I’m plus-size & shopped at Lululemon – it was the WORST fitting room experience I’ve had, don’t get me started on sizing
AT THE request of customers, brands have worked in recent years to expand the availability of plus-size options in stores.
One fashion blogger visited activewear store Lululemon for the first time, but she was disappointed by the in-store inventory and went home empty-handed.
Carrie Dayton is a fashion influencer with 424k YouTube subscribers, and as a size 16, some of Dayton’s most popular videos are her uncensored clips from popular brands’ dressing rooms.
On one recent outing, Dayton visited a Lululemon store for the very first time.
“I knew going into this, that it was going to be a bit of an experiment,” Dayton said.
But after leaving the store, she resolved to shop online-only from Lululemon in the future.
“That was, hands-down, the worst fitting room experience I’ve ever had,” Dayton said.
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She made clear that the quality of the clothes, the friendliness of shop associates, and the condition of the store itself were all excellent – but Dayton had trouble finding anything in her size.
“Any size bigger than a 10 was almost impossible to find in store,” Dayton said.
For her first outfit, she paired a pair of green leggings in a size 14 with a tank top in a similar color.
She wasn’t able to piece together a matching set because there were no green bras in the coordinating fabric that fit her.
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“The material felt really good,” Dayton admitted, but the lacking color options were disheartening. “It was an option, but it wasn’t the option I wanted.”
Next, she tried on a matching set, featuring bike shorts and a bra in a festive floral print.
She found the bike shorts in a size 12, but the bra was only available in-store in a 10, which didn’t fit Dayton properly.
Dayton said that she loved the cute and stretchy shorts, but the bra was an “absolute disaster,” admitting that it was not the bra itself that was the issue, but the restrictive size range.
She even went online to try and order the set in the proper size, but what she found on Lululemon’s website was also disappointing.
The largest bra size for the floral bra was a 14, which would likely not be big enough for Dayton. She found that sizing decision curious, especially considering the selection of leggings available in-store.
“It’s interesting because on a very back wall of the store, there were leggings that did go up to a size 20,” Dayton said, noting that most of the larger sizes were only available in basic solid colors.
Even online, though, bra selection was limited. “In the majority of their bras, they only went up to a size 14,” Dayton said.
Only one bra in-store, which was a 38D, fit Dayton comfortably, but it was still a little too snug, and Dayton decided not to buy it, or the matching purple leggings.
She tried on similar leggings in a pink shade and loved the adjustable strap at the waistband. In fact, in her normal size 16, the Lululemon leggings were actually a little big.
“I see the hype, I get it, I totally understand,” Dayton said, showing off the super-comfy material.
Dayton tried on those leggings, and two more activewear bottoms, with her normal bra as the top, because she couldn’t find another bra that fit her in the store.
The other items she found were pretty and high-quality, though most weren’t her size.
She found a pair of pretty yoga shorts in a size 18, and a tennis skirt in a size 14, both of which were too big.
Dayton speculated that the one-off items might’ve been online returns, since she couldn’t find them in the store in any other sizes.
“There were so many other options in the store for sizes zero to six, eight, and 10,” she said.
There was one item Dayton tried on – the final piece, in fact – that was a total home run. The fashion blogger couldn’t help but fawn over the comfortable, well-made Wunder Train shorts.
“These were like butter,” Dayton said. She particularly loved that the material was thick enough for a vigorous workout, but soft enough to use as loungewear. “I was happy to end it on a good note.”
In summary, Dayton said, she was impressed by the stylish patterns and sturdy construction of Lululemon’s clothes, but she was disappointed by the size selection in stores.
Even the Wunder Train shorts, which she loved, didn’t come home with Dayton, but she said she might have bought them had a matching bra in her size been available.
“I saw so many cute things in the store that I wanted, but none of them were my size,” Dayton said.
The Sun reached out to Lululemon for comment on sizing and in-store availability.
She also added that the inventory issues could’ve been unique to the location she visited, and that she overheard other customers asking store associates for sizes that weren’t on the shelves but could be shipped to the customers directly.
“I would definitely, in the future, just shop online at Lululemon,” Dayton said. “It was a bummer to go through every single rack and see something that you liked, then realize that they didn’t have your size.”