change room post - Evans winter coat disaster!

Disclaimer! I don't want to offend anyone with this post - I don't have brand loyalty with any clothes shops. I know many of the lovely ladies that write plus size fashion blogs really like Evans, and I always enjoy reading their reviews. My review below is not meant to be rude, it's just how I feel!. Each to their own and all the better for it. Also, I apologise for my terrible pictures - my phones camera is rubbish and likes to change the white balance with every shot!

I'm just going to come out and say it - I think Evans is rubbish. I have done for years, and nothing that I've seen recently has changed my mind. I admit that I have high expectations when it comes to clothes, and I will also happily admit that I have even higher expectations when the retailer in question is supposed to be a plus size specialist store. Additionally Evans is pretty much the only plus size retailer on the high street (apart from the dreaded Ann Harvey) so it really should be cornering the market and selling some great clothes.

Walking in to Evans is always uncomfortable for me. The shop is nice enough, the staff are often lovely and the changing rooms are nice. The thing is I can't help but look around with disdain at 90% of what I see in there - sometimes because I think the styles are the worst type of 'fat girl' clothes, but sometimes because of the too-expensive price tag attached. Anyway, I figured that I might be okay with coats and that the sparkly new Marble arch store would have most of the good stuff from the site. Typically it didn't have much of what I wanted to look at. I did however spot a few that I thought had potential.....

Despite most of these coats being in the region of £70, none of them had buttons that had been sewn on properly. An annoying quirk of cheaper retailers, but for the prices Evans charge for coats they should be properly made.

This is a decent enough coat. Not keen on the colour (because I have a brighter version that you can see in the corner of the picture) but the style is quite nice. This is the size 22. Perfect width across the shoulders, nice length. A bit tight across the belly, too tight on the arms and stupidly tight across the bust. I tried the 24.....

Ergh. This is one of my biggest coat problems - better on my my arms and bust, but look at how massive the shoulders are! and its all spacious above my bosom. I'm sorry, but just because a woman is fat it does not mean that she has shoulders like a god damn American footballer!

What.... the fuck...... is this? THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE SAME SIZE AS THE COAT ABOVE! Size 24 my ass! And here we are again in the situation I hate most. I do not care about what size the label has on it - if it fits me then it's irrelevant. But if I have to wear 2 sizes bigger than I normally would, then that means that women at the top of the size range probably won't fit into their normal size, and won't have a size up option. It really really pisses me off. Fluctuation by one size up or down is normal, but a size 22 woman having to buy a size 26 is ridiculous.

I would have bought this coat. Fabric is lovely, style is lovely, but its so tight across the bust. Why why why?! My tits are not big from a plus size point of view. They are completely in proportion to my fat body.

 To add insult to injury, the fastenings are POPPERS! What madness is this? In my experience poppers last for about a month before becoming loose and come apart.

Hopefully you can see how the popper is pulling across the chest. Where do plus size women with very big boobs get coats from?!

The last one I tried was one of the swing coats I originally went into look at. They didn't have the plain black one at all, and they only had this version in a size 30 so it is clearly too big for me. I think this might be nice if it was my size. The fabric is good and heavy. the (non-detachable) fur collar is quite nice, although because it's so light there are fibres from it all over the darker body of the coat, which I would find annoying. Plus I don't always want a furry collar. I'm considering ordering the plain black version in a 24 to see what its like.

To be honest, after trying all these slightly cheaper coats, I think that I should just try the £90 one I like from ASOS. Anyone got a discount code?!