I ordered "READ", "After All This Time", and "Curiosity". They were the first shirts I ordered since the switch over to Anvil.
I just received "READ" and "After All This Time".
I'll start by saying that I actually defended the decision to stop using American Apparel. I have my own moral issues with the company, I think their fit for women's shirts is utterly ludicrous, and I could understand wanting to cut down on some of the overhead.
I was really excited about these shirts, thinking they are some of the coolest designs I have seen come on the site since discovering shirt.woot. When I opened them yesterday I was utterly astonished by how poor the quality was.
I expected a bit of downturn in the quality of the t-shirts, but it was much worse than what I had imagined. The fabric is really thin, the hem is longer in the back than the front and uneven all the way around, the side seams are nowhere near straight, it's appalling. What surprised me even more than that was the difference in the quality of the prints. It was absolutely deplorable on both shirts. It seriously looks and feels like the iron-ons you can get at Michael's or Office Depot. The detail is impossible to make out and with just the slightest stretch of the material it starts to pull apart and separate from the shirt. I fully expect it to completely come off after one or two washes.
I'm being sent replacement shirts but I'm not exactly sure why I should expect the print jobs to be any better quality on those.
The sizing is the next issue.
I looked at the new sizing chart before placing my order...
Unless I just got two defects, none of the measurements on the sizing chart are true, so directing people to them, as I have seen happen over and over again, doesn't actually do any good.
I'm 38" at the bust, so when ordering my first of these new shirts I bought one medium and one small, to see which would fit better.
According to the sizing chart, the medium should be 38" at the chest, and the small 34". So, theoretically, the medium should be the same size as my bust, and the small 4" smaller.
This is called ease. Ease is the amount of tension a garment has around a body, how taut it is stretched.
*Positive ease is when there is room to spare, when the circumference of the body is smaller than the circumference of the garment, the garment will be loose and baggy.
*No ease is when the circumference of the body and the garment are the same, this should be a close fit that shows the shape of the body, but isn't quite as form fitting and still moves easily.
*Negative ease is when tension is created by fabric being stretched over an area that is larger than it's circumference. A good example of this is knit camisole tank tops and form fitting t-shirts. This doesn't mean a garment is too small.
Based on the sizing charts provided, the women's medium should have been a reasonably close fit with a bit of extra room in the arms and waist. What I'd call a "casual women's fit". And the small should have been fairly form fitting.
Instead the Medium is GIGANTIC. I'd estimate there is at least 6" of positive ease in the chest and the shaping at the waist is minimal, so it is so big in the waist that it looks like a tent. The small probably has 1-2" of positive ease in the chest and again, minimal shaping in the waist.
These women's sizes are approximately 6" larger than the sizing chart claims. If you want a really big, baggy shirt then buy the size it says you should be. If you want a casual fit buy a size smaller. If you want a fitted shirt, but two sizes smaller.
So basically anyone who is a size small and actually wants a fitted shirt is screwed.
I really hope this shirt situation is fixed.
