Discount fashion retailer Primark’s clothes are voted among some of the smallest-cut.

A survey carried out for Kellogg’s Special K has revealed that clothing sizes vary considerably from retailer to retailer, with Primark offering the smallest-cut clothes and Marks & Spencer (M&S) selling the most generously-sized.

Around 15% of women found they had to buy a larger size in Primark stores, while 18% of under-30s bought larger sizes in Topshop. In contrast, 27% of women stated that M&S offered sizing that made them ‘feel slimmer’.

One thousand women were surveyed for the research – and one quarter admitted shopping in certain stores because of the retailer’s generous sizing.

Laura Keay, from Special K, said: “Shopping can be quite an emotional rollercoaster for women and the different sizing in clothes shops must be confusing for shoppers as well as upsetting if a woman doesn’t fit into the size she thinks she is in a particular shop – especially if she is watching her weight.

“This may be a point lost on many men but if a woman is, for instance, a size 12 in one shop and a size 14 in another, then it may well influence where she goes. And it is probably more important in the summer when clothes are expected to be tight and more revealing.”

The top three stores that most women found to have ‘generously-cut’ clothes were M&S, George @ Asda, and Next. At the other end of the scale, the retailers with the smallest sizing were considered to be Primark, Topshop, and New Look.