What the hell is up with H&M's sizing?

H&M aren't doing well at the moment. Not only are they one more racist t-shirt away from worldwide boycott, their sizings are just awful.

Here, I'm wearing a polka dot dress from H&M's SS18 collection. You might have seen this on a few bloggers via Instagram. I think it's little bit of a hit, because, well, it's a really pretty dress. But all is not as it appears.

This dress kind of came to me accidentally. I didn't buy it - my sister did. I was round her place about a week ago when she gave it to me, telling me that she bought it as a size 12, took it home and upon trying it on, realised that there was no way it was actually the size that was advertised. It was much, much smaller. To put it in to perspective, I'm a size 8, and it fits me perfectly.

In what world does a 12 translate to an 8? H&M's, I guess. And this isn't the first time I've come across dodgy measurements with this brand. A pair of size 8 jeans I tried on about a year ago made me feel like I was squeezing my legs into extremely tight sausage casing. It was terrible. I think I almost cried ugly tears when I was in the changing room.

Unfortunately this is an ongoing issue with H&M. You might remember a story that surfaced a year ago, when a size 12 girl from Swansea couldn't fit into a size 16 H&M dress. Well, it turns out that the brand's sizes are actually labelled incorrectly. Apparently, they don't abide by standard sizing conversion charts, for some reason. So you're doomed from the start unless you have prior knowledge of their weird system.

Obviously, there's no problem in sizing up for clothing occasionally. You should never have to feel shameful for wearing clothing which is a size larger if that's what fits you. Not all clothing at all stores fits the standard size charts (cough, Miss Selfridge, cough). However, two sizes or even three sizes larger? That's just a joke.

What's been your experience with H&M clothing? I know that all their clothes aren't like this, becuase I've bought things from H&M which have fitted just fine. But this problem is happening all too often... am I right?