Tween to Juniors Clothes - When to switch?

[kristilew]

Experienced moms of tweens, I need your help!

When do girls switch to wearing jr's clothes instead of shopping in the kid section? Do the sizes just march along, 12 -14 - 16- then 1-3-5? Or is there an overlap?

DD11 is tallish and skinny. The 12 slims are all too short, but the 14s seem so huge. Do girls have to be "developed" to make the jr's fashions fit?

We are having a devil of a time finding clothes right now! The children's boutiques all stop at a 10. Nothing in Limited Too or Justice will fit - it is all for much thicker girls. (without an adjustable waist, the slims fall straight to the floor from her nonexistent hips)

Shopping in the 7-16 section of department stores is also frustrating. We went dress shopping this weekend. Everything that didn't look like hooker-wear was sized to where if it was decently long, it was huge in the rib cage/shoulder area. I think the average 11yo must be a good 30 pounds heftier than my dd.

So the juniors clothes look narrower to me, and I'm wondering if we should try that side of the aisle? Any advice from moms who've been there, survived that, would be appreciated! Especially moms who have daughters in the super-skinny category.

 

[just4today]

My DD switched when the girls size 14 started getting a little too snug. She wears juniors 1 or 2 now and that seems to work well.

 

[SC Minnie]

DD14 started in junior around 12. She was like your daughter. Too tall for 12's and too skinny fo 14's. Junior size 0 fit perfectly.

 

[WhateverLolaWants]

Try Hollister and Delia's for pants. We have a family friend who is super tall and skinny minnie and those are apparently her best options for jeans.

 

[raysnkaysmom]

Experienced moms of tweens, I need your help!

When do girls switch to wearing jr's clothes instead of shopping in the kid section? Do the sizes just march along, 12 -14 - 16- then 1-3-5? Or is there an overlap?

DD11 is tallish and skinny. The 12 slims are all too short, but the 14s seem so huge. Do girls have to be "developed" to make the jr's fashions fit?
.

My daughter sounds exactly like you... the 12s..no way...most 14s seem so baggy, skinny waisted gal... lol
BUT....We've found that most 0's in the junior department fit her great, and she loves the style so much more....

 

[SC Minnie]

I have had the best luck with Kohls- they carry the sizes and the prices aren't outrageous.

A lot of larger dept stores don't carry 0's and 1's or if they do they don't stock very many of them. Kohl's seems to always have them but I haven't had much luck at Belk's and Penney's. Aerpostle, Hollister, etc also have the smaller sizes. If you have a Steve and Barry's they also have smaller sizes in the juniors area. I bought DD jeans there for less that $10/pair.

 

[MAKmom]

When you get to 12 you can go to 0 in the junior dept. If you go to the 'Cool" stores you will do great finding 0 on sale or clearence. You can get them on line too.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

My dd is SHORT so opposite issue.
She is on the border in 12's but cannot go to JRS. Can't fit into petites either.

You just have to go to store, after store until you find brands that work.

Try JRs and see how it goes.

 

[Becky2005]

I don't know -- we still have a heck of a time finding clothes that fit my DD.

She's on the short, skinny side so most of the Juniors clothes fall off of her. We never had these junior sizing stuff when I was a teenager. I think we have figured out some 00's fit her if you can find them and they are about the equivelant of a 14-16.

At this point most clothes in the girl's departments are too young looking for her even though they still fit but we still have problems with the Junior clothes not fitting properly either. So...it's a toss-up. She has to try stuff on in both departments and well...if it happens to fit we get it.

I hate clothes shopping for her because it's a pain in the rear & it's not even her being overly picky (even though she is somewhat) but even when we both agree on something -- cute & appropriate -- she tries it on & alas, doesn't fit. It's either cut way too low for her or it's too tight depending on if we are in the girl's or juniors section & well...jeans are a whole other ballgame.

 

[kristilew]

Thanks, ya'll!!!! We will head to Kohl's today. I never knew there was a size 0! DD does NOT get her skinny from her mama

 

[mjkacmom]

Dd12 can fit into a 14, but she has curves, so the waist is usually too big. She's very average - 5'2", 100 pounds, and fits into sizes 0, 2, or 4, depending upon the store.

 

[MAKmom]

http://www.aeropostale.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2164982&cp=2284058

The 00 & 0 are on sale for $19.99. I love this store for jeans.

 

[mamacatnv]

I have the same issue with my DD 10 except she has a little bit of a belly but is tall, wears a 14/16 in girls. We started transitioning into Jr's last year and discovered that JC Pennys carries Jr's Short, Regular and Tall. The Jr's 5 short are perfect.

 

[NotUrsula]

We never had these junior sizing stuff when I was a teenager.

Wow, you're old to be the Mom of a kid that age. Just kidding, but FYI, jr. sizing has been around since 1958. The difference in fit is that they they are meant to fit a shorter waist length and a higher bustline, and also a shorter arm-length than Misses' sizes. The convention in adult female clothing was that odd-numbered sizes were junior sizes, while even-numbered sizes were Misses' sizes. Originally, so-called "half sizes" with the plus tacked on were meant for shorter-than-average women, but you know where that went.

There is a nice entry on Wikipedia that shows the actual US standard size charts, though just about all mfrs. ignore them these days. These days the catalog charts are the ones most commonly used by regular ready-to-wear manufacturers (but not usually bridge collections or couture.) The catalog charts are at the bottom of that page.

Vanity sizing has really only taken hold in mass market clothing since the 1980's, and served no actual need for truly smaller sizes; they just bumped the numbers down by six to flatter our egos so that we can continue to say that we wear a small size. Today's size 0 is 1975's size 6.

 

[taximomfor4]

My dd went from 12 Slim (with belts) to Jr size 00 (sometimes 00 Short, depending on the fit.) Now she is 15, under 100 lbs (but 5 ft 4- 5 ft 5). She wears size 0 mostly.

Just go have your daughter try some Jr stuff on, if 12 slim is too short. My dd, even in 12 slims, could only wear certain cuts of jeans of certain brands. And belt loops were a MUST.

I heard somewhere (might be untrue) that 00 roughly corresponds to sz 12, and 0 roughly corresponds to size 14.

 

[kristilew]

Dd12 can fit into a 14, but she has curves, so the waist is usually too big. She's very average - 5'2", 100 pounds, and fits into sizes 0, 2, or 4, depending upon the store.

Yes, this is the problem. DD is apparently NOT average at all - 4'11" and 64 pounds. She seems to be all leg, and is still growing taller. Her feet are 6-6.5 wos, though narrow (of course, another difficulty), so I am hoping she will grow into those puppy feet soon.

Your dd is the same size I am. If she has curve issues, try wos petite "curvy" jeans. The waist is one size smaller than the hips. It is the only thing that works for me.