H&M spokesperson told HuffPost UK. 

It was recently revealed that the reason so many customers find themselves buying larger sizes at H&M is because of the way UK sizing corresponds to its European equivalent.  

While a UK size 12 equates to a EUR 40, size conversion at H&M meant that clothes in this size were labelled as a EUR 38, which is actually a size 10. 

However, the proposed changes will now mean that an item which would have previously been labelled as size 12, will now be labelled size 10, and an item that was previously labelled a 20 will now be an 18. 

Last year, shopper Lowri Byrne called out H&M for its tiny sizing (Lowri Byrne)

A number of shoppers have taken the store to task for their clothing sizes over the years including 22-year-old student Lowri Byrne from Swansea who, as a size 12, found that she could “barely breathe” in a size 16 dress.

Similarly, furious shopper Samantha Bell criticised the store for selling size 16 jeans which were five-and-a-half inches smaller than a same-sized pair from Primark.

“I find that clothes are inconsistently sized from one high street shop to the next, but H&M has notoriously inconsistent sizing across the store,” she previously told The Independent.

“I shop at H&M fairly regularly because I actually really like their clothes, I just find it very disappointing that the sizes vary so much. 

“On the same day, I can buy clothes from them in anything from a 12 to an 18!”

Thankfully, the changes have already started with store stock and will soon be extended to include online offerings.

However, H&M has asked for patience saying that it will take time to bring all their stock up-to-date.

“This will be a gradual process and we cannot confirm when this will be 100 per cent complete,” the spokesperson added.

“The new sizing is in effect already in our stores and shortly will be online, we aim to make this transition as smooth as possible for the customer.”