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?

No the NHS is breaking under the strain of underfunding.

And the pissheads clogging up A and E every Friday night and Saturday night are doing their bit..............oh wait drinking is allowed on MN I forgot the cardinal rule.

Helena
Oh, were it true
the vast, vast bulk of the NHS resources go on chronic illness
primarily heart disease, diabetes and arthritis
the last stats I saw were that over 45% of beds were allocated to those three
in Hampshire over £1m is spent per day on "adult social care" - ie old folks who can no longer look after themselves

booze is a side show compared with obesity

Nobody reasonable has ever believed that 'Marilyn was a size 16' bollocks.

Also, I think that most people are quite capable of noticing when they have got a bit fat, rather than thinking 'tralala I'm wearing the same size as a dead film star so I must be slim'. It's quite disturbing that you think that people are so stupid, but if it makes you feel better, eh?

There are some quite spiteful and patronising remarks on this thread about the (alleged) hordes of deluded people - women, of course! - who are breaking the NHS with their fatness, which they won't acknowledge because all dress sizes have inflated by four since 1985 or whatever, and who have personally ruined clothes for the tiny, dainty little fairies who aren't using more than their fair share of NHS resources, oh no, and who are 'swimming in a size six'.

Oh god, TalkinPeace, you're clearly a prime physical specimen - how about you work on your inner self now?

Drinking also contributes to drink driving and the maiming and death caused by it ergo..........A and E.

Ive yet to see anyone cause an accident while under the influence of Cadburys or Krispy Kreme.

Yep and I cost the NHS thousands and thousands battling my anorexia brought on by fat shaming by exh

Nettle
I think that most people are quite capable of noticing when they have got a bit fat
All of the evidence from the whole developed world contradicts that

mumbod
you're clearly a prime physical specimen - how about you work on your inner self now?
I'm a rather flabby 52 year old who loves yoga
so trying my best

portia
Anorexia treatment is in the stone age still - too much blaming goes on
but the number of anorexics is dwarfed by the tens of thousands of obese patients
for whom the treatment is simple but winds up MN posters

Almost every woman I've ever met thinks she's fat, no matter what her size. We certainly have an obesity issue in this country, but I don't think we have an epidemic of women who think they are slim.

Also, sizing change is fuck all to do with vanity, they're just keeping up with the change in our sizing. If anything, plus size retailers are really blossoming.

I was at a stately home the other day and the beds were bloody short.

I am fully aware of the treatment for my eating disorder and have had it for years. If bastard exh hadn't bullied me about my weight I probably would have been ok but years later my treatment is still ongoing and has been for 10 years or more I still find it hard to eat anything at all

So you think that people are bigger now than in, say, 1970, simply because they haven't noticed?

Why not reread the post by (I think) mumbod a couple of pages back where she notes that she sometimes overeats because she feels constantly judged. By people like you.

There are all sorts of reasons for people being bigger now. To suggest that it's because they simply haven't noticed is pretty patronising, don't you think?

I've also never met anyone who believed Marilyn Monroe was a modern day size 16 at any stage in her life.

Judging doesn't help I almost died through fat shaming and I wouldn't want anyone to be 5stone like I was!!!

I don't think anyone was ever successfully hated into adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Portia I was the opposite and very overweight at 21 stone.
Ive lost the weight but gained paranoia Im paranoid about gaining weight to the point that i worry about it obsessively.

I do indulge on special occasions. Which works out at 5 times a year which is not often but it doesnt stop the paranoia.

Clothes sizes distort perceptions of healthy.
There is no such thing as "fat and healthy"
People will only get healthy when they internalise eating within the needs of their body.
Anorexics are NOT representative of the population at large - if they were there would not be an obesity crisis

Vanity sizing has allowed people to think they are still a "healthy" size even as their visceral fat reaches crisis levels

that is the reality

I used to weigh all my food before cooking it and then I'd chuck it up again and I hate the bleddy weight policeman who made me like that

Oh god Ta1kin really, can't you go and do a jigsaw or something?

Seriously, your concern about the arse size of the nation must be exhausting for you, and you're not going to make the slightest difference to what we all put in our faces.

Have a day off please

I've never actually met anyone who thinks Marilyn Monroe was an actual today's size 16 either. But it gets trotted out an awful lot on this type of thread so I think there are actual people out there who really think this? I just don't know any of them personally (because all my friends are fairly rational).

Ooh, jigaws - good call. My Rosetta Stone one is a corker

Heberon
The baton is yours till I finish my jigsaw

For the fifteenth time: nobody fools themselves that they are slim because of the size label in their clothes. People have eyes, you know.

Why not do an experiment under controlled conditions? Select a group of morbidly obese people and give them clothes that fit them but are marked with a size label ten sizes below their own. Do you think that those people would self-report as 'slim and healthy'? Your argument suggests so.

Also, as poor yorick pointed out, where are all these women who are convinced that they are slim and healthy? Most women think that they are fat! Probably because we're constantly confronted by pictures of ultra thin women and celebrities lying about their weight and measurements to look more aspirational. What a world.

For the fifteenth time: nobody fools themselves that they are slim because of the size label in their clothes. People have eyes, you know.

I don't think anyone 'fools' themselves but quite a lot of people (particularly those who don't own scales), use clothes as a marker.

So no matter what size they are, if they feel they're getting too tight, they'll start to cut back a bit and exercise more.

Also, I get that Ta1kinPeece isn't being particularly kind or tactful in her comments. But actually she has a point. People who are fairly fat are being misled by the fact that they are only a size 14 or 16 or whatever and thinking 'well, that's average, that's what my mum was when she was my age' and not taking on board that they are much larger than their mum thirty years ago and it is actually not good (not people here who are mainly quite switched on, I mean people generally). It's not good for people to be fat. I can't talk as I am actually a bit tubby for my build (tiny frame etc) but at least I know I am a bit tubby and therefore trying to do something about it. If you think a size 14 is healthy (32 inch waist size at TopShop, which is a young person's brand) you are wrong. A 32 inch waist size is larger than is healthy.

The NHS says:

Regardless of your height or BMI, you should try to lose weight if your waist is:
94cm (37ins) or more for men
80cm (31.5ins) or more for women
You are at very high risk and you should contact your GP if your waist is:
102cm (40ins) or more for men
88cm (34ins) or more for women

34 inches as a waist size puts you in a size 16 at TopShop. Size 16 is the average clothes size for adult UK women. TopShop is quite small cut generally. But if other brands are larger, that means women with a high risk of problems are maybe in a size 14 or 16 and thinking they are fine because they are below average size. They are fat and they are deluding themselves.

I hate jigsaws, btw.

Hebedon
Thank you
you have posted most accurately on the core issue

and sadly being kind and tactful do not work
if they did, the NHS would not be in crisis with chronic obesity care

Waist should ALWAYS be less than half of height
body fat should ALWAYS be within the limits
BMI should be between 18.5 and 25 - the shorter you are the lower in that range

all else is over eating
boring ~ unpalatable ~ true

You can tell by looking in a mirror that you have developed a bit of a tum or that your arse has got bigger.

Yes, sizes have expanded since the 1980s, for reasons other posters have eloquently explained, but to blame so-called vanity sizing for increased obesity seems rather fanciful. Everybody knows that clothes sizes vary anyway. Wallis clothes were famous in the early 1990s for being able to accommodate Luciano Pavarotti (I exaggerate slightly!) so I can't believe anyone really thinks, look at this picture of my mum wearing a size 16 in 1977, I wear a 16 now so I must look just like that. We all have eyes!