Absolutely bonkers sizing getting worse every year.

[Stillcountingbeans]

Within the last week I have bought a t-shirt in size 20 and a jacket in size 8. Both fit me!!
The t-shirt was in that horrible synthetic fabric that clings in all the wrong places just like cotton doesn't. I had to go big so it would hang properly from the bust and not cling to every bump and bra strap.
The jacket I can only imagine is in a style that is supposed to look big?

What on earth are the shops playing at?

Its so annoying.

Not just ladies either. My 6ft broad DH is usually L/XL but just had to swap a next jacket I ordered to a size small. The arms were miles too long and the tummy was so baggy in the large & even the medium was too big.

I’m generally a size 10 but M&S & Next think I’m an 8, sometimes a 6, I’ve actually given up buying stuff.

Meanwhile DN, who is on the larger size, is amazed at how she has lost weight without changing her diet because she’s now in clothing 2 sizes smaller! I didn’t have the heart to tell her she hasn’t actually lost anything, she actually looks a little bigger if truth be told, but wearing a label that says she’s 2 sizes smaller gives her no incentive to eat healthier. To be clear -I don’t care what size she is, but she’s well into morbidly obese and is a heart attack waiting to happen.

It drives me nuts.

Shops profile their customers, which is why some places come up small and others large. Some demographics tend to be slimmer than others.

It is going a bit bonkers now, though.

I think they just have lucky dip of labels that they pull out and sew in at random. I have two pairs of the same trousers i ordered in the same size and one it tight and one baggy.

Sizes are mad. DD just ordered a size 10 prom dress, but when she tried on the one I wore twenty five years ago the size 14 was a bit snug!

I used to think most posters were exaggerating but after buying a buying a size 12 Fatface hoodie which fit me when I was a size 16 and 9 months pregnant I can now understand the frustration. I am now a size 12 and I recon you could get two of me in the same jacket.

Size inflation is inevitable. We're getting fatter, so clothing has to adapt just like seats and beds. I'm not saying the rise in obesity is a good thing, but it's happening, and so anything designed to fit around the size of people has to adapt. It's often described as vanity sizing but it isn't. Beds and chairs are getting bigger too and it's not to flatter people into thinking they're thinner.

But size inconsistency is something else, and it's gone bonkers.

On the plus side, as it becomes more necessary to try stuff on, maybe we'll start shopping online less and thus save the high street.

Yes if it was uniform size inflation it wouldn't be so bad, but every shop, and indeed every piece of clothing, appears to be just some random size.

DH says men's clothes are almost as bad. Two pairs of 34" waist trousers - one was too loose and one was too tight - yet 34" is supposed to be an actual measurement!

A size 14 years ago is the same as a size 10 now. If you buy paper patterns to make your own clothes they still keep the old sizing

Oversized clothing is in fashion atm which might play a part.

I found an old dress in my wardrobe recently, it's a size 12 and it's TINY . Absolutely miniscule. It would be a modern size 8 if not 6.

Yep - I ordered some size 12 anoraks this week - various brands - from John Lewis. They are all absolutely huge and swamped me. I am not small! I was wondering who these huge sizes are flattering for, but it’s not me!

Sizing has gone insane,I wear loads of jeans and they range from size 12 to size 20 !
And tops range from a size 12 to a 18.

It's ridiculous they're going to have to start making clothes in a size 2 and 0 soon if the sizes continue to get bigger.

I had to send a size six top back for being baggy but my size 10 stuff from 25 years ago fits 🤦🏻‍♀️

Im running out of places to shop now because the sizes aren’t small enough.

I'm sick of ordering things and having to send it back due to sizing. I ordered 2 pairs of walking trousers from M & S this week and both were so big I could have got me and both my dogs in them... with room for DH too. Yet I'd ordered some tops from Seasalt in the same size and can't button them up

The advantage of oversize fashion is that you can sell the same garment to a size 8 teen and her size 14 mum, to wear in two very different ways and you'll make the mum delighted. The smaller number of 8 mums who want to wear the garment in a close fit will be pissed off though.

I bought a size 10 (non-maternity) coat from Next I wore at 40 weeks pregnant. And it fastened!

im now noticing it with shoes. In new look i am a size larger than anywhere else.

Yep, agree. My usual 12-14 or Medium is floating like a tent on me and looks awful. However vanity sizing has me in Small or 10-12 now and sometimes XS. I don't believe I have gotten smaller either. No Way Hosay...

I also don't like clingy top halves and I usually sized up, but if I do that now it's like a hot air balloon.

I dunno. Can be very frustrating

It is really hard to order online now. The clothes are so random. I bought a jigsaw jumper and the sleeves were around 3 inches longer than my arms and my arms have been a normal size in everything else. I also bought one pair of m&s size 19 cords which were far too tight and another pair the same size which were massive.

*Size 10 not 19!

vanity sizing has me in Small or 10-12 now

It's not vanity sizing. It's size inflation.

As real and irritating as this phenomenon is, it does also help to remember the massive variation in shapes among women, and how unlikely it really is to pluck something mass produced off the rack and expect it to fit. Especially if you know you have a feature less in proportion to the rest of you such as a big chest, long legs, narrow waist etc.

Size inflation is inevitable. We're getting fatter, so clothing has to adapt just like seats and beds

Why though? Why not just keep the sizes the same and stock more of the bigger sizes?

I was talking about two items that go on the top half: a jacket and a t-shirt. I was not comparing tops to trousers.
Basically the only thing that needed to fit was the chest measurement - there was no issue with sleeve length or overall garment length.

So the two chest measurements in the same week were a size 20 and a size 8.