To say vanity sizes should be rolled back?

@Disturbia81 , It doesn't literally mean anything.

@KirstenBlest Doesn't that literally mean people are getting taller?
I see so many tall teenage girls now, and with much bigger feet on average

People haven't got taller. It's the younger generations who are generally taller than the shorter of their two parents.
The average increases gradually over time.

I gave up shopping in Next and M&S for skirts and trousers years ago. My local Next also has one of those fairground mirrors in the changing room that makes you look thinner than you really are.

It is an issue when you're smaller than the smallest size in many shops. I'm lucky if a 6 fits me in Next or M&S. Years ago I would have had no bother.

Well as a very large HGV size 12, it gives me a bit of a boost when I try on a top and a size 8 fits me.

Then I try on my jeans from the 70s and am brought back to earth with a bump. Oh to be size French again😭😭😭😭

Exactly. You can also ... LOOK at people in the street. There are still a lot of slim and very slim women everywhere. Sports clubs are packed, sport events are busier than ever.

Obesity crisis has never meant 100% of the population is overweight.

Only on MN must people be lying if they say they are 5ft or 5ft5 in a size 6 or 8. It's boring.

why, you think size 14 - in today's vanity size from one of the most generous shops, is helping people to recognise they are overweight?

You have to consider people have got taller - this has been going on forever.

Health and BMI are not, never have been and never should be, measured by dress size. The idea is absolutely preposterous.

The clothing industry is responsible for clothing people. It is not a body size or health police. If you want to measure your health, you need to look at BMI, blood pressure etc.

Besides, in the 90s plus sized people had very few options and all that happened was that the population got fatter, so using clothes to enforce healthy weights clearly doesn't work.

Why is it odd?

A good proportion of women must be a size 8. Otherwise shops wouldn’t bother stocking size 8 clothes.

There is such a stream of women on Mumsnet claiming to be a size 8. Odd, that.

Indeed, they have big feet as well. DD1 is only 5'4" at full adult height but has size 7 feet, bigger than mine at 5'7".

DD2 I've just bought size 10 football boots for, she's 5'10" aged 15 and still growing.

What, you think dress sizes have made people fat?

I'm actually not stupid but when I was overweight it did make it easier to persist in denial if I was fitting into averagely-sized clothes. And having to go up a size probably did give me a bit of a kick up the arse.

The threads on here tend to be along the lines of 'Size 12 is tiny' or 'Size 16 isn't fat' so people are using it as a gauge.

looking at the obesity crisis and how overweight people are in this country, I am afraid dress size does matter!

But people like to pretend otherwise instead of addressing the problem for themselves.

In principle I agree, but some on here do seem to want everyone to know about it.

It's not "vanity" sizing and people shouldn't be measuring their health by their dress size.

I think it's the opposite. Oh, I am "only a size 14" and people delude themselves about being thin and healthy.

If you are a size 22, you know you are overweight. If you are happy with it, it's up to you, but there's no pretending you are actually a slim uk average.

Vanity sizing are damaging.

Why would you be flattered by a number on a piece of clothing?

How bizarre.

Are you one of those people who thinks dress sizes are related to morality?

I can’t fathom why it would be flattering.

@NeverDropYourMooncup , I live in a multi-racial town and there are women and girls who are very tall and many who are very short. I'm the national average height for a woman and definitely do not feel short when out and about.
The population has a high Indian sub-continent heritage, and the women tend to be shorter than average.

Bearing in mind average height still includes the 5'2" and below little old ladies born from 1930 onwards and the considerably less diverse population born in the pre Windrush era, it's not caught up yet.

I'm 5'6". The vast majority of girls are taller than me by year 9 and it is not unusual in the slightest to have girls over six foot tall by that age - more unusual to have them above 5'9" at secondary transition, but only inasmuch as there only being about 5% of the intake noticeably taller than the rest of the cohort.

Average height hasn’t gone up that much

Consistency across brands - yes this is important

Just "rolling back" so that a 12 isn't called an 8, then no. I'm not saying OP did this, but sometimes this can morph into fat shaming. I fat shaming/phobia sometimes explains the backlash against "vanity" sizing.

People have generally got bigger (and taller), so I'm not sure there would be many people who are the "size 8" from the 1970s. So probably these small sizes just wouldn't be in the shops as much. Clothe sizes need to reflect (and move with) the needs of the population, not some ideal from the past.