to think I ought to be able to buy trousers that fit me

[snooter]

I have been the same size & shape all my adult life, give or take half an inch. Size 10 trousers fitted me perfectly 25 years ago but now are far too big on the waist (like about 4" too big) - I seem to need a 6-8 for the waist & a 12 for the hips. I trawl round the shops in a grump, trying on every possible pair, ending up buying trousers that fit on the hips & then taking in the waist at the back & wearing long tops to hide the joins. It's not me - I haven't changed. I did discover Not Your Daughter's Jeans jeans which are great & fit me (just as well as they cost a fortune), but that doesn't solve the problem with smart trousers for work. I could have trousers made I suppose but that seems ridiculous. Same problem with straight skirts - they just don't bloody fit, yet I still have an ancient short denim skirt that fits perfectly. Why is everything now cut for women with no waist & no bottom? Is it that the modern shape is a sort of shapeless tube? I can't be the only one left with a 1980s shape.

Yep, the jeggings I've just bought from M&S gap around my waist, and it's not like I have an hourglass figure - 30" waist and 37" hips! (I thought that putting a belt on them would help, but nope, they still gape horribly.)

I have the WORSE time trying to get jeans that fit. I am a size 10 on the lower half with a large bum, large upper thighs, relatively slim lower thighs and very muscular calves from martial arts. Not only that but i am a 6 or 8 on top so if i can get jeans over my arse they ALWAYS gape at the waist. I find Dorothy Perkins baileys jeans fit the best as they hold their shape really well.
Have you tried wearing black or very dark indigo skinny jeans to work? They look pretty smart with the right blouse/shirt.

www.fashionworld.co.uk/shop/hourglass/jeans/womens/1//N-1ytrjn4Z1ytvvzl/products/show.action?cm_sp=FW--Bodyshape-_-Hourglass

Try this site. Has a good selection of trousers for hourglass shapes.

Oh, and YANBU, but I suspect any woman who's ever had the horror of a jeans-shopping expedition will feel your pain!

Perhaps it's to do with the fashion for short zips in trousers - with a longer zip you can fit the opened zip of a small waist over bigger hips. I do struggle to pull trousers I've altered by taking in the waist over my fat bum.

see its the short zip thing we should get a campaign for better and normal length zips

But we don't want really long zips with trousers that come up to our armpits - just trousers that fit on both hips & waist at the same time

no just normal size zips not those finger catching things we have to endure

Thank you, I thought it was just me!!!

I'm supposed to be a size 10 (well, I am in dresses) with 39'' hips (big arse) and 28'' waist. Am I bollocks a size 10 in trousers according to Topshop, New Look, etc. Topshop is definitely the worst as they seem to love super-low rises - you'd have to have a crotch the size of 1 inch to get them to zip up.

I'm almost the same measurements as you, OP, 25" waist and 38" hip.
I used to wear size 10 and it was perfect. I've had to drop mostly to an 8 now but they are very tight round the bum and it's a struggle getting them on! Once on, the waist is fine.Size 10 are much bigger than they used to be but mainly on the waist.
Interestingly I was tidying the loft and found some 25 year old size 10 clothes of mine. The waist is very narrow on all the skirts and wouldn't go near me now! DD2 is 17 and very slim, a size 6-8. She was shocked at the waists - and despite her being tiny they wouldn't go near her. She's slim, but a different shape to me at that age.
I too cannot get work trousers to fit.

I have 38" hips and I wear a 12, I don't know how you lot are fitting into size 8s!

For a long time now most trousers have been designed to be worn across your upper hips and not your waist. It's quite unusual to find a pair that are meant to sit across your actual waist (that would look very 'high waisted' nowadays) so the measurement of your waist isn't that relevant. Have you tried fitting a pair across your hips?

I find low rise trousers extremely uncomfortable.

Well not everyone likes low rise trousers, but the majority of trousers in shops now are fairly low rise, and there's no point in expecting them to fit across your actual waist.

If you want high waisted trousers, you have to seek them out specifically these days. So, no, I don't think that "the modern [body] shape is a shapeless tube", just that trousers are generally made to sit a lot lower than they used to.

My sister is large of arse and tiny of waist and she likes the gap jeans, can't remember which fit though. I know exactly what you mean about the gaping at the back though - I used to be 24" waist and 39" hip! (all changed since pg)

There's a site that lets you try on loads of different jeans iirc - it keeps on popping up in adverts on here. If I come across it again ii'll link

www.jeanography.com/

Here. I've not used them, but have heard good things. HTH.

Women do have less difference twixt waist and hips though - it's a visible sign of the visceral fat most people lay down now as opposed to subcutaneous fat (the shapely/pudgy type). It's a diet change - refined sugars as a greater percentage of diet, it's just stored differently.

So clothes are made to fit the tube people. There are more of them!

I thought it was just me too. Over the years I find trousers to fit then they change the sizing. Levi's curve are ok on me, but still gape at the waist. For trousers I actually tend to find jaeger are ok some of the time, Hobbs some of the time and then some other us brands - I usually get them from Tk max. I have some reiss shorts as well. Jigsaw can work but are better for dresses and skirts. I have yet to find anything cheaper that fits!

My mother and I have collectively spent five decades with appalling wind and discomfort because everything was too tight on our waists. At last the pendulum has swung and we are comfortable. Hard on the hourglasses though.

Viking - can you link me any research which demonstrates that a propensity to lay down visceral fat (as opposed to subcutaneous) is due to an increased intake of refined sugars? Because everything I've read suggests that the difference is hereditary - apart from around the menopause.

I agree that maybe you are trying trousers in a different style to what you are expecting. As a poster mentioned earlier very few trousers nowadays are designed to sit on the waist.
Pre pregnancy I had a 24-25inch waist and 36inch hips and wear a size 6. If I was to wear a size 10 I imagine it would gape in every direction.

I have just been looking at M and S Eva jeans. They seem to delight the people who have bought them

Here

YANBU

There are no trousers anywhere that fit a person. All the trousers have turned evil. They hate us.

People are storing fat around their middles now due to diet changes - it's not hereditary. And fat around middles is far less healthy than fat around bum, hips and thighs. The hip/waist ratio is changing, but I can't remember the actual figures.