To think has vanity sizing gone mad?

[nineanimals]

I am 5'7 and weigh 12st 5.

I was in Matalan today to buy some new skinny jeans. I took a size 14 in the changing room to try on - absolutely massive! So I had to go for a size 12!

Sorry but there's no way in hell that someone of my proportions is a size 12!

Same thing happened in Asda. In fact in there even size 12 were loose!!

Madness!

Sod the sizes it's always been variable I am more worried that I appear to have lost at least 2 inches off my legs length .

It's happening to shoe sizes too, bizarrely. I'm a narrow size 4, always have been, except that now I'm finding myself sometimes in a 3. Shoes seem to be getting wider too.

Clothes are ridiculous. I'm a well toned size 14 8 - again, always have been an 8, but now increasingly in a 6. However, having built muscle, sleeves are often tight and sometimes far too tight to either look or feel good. I'm not Schwarzenegger fgs!

I've noticed this with shoes too.

A size 6 court slips off my foot. I need a 5. In flats and boots I need a 6.

I'm wearing a 9/10 years T-shirt today. Is that likely to be vanity sized too?

Vanity sizing is not about shops stocking bigger sizes because the customer base on average is larger today than 50 years ago. Vanity sizing is when a shop says that a size 14 in our shop is cut based on a waist measurement of 76 cm, and then I, with my 86 cm waist, fit into it.

Yes it terrible, Peoples weight is a huge burden on the NHS and people are doing stuff like this to hide it and not upset their feelings. They should reset size back to their 70's levels and maybe people will realise they are so fat when they go from size "12" to "20" overnight.

Yes. User.
Its very easy to go into denial if youre 'still a 12'.

I'm a 10 on the whole well everywhere except -
Size 8 in next and just about squeeze in a size 12 in top shop

Maisy there have been plenty of people on here who keep banging on that bigger sizing promotes obesity. You and other PPs are doing it on this thread. To then say that "no one says anything" is a bit gaslighty.

And there have been plenty of comments on previous threads. Would you like me to start linking them?

And im down from a size 28 after a 10 stone loss.

Agree with MumBod and expat.

I'm 5ft 2 (so just averagely short) and have a healthy BMI. I tend to be a size 8 at the top and 8/ 10 for my pear shaped thighs and bum. So I'm small in a mainstream way.

There's a lot of shops that don't cut small enough. I can buy trousers in M&S, but forget about tops. Stuff Next or Monsoon. How do these shops that otherwise cater for my demographic know that they've missed out on a sale because I could go camping in their smallest size?

My size has been very consistent over the last 20 years, and I still wear items from the 90s.

I recently replaced my usual M&S short length size 10 jeans with the closest M&S short length size 10 jeans. The fit on the top half remains similar, but I need to take up an inch and a half off the bottom Given that that's one direction that people reliably don't grow in... I'm hopefully several decades away from shrinking...

Petite sizes have gone online only. I haven't bought any since then. Why would I want to waste time basically putting a deposit on several items of clothing in various sizes, rejecting and returning them? If I can't try it on in a shop and see that it has a decent fit, I'm not opening my purse up!

"There is no standard for clothing sizes, which shops mess about with to try and massage their customers egos."

Actually, until the 1980s there were standard sizing. Vanity sizing was a phenomenon of the 1990s when it was coined precisely to describe the massaging if egos leading to sales. It's continued gently since then.

The number of inches/cms for each size did get reviewed periodically during the period it was regulated. The free for all which followed the end of regulation was quite deliberate (and admitted) resizing beyond that in order to increase sales.

Next have got ridiculous recently. I'm a 36f chest and a 36 inch hip with a 32 inch waist so no skinny Minnie

Recently I had to send back a load of size 10-12 in next from the sale and ordered a size 8 before they fitted! Since when have sized 36f norks been a size 8.

I have no idea where tiny framed people now get clothes. Children's dept????

I'm being gaslighty? (Ill take that as another MN misuse of serious things, in the same way people arent arseholes theyre always narcisists on here and nobody says something unkind and has been a dickhead, its automatically abuse).

Yeah...me and a few others have mentioned it because it is relevant.
Personally stock all sizes from 0-32 and whatever size people are they can get clothes. Unfortunately when the press reports on things its almost always about why small sizing promotes eating disorders, which is just ridiuclous. Some of us are just small. So yes, it does annoy me that the bigger sizes are much rarely commented on in the press. Ideally thered be no comment at either end, but if small people are going to be on the receiving end of "you promote eating disorders/nobodys naturallybthat small" etc then its only fair to do the same at the other end.

In 1997 I bought a size 10 skirt from M&S when they still used to put the measurements in inches on the label. Waist was 25" and hips were 36".

Recently I've tried on size 12 trousers in Tesco that were too tight and size 8 trousers in Next that were too loose. It is very annoying.

I also find that F and F trousers come up ridiculously small.

Sorry disagree as I am 5'8 and weigh just under 12 stone but definitely wear 10 in shops that come up small like Reiss and Karen Millen.

I am 5'10 under 10st7 stone and have a recently bought KM dress that is a 12 (and there is no waay I would fit into a 10). Interestingly KM is well cut for straight up and down types, with small busts and hips.

Yabu OP. Clothes are never going to fit everyone. Bemoaning lack of waists for example, Ectomorph types don't have a waist either it doesn't necessarily mean 'we are all getting fatter.' But yabu because the vanity sizing sneering is around fat shaming, it is just a number.

The big issue is that women vary in height between 4ft 11 and 6ft 2. Some are obese, some are thin. Some are pearshaped, some hourglass, some straight up and down, some poor much maligned unfortunates are apple shaped. Some are young and ripped, others gasp in shock horror have been through menopause and thickened around the waist a bit. But some expect to be able to pick up a 14 and it fit always. That isn't really gonna happen is it?

In terms of size inflation I think one thing that is relevant that clothes are now cut for the average woman being taller. Longer lengths have more space in them even if they are identical widths. So in Next skinny jeans I would need a 12 in long to get my legs in them (although the bloody things would constantly fall down) but in X long a 10 fits.

I ageee with increasinglymiddleaged. I have always wished that someone would design clothes for differing shapes. So those of us with large bums/thighs/hips and small waists could get clothes to fit! And the other shapes too of course. I have bought clothes in the last few months in sizes 10 through 16. I never shop in next so can't comment but I take the same size in topshop as I do in whistles, smaller in Oliver bonas, variable in jigsaw and very variable in Cos which is where the clothes have come from! So I do agree that the problem is as much variation and cut as anything else.

I've not noticed the phenomenon as much as others- I think waistlines may be getting bigger but clothes aren't getting cut any bigger in other areas. I've definitely noticed that shoes are getting wider as I have small narrow feet and often have to downsize.

I've not noticed the phenomenon as much as others

No nor me, I have weighed the same for the past 20 years. I was a 12 in topshop at the age of 21 and still am a 12 in there (if I venture there in my dotage ). Next is massively random, some things come up big and others don't in my experience.

Increasingly is right, There is a lovely selection of vintage clothing shops near where I live but I can't shop there. Chatting to one of the owners who was obviously well informed on the subject, she said they wouldn't have a single thing from before the 80s that would fit me.
I was too tall. And because I'm proportional, ( not overweight but arm length , shoulder width etc..It would be extrodinary to find clothes from the last century that would fit my frame. Yet Im nothing like at the top of the current centiles.
So I guess whats happening is clothing manufactures sizing may well center around an average size..And that's what's moved up.
Anybody buying from China will have noticed how tiny their sizing is..and as a country it has a smaller average size..So perhaps it is logical and what the real complaint here is is that some retailers should re- label clothing better.
Or that current sizing identification by a short list of double digit numbers is inadequate.

I am 5 ft 8

I have been a size 8 to 16 but there is the assumption that someone tall is big

So a 16 and a 14 are usually a lovely length on me, 10 and 12 are too short

And yes i do appreciate that the shops cant cater for all

The shop i work in makes clothes for 5'6 women, but obviously doesn't differentiate between women with long legs and women with long bodies

There isn't actually anything stopping us making our own clothes, except for being absolutely crap at it myself, having no sewing machine and it costing a fortune, also I think homemade clothes look pretty awful and would rather wear something that doesn't fit perfectly but has been through the taste filter of a major shop buyer.

I'd add 'having the time' to your list Anna. Plus if I made clothes what the hell would they look like

It's hilarious. I'm a stone and a half heavier than 20 years ago yet still a size 10!

It's really got out of hand recently. I'm an 8/10 but have recently had to buy size 6 jeggings in Primark in order to get a tight fit in the legs like they're meant to have. I guess it worked though coz I bought them in every colour even though I know I'm not really a size 6 😂.

I do think it's a really important issue as it gives people a false image of themselves.