Shopping: Anysize.co.kr - Haul and Reivew

Well hello there, it's been a very long time since I've posted on this site. Unfortunately my inherent laziness directly interferes with my blogging output.

What has brought me back you ask, well I just did some shopping on a new plus size clothing website here in Korea and really wanted to share and do a review. Shopping for plus size clothing can be a nightmare in Korea. They just don't have that much and a lot of what they do have is tailored towards much older women.

I tend to do most of my shopping from overseas. My favorite being Dorthy Perkins from the UK. I also have recently used ASOS. I do find I don't like a lot of the stuff on ASOS which is why I have never used it before but I recently got three nice pieces from there so it's one I have to keep an eye on for when something good pops up.

The problem with shopping from overseas is that you have to watch how much you spend. You can import up to 150,000 won worth of personal shopping without having to pay any duty on it. However if you go over this customs will hold your parcel and make you pay the duty + processing + the cost of them holding it in their warehouse (so it goes up everyday). It can be an expensive lesson and it can also be hard to sort out if you don't speak Korean.

I do a lot of my shopping online, I've slowly been expanding the sites that I use and am now pretty comfortable using most Korean sites. I mostly buy beauty items but I really wanted some new t-shirts the other day and so I decided to have a proper look on Naver for some plus size sites. There are a lot of options and I checked out many of them. Most of them just mean they go up to the L or and XL in Korean size or that they are Free sizing which does not help much.

I finally stumbled across this one called Anysize and it looked promising. It's been around since 2003 and they seem to make their own clothing. I quickly had a look at the sizing chart and low and behold they have sizes L and 1XL thought to 5XL and the measurements looked like they were actually big sizes too. The prices were quite reasonable so I went ahead and joined up. You get a 10,000 won coupon for signing up too and I used that discount off my order.

I selected a range of options and I decided based on the measurements I was about a 3XL as I am around a size 22 to 24 in British sizes. But being not quite sure what I would be getting and also just because I was curious I decided to get a few different sizes. So I got some 3XL, 4XL and even one 5XL. I figured if they were too big I can always wear them as PJs.

I ordered and paid by direct deposit on the 13th of May and I got immediate messages on my phone to say they had received my order and then after I paid to say that they had received that and my goods would be out to me shortly. I then had a message the next day to say it had been sent. It was a holiday on Saturday so I'm not sure if I would have gotten it any earlier but it arrived on the 16th of May so I was pretty happy with that.

It comes in a lovely pink parcel and I do like that the name is Anysize which sounds much better than some of the other plus size brands I have seen like 'She's Big' or some such variation.

I got a selection of T-shirts which is one of the main things that I wanted. Then I also grabbed a pair of long shorts, a lacy tunic and a hooded short-sleeved cardigan. I figured I should add at least one bottom to check out the sizing. I am really bad at guessing my size for bottoms.

One other thing to note is that some of the bigger sized items in 4XL and 5XL have an extra cost. 

Moria Cardigan

26,900 won, Black, 3XL

This black knit cardigan was one of the first ones I saw and I love cardigans of all shapes and sizes. It also comes in Beige. This one is hooded with short sleeves so it looked great for the summer. It's quite stiff but hopefully it softens up after its washed a few times. The fit on this one is fine for the 3XL but there is not a lot of give. It's just a hanging one so I don't need to do it up or anything, if it was one that I wanted to do up at the front I might have liked to go up a size.

Paul Tee

15,900 won, Khaki 3XL, Charcoal 5XL(+5,000 won)

I got two of these as they were quite a good price and I wanted to see how big the 5XL was. The 3XL in this one is nice and roomy, it's bigger than the Animal Tee that I got which was also a 3XL. So the 5XL is very big on me and so it will be my new pajama top. They are quite soft and comfortable and have little holes all over them so will need something on underneath them for wearing out of the house.

Go Go Go Tee

7,900 won Orange, 4XL

There was not much choice on this one, It was mostly sold out. I actually wanted the black one but they only had large left and even for the orange there was only a choice of 4XL or 5XL. The 4XL is fine for size, it's roomy but not too big so I think the 3XL would have been another one that would be a little on the snug side.

Pattern Tee

8,900 won, White, 4XL

I'm not sure what the name of this one translates too so I just called it a Pattern Tee. It comes in either White or Charcoal. This has quite large sizing, I got the 4XL and I'm not sure if that was just to try it or if there were no 3XLs. I don't usually go for white as I am really messy but this one was really pretty. I think I could have gone with a 3XL in this one but it's fine.

Animal Tee

9,900 won, Ivory, 3XL

I could not find this one on the site again and I remember there were not many sizes or colors left when I got mine. It may have sold out now. I am glad I got mine however as it is very cute. This one is a 3XL but runs a lot smaller than the other 3XL I got. It still fits but just not as much room left over.

Pency Blouse

28,900, Black, 3XL

This is a pretty tunic type blouse that you can wear over a singlet or something. It's a sheer lace with rose patterns on it. I really like it and I have some bright colored singlets that I think it will look nice over top of. It's quite roomy and I would not have wanted to go up any sizes with this one.

Veneto Pants

24,900 won, black, 5XL(+5,000)

I got the biggest size in these as I was not sure what to get. They have an elastic waist band so I figured it would be fine. And they are, they fit well and are very lightweight. Holding them up the material is very fine so it looks a bit see through. I will have to remember to wear black underwear when wearing these. I think they will be nice and airy for teaching in the classroom over summer.

Overall Thoughts on the Shopping Experience:

Site - I liked the site a lot. It was easy to use and set out cleanly. Every thing was easy to find and they had size guides on all the items so you could check the measurements. They also had cleaning tips along with the sizing too. Even though it is in Korean I found it pretty easy to use and my Korean is limited. If you get your friend or co-teacher to sign you up then you should be able to shop easily on this site. If your Korean is a bit better and you have signed up for these type of sites before then it will be easy to sign up yourself. It took me about 10 minutes or so.

The site has easy navigation to different types of clothing via a bar across the top which is in English, they have the categories Tops, Outer, Shirt & Blouse, Knit & Cardigan, Ops & Skirt, Leggings, Training. They also seem to have sales and specials on a lot so be sure to check those out.

As far as I can see they only carry women's clothing.


Clothes - I was really impressed with the selection that they had. There are not just older mature styles but lots of younger stuff also. Maybe not really young but young enough for me. The clothing quality seems very good and the prices were very competitive. I will definitely be shopping here again and it seems like it will soon become my go-to place. 

If you are looking to check out Anysize they do have physical stores too, I think they may also be available at Lotte Department Stores.

The also have a mini shop on Gmarket but it does not seem to have the whole range, the few I looked at only went up to 3XL. They do have a big selection just search for 애니시이즈.

These are the links to their social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anisize2003/
Instagram: @anysize_5xl
Blog Naver: http://blog.naver.com/hjdkt33

iHerb - Ordering with the new Customs Number

I used to order things from iHerb a lot, They were really good for finding organic supplies and hard to find baking needs. They also have some beauty lines and other bits and pieces. Their shipping was excellent and cheap, they even had free shipping offers quite often when you bought over a certain amount which of course I always had no trouble doing. 

After I moved a while ago I had not ordered anything as my address had changed so I needed to get that sorted first and then before I could make any further orders I heard about the new customs issues. Most of you would have heard about it by now, if you have not then I suggest you go to the forum 'Waygook.org' and look it up. They have a whole running post dedicated to iHerb. The basics was that you needed to provide a customs number to go with your order, I believe for a while you could just use your ARC number but not sure on that. 

Basically I think that it was just getting to popular, it's not just foreigners using the service but many Koreans order from here now to. So they decided to crack down on it and regulate the service more, because there are some things that cannot be imported into Korea.

I know that now you have to have a special 'customs number' that is issued to you. You have to go to the website, sign in and enter you address and then you are issued your number. When your order with iHerb your name and address must match that which you entered for your special 'customs number.

Now that all seems straight forward enough, they even direct you to the website you need to go to to get this number. There is a big red message on the top of the page that tells you that you need it and then a page where they describe it. The problems for us foreigners is that this website that you have to register on is in Korean, great for if you are one of the many Korean customers or you can read a high level of Korean but for the rest of us it's a tad bit more difficult. The good news is that it is not impossible. I did it myself one night without the help of a Korean (I was going to get help from a friend the next day if I could not figure it out myself) just using the translate function on my phone.

Make sure you are using Internet Explorer, okay so the first thing you have to do is go to this site https://unipass.customs.go.kr/csp/persIndex.do you can find this on the iHerb page and they show you pictures too. But anyway in the middle of the page there are two boxes you need to fill in, this is where you put your name as it is on your ARC (Alien Residents Card) and then your ARC number. The ARC number one is clear because it has the first box which is your birthday and then a hyphen and the second box is password protected with the stars .

Following the steps on iHerb (and it also shows you on the customs website with pictures of each step) you have to download the certificate identification software just like if you do online banking. If you don't basically it is software that confirms it is your computer,you can only use this certificate on your authorized devices with a password. So download the software and put your password in. 

Once you have done that it is going to go to a page with a form to fill in, this is where it is looking for your details and address. I just used the Google translate app on my phone to find what each part was. I had no trouble. They want you to use the new street address one which if you are like me you have no idea what that is. However you can easily just look it up using the old system, they still have a place for that in the search options, Next to the address field is a look-up function. I used this and entered my basic information like, gu, si and dong. It came back with all the options and I had to scroll through many of the addresses but I found mine. Then you will be back on the fill-in details page. Add your building and any other info and then hit the 'next' button at the bottom.  Again iHerb has pictures if you need them.

Now you are all registered, at the top will be your customs number which is a P followed by about 12 digets eg.PXXXXXXXXXXXX and you should also take note of you address as you have it here, it will need to match when you order on iHerb. If you loose your number you can log back on to the site to find it again easily enough. I had to go back to write down my address as it was in the new street format and I forgot it.

It is definitely not as quick as it once was. I ordered on the 16th of March and it got here about the 26th of March. It's not bad but if you used to order from them like me you know it used to take less than a week which was awesome.

Edit: I've used it since then and it's still pretty fast so that last time may have just been because it was the first time with the new customs number.

So if you were like me and putting of getting the customs number because you thought it would be a hassle, don't worry. It's not that hard and even someone with limited Korean like me managed it :)

Shopping: Miniinthebox.com - Haul and Review

I recently tried a new online shopping site and thought I would share the experience here. I love online shopping so it's great to find new places to shop. 

There are two websites that are part of one larger company the first one is Lightinthebox.com and the subsidiary is MiniInTheBox.com. LightInTheBox.com does the bigger items like clothing, sports gear and wedding things and MiniInTheBox.com covers things like gadgets and accessories. The stores are based in China but have a very good English site. There are also many other languages on offer; I don't know how good they are but if the English one is any indication, they should be fine.

The great thing for me is that they ship to South Korea, the price for shipping is very reasonable and they often have deals so I actually ended up not having to pay for shipping. I made my order just a bit before Christmas so was able to take advantage of their holiday deals.

Below are the purchases I made, links to the pages on the site and some thoughts on the items:

Swan Shaped Teaspoon Tea Strainer (Random Color)
Price: USD 0.99 , KRW 1,218

A cute swan shaped tea strainer. Ordered for a gift, it was super cheap. Looks nice, I got the white one it also comes in black but you can't choose your color. I was wondering if it might stain but I don't think it really matters at that price.

Mixed Color PU Leather Case for Ipad Mini

Price: USD18.99, KRW 23,366

Pink and black full slip case for my iPad Mini. I already have one of these cases that you slip the device inside and it protects it well. I decided I needed an update but they can be hard to find, most are just the half shell inside the case. This is really nice, it looks great and protects the iPad well.

Cat Pattern Glow in the Dark Hard Case for Samsung Galaxy S5
Price: USD 2.99, KRW 3679

A cute plastic case for my phone. It's glow in the dark so I thought it would be good for when my phone is in my bag and I cant' find it. Super cute and very cheap.

Retro Cat Cartoon Pattern PU Leather Full Body Case with Card Slot for Samsung Galaxy S5

Price: USD 8.99, KRW 11,062

Cute cat design case for my phone. This one is the shell inside the flip case. The cat design is like the 'Cheshire Cat' and is really pretty. This is the one I am using on my phone at the moment and it looks great. The only thing I would say about it is the plastic on the shell is not that durable. I have it in my handbag a lot and it gets bumped around. So far it has a couple of cracks in it from just about two months of use.

Hollow Design Pattern Hard Case for Samsung Galaxy S5
Price: USD 3.99, KRW 4,909

Another cute case for my phone, I thought this one was really pretty so I added it to my order. At this price, why not?

Fashion Cherry Strands Necklace
Price: USD 7.99, KRW 9,831

Really pretty necklace, another one that I just ordered to see what it was like. I was very happy with it. It's quite long and the color of the beads is a really nice pink/red.

Teapot Handle Silicon Leak Proof  Cup Cover (Random Color)

Price: USD 2.99, KRW 3,679

I ordered this one as another gift like the tea strainer. I thought it looked like a cute gift for my tea drinking relative. The problem was that it's a random color and as you can see I got this boring brown one. On the picture there were lots of colors of lids but none of them were this color and then they all had different colored teapots. One of them had the brown color but I thought that it would be Okay if the lid was a nice blue or green or pink. I mentioned this in my review on the website and the seller must have notified them because I got a email back shortly about 'my complaint'. Which it was not really, just an honest review. Anyway they ended up reimbursing me and asking me to update my review accordingly. I thought that was a bit weird, reviews are supposed to be honest and a refund does not change the product. I did update it, but with an added bit about how the nice customer service people were 'on to it' and sorted out a refund very quickly. 

I think I did pretty well on my orders, there was only the one that I was not exactly happy with but it was just a small thing. I really like the website as it is easy to search and navigate. I would recommend them to anyone looking for small gifts and fun items and I will proably buy from them again in the future.