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.

Cinderella
Nice justification, but utter bilge.
A size 38 in France is a size 38. They do not "fiddle" the sizes.
Shops pander to the vanity of their customers.

I am most definitely not lighter than I was 35 years ago, but I've magically shrunk a clothes size, despite having two big babies.
I've not changed, the clothes sizes have.

Absolute proof : I have some 30 year old Gap jeans that say size 12 and are the same size as my modern size 8 from Next ....

Not everyone no. Just the numerous posters who posted purely to tell us that all clothes are too big for them. I find it a very odd thing to do and a pretty unpleasant thing to stealth boast about.

Pedlars said it better than me though.
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

Boffinmum good point about wearing girdles, I'd never thought about that.
My granny still used to wear one in the early 80's when I was little.

There's a great bit in a Collette short story about the character having a kind of bra that concertinas her back fat up.

YANBU - I used to be an 8-10, now I am a 6-8 and I am, if anything, chubbier than I was 10-15 years ago.

Vanity sizing is a pain in the arse for small women. Someone asked upthread what small people do - yes, I do have to resort to buying children's clothes sometimes, and I am a perfectly healthy petite adult woman.

My darling DH managed to find a pair of size 6 short leg waterproof trousers for me for hillwalking recently, bless him. It is not easy when we are all assumed to be bigger, when you aren't.

Saggy -

Talkinpeace - So, you're not basing your information on actual knowledge of the garment industry? But on two pairs of jeans you bought from two different shops, with two different target customers 30 years apart.

I'm not saying size 12 in the uk isn't different from what it was 30 years ago. I'm saying it's changed because the average customer is bigger. If your weight hasn't changed for 30 years, then when previously you were an average (a 12) now you are two sizes below average (an 8).

I don't know how your trousers actually prove your point but not mine?

The thread says more about you than any of those ghastly 'fat' people you keep referring to!!!

Nobody is saying vanity sizing isn't a pain in the arse. But the OP was rude.

What a horrid post op! Boasting are we! So blame the 'fat'people then, and not the stores that change the sizes!

Why should a size 12 change in size because people eat more cake?
Is there a rule that says size 12 is the median size?
Or would it be more honest to say that size 12 is a certain waist size?

but that would mean that a lot of the angry people on this thread would have to admit that they are overweight.

In Grease, Olivia Newton John was wearing UK size 10, the Nolans wore size 10 FUs ... if I wear modern size 10 - even from designer shops - they hang off me (and I'm ancient)

vanity sizing does nobody any favours (it certainly stopped me realising how fat I'd got)
clothes should be sold on centimetre sizes ....

You could have worded the title in a less confrontational way.

However it is a pain in the arse when you can't find clothes to fit and flatter you, at either end of the spectrum.

I haven't read all the responses but the fact that it was H&M made me laugh and brought back my horror of trying clothes on post pregnancy and going up from my usual size 12 and stopping at size 18 when it just seemed ridiculous. Size 18 still didn't fit!! My norks were slightly larger than before but they were not 4 sizes bigger than before, in fact a few weeks before, I had squeezed into a size 10 dress in Country Casuals, my norks were squashed but the zip still did up.

Now I live in France and where I was previously a M in the UK, I am now a large and it is very depressing! The clothes are labeled, UK M, FR/IT L.

if all sizes where standardised then you would have a point.

But as I can by three different sizes of tops from the same shop and they all fit YABU.

Talkinpeace, I am fat I admitted it. So what is it to you or the OP? A smaller clothes size sewn into my clothes doesn't make me less so. I am not stupid. FFS.

The OP's title was fucking rude. That is why people are angry.

Why do you assume all the angry people are fat?

Agree frames and bones are getting bigger/taller, but regardless of that shops are most defiantly making womens clothes bigger.

We should go by cm or inches like men do.

As for h&m. I'm a 14 trouser in there. Compared to a next 10. H&m are skimpy. Or they used to be.

Misty My point exactly.
randall most people who have a handle on their weight agree that vanity sizing is a BAD THING

the vast majority of those who think that sizes have risen for other than vanity reasons are fatter than they admit.
I know because we have a steady trickle of them landing in 5:2 land.

Too many angry people on this post, if you are fat you are fat. So what, who cares.

Well, there isn't a rule I guess? But it's just a number which doesn't mean anything apart from average. It doesn't have some arcane reference back to a particular measurement on a scale. It isn't secret code for 36 bust 29 waist. It's basically just a number.

Standardization is all very well and good but standard for who? Who determines what the standard size is? Shape, heights, economic group, diet, they all contribute to your overall size and shape - which group gets to be standard?

The fact I'm not skinny is not the problem. The problem is that a size [whatever] fits in one shop, is too small in another and too big in the third. I DON'T CARE what number is on the label. I DO CARE that it tells me nothing about the actual size. Can we have some sort of industry standard sizing please!

I'm fat, and I can't be arsed to be angry. I've also been the thin person screeching 'But these are HUGE!' at the size tens, because I didn't know. Honestly, I really didn't know. I didn't even realise I was thin.

Contentious OP title aside, it's true that you simply cannot tell what size a garment will be by the number on the label. Try it on, never order anything you haven't seen with your own eyes, and stop wondering about the size of other women's arses. It doesn't fucking matter.

I posted my experience of buying clothes (12) as a teenager and now buying sizes smaller (8) despite not having changed size myself.

Is that stealth boasting then?