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?

Yes, this is how I remember sizes when I was buying teen clothes off the market. 10 was skinny, 12 was normal, 14 was what I needed if it was fitted on the thighs a bit fat. They didn't sell anything else.

My Grandmothers, who needed 18 & 20 had to go to M&S, although I don't think they'd be considered particularly large today

I remember my mother was 10 when I was a child around 1990. She was slim, 5ft 7, 8 and a half stone but not tiny. Assuming there was an 8 by then as many women, especially some Asian women would have needed a smaller size.

By tiny I mean small framed petite women. Unless some women wore children's clothes like I had to wear dolls clothes as a newborn if there just wasn't the range of sizes?

A size 10 being on the porky side? Are you F’ing for real??? People talking like this is part of the problem 🙄

I was going to say just that!!

Can I ask where all these people are shopping that their clothes are so much bigger these days? I’m not experiencing this at all, I’m in the gym every morning trying to get my size 12s to “hang off me” must be shopping in the wrong places 😂

How old are your size 12s? I'd say they've been getting for 25 years at least. I was a 14 in 1988, a 12 for a lot of years from about 1995, but now an 8/10.

It used to be that young shops came up small and the more middle aged shops would be bigger, but I find the opposite is true now. Better quality things are more "true to size" (whatever that means) and cheaper things come up big.

I'm a size 10, bmi of 21.

I'm certainly not 'porky'. Who even describes anyone as porky?

Clothes sizes vary depending on where you shop, I don't know anyone who would think of a size 10 as being even remotely big.

I think it's still slim. I do think sizes and people are getting bigger. I now often have to get a much smaller size than I used to. Fir example, 30 years ago I was 7.5 stone, small built and wore a size 12 skirt. Now I am same height, about 8 stone (waist slightly bigger but still okay) and often have to get size 8. It's ridiculous!

I don't know anyone who'd call it porky either but it's not what super slim celebrities aspire to any more.

1960s my mother was size 12 with 24inch waist.

I am exactly the same as you! I am almost 2 stone heavier than in my 20s, yet wearing the same size clothes. It's a nonsense.

I was a size 10 at 7st 8 in the late 70's/early 80's. You couldn't buy anything smaller in this area. I reckon that'd be a 4 or a 6 now.

Does it matter?
Not RTFT but I'm a size 18, so must be HUMONGOUS!
I had a c section in '95 & have like an 'apron' tummy. Gets on my nerves. But not THAT much. I can usually disguise it with clothes.
Health's more important. :-)

1960s my mother was size 12 with 24inch waist
**
That's right, and 36" hips.

Sizes are bigger now, but when I was a teen in the 70s, 12 was slim, 10 was very slim.

I'm about the same age as you and, as a very skinny teenager, I wore a size 8. This was considered borderline eating disorder territory, and many high street places didn't go smaller than a 10.

Now in my 50s, I can still squeeze into a size 10 on a good day. But I'm under no illusions that I'm anywhere near as skinny as I was back then!

I’m generally a size 14 in jeans these days (I’m 67 ☹️). I have a pair of Size 16 Pepe jeans from the 70’s that were much too big for me then and somehow got kept in a suitcase and have survived all clothes culls since. I can’t even pull them up past mid-thigh now. Sizes have changed so much.

I’ve told DH that when I get older I’ll probably shrink a bit so I’m aiming to be cremated in those jeans!

I wonder if a lot of the problem now is children shopping in the silt sections. Teen girls especially. We used to shop in Tammy girl and other trendy kids shops (lol it probably wasn’t even trendy). But now the kids sections of the shops don’t cater very well for the teens. My DD is 13 years old. She wears a size 12 adult clothing. Kids clothes don’t go near her. She is in a C cup bra. As a child she’s classed as obese but if I put her weight and height in and added that she was 18 she would have a healthy BMI. A lot of her friends are similar but there are also a lot of girls her age who haven’t hit puberty as early so are shopping in the adult shops but needing the size 4s etc.

oh and I’m a size 12. I don’t consider myself fat but in some shops I find the 12s too tight and in others too loose. Can’t seem to win.

That’s meant to say children shopping in the adult section!!

Used to love Pepe Jane jeans

sizing is different in every shop and thos screws pools concept of what is correct sizing. shops are making clothes bigger. I am about 9stone and 5ft 5. about a size 8 or 10 normally. but now I go by the eu size. am a 34. river island 34 is an 8. but marks 34 is a 6. why ? primary is the same and even sometimes an 4 in primary fits. I am so not a 4. zara horrendous. an xs most of the time is miles too big. yet I have zara dresses from years back xs and fit perfectly same with oasis and warehouse (before they were taken over by the worst company ever bohoo) now an xs is too big ? and dont get me started on them one soze clothes am sorry they dont exist. i am not going to get any bigger as it not good for me health wise. now if I do buy something that I like but too big (not many places do an xxs bit if I say that to people I get a look of horror as a size 8 is not normal seemingly??) I think we have lost sight of what is healthy sizes for people

The average size in the UK for women now is size 16.....I am in my late sixties. Size 12 was the average when I was a kid. We are getting much larger. We are getting taller also....but sizes have increased too. A size 12 was 86cm bust, 61 waist and 91cm hip. Today a size 12 is chest of 91cm, waist of 76cm and hips 99cm. So even the sizes have expanded. Same with shoe sizes...I took a size 6 at 30....by the time I was 45 I was in a 7 and now take an 8....my foot measures the same length.

This thread is thoroughly depressing me. I was an 8-10 all my life before kids and now I’m a size 12…. I am the same age as you OP. I spend all my time TRYING to get back to a 10. For some reason it’s my goal…. And I think it would make me so happy. But if I manage it it’s usually only a few months.. and then I bounce back up to a 12 in a few weeks (usually when husband is around and we have bbqs and wine way too much).

and now you’re telling me I’m actually prob closer to a 1997 16-18 and even if I get back to a 10 I will never actually be a 10…. I’ll be a 14-16

and we wonder why we are all size obsessed.

just wear what looks good on you. Eat healthily and move more. And you’re good.