To think that vanity sizing is getting a bit ridiculous

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I am in the process of losing weight (coming up to 40kg loss, about 5/6 to go).

So I have obviously had to buy new clothes.

The size 10's are now hanging off me.

I have never, ever been a size 8. Size 8 to me is quite tiny. I was slimmer than I am now 10 years ago and was a size 12, barely fitting into a 10.

Even though I am relatively slim now I am still wobbly in places and have a muffin top. I didn't 10 years ago. So it would stand to reason that I should be a 12 now

Oh and this is NOT meant to be a stealth boast of any kind. I just think that sizing in clothes now is erm...a little skewed?

Maybe I have a skewed perception of myself? But I have pictures of me 10 years ago (during an ed I should add) and I was definitely slimmer then than I am now.

Yep. I weigh a good 25lbs more than I did a decade ago, but I now fit into clothing two sizes smaller than I did back then. It's crazy. I don't know how actual thin people find clothes, as I'm a bit overweight but I fit into the so-called 'small sizes' in almost every store.

I have some vintage bits and pieces (just to look at, I'd never get them on) and they are tiny compared to clothing today. I have a vintage size 14 dress that I can't get past mid-calf, but I can usually fit into a size 8, sometimes even a 6, at all high street stores.

You can't help but see it when you go abroad....

I think some shops have changed, others haven't. I used to be a size 12 at 34-32-34 bordering on 14. Now I'm more like 32-28-32 and a size 8-10 in most places.

But the discrepancies do piss me off, I don't think there's a standard size anymore - in some shops an 8 is loose and in others I barely fit into a 10. What makes it worse is I live in US and in GAP I'm a 2! 2!!!! That's jut stupid, I'm not that tiny, I'm 5'9" so to be a size 2 I'd have to be close to starvation and it annoys me because I worked hard at weightloss and am more than happy at a size 8 but then when I fit into size 2 it makes me not really trust any sizes and therefore start thinking I'm actually much bigger than I think I am

I don't cut the labels out of my GAP clothes though

I got a size 6 top from Primark. There is no way on God's earth I am size 6. At all. but I still felt quite chuffed

Sewing pattern sizes have not changed since 1973-74. Women's clothing should be sold by actual measurements the garment is meant to fit

I am a 10 now and have some size 10s from 20 odd years ago that still fit the same so.......my measurements are the same though gravity could have been kinder to my chest......I find the current differences between stores can be frustrating, some 10s can be a bit on on the generous side.

I don't even think it's vanity sizing, I think it's just fucking stupid sizing. I weigh 10 stone and am quite tall, and I can be in anything from an 8 to a 14.

YANBU

I hate vanity sizing and I say that as a bigger person, current size 18\20.
I have been losing weight (on a bit of a yo yo at the moment post Christmas and half term but will get back to it) and still cannot fit in to a pair of size 18 M&S shorts from the 90s, and that was with a 2.5 stone weight loss at my recent lightest.

I appreciate that people have got taller and bigger since the 50s or whenever the standard dress size was introduced, but surely if the sizing is to be recast to reflect, the revised measurements should still be standardised throughout today's clothes makers. Being a 24/26 in old sizing today would encourage me more to eat less move more.

I quite agree with you. When I was a teenager I did sport and do was muscled and still weighed nearly a stone less than my gigging weigh now so was a lot smaller. Back then I was a 12 and now I'd be an 8. It's ridiculous.

I think sizing for women should be as for sizing on men, done on waist and bust size, not numbering as it is now.

IME next are the worst for vanity sizing, I was able to slip into an 8 pre-pregnancy, quite easily. At 5'10" that's no easy feat.

IIRC a M&S size 8 is equal to a Chanel 12, how does that work?

I have a pair of size 10 drainpipe jeans I bought in the late 80s that still fit me perfectly. My new jeans are all size 4/6 (!!!!) & it is hell on earth finding any to fit both my waist & hips at the same time - most makes aim to fit women with fat tummies & flat arses - the exact opposite to my shape. In the 80s I could shop anywhere & find clothes to fit my shape. Really frustrating going shopping now.

wacey I suspect the Chanel sizes are as they always were & the M&S ones have changed.

I'm 5'4" and weight 9 and a half stone. I am a 12, nothing else fits me. 10s too small, 14s too big so it always amazes me when Z list slebs are banging on in magazines about their amazing weight loss and how they've "dropped 4 dress sizes" and claim to be an 8/10 when they're my height and weight (sometimes heavier). It's nonsense. Dress sizes are irrelevant, if you're wearing clothes that are "right" for you, you'll look good, regardless of size. Also, well done on your successful diet.

lazy, people are built differently, at 9 and a half stone I was size 8 because I was exercising 2-3 hours per day and was pure muscle. Could swap jeans with my friend who was 10 kilos lighter. Now I weigh as much as my mum, she is size 16-18, I'm a 12.

My mum has always stayed exactly the same size and weight, give or take a pound or so. She was a 14 in the 80s; she's a 12 and sometimes a 10 now.

Don't get me started on children's sizing - from birth DS has been 50th percentile for height and weight, and clothes in his age range by UK companies (John Lewis, M&S, Next etc) swamp him; they're at least 12 months too large. Are everyone else's children enormously fat for their age then?

Yanbu. I was 8 stone and 5 ft 8 in 1991 and was a size 10.

But. Not very sensitive post..would you lijed to read it before you lost the weight?

Like to have read it I mean.

Why is it an insensitive post?? In case it offends those who haven't lost any weight?

Pirate, opposite problem here, I have a 7mo old, 50th percentile for weight, but in 18 month clothes at the moment, because he's tall. Maybe it would make sense to label children's clothes like some european manufacturers do, by height and not age?

I know its ridiculous. People cant count m&s as their sizes are huge. Have you seen their baby section? The sizes are crazy.

WitchWay..well yes..even larger people deserve respect

Totally agree!

When not 17 weeks pg I'm around 9 stone. Fit a size 8 perfectly. Last summer went to buy some new work clothes. Headed to Gap where I picked up an 8 & 10, both fell off me. I ended up buying a size 4 skirt!! Then went to H & M and could barley fit in a 12 - ended up buying a size 14 skirt! I had gone up 5 dress sizes in half hour - must've been the Krispy Kreme I had in between!!

Fanjo no-one has been disrespecting larger people on this thread!!

Well if someone was feeling crap about their size it wouldn't make their day to read they are actually bigger.

Gap sizing is crazy, I have a pair of skinny cords in a size 4 ( us size) which I can pull up and down without undoing the buttons.