I have actually heard that about Old Navy. I don't personally shop there, but my friend swears by their jeans, and she has told me they definitely have vanity sizing.

Honestly though I have two dresses in my closet, one a size 8 which fits me perfectly, and one a size zero, also fits me perfectly. My bridesmaid dress is a size 6, lol. So I really don't think there is any kind of standardization for sizing. It just always seems to be a roll of the dice.

Eh, I've learned to try everything on and not worry about the number on the tag. (Easier said than done, I know.) As you shop at a store regularly you will learn their sizes and know where to start.

Stores that cater to a younger/jr. market tend to be the places with the vanity sizes where as stares that cater to the adult market tend to be closer to a standard size.

If you are having problems with jeans and pants specifically, it might be because pretty much all women's jeans and many regular pants, as well, have spandex, elastane, or some similar stretchy fiber added these days (maybe only 1% or 2% but it makes a difference).

I gave up on women's jeans because stretchy pants (literally the only thing you can find at Macy's and also the only thing Stitch Fix was sending me) just don't fit me right. Like they will hug the hips appropriately but gap out at the waist, or the seat of the pants is big enough to stuff my butt in there twice.

I started getting men's jeans (Levi's 514). Only some of THOSE even have elastane in them. A pair of 514s with elastane is so big in the rear end that I can pull it off without undoing the fly. A pair of 514s in the SAME SIZE with no elastane (e.g., 100% cotton) will fit just fine. Even though this example is for men's pants, the same thing happens with women's (I've seen it in women's Dockers, for example -- I'd need to go to 0 or even 00 with stretchy Dockers -- if such things even exist -- when I wear a 2 normally).

So anyway, in my experience, it is not just an Old Navy thing but instead it follows from the trend in stores to carry spandex/elastane-containing garments, which just fit much more loosely.

I'm pretty good at assessing whether something will fit just by looking at it, rather than the tag, but I do hate having to take two of everything into a dressing room just in case. However, proving that some fashion houses are simply confused, I came home from Esprit last week with two t-shirts of the same cut but one was a L and the other an XS. What made it more ridiculous was the XS was slightly bigger than the L.

I definitely understand! I just bought all my jeans and shorts this past summer from Old Navy. I normally wear a 2-4 in most brands, but at Old Navy I am a zero. It really is insane. Basically anywhere I shop for pants, I take in a couple of different sizes to figure out what I am in that brand. It changes every with every brand for sure

Vanity sizing annoys me so much! Especially when the measurements on the size charts don't align to the actual size of the clothes. I don't care if I'm an XXS or a XL, but if your size chart says a Medium bust is 33-26 and the waist is 24-26, PLEASE just cut it that way!

I basically only buy things online that have belts or I can belt because then it doesn't matter as much how horrendously off the sizing is. I never buy pants without trying them on. I did so on Modcloth once and followed their sizing guide and I literally took the pants off with the button fastened they were so big. Elle brand is also really bad with vanity sizing - I fit size 2 shorts from them when my hips were 42+ inches.

Sports bras are a clusterfudge. I have to get a small because I have a very small underbust and a medium would give me no support but then my boobs are squishing out the top because I have boobs. I like the Adidas techfit bras because they come up higher and mitigate a lot of that.

HM is the weirdest offender of odd sizing, imo. In trousers I get a US8 but they're a little bit too big but the US6 is too small, I get my dresses in a US4 or 6/XS-S and my tops are the same usually more towards 4/XS. I prefer when things are S/M/L as the small is much more likely to fit me even if it's a little big. I can't be dealing with this am I a 4 or a 6.

@VictoriaTuel YES to the sports bras. I’m a 32DD, no way I’m squeezing the girls into a S or XS regular sports bra LOL. Which means I get to spend lots more $$ on fancy cup-size sports bras, hooray.

Old Navy definitely runs large, and what's worse, their sizing isn't consistent, even WITHIN the same size of the exact same item! You can try on 3 different pair of the same blue jeans in the same size, and all 3 will fit a little differently. It's maddening.