To think that shops souldnt change their sizing just to make fat people feel better

[ThoseArentSpiritFingers]

Was shopping in H&M and was looking through the basics range - needed leggings and t shirts etc. took some leggings to try on, an picked up a pair of medium without going it much thought, as I am a size 10-12. Luckily I did try them on because they were massive on me. When I went to look for a smaller size I noticed a sign saying they had 'revolutionised' their sizing for the basics range to allow for bigger sizing, which is fair enough.

But why mess around with all the rest of the sizes?! Why not just label it xxl rather than changing medium to fit a size that would have fit a 16-18.

And to make it all even more stupid, it was only their basics range that had changed, the rest of the stuff was still a normal size.

I ended up at the till with a stupid range of sizes, with some smalls, some mediums and one large for their stupidly small skinny jeans. An this is just one store.

Just to reassure the OP, no size 18's are under any illusion that they are a medium, but thanks for the concern..

Yes, us fat people are so thick that we think we are thin just because the shop says so. :)

At the bottom of the size ranges, vanity sizing will just mean that nothing fits. I've had to pick up size 6 clothes on occasion and I was just left wondering what the young teenage girls are supposed to wear if a size 6 fits me.

However, that was in primark, and i suspect they were also employing random labelling. I picked up a size 12 top too.

Thank you jumpingjack, I was aware of the sensitive nature of my rant, so deliberately made sure not to say anything that was offensive or derogatory. Or so I thought...

randall

Why is it boasting rather than stating fact?

I can go into one shop and have the size I expect to fit in be to big. I can go into another and find the same size is to small. That's just annoying regardless of whether I'm slim or not.

For avoidance of doubt, I buy the size that looks best not what size I think I should be.

Get over yourself. Yes, the rest of the world is enormous and you are perfect

That isn't what I got from her posts. At all.

Well, I don't really care if H&m medium is a 10-12 or a 16-18, but as I do a lot of my clothes shopping online or in fast "trolley dash style" before one of the dcs starts crying (and so don't have time to try on multiple outfits), I need them to be consistent to whatever they have chosen.

Oh and it's also hitting footwear as well, I've got size 3 feet, but there are several shops where I now have to take a 2.5, or their smallest shoes don't fit (when I have old shoes from them in a 3 that we're small enough). I don't think I have suddenly lost weight on my feet...

Oh come on are you really that silly, that you didn't think your title was offensive?

The idea that fat people need to be made to feel better by wearing clothes with smaller numbers printed in them is inherently a bit derogatory though.

If you were trying to be nice, 'why is H&M's clothes sizing so erratic?' doesn't insult anyone.

OP, can you really not see that the title of your thread is offensive?

I'm a size 18 and nothing in H and M fits me.

YANBU
waistbands on size ten jeans have increased by four inches in 40 years

a size 10 today is a size 14 in 1970's sizes

shops vanity size to make people keep buying .... and the one that lets people "stay a size 12" as they get fatter
will get more custom from the people who forgot to look at their true reflection

vanity sizing is bad for us and bad for the planet

If you haven't leapt on the thread purely to grab the chance to tell everyone that all clothes are too big for you then why would you think I was taking about you?

The fact that sizes aren't standardised is annoying.

ODFOD.

Come on, you really don't think your title is offensive?! If you'd talked about vanity sizing, you'd have a proper debate, instead people are being defensive because you were goading.

I ended up at the till with a stupid range of sizes, with some smalls, some mediums and one large for their stupidly small skinny jeans. An this is just one store.

This is what you are moaning about, fair point, we agree

To think that shops souldnt change their sizing just to make fat people feel better

This is your title - jaw-droppingly bitchy

THAT'S what's making us froth a bit

Randall

You're talking to everybody though aren't you? I noticed your post and responded. Not in an arsey way (well that wasn't my intention), just because I noticed it.

Your thread title makes you sound like a luuuunatic.

Sizing isn't about vanity. It's about design and how many of each size to manufacture. When you're working out how many of each size to manufacture your in your range, you calculate based on 12 being the middle of the scale, the one you sell most of, so you make most of those. 10 and 14 are next most popular so you manufacture accordingly. Then 8 and 16. But there is no industry standard - the numbers don't equate to anything by itself, it depends who you're designing for. So, if you're designing for fashion conscious teenagers, your size 12 is a totally different proportions to if you're designing for middle aged mums. So, if you go from shop to shop, the garments are cut differently and their 12 is different as they're aimed at a slightly different market.

Because there is no definite fixed 12 (like, it always relates to a size 36 chest for example) as people get bigger on average, a fashion line's average sized customer increases, so their size 12 increases. It's unlikely to be designers calculating that if they pretend their 12 is now a 14 more people will buy it, just they sell more of their bigger sizes so have adjusted the proportions of their average customer accordingly.

If a size is varying within the shop, it's most likely to be because they're badly designed patterns or there are maybe different ranges targeting different consumers in one shop, even if not labelled clearly as such.

Yawn. Quite rude OP. Did you mean to be so rude?

If H&M were trying to make fat people feel better they'd actually stock larger sizes. Cannot remember the last time I bought anything in H&M, not since I went over a size 14 anyway.

Also I think there is a cynical plot by clothing retailers to stop making any age 11-14 clothes and force parents to buy adult 6 and 8's at greatly more £££ than just the VAT. this makes sense. My 12 year old doesn't fit into children's clothes at all. she's tall but not got extra weight. I don't even look in the children's section any more for her.

Jeans. Women's sizes seem to be arbitrary. I'm not skinny. men's sizes are a lot simpler. (They also seem to be a size between the ladies, if that helps anyone).

Women used to be able to do dressmaking, or had access to someone who could, so many clothes were made specially, or adapted, or improved via the odd dart here and there. Nowadays we all have to manage with standardised sizing and so the clothes don't fit most of us most of the time, we have to try to fit them.

Clothes also were made to drape properly on the human body, whereas now they are designed to look good on the hanger in the shop, or on the internet. When you actually put them on, quite a lot of the time they gape or pinch and they are not very well designed to fit the female body at all.

Another factor is that many women wore girdles and very restricting bras.

All these things are factors in how sizing was perceived and how women were able to dress themselves.