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?

Marilyn Munroe Da fuck is she size 16. Any size 16 ladies have slim arms, pert chests, flat tummies and hip bones? I think not.

No of course not luminaries - we are all ugly great biffers who should stay in hiding and never darken society's doors again!
(I am several inches taller than Marilyn was. Might have some bearing)

Fashion & fashion sizing has changed as teens now have more financial access to money and can buy independently. Just think why we have size 4 in the UK now, its mostly teens paying for adult clothing which incurs VAT instead of having to shop at Tammy Girl.

Vanity sizing is not a real thing. And vintage dress sizes are not going to compare to now.

Just to reiterate, if you reduce the age range of children's clothing to under a size 4 which us my 10 yo and then introduce clothing ranges from size 4-6 upwards you have children paying VAT on general clothing, uniform, school shoes

getting snippy at those of us who post about it will not solve that

Yeah, terrible. So how come I am a size 12 in Next/Sainsburys when I have a smaller waist size than you?

Ah fgs the Marilyn thing again...the woman was an extreme who probably would not have fitted into any standard sized shop clothes. With a waist of 24 inches she was certainly no 12/14/16 though. Didnt they put that famous white dress of hers on a us size 2 mannequin a while back and found it was too big for the dress to zip up on?

Luminaries - am 41-29-41 and you can see my ribs, collar bones and hips. I have long lean limbs and a flat stomach and pert b cups altho with extremely broad swimmers/rowers shoulders (Which i did a lot of in my youth but i usually do Spinning, Weights, Pilates and Body Pump now). I have large hands and feet too (bigger hands than most men i know and size 8 feet). People say i look slim altho i have been slimmer a 39-27-39 is my slimmest because my bones just don't get any smaller than that. I'm 5ft 10. So you absolutely can be 'larger' framed and still toned and lean.

luminaries MM was quite tall and gyms existed in Hollywood back then.

The wearing of corsets was prevalent in the MM era.

My guess is nobody actually measured MM after she died and they used her told measurements or made them up.

This is quite amusing

www.thehairpin.com/2012/08/things-we-know-for-sure-about-marilyn-monroe/

Sorry- slightly off topic: How on earth do people remember/know what they weighed/measured in 1996 or what have you (ED aside, sorry, not meaning any offence ) I genuinely cannot fathom remembering this sort of stuff. I get that still owning an item from ages ago could be compared with a newer one, but knowing sizes or stats blows my tiny mind.

raving
Her autopsy / post mortem was a matter of public record

ejd
she was 5'5" like me - I have never considered myself tall

silent
I still have clothes I wore in 1984 ..... if they fit or not is pretty simple to check

papfran
clothes sizes are a crap measure of a healthy size
I thought this thread had reiterated all of the others on that point
I have narrow hips and a flat bum
thus fit clothes that others might not
and not having a waist limits dress styles

That's true... in the early 1960's my mum weighed six and a half stone and was always trying desperately to put on weight, yet she still wore a girdle to nip in her waist.

Hollywoods grim century of fat shaming. From Greta Garbo to Chloe Moretz.

www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/11/hollywoods-grim-century-of-fat-shaming-from-greta-garbo-to-chloe-grace-moretz?CMP=fb_gu

"Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Silent-film expert Pamela Hutchinson cites the example of Greta Garbo. “Louis B Mayer hired her for MGM in 1925, when she was already a success in Europe, with the caveat that ‘In America, we don’t like fat women’. Garbo ate nothing but spinach for three weeks and then dieted, rigorously, for the rest of her Hollywood career.” There were even more extreme measures. “An actor called Molly O’Day had her excess weight cut away by a surgeon. In 1929, Photoplay magazine explicitly blamed the death of comic actor Katherine Grant on the Hal Roach studio’s demands for her to lose weight."

Yet Hal Roach wasnt demanding Oliver hardy to lose weight. This is not a quote from the article btw just a musing from me.

From Judy Garlands Wiki page about her role in The Wizard of Oz.

"Garland was initially outfitted in a blonde wig for the part, but Freed and LeRoy decided against it shortly into filming. Her blue gingham dress was chosen for its blurring effect on her figure, which made her look younger.[35] Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938,[36] and was completed on March 16, 1939,[37] with a final cost of more than US$2 million.[38] With the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of Babes in Arms, directed by Busby Berkeley. Rooney and she were sent on a cross-country promotional tour, culminating in the August 17 New York City premiere at the Capitol Theater, which included a five-show-a-day appearance schedule for the two stars.[39] Garland was forced into a strict diet during filming; she was given tobacco to suppress her appetite"

"She died twelve days after her forty-seventh birthday. Her Wizard of Oz co-star Ray Bolger commented at her funeral, "She just plain wore out."[125] Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter believes that Garland had an eating disorder which contributed to her death"

Helena
Read "Pride and Prejudice" to see derogatory comments about overweight men and women

its nothing new ~ BUT ~ the point is that we now have an obesity epidemic ~ not an opinion - fact

hiding from it will not make it go away
but our healthcare and tax budget are screwed if we do

Yep The Golden Age of Hollywood

although it probably was if you were a man.

We probably do Talkin. But the roll out of Universal Credit is hardly going to help people with eating healthily. The shops tend to want money for their food They are funny like that.

Next might say that their waist size for an 8 is 26.5 inches but I can assure you its not.

This is true. I have several pairs of Uniqlo jeans in a 25" waist size which fit just fine. I do not have a 25" waist and probably have not had a 25" waist for at least ten or more years. My waist is about 27" and my hips about 35" so definitely not what is advertised (they claim these jeans fit a 32 and a bit inch hip size which has not been the case for me since I was a child).

I've been a size 10 for roughly 25 years.
I am a good 6kg more than I was 20 years ago.
It's just all random sizing now.

So people think that they are inches smaller than they are
they think that their clothes size is comparable with Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe
despite what they eat and do not do

no wonder the NHS is breaking under the strain of the overweight