I'm traveling to Spain soon, starting in Madrid, I and I want to buy some clothes there instead of packing a bunch. Does Madrid have a good not, too expensive store for buying clothes? In Paris there's a really reasonable chain store called the Monoprix - equalavlent to a Mervyns/Gap here. So I'm looking for something like that. Thanks davenuc

Try Zara, decent quality, realtively cheap prices, and they seem to be everywhere. You should have no problem with clothes shopping in Spain, especially Madrid.

If you use a Women Plus size you are out of luck in Spain. Zara and other reasonable ready to wear fashion houses don't make clothes for the bigger sizes.

Booklady is right, Zara generally has sizes 0-10 (womens). If you need a larger size, you might try El corte Ingles, or I have seen individually owned specialty stores that carry larger sizes, but they are the exception to the rule.

The caveat about plus sizes also applies if you're small. When I went to buy jeans at El Corte Inglés, the sales assistant said that some sizes of Levi's (including my size) are unavailable in Europe. None of the European off-the-rack trousers they stocked fit me. I finally wound up buying Lee jeans and a pair of Dockers to get through the rest of my stay. I'm not sure what short Spaniards do when they need trousers.

El Viajero,
While enjoying a wonderful paella in Madrid I overheard a Madrileña that was close to my size speaking of fashions and the difficulty in finding something nice for large women. I rudely interrupted and asked her where she went to buy clothes, because she looked exceptionally elegant ( she did too )and she told me that most women our size use the services of a costurera (seamstress). Hers was retiring so she was real miffed about that. So perhaps the same is true for men, except they would go to a sastre(tailor)?

Count me as one of the large ladies having trouble shopping in Spain. I'm tall and wear US size 12 and am not accustomed to shopping in the plus size section. Most stores here stock up to size 44, which is like US size 10. I have found some 46s at Corte Ingles, but the pickins are slim. The plus size department was just like in the US. Mostly for women much bigger and older than I am. It makes a lot of sense that the woman from Madrid buys custom made clothes. Now don't even get me started on trying to buy size 43 shoes for women! Oh well, I'll just have to dress unfashionably as I do my tapas crawl. Thanks for the opportunity to vent!