Astounded by trip to shopping centre today

I've been going to shopping centres and looking for clothes since the 90s, and honestly, size 6 has always been a rare size to stock. The only place you'd see it was in shops aimed at teenagers. The likes of New Look, Top Shop and Miss Selfridges. Remember, the average UK women's size is a 14.
That's why when you go to the Next sale, the only sizes you'll find are the small ones and the very big ones!

Of all the people I know IRL aged, say over 30, I can honestly only think of one lady who is probably a size 6, and she's a semi-pro long distance runner.

You can stick to online of course but it’s no panacea. You could order any number of size 6 garments from different, or the same retailers and you would have some too big, some ok and some too small.

No no no, you're misunderstanding peoples points... You're still slim at a size 8 (in 2025) of course!!! And well done on the weight loss! But this whole narrative that a size 6 is teeny tiny is wrong. It's not. It's a 25-26" waist. It's slim. Not teeny-tiny.

And yes, vanity sizing is not something some mumsnetters are making up. It is a thing... Pre 21st century, a size 12 was a 25-26" waist, now, a size 12 is a 32-33" waist.

A size 8 was a 22-23" waist, now it's a 28-29" waist.

No-one is calling anyone a heifer. Just stating facts.

This chart illustrates it well. It's from the early-mid 2010s, but it's shows what people are talking about when they talk about vanity sizing.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/fashion-beauty/a556302/chart-shows-shocking-change-in-clothing-sizes/

I think this might just be one of the most sensible things I have read on this subject!

It’s not rocket science is it - if they stocked less of those sizes, they’d have space for smaller ones? Have I missed something, sorry if so.

Well actually its no good stocking a size 6 in favour of a 14 if actually you only get one customer in every 3 weeks wanting a 6, but get 10 every single day wanting a 14.

Honestly its demand led.if 6s sold they'd stock them.

I work in this industry and even stocking quite few 6 & 4s, they are always what is left to be reduced at the end of season.

It's not vanity sizing. It's size inflation. People have got bigger and so has everything else to accommodate that: beds, cars, chairs etc. Of course clothing had to adapt. What, we should still be using patterns from the 1800s?

Customer profiling and the nature of scaled sizing (and cheap, poor quality production) means sizing is inconsistent, but it also means that if Shop X doesn't fit you, Shops Y or Z still might. Whatever else clothing manufacturers might be doing, they really really are not engaging in mass, industry wide deception practices to flatter overweight people.

For some reason, people really hate hearing this and are absolutely wedded to the idea that it's all a mass conspiracy to stop fat people realising they're fat. (They then often demand to know why the standard sizing for mass produced, off the peg pieces for their dress size isn't their exact measurements.) I can't persuade them otherwise so I don't spend huge amounts of time trying. It's true, though.

Having dropped from a size 16 to a size 8 and a BMI of 33 to 21, I love the discussions about how I’m actually not slim as it’s just vanity sizing and I’m secretly a heifer and I just didn’t realise 😆

Saying that I should have known as Reddit tell me I’ve got issues around food 🥳😆

This is true. I found an old size 10 dress (that I wore in the early 1990s,) around 2 years ago, and my size 8 (in todays sizings) niece tried it on, and couldn't get it past her hips. Simply would not fit. My DD who is between a 6 and an 8 now got it past her hips, but it wouldn't zip up. So in the early 1990s, my niece and my DD would have been a size 12 in most clothes.

So people shouldn't be teeny-tiny-ing the OP, or anyone saying they're a size 6, as a size 6 isn't even that small. 🤷🏼 It's a 25" waist. I was a 23" waist in the 1980s, and early 1990s, and a size 10. I think I was a 12 when my waist went to 25".

So my early 1990s self would have been a size 6 now - and I was not that small. Slim for sure, but not 'teeny-tiny.'

It's customer profiling. Some demographics are bigger and smaller than others (dance wear and clothes for teenagers come up small, for example, as those people tend to be slimmer. Richer people tend to be slimmer too.). Sizing numbers are based on scaling around the median, so they're different everywhere. Although nowadays when stores often don't know who their customers are or can't profile because the same behemoths in China are pumping stuff out to go all over the world, it's worse.

It's extremely frustrating but it does give you a better chance of finding a place to suit you (everyone with big boobs or long legs etc knows which shops do better at catering for them). If it was standardised everywhere there'd be no point in shopping around. You'd be equally stuffed everywhere!

I’m a 6/8 and have to say I find it really easy. I went to Primark for some pyjamas I’d seen online the other day and the only sizes left were size 6 and size 22! If it’s a wanted item I find size 6 is always left.

Honestly, the stock issue was there way before the internet was ever a thing.

OP, as a slim person with a very thin adult daughter (health problems) i know it can be frustrating not to find correct sizes. It affects my daughter’s confidence. I imagine others at the larger end of the spectrum feel the same.

But I do not believe your OP was in good faith. It was a disingenuous post that was having a snide dig at bigger women. Astounded? Really? People like you don’t do slim woman any favours as it reinforces nasty stereotypes.

The expensive size 6s are so much smaller than Primark size 6s though. It is v frustrating. We deserve more consistency in sizing.

Years ago, a manager in Whistles told me they only order two size 6s. Which seemed crazy to me.

Anyway, people are very unpleasant to others because of their size here, whether that’s small or big. The teeny tiny comments are unpleasant, as are the mean comments about those who are big. I don’t behave like this irl and neither do my friends. Do others?

I thought the same thing!

You're astounded they didn't stock a size 6? Oh please how many of the population are a size 6? When I was a 20 the shops never stocked it either. Now I'm a 14 but short they don't stock short either.
Pathetic humble brag good try though

I always say on these threads that the size that is sold out is the size that you want. I am sure most of us have had this experience.

That’s interesting. We went to the Norfolk broads a few years ago. We had so many delicious meals out, I was pleasantly surprised. But the portions were absolutely enormous; it was striking. Perhaps there is a link…

She may have done, but some posters will call themselves fat, and others will use the same words within a different context, to convey a different message . That is how it is coming across to me. It is being used as a put down, by some posters.

OP described herself as teeny.

YABU
The average size in the UK is 16.

Surely you understand the logic behind commercial buying.

It’s very unfortunate for people who are outside what’s considered the normal average, but you must know by now that’s the way it is.

Yes, the term teeny tinies being thrown around freely on this thread. It is a putdown imo. I would not use unkind language to describe people who are above a certain size.

It is the judgement of those who are naturally slim that I object to. Everyone gets up in arms over fat shaming, but it still seems ok to mock those are small. Being a size 6, when you are only 5' or thereabouts isn't skinny or scrawny or any of the other dismissive terms. It is simply in proportion.

As some posters have pointed out, 'vanity sizing' is common. I now just buy my clothes from the same store. Their sizing works for me.

I was a 14 until recently. Now a size 6 and I have a completely different appreciation for how difficult it is to get clothes. I can never find things in my size. I went to the big M&S in London, still the same. Very occasionally the River Island in my small local town has things in XS.

I have stopped even looking at M&S website as well as size 6 seems to sell out really quickly and I am constantly disappointed! I use Vinted a lot. Boden are pretty good for smaller sizes. But not great if you want to go shopping and try things on if course.