Seems like size 10 these days is considered 'large'?

[Echobelly]

Caveat: Yes, I know actual clothes sizes are all over the place and not necessarily a guide to weight/shape.

I'm in my mid 40s and I'd swear when I was a kid, 10 was considered 'slim', yet it often seems to be talked about now as though it's the porky side.

I don't think that all that many women naturally fall into being a size 8 - I'd consider 10 a normal 'slim' size, I don't think anyone who is a size 10 would ever be medically overweight, even really short women like me.

Older people like me - do you think attitudes have changed? Younger women - have you grown up with 10 talked about as though it was an undesirable size to be?

I think you're right on this. I exercise a lot compared to my friends (generally people in their 40s with young children), most of whom do literally no exercise at all, not even walking to the shops.

As the owner of a 1980s pair of M&S jeans in a size 18, I'd say a size 10 is definitely larger than it was 30 years ago. I wear a 14 but they are not large on me.

10 is in no way 'porky' though. They are slim, healthy waist and hip measurements.

I think if you are a teenager and possibly twenties then size 10 is considered porky, especially as young women tend to have plump faces which can make them look fatter then if they are actually very petit.

Older women tend to be larger and I wouldn't consider anyone thirties onwards size 10 as porky unless they were under 5ft.

I have a vintage St Michael skirt that says size 10 and 23 inch waist, It looks 1970s to me. I really hate this vanity sizing I've always been skinny and I always get made to feel like I'm too slim. Quite often size 4 can be too big especially on my top half as i have a very small bust. It's frustrating when I think I'll go for the smallest size and it's too big, I don't have the option of going down a size. The way sizing is going I feel like we'll be in negative sizes soon. It's ridiculous. People are getting bigger and taller, so make bigger and taller sizes, don't change the sizes that exist.

Absolutely this. A size 10 varies from shop to shop and different people fit clothes differently. It’s entirely possible that everyone arguing over whether a 10 is ‘porky’ or not has a completely different body in their heads.

However, people are getting lazier and unhealthier. I teach upper primary. I heard a statistic recently that 1/3 of pupils leaving primary are overweight now. I can see this to be true. Some pupils tell me that they spend entire weekends on the sofa with screens. They often talk about ‘treat nights’ where they watch films with an assortment of crisps, chocolate and sweets. They look very different (not just weight, but their complexion) to the children who tell me about their weekend sports matches and family bike rides.

Body acceptance and vanity sizing are one thing, but we really ought to be able to face up to whether or not we are eating and exercising well.

That looks like US sizing. I'm a 6 bottom and it's usually either a 24 waist, or it's a 25 waist and the size 4 is a 24 waist.

I've been making up some old dress patterns. Luckily I measured dd because she fits into modern clothes size 8-12 depending on style and fit.
The pattern had her in a size (back then) 18.
Sizes have definitely changed.

I buy a lot of vintage, I’m a size 12 in today’s clothes and a size 14 in vintage Jaegar (60’s/70’s) vintage Jean Muir (60’s) and vintage YSL (70’s/80’s)I don’t think sizes have changed as much as people say on this thread.

I think we're just more exposed to media of the 'ideal' female figure nowadays, which most aren't genetically predisposed to.

Size 10 would've been much bigger 50 years ago but now it's smaller than the UK average.

I think the sizes in the 70s 80s were about 1 to 2 sizes smaller than the modern day counterparts. As I say, I'm the same weight and roughly the same size as I was in '88 and I wore a size 12 then and wear a size 8 now. A lot of that I think is the waist measurements were much smaller comparatively. But then a lot of middle aged to older women were still used to wearing girdles pretty much everyday.

My gran wore a girdle for years, and she was properly tiny anyway. But yes, if the assumption was that women would wear girdles, it would explain waist sizes being so much smaller.

I do remember a size 14 being seen as big in the 90s though. But looking at photos, I was just tall, rather than big and preferred clothes to be baggy.

I agree that it is vanity sizing that is distorting things along with a good dose of judgement towards women's body.

As a 5ft 7 9 stone teen I was a size 10-12. As a 10 stone adult with a baby pouch I am a size 10. Its meaningless now.

I don't know anyone who thinks size 10 is porky. I do know that the size 14 jeans I bought in 6th form c. 1987 still fit me and my current size in Next jeans is 8.

My mum buy’s me size 14-16 as that’s what I am sized in her day. She was a dressmaker so has always had a good eye for estimating size.

as an 8st teen I was a size 10. I remember it being a diet goal to get under 8st and in a size 8- size 8 being the smallest size on the high street then. I did manage it, and got size 8 jeans but they were very tight. Now as an 11 stone adult I am a size 10-12. I still have some 90’s size 10’s and can’t get near them. They fit my size 6 teens well though.

sizes have definitely changed. Size 10-14 used to be “normal”. Now anything 12 or above is “big”.

One thing for sure: any thread on the subject of weight and/or dress size will garner more responses than any other subject I can think of. With varying degrees of defensiveness, aggression, quoting height and bone structure etc.

I remember being an 8 in Next in 1994 and they're a bit big now but not drastically so. I'm 5 foot 8 and 8 stone 10. I've never met a chunky size 10 but I have absolutely no idea what size my friends are, so it's always possible 😀. I only walk past cake shops if that's not where I was aiming for.

Oh and there are women on the S&B thread who are a 10 who look much slimmer than I do, so it's weight distribution, how toned you are just as much as a number on a scale.

Has anyone said 'We've lost sight of what a normal size is' yet?

@IcedPurple yes someone did state we are getting fatter as a nation.

"Vanity sizing has completely changed what a size 10 is over the past 20 years. I was a size 10 at about 8st 4 in the mid 90s - I’m still a size 10 at 10st 2 now. I am definitely not the same size! I was slim, and I’m towards the top of a normal bmi now, but I’m I could visibly do with losing a stone."

Absolutely! I used to be a 10 when I was young. I've put on at least 6lbs since then, and sometimes even a 6 is too large for me. I've had to buy a sweatshirt sized for an 11-year old boy!

Size 10 US yes quiet large

I think quite the opposite! (Completely understand I'll be slaughtered for this btw) but apparently 14/16 is the average? I would be very big at that size. (Yes I I understand that BMI isn't accurate or indicative of health) but I can't understand how the average has gone from a 10 to 14/16

Vanity sizing has messed it up. The smaller sizes are 6 and 8.
Next and M&S can be really bad for this. Even primark has shifted sizes I swear.

When I was 17/18 in the early 1980s,a size 12 was considered slim,and a size 10 was considered tiny! Nowadays I hear women bemoaning the fact that they're a 'huge' size 12! I think,well what does that make me at a size 16?!

When I was young there were 3 basic sizes, 10,12 & 14. A few shops sold a 16 and finding 18+ was really quite difficult. My mum has always been an 18, she struggled to find clothes, even M&S did very few clothes in that size.
I was a bit chubby, had a 28" waist, size 16. (Still got the Etam skirt with the label in it, so I know I've got this right).
A size 10 was a 22" inch waist - for skinny teenagers and very petite women.
Size 12 was most people, size 14 was for the well-covered, and 16 was considered fat.
I was for some years a size 14 at 5'4 and 9 stone 4lbs. If I went over 9.8 I went into a 16.
These days, small skinny teenagers wear a 4 or 6, and a 10 seems to be the norm. Sizing is completley different, and the range available is much wider.

Definitely. I sold a Thea Porter dress through Kerry Taylor auctions. Bought it in 1969 as a 14. It was measured by the auction house as a current 8/10.