Size 12 - which is true? M&S or TopShop

[sedgiebaby]

I am not even going to attempt to get into my size 10 jeans post baby. I'm dropping weight I think (I don't have scales, going by clothing) and have ordered two lots of jeans (M&S and Topshop) in a 12. The former are a little baggy, the latter I can do up but I am 'vacuum packed' and have a definite muffin top.

Who is more true to a size 12? Secretly hoping you don't say TopShop because this means I'm basically a size 14 with two not one dress sizes to drop!

[CherryDrops]

IMO Topshop trousers always come up about a size smaller than anywhere else I shop. M&S tend to be generous. So a 'real' 12 (if such a thing exists) is somewhere between a Topshop 12 and an M&S 12. Others may have different opinions though.

[JohnniesBitch]

I would agree with CherryDrops. sizing varies so much around the shops, i am anything between a 16 and a 22!!! (more likely an 18/20)

[Rosemallow]

I think they are as you've described: m & s is generous and topshop is designed for those who haven't had babies and come up quite small on the waist. I'm a small 12 after my two (hoping I can ditch the ice cream and get back to a 10!) and have been buying my jeans in New Look so I can throw them out when I hopefully get smaller!

[Awomancalledhorse]

I don't know about Top Shop (never been in there) but M&S is very generous!
I'm pregnant atm & currently still fit into my M&S size 8 stuff, whereas I've needed to replace everything else with a size 12

[nethunsreject]

M&S are huge.

Top Shop are tiny.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

Topshop is true to size - m&s is huge.

And topshop sizes are bigger than they were in the past.

[Meglet]

I find M&S have huge hips on all their sizes so can't wear them.

I haven't bought jeans / trousers from Top Shop since I've had dc's though.

[PetronusOfSteel]

I have 3 pairs of size 12 M&S trousers, 1 pair are perfect and the other 2 are too baggy. Being realistic I am a 12-14 so M&S are being very generous (and getting more so, the baggy trousers were bought more recently).
I've never been able to wear topshop stuff at all, it's always too big on the waist if it fits on the hips and visa versa.

[PetronusOfSteel]

Interesting x-post meglet, you must have the topshop style body while I have the M&S one!

[orangina]

I would just say that the topshop jeans will STRETCH (spoken as someone who recently bought size 12 TS jeans, and now regrets it as they are too big (hooray, sort of?!)....)

Buy the TS size 10, wear them around the house a bit and see how much they stretch. If you are still losing weight, definitely go for the 10.

(Can't comment on M&S jeans)

[meltedchocolate]

NEITHER! M&S sizes are for older women who are not as slim as young women. Topshop do sizes for the young who tend to be slimmer, and like others have said prebaby.

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Topshop used to be pretty generous, now is teeny tiny. M and S is laughably mahoosive.

[goinnowhere]

I actually don't find M and S to be that big. I find I am smaller in some other places. MAybe it is more to do with shape than size?

[Nagini]

I haven't bought anything from topshop since this baby [mumsy emoticon] but I always found it tiny compared to other stores. As a rule cooler shops cut smaller, and shops for older women who want to feel thinner cut bigger.

[TillyIpswitch]

I would say that Top Shop sizing is actually the most accurate*, but people feel it is on the small size. This is because there seems to be a trend towards vanity-sizing, whereby shops make clothes bigger, to flatter people into buying them.

• And even then, it is probably on the large size, compared with a size 12 from 20-30 years ago.

[chibi]

Depends on your shape

I can wear topshop size 12 jeans, i need a 14/16 in m and s

???

I just buy what fits and try not to care about size

[ThumbsNoseAtSnapewitch]

M&S sizing is a joke, IMO. I am most definitely a size 14 now - none of my size 12 clothes fit comfortably around my waist except the M&S ones. When I was in the UK in May, I bought a couple of pairs of linen trousers: luckily I tried them on first - one pair in size 14 was swimming on me so I downsized to a 12; the other pair were just about right and comfy as a 14 but stretched with wearing so are also now swimming on me! And I haven't lost weight.

So, sorry - but the Top Shop size is more likely to be nearer the truth - M&S are pandering to the increasing waistline by increasing the dimensions of their sizes so you can still fit into a size 12 and feel good about your podginess. I actually find this really irritating.

[otchayaniye]

I know someone who works for M&S (high up) and she admitted (after I was ragging her over my vintage size 14s not fitting) that an M&S size twelve is actually a true (when I say true, I mean hasn't crept up in the last 10 year) size 16. They do this because people have become steadily larger...

I would hazard that in fact, M&S is becoming an 'outsize' store.

Even TopShop I'd say was generous. A 10 is really what a twelve used to be 15-20 years ago.

And Gap is just off the richter.

[sprinkles77]

i have an m&s jumper that is at least 20 years old, more like 30. the label says "14". It feels like a current "8". OK, it will have shrunk a bit, but not that much, the wool still feels fine, not all felty like all the ones I've shrunk.

OP, yest, TS comes up smaller than M&S. The only thing I bought in TS recently was maternity jeans (size 10), at the same time I was wearing normal trousers in an 8 from M&S.

[Ephiny]

Topshop have definitely got bigger. I remember their 10 used to fit me when I was a skinny twig-like 17 year old, and still fits me (on top at least, I have to go up to a 12 for trousers due to womanly hips!) as a slightly plump 30 year old. I'd like to think I was still about the same size, but would be deluding myself sadly, I'm nearly 2 stone heavier!

Some of Gap's stuff is enormous. I usually have to buy XS, and I am not particularly thin, I have no idea what actually tiny people are supposed to do any more! No wonder we're starting to need size 4 and 6 etc, which is probably what used to be an 8 and 10.

I think shapes have changed as well, now it's very difficult to find anything to fit what used to be considered a 'normal' woman's figure (i.e. waist smaller than hips). Suspect this is to do with clothes becoming so cheap these days, it's probably cheaper to just have everything cut straight up and down rather than tailored to a woman's shape.

[HeavyHeidi]

oh sizes have definitely changed, I have a really old suit from H&M, EUR size 40. I actually compared with the current sizes - it's the same size as EUR size 36 now.
So whenever people start with "oh but Marilyn Monroe was wearing size this or that" - well, she might have been, but it's not the same as the size nowadays.

[AbsDuCroissant]

I think Topshop's closer to "proper" sizing (I've been looking at the measurements that they give in the sizing guide. Generally speaking, for size 10 topshop gives hips as 36.5 inches, whereas M&S is around 38.5/39 if memory serves), whereas M&S is generous, has been for years, as is Gap. Gap is CRAZY generous. I have a size 8 pair of jeans from them. I am not a size 8, apart from in my dreams

[pointydog]

Not M&S, they are made BIG.

I would imagine Top Shop are made small for all teh little teens.

[bibbitybobbityhat]

Vanity sizing is an awful thing!

When I was 20 years old (18 years ago now), and just over 9 stone, I was a size 14.

When I was 40 years old and 10 and a half stone, and had had two babies, I was a size 14.

[bibbitybobbityhat]

Abs
Gap use American sizing (two sizes bigger than UK) so a size 8 in Gap is a size 12 in UK brands.