Sarah I think I am having the opposite issue as your friend. I was trying on dresses last night, and everything was just too big. I had to really convince myself that, yes- that smaller size really did fit me, and I deserved to wear it LOL

CS, I read this article this morning and it really shed some light on what you're talking about. I've been struggling with how to view myself with my body changes lately.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31.....ns_health/

Sarah- I'm going to start a new thread and put that link in it

I wish I could hypnotize us all! Focus on the fit and not the size, focus on the fit and not the size, focus on the fit and not the size…..alter sizes to fit, alter sizes to fit, alter sizes to fit……………..

I do not want to discourage you from your weight loss goals, but your goal is to dress the body you have now in the best possible way. What does it matter what the size is on the label? If a garment FITS, you’ll look fab!

Once you get the right fitting garment home yo ucan always cut out the size tags! We should not blame ourselves for manufactorers/retailers poor sizing standards.
Right on Angie!

I think this whole conversation is fascinating and I have been following along.

I did want to tell 50andstylish, however, that I think the information you got about J. Crew not offering larger sizes in a lot of catalogue items is actually a little bit off. I just received my new catalogue and looked through it to see how many items were available in only size 12 or smaller, and there were actually very few that fell into that category. The clothes that were available in only size 12 or smaller were:
A pair of very short shorts
A very short miniskirt
A pair of pants

I am guessing that they probably don't sell a lot of short shorts and miniskirts in the larger sizes, so they decided not to make them. The pants were a very slim cut, so perhaps those aren't big sellers in large sizes either?

And that's all I saw that wasn't available in the larger sizes. I did notice that a lot of the petites only came in sizes up to 12 petite, but they were available in larger sizes if you bought the regular. (And as a short person, I know that I wear a "smaller" size than someone of average height who is the same build as I am, so it might be that they don't have a lot of demand for petites above size 12 for that reason.)

I hope that makes you feel a little bit better about J. Crew. It really didn't look like they were excluding larger sizes when I looked at the catalogue!

Have been gone all day so just got a chance to read the recent posts. Thank you Steph for taking the time to look at the new catalog items and sizing. I actually got a reply from JCrew customer service and they said the they limited sizing to just a few items and those are mainly in the collection line. so that coupled with your post does make me feel better. Was also pleased that JCrew took the time to respond and it was a personal response, not just a general ...thank you for sharing your opinion...email. Am still hoping some of you will come w/the "hidden gems" of shopping for those of us at or above size 12 who are also 45 plus. Do such stores/websites even exist in real life or just in my shopping dreams?

Steph, just wanted to comment about the petites taking a smaller size than regulars. That is true with many labels, but not at Jcrew! They tell you this in their sizing charts too. For example in regular Jcrew I am a 0 but I am told to size UP to a 2p for petites. (which works so I'm not complaining... )

I have actually been waiting for them to fix this for years now, since they came out with petites. BR/Gap/ON does this really well: the width is consistent whether you are a whatever-regular vs petite; only the length is different. Makes it easier!