Are there plus size sections in Irish department stores?

minneminx

Hi everyone! I'm so glad I found this message board! My girlfriends and I are coming to Ireland for a couple of days next month - we are super excited! As well as seeing all the sights, we want to go shopping, but we don't know much about what shopping is like in Ireland. You see, a couple of us are plus sized (we wear sizes 20/22 back home in the US).
We've heard about places like Evans and New Look, but we are wondering about department stores. My mom says we MUST go to Cleary's and Brown Thomas in Dublin. My question is, do department stores have specific plus size sections? Or are there specific ranges that carry plus sizes? Is there anywhere else that we should try for plus size fashion? We are mid 20s to mid 30s, with some super funky dressers, and some more conservative, so any suggestions will be helpful!

TIA and we look forward to shopping in Ireland soon!

phasers

The stuff in Clery's is for old ladies and Brown Thomas doesn't stock plus size clothes. TBH the choices for plus size women and men over here is dire.

Evans is all fairly basic stuff but sometimes they have cute dresses, check out the biggest one on Henry Street. They do good jewellery too, I get all my rings there.

New Look has a younger range and is much more reasonably priced, definitely check that out. There's one in the Jervis St Shopping Centre, just down the road from Evans.

Ah Cleary's do some nice stuff if you have a good look around, and definitely check out Evans.

And don't feel worried when you look at the sizes - remember your size 20 is our size 22!

LizT

I'd agree that the selection in Cleary's is not fantastic and is actually quite expensive too. Brown Thomas is a very high end department store (think of Neiman Marcus but more expensive!). Their range of sizes are extremely limited and you will not find proper plus size clothes there.

As phasers said, Evans on Henry Street is quite good. Check out evans.co.uk to get an idea of what kind of clothes they stock.

The inspire range in New Look can also be quite good. The New Look in Jervis Street shopping Centre (which is accessible from Henry Street) is the biggest in Europe so the inspire range is fairly big there by Irish standards but I expect you'll find it disappointing compared to the choice in the US. Again check out their website http://www.newlook.com/shop/womens/inspire-to-plus-sizes_30099

Debenhams (also on Henry street) do larger sizes in some of their ranges.

Marks and Spencer's (On Henry Street and Grafton Street) do some larger sizes as well.

Monsoon (on grafton street) do up to a size 22 (UK)

carolinespring

You will have lots of places to shop, give DP, next, M&S, Evans, Wallis, Monsoon ago as well as having a look round Arrnotts, BT's and Clearys.


I love Monsoon, such pretty and well made stuff.

Have a wonderful trip and enjoy the shopping.

Faith

true-or-false wrote: »

Ah Cleary's do some nice stuff if you have a good look around, and definitely check out Evans.

And don't feel worried when you look at the sizes - remember your size 20 is our size 22!

There's two sizes difference - a US size 20 is a UK/Ireland size 24.

phasers

carolinespring wrote: »

You will have lots of places to shop, give DP, next, M&S, Evans, Wallis, Monsoon ago as well as having a look round Arrnotts, BT's and Clearys.


I love Monsoon, such pretty and well made stuff.

Have a wonderful trip and enjoy the shopping.

Actually the OP won't, because they're a UK size 24/26 and only M&S and Evans from the shops you've listed go up to those sizes.

Monsoon's accessories are gorgeous though OP, go in and have a look if only for the pretty umbrellas and purses!

SBWife

Faith wrote: »

There's two sizes difference - a US size 20 is a UK/Ireland size 24.

Not at the OPs size, for smaller sizes the difference is two sizes eg. a US 4 is a UK 8, a size 6 is a 10, but larger sizes it only moves by one a US 14 is a UK 16.

Corruptedmorals

Most shops stop at size 18 (our size, which is US 14 or 16). Penneys and Dunnes (cheap department stores) stop at 22 and don't do plus size ranges. Other high street shops won't go beyond this size, so the best bet as mentioned is Evans, New Look and M&S. M&S specialise in older women's clothing, but they pretty good ranges for much younger age groups.

phasers

SBWife wrote: »

Faith wrote: »

There's two sizes difference - a US size 20 is a UK/Ireland size 24.

Not at the OPs size, for smaller sizes the difference is two sizes eg. a US 4 is a UK 8, a size 6 is a 10, but larger sizes it only moves by one a US 14 is a UK 16.

Asos.com says otherwise.

Does that mean there's a size missing? Like there wouldn't be a size 12 in the US?


Us4 - uk8
Us6 - uk10
Us8 - uk12
Us10 - uk14
Us12 - uk???
Us14 - uk16

Why do they do that? American sizing is so confusing, there's also something called 'juniors' which is even smaller, but leg lenghts aren't different so it's not petite... and then randomly there are odd number sizes for some clothes!

LizT

phasers wrote: »

Asos.com says otherwise.

Does that mean there's a size missing? Like there wouldn't be a size 12 in the US?


Us4 - uk8
Us6 - uk10
Us8 - uk12
Us10 - uk14
Us12 - uk???
Us14 - uk16

Why do they do that? American sizing is so confusing, there's also something called 'juniors' which is even smaller, but leg lenghts aren't different so it's not petite... and then randomly there are odd number sizes for some clothes!

It's plus two sizes so a us 20 would be a uk 24 see here

Having said that when I've shopped in America it depends on the shop, some of them say you only go one size up, others say you go two up. OP, you'll just have to try clothes on to see, Evans would be a good start as you'd know roughly what size you are here

Faith

SBWife wrote: »

Not at the OPs size, for smaller sizes the difference is two sizes eg. a US 4 is a UK 8, a size 6 is a 10, but larger sizes it only moves by one a US 14 is a UK 16.

That seems odd. I checked a number of sites and none of them seem to agree with you. This is ASOS's guide, for example:



I'm not trying to be argumentative or anything, but I just can't find anything online that indicates there's a change in sizing the further up you go. Maybe it's that some American brands run large?

bget

I totally agree with phasers that the selection of plus size in Ireland is DIRE!!! apart from the ones already mentioned above there are two others that come to mind the first is forever 21 on henry street which I know you have in the states. They go up to a 3x (Im a size 22 or thereabouts and the 3x generally jus about fits) The other place is a bit of the beaten track its is a place in Raheny (Dublin, with other stores in Carlow town and Wexford town) called Tempted. They do a full range of plus size but are slightly on the pricey side.

Have a great trip!