Vanity sizing needs to be stopped

I agree, OP. I'm a size 12 - the same dress size as I was 30 years ago.

Which sounds great until I tell you I'm also exactly 2 stone heavier.

This is the only website where you have to leave things lighthearted to avoid getting shit. I despair sometimes.

Lol, it's the phrasing I'm reacting to 'must be stopped'. It's numbers on clothes.

If most 8s are too big just buy a 6 surely?
Stop moaning that it’s the fault of thick fatties.

Can we assume that your field of work and/or study, not to mention the area you spend all your free time involved in, is either charitable fundraising or international relations?

I agree. I tried on an outfit in Oliver Bonas. I am a 12 now and was a 12, 30 years ago, despite being significantly larger. Well a 12 was too big in there and I had to buy a size 10. I know I am definitely not a size 10! It’s ridiculous.

I’ve honestly never been in a high street or high end shop that doesn’t have a changing room. What are all these “lots of shops”?
The only places I ever see without changing rooms are supermarkets.

Yes I would be in agreement with that.
Otherwise the "sizes" are utterly useless. It's not done with other products so why do clothes manufacturers get away with it?

If they don't want to be that precise or can't be then they go with S/M/L etc as in men's clothing. And those labels should have measurement criteria too.

Likewise with "petite" etc.

@BobbieTables are we only allowed to be bothered about big things? Sorry I didn’t get that memo. So if I lose my job, I shouldn’t care, because at least I’m not in Gaza?

Honestly, I do wonder why any of us try to keep fit, lose weight, bother with face creams, try to eat healthily.
We will all die any way and the vast majority of people are all forgotten within 2 generations.

Let's all just sit at home worrying about Ukraine waiting for our time to come 🙄🙄🙄

Agreed. I used to wear a 10. I’ve gained weight since then and yet most 8’s are now too big. It makes buying clothes too much effort.

Who cares about 50 years ago? My grandmother had a tiny waist, but she was also 5ft tall. Waist to height ratio is important, not the measurement in isolation. When I got married aged 28 twenty years ago my waist was 25 or 26" - the tailor commented on how small my waist was, because I am a lot taller than 5ft nothing.

DD2 is 5'10" at 16, not unusual among her friendship group and that would have been very unusual 50 years ago, as would going to the gym and lifting weights as we both do regularly.

My DM was very slim, BMI 19, pretty tall and still took a size 14 in the 1960s. She is so slim and sporty in photos and if she weighed any less she'd be underweight.

I think that was wrong then, that women were practically underweight and still in a size that was pretty large. Particularly 50 years down the line when they found themselves breaking hips and with osteoporosis because being strong or muscular was not the done thing and being as thin as possible was key. My DM didn't have that but my DMIL does, who spent her entire life dieting because she was thought to be fat as a child.

I have been the same weight for decades. However, I am not the same shape as I was before children.
My husband weighs less than he did 20 years ago but now takes a larger size.

The size is only a number.

Did OP imply that it had BIG, HUGE, MASSIVE IMPLICATIONS. And was more important than the other things you mention.

No!

It's perfectly acceptable and possible to be irritated by something at the same time as being aware and concerned about several other things.

It irritates me too OP.

I find it quite hard to find tops in a lot of shops as XXS or a six can sometimes swim on me but they're the smallest size they stock.

Why don’t they say that then, instead of implying it’s all the fault of people bigger than them being so vain and stupid they want their clothes to say size 12 when they are the size of a heifer?

I think if this is all you have to worry about at the moment then you’re fortunate 🤣

Nah, most retailers have a sizing chart where they specify the waist size etc. It’s perfectly possible to check plus it’s always been the case that there has been variation between stores. It’s always phrased as “I used to be a size 16 but now I’m apparently an 8 and I’m so fat/ we have lost sight of a healthy weight/ I tried on my mum’s old size 12s and they are minuscule”. Never seems to be any complaints about the stores that size small such as H&M or Zara. It’s always about someone complaining about gigantic clothes and how it’s done so that fatties don’t feel bad and why should we all have to suffer as a result. It’s so transparent.

If you look at size charts for each you will see that the numbers are meaningless and you have to go by the stated dimensions. There has never been a standard for women’s clothing. In some ways this is good because you can find companies that tend to match your ratios better.

tldr: look up the size charts and use your measurements to pick sizes

Ok. With kindness, I don't believe that.

I can't say as I am too bothered about sizing moving to reflect the reality of the average sizes of people today. What I would like is for sizing to be consistent, or done by measurements not random numbers which mean something in one shop and something else in another.

I'm finally getting back into a size 10 at around just into normal BMI (as quite a fit/muscular person at just into normal BMI). I know that I'm not as light as I was aged 20, a stone lighter and a size 10/12, at age 49, but I'm slim enough as a size 10 and would not go lower than an 8, and it doesn't matter whether that would have been a size 12/14 30 years ago. And actually, when I was the weight I am now aged 15/16 and found it hard to find a pair of 501 jeans to fit (at probably all of a size 14 then, it just made me feel fucking dreadful about myself and want to eat a load of chocolate and crisps, which made matters worse, obviously). I also remember living in France in the 1990s when I was a size 10/12 then and feeling absolutely massive because they would have to search in the warehouse for a C cup bra or size 6.5 shoes, and the clothes I was buying were often the biggest size in the shop. Not a nice feeling when you are a perfectly fit, slim and tall person.

If clothes size were the same as the 1950s then hardly anything would fit me as a healthy and above average height woman of today with a rather muscular athletic small frame, as women just weren't often my shape then.

Also DDs are 20 and 16, one is a size 6/8 and 5'4", one is a size 10 and 5'10"- how would it help them to be made to feel bigger when they have a range of nice clothes that fit them as it is, are very slim and fit and in the middle of the healthy weight range?

Returning to older sizing ranges now would just make healthy people feel fat and larger people so outsize that why should they bother with their appearance or health?

I never want to go back to that time in the 1990s and 2000s when it was fashionable to be so tiny and thin. I love my food and was usually quite sensible and was into eating disorder territory/gym obsession at one point in my early 20s trying to make my legs thin and gazelle like. Let's go forward not back.

I suspect most of them are just fed up with ordering clothes online that don’t fit when they get them.

I just want consistency. Why can’t we have actual measurements like men?

I’m not sure that would work. How would it cope with low rise trousers, for example, where the waistband is a few inches below your actual waist?

Just giving the actual garment waistband measurement would be better. There is no need try and bend a dress size to fit.