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?

And then the 90s hit and curves disappeared, becauseyou were meant to look like a waif. Unless you were in the lads' mag game, in which case you had to be skinny but also have big boobs. No wonder we were so confused.

I'm a 20-22 so double that, a 10 to me is thin, 8 is skinny thin, 12 is slim, 14 is slim but curvy. 16 is a little chubby. But I'm basing this off of being nearly 6 feet tall.

Haha in what world is a size 10 ever ‘chubby’?? I’m 5 foot 7 and a size 10, I’m slim. If I was a size 8 which would probably never happen (I already run 20km a week and clock up 20-30k steps a day so I don’t think I’m getting much slimmer than this!) then I would honestly be super skinny at my height, Kate Moss style.

Average dress size for UK women is now a 16 so a 10 is definitely NOT chubby!

www.womansworld.com/gallery/entertainment/bluebella-average-woman-in-1950s-vs-today-128174

Interesting article.

At the end it gave the statistics of actresses in the past and what size they were then and what that equates to today. Really it’s all about measuring yourself. I know I was 34, 24 34 in my teens and twenties. I signed a contract as a model so they actually measured you, I had a clause that meant I could not cut my hair without their permission.

I am mid fifties now, I would have to measure but there is no way I have a 24 inch waist post menopause and I’m still a size 10.

When size 10 is more akin to what a size 14 used to be

If the average size of women is size 16 in the new sizing then really that means the average size is actually a size 20
Dd is a size 4 Any bigger and she wouldn’t fit in my olde size 8-10 clothing

In the 1980s I weighed 10 1/2 stone and wore size 14 or 16. I’m now about 5 stone heavier and wear size 18. My size 10 daughter can’t get into a size 14 dress of mine from the 1980s.

@CraftyClara what you say is akin to what I reported previously about my size 6 DD and the gifted 80s frock (a 10/12) which is only slightly to big around the bust area. Fits perfectly elsewhere.

I’m a size 10 and west size 10 clothes. But I’d never fit into the clothes I wore at 22-and guess what-I was a size 10 then too! So the clothes have definitely changed. Back then I was considered slim but my old clothes are tiny-possibly a modern size 6. My 23 year old daughter wears size 6 and she looks similar to me at the same age. Possibly that’s why a 10 is considered a bit more porky now.

I think taller than average and those with features such as very wide hips shouldn’t read these types of threads as they always make us feel crap.
I’m 5ft 11, have a huge difference in my hip and waist measurements, am not overweight, but wear a size 14 to allow for hips and boobs. So they always make me feel rubbish too yet I know I’m ok. (Apart from being unable to find clothes)

I recently bought a vintage Jaeger skirt in size 8. I have to breathe in to fasten it (especially after post Christmas overindulgence) as it's 24 inch waist. I don't know if I'll slim down enough to keep it though.

That's probably a size 6 in equivalent sizing?

St, Michael is the same and I think is smaller the further back you go, so 1960s is smaller even than '80s.

I don't think people should feel bad. I think we're taller, and that sort of thing, compared to the past.

We are bigger in every sense - taller, broader Because we are better nourished than our ancestors. I am a slim woman. Stand me, at 5’7, next to my 5’1 grandmother and I look like a shire horse next to a particularly dainty Falabella pony.

Standardised dress sizes are a very recent convention, less than 150 years old and we all know full well, as women, that sizes are not standard between shops.

It does nobody any good to fixate on clothes sizes or weight vs actual physical fitness and muscle tone. I can be the exact same weight and look wildly different if I’ve been exercising or not.

Definitely there's vanity sizing - I have a vintage leather skirt which used to be my mum's (from M&S! But from the late 70s I would guess) which is a size 12 and the waist is absolutely tiny. Sadly there's no way I can fit into it at the moment even though broadly speaking I'm a 12 in today's sizes (but short, and definitely overweight), but I keep it partly for posterity and partly in the hope I will fit into it again. I imagine it's about an 8 in today's sizing.

Even clothes I have from 20-30 years ago are smaller than current sizing.

I am in my fifties and still own a few pieces of clothing I wore in my younger days. My statistics were 34 24 34 and my upper thighs were I think 21 I was a model when very young and my exact measurements were taken all over and I had a contract stipulating weight gain and what I was allowed to do with my hair. I was a size 10, the mini skirt I have from that time is a size 10, I weighed 8st 4lb. I am still a size 10 though it’s a bit snug and weigh about 9st 8lb. The last time I measured my waist it was 28 but that was a while ago.

What the clothing manufacturers have done is fool women. We have an obesity and diabetes epidemic. There was one overweight child at my high school in the 1980’s. Now I see so many kids her size and it’s all normalised. Whilst I do not agree with people being awful to overweight people I disagree with making out it is ok. So we have gone from a society where people were openly hostile to overweight people to saying it’s ok to be fat . Neither way is helpful or healthy.

I’m a size 10 and a 28inch waist so I think your sizing is a little off there.

Vanity sizing is a thing but not to the extent you are claiming.

In the 90’s I was a size 10, I’m a size 10 now (having been all the way up to an 18 in previous years). I’m probably about a stone heavier than I was back then. So I reckon if sizing hadn’t changed I’d be a 12.

People keep posting this, but I can still fit into all my size 10 clothes from years ago. I'm a pretty standard 10 (5'4" and 9 stone, so my BMI is 21) and I've been that weight for about 11 years and intermittently for the years in between babies. I've still got a couple of skirts which are almost 20 years old and they fit fine.

People keep posting this, but I can still fit into all my size 10 clothes from years ago. I'm a pretty standard 10 (5'4" and 9 stone, so my BMI is 21) and I've been that weight for about 11 years and intermittently for the years in between babies. I've still got a couple of skirts which are almost 20 years old and they fit fine.

Further back than that. @underneaththeash

My vintage skirt is from the 1980s I think. Size 8 - 24 inch waist. I think that's more like a 6 now. An old thread showed the sizes of 1960s and earlier measured even smaller.

Going on from the 80s size 8, 24 inch waist skirt from the 80s. I also have a C & A vintage skirt from the 1970s which is a size 10 on the label but a 23 inch waist.

In my twenties and thirties, I was a size 10. 30 odd years later, 2 kids, the menopause and about 20 lbs extra, I’m an 8 apart from Zara where I’m anything from an 8 to a 14.

Sizes have changed! I’m late 60s….I used to weigh just under 9 stone, had a 34 inch hip and that was a 12. I’m three stone heavier 🥲44 inch hip and size 16.. I’ve kept some of my old clothes from teenage…on average measurements are three sizes bigger than they used to be….ie…what was a 12 in the 60s is now an 8.

Similar for me
One thing I’ve realised though is that what size people claim to be means nothing really.
I have a friend who is quite a bit larger than me yet says she is (and does wear) a 14 the same as I do. The clothes just fit her differently.
I reckon I’m probably not actually that different in size to some of the size 10 wearers on here. But also a completely different size to others.
We need actual measurements. But even then it’s about how fitted you like to wear your clothing. I’m sticking with on the looser side as tighter clothes irritate me.

I'm a 12/14 these days and don't believe people who look larger than me when they say they are an 8/10. I look slimmer because I am not very blessed in the boob department

@jewishmum ·
I'm a 20-22 so double that, a 10 to me is thin,

Same here! Well a double 10!!!