Look for women's jerseys without elastic. Someone with a pear shape is NEVER going to be happy with elasticized waist jerseys.Been away for a bit (gaming convention kept me busy). I went to Performance's sale yesterday with a friend and decided to poke around the clothes to look for a jersey while he decided on wheels. I realize that athletic clothing is going to run on the slimmer fit side but boy am I glad I haven't ordered anything online! I tried on L and XL of Pearl Izumi, Primal and Terry and nothing seemed to fit. Granted I was trying them over my shirt so I didn't have to hunt down a fitting room key but, wow. I normally wear a M/L in women's and a S in men's (those freebie giveaway shirts at work). I'm 5' 5.5" and pear shaped, very wide hips no matter if I'm sporting an 8 or a 10/12 and small chested (sports bras make me completely flat). The consistent problem is that none of those jerseys fit around the hips/tummy area until I found some XXL Pearl Izumi shoved on the back of a rack but it was so huge in the bust it was comical. Completely frustrated that women's sizing apparently only increases at the bust and assumes a M and XL have the same waistline and doesn't size up proportionally. So I'm looking for a brand that might accommodate wide hips/small chest a little better. If it needs to be an XL fine, but it's got to be cut correctly. I tried an M men's Pearl Izumi but it was way too snug in the hips. If men's might be a better fit I'm completely fine going that route too. As my mom says, if the size bothers me that much, cut the tag out.
Interestingly I haven't had any problems finding shorts/pants, I bought an L in Novara but had to return them for an L Pearl Izumi only because the stitching was unraveling on the chamois in the Novara's after two short rides, not busting out a sewing machine on two week old shorts that cost that much!