To think that vanity sizing has gotten ridiculous?

[Namila]

I recently bought a beautiful, vintage, evening gown for a formal event. The dress is from the '80s. When I saw the dress on the rack (a unique piece since it was second hand) and the label read "size 10", I was disappointed as usually size 10 is way too big for me.

I thought I would still try it on, thinking that perhaps a tailor could work on it and make it fit properly. Imagine my surprise when I realized that not only it was not too big, it was nearly too tight!!

When I shop in "modern" stores I need to buy an 8, and sometimes even a 6. I'd normally swim in a 10! I am short and petite, but definitely not extremely skinny.

AIBU to think that this vanity sizing thing has gotten a bit crazy and the current sizes have nothing to do with the way sizes were even just a couple of decades ago?

Sometimes sizes vary in the same range in the same shop. You need to try on the item you are buying. Many a time I've had to take things back despite having tried the same thing same size in a different colour.

Helena. I'm very much in touch with an eating disorder charity and think you have a very valid point.

These threads make me feel so shit. I'm trying to lose my baby weight which brought me from size 14 up to a 16. If the things I'm buying are vanity sized then I don't want it pointed out to me, tbh.

YANBU

We are growing taller and broader.

YABU* that should be!!

Thanks Portia. Im sorry you went through all that

Am I the only one who doesn't seem to have witnessed the vanity sizing issue?! I was a size 10 in my younger skinnier days about 20 years ago. I've out on around 2 stone since and I'm two sizes bigger. Which seems about right. I shop on the high street and would never fit into a size 10 now anywhere. These threads always amaze me!

IMO what you’re discussing isn’t vanity sizing. Size is just numbers. Vanity sizing is when the manufacturer’s size chart says that a size 14 will fit a 99 cm bust and an 81 cm waist, but the size 14 fits me great and I’m a 106 bust and an 86 waist. They are cut larger than they claim to be so I, who presumably can’t or won’t use a measuring tape, can feel great about fitting into a smaller size, since that is considered desirable.

I have clothes from the 80s and 90s that are size 8. DD is a size 2 and she struggles doing the waist band up on some skirts.

I am a size 26 if you go by the statistics
32" bust. 22" waist. 34" hips is a size 10 but clothes I buy nowadays are a size 16

I'm a size 14, but my BMI is 21. It's because I'm very tall.

I am size 12 and was under the assumption I was quite healthy. I eat well and exercise, I don’t have any health conditions because of my weight and other than my stomach I am pretty toned, but I have had babies very recently. Thank goodness there are people like Ta1kinPeece in the world though, I was in danger of feeling good about myself and, gasp, even a little confident.

I now see the error of my ways and will obviously endeavour to lose weight. Quick question though - how do I make my rib cage and hips slimmer?

I get why this thread is seen as a stealth boast, but vanity sizing does make me cross. I find the implication that we can't be told the genuine size of our clothes patronising. If I need a 14, I need a 14. My fragile female ego will cope. Just about.

Not really sure about vanity sizing but what makes me cross is that no size seems the same in any shop. I could be a 14 in newlook, then buy a size 16 in top shop, an 8 or 18 in primark (ok probs not an 8 but primkark sizings really blow my mind depending on product)

I don't care what size it is, I just want it to fit but all this mucking about with sizes makes shopping take AGES and i really hate shopping!!

I have noticed this too.

In my teens I was a tiny size 4 / 6.

I am definitely bigger that I was then, yet still wear a size 6.

I wore maternity / nursing clothes pretty much constantly from early 2011 to mid 2015 and there has been a definite shift in sizing during that period.

I went into Primark for the first time in years in August and there were size 4 clothes that fitted me easily

Thinking back to the size 4 clothes available in my teens, the size 4 clothes available in Primark were a good couple of sizes bigger.

*there was - not there has been.

KittyWindbag don't let this rubbish make you feel like shit! Congratulations on the arrival and just concentrate on making yourself fee better. Fuck what the number says, that doesn't define you! Just get to a point you feel comfortable

I'm so bored of having to explain on these stupid threads that clothing sizes change over time because people do

Yes, because that's not what was going on here, and people do tend to keep pointin out what actually happened.

Sizes were regulated until the 1980s and we're indeed periodically revalorised. This was based on actual population measurements and was adopted across the board.

What happened in the decade or so following deregulation was (an openly admitted) initiative by manufacturers to 'ease' their sizing to provide a feel-good factor to improve their sales. It was nothing to do with the a need to revalorise (waists did not increase - healthily - by 3 inches in a decade)

We're stuck with the legacy of that huge change in sizing, and it has meant that the numbers have become meaningless. Both in terms of what size you need (varies between brands, and even between different garments within a brand) and also what it 'means' in terms of your size. I see quite a lot of people who say 'I'm a 12 so I can't be obese' and that is simply no longer true. But it's remarkable persistent idea, as it's been over 20 years since there was a grain of truth.

No, it isn’t strange at all. Even in the 80’s, sizing varied quite wildly, sometimes in the same shop.

The bridal industry has not been affected by vanity sizing. They stick to measurement charts.

And you know what? The bridal forums are full of howls of anguish from brides and maids who are devastated to hear that they have to order a size 18 or whatever. Even assurances that bridal sizes are standardised and not related to the sizes at Next don't seem to help. They're hung up on the number.

Given the opportunity to buy the number that they want to hear, I'm sure many of them would.

Vanity sizing is stupid, but the pressure is consumer driven.

Really?? You think that since 2007, all shops have vanity-sized by 2 sizes??

Absolutely they have. I bought a size 14 dress from bravissimo last week and it was too big despite me having a 31" waist and a 43" bottom. I would have to wear a size 12 in that brand. In 2007 I was a size 12 in New Look with a 27" waist and 38" hips. How on earth can my waist and bum have grown by at least 4 inches, with 2 stone excess weight, and I still be the same dress size? I reckon I'm probably a size 16/18 in real sizes, and my nurse uniform confirms this because the size 16 trousers are snug around my humongous bum.

Oliver why do you wear a 16 with those measurements?

At that height a 30" waist is far less than half the average woman's height and perfectly healthy.

A 30" waist for a woman is not usually healthy at all. I've got a 31" waist, I'm 63" tall, and my BMI is 31! That's not healthy, I know I'm fat. Even with a waist of 27" my BMI was 25 so still on the heavier side.

Well in the early 80's I was an impressionable teenager. I had an older beautiful sibling who had a wonderful hourglass figure. She was a size14 back than mainly due to big boobs so well with vanity sizing a 10. (Don't really believe that)
Anyway some bloke (tosser) at work made a comment. Cue years of an eating disorder. Although she is now a healthy weight size 10 she is a shadow of her former self. Incidentally her cholesterol levels were worse than mine.
My point is that has size 10 of today is considerably small that her 80's size 14 figure.
And those who say things Like I want them to eat less and move more really annoy me.
I am obese but did shine half marathon. My now slim sister would not have had the energy.

To the posters who’ve commented that sizes haven’t changed in the last ten years; they absolutely have in my experience!

I got married in 2007. I weighed 13st at the time and am 5ft 7ins tall. I was wearing size 16 clothes. Today I’m 17 and a half stone and am sitting here wearing a pair of size 18 trousers. 4.5 stone heavier and only up one dress size???

It's true that dress sizes have changed, but as pp have said the change is that they are not standardised in all shops. At school in the 80s-90s size 10 was very much the extra-slim size and 12 was slim. I was always a 14.

Having always struggled with my weight, I would say that the times I have been most motivated to lose weight were when my self-esteem wasn't at rock bottom and I could feel ok talking to people and socialising. When I felt shit about myself was exactly the moment I hid away from the world and comforted myself with the biscuit tin.

I am not stupid and I know all the health benefits of being slim but for me it's a mental and emotional battle and I don't think I'm alone in this. If you are genuinely concerned about the nation's health, let's look at getting young men and women to take pride in themselves, through support for mental and emotional health taking priority throughout school.