to think that most shops use vanity sizing now, and a 10 is really an old 14

[GetOrfMoiiLand]

Are there any shops which use what I would call 'old' sizes.

I remember when a 10 was really small. When I was in my teens and a lot smaller than now, I was a 12 at most. I am now a 10.

My gran (on clearing out her wardrobe) was always a size 12-14 - on trying on some jackets from the 80s which were a 14 they were very tight.

Hardly any shops stocked 8s, and they were tiny. Now every shop stocks 6's, and they are not really that small. My local Asda stocks clothes in a 4.

YES

my old size 8s - snug

new ones, swimming in them

Noooooooooooooo!!! Don't say that because I'm proud to have made it to a 10!

It's mad isn't it.

But I suppose it works psychologically. I am quite pleased in my head to be a 10, but I am n ot really. Not that numbers matter so much, it just cons you into thinking that you are thinner than you are.

You do realise this sort of thread makes some posters very upset, don't you?

I don't know whether sizes have changed, but I think there are an awful lot of very thin young girls around now - I don't remember that when I was at school.

I'm not sure the difference is quite the full two sizes, but having said that I was a size 14 in my early 20s and 9 and a bit stone, and still a size 14, 20 years and almost two stone later!

I have a lovely 'Principles' green skirt which was my favourite at uni 20 years ago and I measured the waist the other day and it's a smidge under 24 inches (it's a size 10).

DD wears modern size 6-8 and can't get it done up.

Shhh!!

It's not true

When you say an old size 14 how many years back are you going?

I have an m and s suit that's a size 10 and was bought in 1998 which still fits.

So does that mean I'm really a size 20 and not a 16? :(

I know. You have to be careful buying 'vintage' clothes on Ebay etc.

YANBU

I was always about 8 and a half stone in my late teens/early 20s and wore a size 12. I lost a stone and a half (am 5ft 4) and just about got into a size 8, although it was a squeeze.

Fast forward 15 years or so and I'm now 10 stone and a size 10! I haven't grown in height at all, weight a lot more yet am a smaller dress size than when I was a stone and a half less!

Topshop is the only shop that seems to have continued with similar sizes to those it had in the early 90s/late 80s. Everything is teeny tiny in there!! Quite how anyone can get into a size 4 from there is beyond me. My 13 year old DD is 5ft and 6stone and even she is too big for them!

why on earth would it upset people? I haven't been spiteful.

Bibbity - probably not the whole 2 sizes, as dress sizes have always been so damn variable from shop to shop anyway.

I am thinking of gran's clothes from late 80s/early 90s, and I was a teen in the mid 90s. So roughly 20 years ago.

Have M&S always been rather generous with their sizinfg anyway?

When I think old size I think C&A / Clockhouse tyler

Oh God... If that's true I'm a size 38. ( only a slight exaggeration maybe :o )

The thought of vintage clothes on ebay makes me feel that Icould have made a fortune with gran's clothes from the 60s, 70s and 80s instead of sending them to Sue Ryder.

Christ I remember my old Clockhouse jeans.

C&A was shite, bless them.

Oh God, you're right. :(

I was a size 14 when I was 22. I saw a picture of myself at 22 the other week and I looked pretty slim. I am a 14 now and I look like Bernard manning in lipstick

Sooo true OP! Drives me insane when people go on about some shops selling their sizes too small when really they are just sticking to what is should be/was!

Oh you silly bugger re Bernard Manning.

Roy Chubby Brown. Get it right

By measurements I'm a size 18 or 20 - yet somehow I have a pair of size 12 shorts that are a good fit. And I'm currently sitting here in size 14 jeans. Not the "slung round the hips, what's a waist anyway" kind, which forgives a muffin-top, but the "all the way up" variety.

It didn't used to be this way!

The only time I buy to my "proper" size is in fancy designer shops, where they seem to label things more accurately.

Awww... pipe down you lot! I thought I was doing really well getting down to a 12. Now you're telling me it's a 16... which is where I started!

I think the universal and depressing truth is that we were ALL beautiful when we were 16, and spent all of out teenage lives thinking we looked like gorgons.

What a waste of youth.

I think it does vary from shop to shop anyway, as you say, with somewhere like Topshop being a lot smaller than say M&S.

BUT my mum does have some size 14 dresses from the early seventies. I am a 12 and can't get anywhere near them and couldn't even when I was a size 10 in my late teens. So sadly I think it is probably true.

Shops like Zara and Kookai are a bit sobering I find, they seem to size things in the old fashioned way.

Perhaps they should just get rid of the 10, 12, 14 lark and sell things in inches, like blokes.

Top shop seem to be OK in their sizing, M&S are way too big for the small sizes they are meant to be and I have noticed River island are waaay off as well.