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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be completely hmmm about "vanity sizing"

39 replies

mollycuddles · 16/10/2011 21:34

Every time there is a thread about obesity there is discussion about vanity sizing (I know, I know - MN cardinal sin - thread about a thread...)

I don't really get this. I'm about a size 12. I know this varies from shop/ catalogue to shop. I was a lot bigger until recently. I'm now about 3 stone lighter than I was 20 years ago and I was a 16-18 then. I keep reading that nowadays a 12 is an old 16 but it certainly isn't for me. Is it all shops? Some shops? What about sports clothes? Or is it a figment of someone's imagination?

So Aibu to being confused?

OP posts:

EvilVampireFrog · 17/10/2011 10:16

Shops are all different - I am a 10 in some, an 8 in River Island (weird) and a 14 in others.

I am an odd shape though - no arse, I'm 36 - 32 - 34. So anything that goes in at the waist needs a bigger size, anything that goes out at the arse needs a smaller size!

I find shops like Dorothy Perkins and M&S cut for the pear shaped person, Primark is immensely variable across ranges, clearly I just need a tailor/ dressmaker on hand to make things fit properly!

mummytigger · 17/10/2011 10:21

I'm an 18 in my New Look trousers, I'm a baggy 14 in my New Look skinny jeans and I'm a 16 in my ASDA jeans. Don't even get me started on bras. Drives me mad.

thestringcheesemassacre · 17/10/2011 10:24

Fat Face are the WORST for vanity sizing.

screamqueenrollo · 17/10/2011 10:26

This is why I never go clothes shopping. I'm only 5ft 2 and very slim. I used to be able to buy size 8 and it would fit me just right. Now I try a size 8 on and it falls off me. Being small is really no fun when clothes shopping.
Tops aren't so much of a problem(except they tend to be cut for ladies with a bosom more ample than my a cup) but trousers, jeans and skirts are a nightmare.

The jeans i'm wearing now are from GAP. I took four pairs of jeans into the changing room. These were the only ones that nearly fit (they are too big but I desperately needed new jeans). All the same 'size', two the same design in different colour and they were massively different when I tried them on.

LaWeasel · 17/10/2011 10:34

It is really annoying. I'm an 8, but 8's are frequently too large, and a lot of shops don't stock a 6 or stock very few. I haven't got any smaller!

DoTheStrand · 17/10/2011 10:37

I think it depends how old you are! I was at teenager in the mid 80s, weighed 8 stone (5'7") and was a 10. Like others have said, you could get a few 8s in shops but not much smaller than that. Friends who weighed about 7.5 stone could fit into the 8s and we all thought they were v skinny. In the last few years I have been 10 stone plus, and still got into size 10s, including 8s in some shops. Now (pre pregnancy) my usual weight is just over 9 stone and I sometimes find 10s too big, except in some of the shops that are aimed squarely at teenagers (I often wonder if keeping their sizes tiny is a way to keep the over 30s out as admitting we are actually 14s not 10s would be too depressing for us :) ) I have also tried on my mum's size 14 dresses from the 50s/60s - I struggled to get into them even at 9 stone.

Does it matter? Will I guess even if we know what we weigh, it is easy to kid ourselves that we aren't as big as we thought if we are still getting into a 14 (I have also been a modern size 14 too - looking back I can see I was overweight then. Not saying everyone is, but I was).

SummerRain · 17/10/2011 10:37

Well I buy size 10 nowadays and it fits. However I cannot squeeze myself into any of my size 10 clothes from when I was a teen. In fact in some shops as a 5'8, 55kg teenager I was a 12/14

There is definitely a massive size difference between a size 10 top from 15 years ago and one from today.

Hammy02 · 17/10/2011 10:39

I think this vanity sizing enables celebs that have lost a bit of weight to say they are now a size 12 when they are clearly size 16's. I have clothes ranging from 10 to 16 from different shops and they all fit. It is soooo annoying.

Bramshott · 17/10/2011 10:43

It's irritating if you're small. When I was 18 I was a size 10. Now at 37 and 2 children later I (not unexpectedly!) am a little larger but it's quite common for size 8s to be too large. Size 6s are not universally available so it's a pain.

Hammy02 · 17/10/2011 10:43

Yup Summer Rain I agree. Clothes were smaller when I was a teenager (20 years ago). I was v.slim but never fit into size 10 jeans. Looking at people now that say they are a size 10, they are no where near as thin as I was back then. A size 10 was teeny tiny, supermodel size back then.

ragged · 17/10/2011 10:46

20 years ago (age 24) I measured 38-29-38, a UK size 12 was just about perfect, top and bottom.
20 yrs later I've barely changed, maybe 38-28-37, and size 12 is totally wrong.

I need a 14-16 up top and an 8-10 on bottom. Occasionally I go into a 6 in trousers. It's NUTS. It's even worse in American clothes, though. Finding a dress or 2 part set that fits well is nearly impossible. Swimsuit shopping makes me break out in a sweat.

Buying clothes is entirely maddening.

SummerRain · 17/10/2011 10:51

And for comedy value.... I went into next last year and tried on a dress. First attempt at the changing room I brought in a 10 and a 12 as I'm often between the two.

Both were too big. So I went out and picked up an 8 and tried it, quite bemused at this stage.... still too big.

I wandered back out and picked up a 6 with this face on: as I've never in my life been a 6, I was an women's size 8 at age 11 when shopping for my confirmation clothes fgs!.

It fit, in fact, it's still a bit too loose..... I'm 67kgs, 5'8 tall, 32 30 inch waist, wide hips from 3 babies and at the time my boobs were 34F's due to bfing

Wiifitmama · 17/10/2011 10:52

Definitely real. I have recently lost tonnes of weight and now wear a size 10 in GAP' Landsend or similar. My Mum had a clear out of clothes from when me and my sister were teenagers (I am 39 now) and I tried some on. There is a St Michael (the label didn't even say Marks and Spencer back then!) skirt which I s labeled 16.it is a perfect fit for me now. A 16 in marks ow would literally just fall of me.

ragged · 17/10/2011 10:54

X post "does it matter" ...I don't care about the vanity part of it, but I do care that it's hard to find clothes that fit.

Difficult for me to find inexpensive trousers that stay up without a belt.

L or XL tops used to be a bit broad in the shoulders and quite long in the body. Now they seem to be very wide but short length. This is totally wrong for my shape, anyway, I end up exposing tummy & just plain feeling cold (you see threads on MN just for those of us with "long" bodies needing to go to specialist suppliers).

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