To not understand why (and be against) “improved sizing”

[SchrodingersMeowth]

So, I don’t know if this is just in Primark or everywhere will be taking it on but I’m a bit shocked that the sizing for clothes is being re-marked. For example a 10-12 which was previously medium will now be small, 8-10 XS etc.

This feels like an excuse to ignore true sizing and doesn’t seem healthy! Tbh it reminds me of the people who try to push the “Marilyn monroe was a size 16 and perfectly healthy”. But she wasn’t was she, not a size 16 now anyway!!!

I feel like sizing is already generous and changing it to make people appear even smaller when they haven’t changed isn’t good for accountability for the fact that obesity is an ever growing crisis.

I don’t agree that my “new” size reflects my actual size and I’m sure this is going to be the same for many people.

I just don’t see what the point was in doing it!

This thread is really bizarre actually.

Sizing is literally just a number, it's completely arbitrary. Presumably Primark has done this so they can stock more large sizes without having to go xxxxl xxxxxl etc. They haven't stopped selling lower sizes they've just shifted it one place so it has an extra x at the lower end. That's literally it, I don't understand why you are getting so wound up op? That extra x doesn't make you any smaller it's just a label on clothes.

Primark is just a business, they will make clothes in sizes that sell. The population is getting larger, and Primark wants to sell their products to them. No one has the right to buy clothes from Primark tbh, they are not a government run initiative they are a shop.

Mn is really excessive about vanity sizing, It doesn't matter if your size 8 jeans were really a size 40 in 1901, the 8 is meaningless, it's just a random number really and you're shopping in 2018 so just buy the buy jeans that bloody fit you ffs! Products change with time, nothing ever stays the same, it's capitalism, of course sizes are going to change with time, just as pretty much every other thing we buy does. It just highlights the importance of trying clothes on.

I have said it before but vanity sizing isn't that clothes are getting much bigger it's that they are getting much straighter, waist sizes are increasing whilst hip and bust measurements are staying fairly similar, clothes are changing shape to reflect changes in our population.

Sometimes people will be different sizes because we aren't all the same ratios, for example I am pear shaped so if something is designed to be tight on the waist I will be a much smaller size than if it is designed to sit on the hips.

I also think you will be fine for a while op, my housemate is very small (underweight and 5' ) and still manages to find clothes that fit without too much bother. Remember clothes manufacturers still mostly model their clothes on v. Slim women and most of them design their clothes for slim women. Shops like Primark market an awful lot to teenagers and won't want to stop selling the smaller sizes because that's a huge proportion of their profit gone.

Tbh this rant of the ops was pretty meaningless because there has been no suggestion that they will stop making smaller sizes, only adding an extra x at the small end, and therefore seems to be mostly about pointing out how small op is and how terrible fat people are.

They've changed all the shoes around too so now the 3's and 4's are on the floor and the 7's and 8's are on the top. They were perfectly fine where they were

Well no, because people who need size 3 or 4 shoe tend to be shorter than those who need size 7 or 8, so it's a bit daft to put the short people's shoes on the top shelf where they can't see or reach them.

M&S do this and I've helped shorter ladies get shoes off the top shelf more than once.

This thread is really bizarre actually.
Sizing is literally just a number, it's completely arbitrary. Presumably Primark has done this so they can stock more large sizes without having to go xxxxl xxxxxl etc.

What nobody seems to have noticed is that Primark has done it so they can actually manufacture and stock fewer sizes.
In number based sizing iirc they used to have: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 - so 10 different sizes.
In the "new improved" sizing: 4-6, 6-8, 10-12, 14-16, 18-20, 22-24 - that's only 6 sizes.

Significantly cheaper to design, manufacture and stock 6 sizes than 10 different ones.

I have said it before but vanity sizing isn't that clothes are getting much bigger it's that they are getting much straighter, waist sizes are increasing whilst hip and bust measurements are staying fairly similar, clothes are changing shape to reflect changes in our population.

I agree the moral panic about vanity sizing on here cracks me up. We are on average taller, bigger framed and less curvaceous than we were in the 50s.

So they are going from one arbitrary sizing scheme to another arbitrary clothing scheme, yawn.

8-10 or XS what does it really matter? It’s called vanity sizing for a reason, wether you agree with it or not, they wouldn’t be doing it if there wasn’t demand. Just look at MN threads when it comes to weight, 9/10 posters will refer to their clothing size not their height/ weight, like that means anything.

Tops aren’t a big deal but there’s never been a time where I haven’t walked into a changing room without at least two different sizes. If you buy the majority of clothes from one particular store then this surely won’t be much of an issue? Good luck with your ‘on principle’ crusade but what you want is standardised clothing sizes and there just isn’t the demand for that. I however, cannot get worked up about this, when it comes to clothes sizing, I’m whatever the shop I’m shopping in says I am.

for example I am pear shaped so if something is designed to be tight on the waist I will be a much smaller size than if it is designed to sit on the hips.

Omg yes! Sometimes I'll buy a size 10 for something high-waisted but it won't fit over my thighs and bum - yet if I go up a size or two to fit my lower-half then it's all baggy at the waist.

I think H and M is one of the few “true to size” shops left. A real size 10 is small.

We are all just fatter now

I have said it before but vanity sizing isn't that clothes are getting much bigger it's that they are getting much straighter, waist sizes are increasing whilst hip and bust measurements are staying fairly similar, clothes are changing shape to reflect changes in our population.

I agree the moral panic about vanity sizing on here cracks me up. We are on average taller, bigger framed and less curvaceous than we were in the 50s.

Right, but some of us do actually go in at the waist and are actually a curvy shape, so what are we supposed to do? Different women are different shapes, so it would make sense for shops to make a variety of shapes, but no. They make everything in just one shape. So everyone of that shape gets lots of clothes that fit, and the rest of us get nothing. It's total nonsensical. I'm sick of being told that hourglass and pear women don't exist - we do. You only have to look at any women's messageboard to see a whole load of us complaining that clothes never for properly any more.

As for nobody being entitled to buy clothes - firstly, it would make business sense to make things for as many people as possible and stop excluding people, as surely then you'd get more customers. Secondly, we have to go to work and buy work-appropriate clothes. Curvy women find it much more difficult to look work-appropriate and find things that look smart without being figure-hugging. Either we look too "sexy", or we look like we're wearing a tent. We're discriminated against in the workplace and seen as having a mess professional appearance, however smartly we dress. If clothes fit us properly it's be a lot less of a problem.

I totally agree. At my smallest I am a 12. I am a stone overweight so a 14 now. Lately shop assistants have been passing me 10's to try on and they fit.

It is ridiculous. You are basically telling someone that they are 2 sizes smaller than they actually are.

YANBU

Its ridiculous and makes it very hard to buy online as I might need anything between a S and L depending on the brand

I'm in my 40s and have been essentially the same size since I was aged about 14. I was always a 12 in my teens and twenties but now find myself buying mostly a 10 and occasionally an 8, I have no clue how really slim women manage to find clothes that are small enough!

Conversely in cycling/triathlon kit, I often buy a size L

Same here Shagged. Always been a 12-14. Even Boden is massive. I bought a skirt and dress and had to send the 12 back. Even the 10 was big.

sick of being told that hourglass and pear women don't exist - we do. You only have to look at any women's messageboard to see a whole load of us complaining that clothes never for properly any more.

I'm an hour glass myself and can usually manage to get something that fits. But I am also short and find it very difficult to get skirts and dresses the length I want. Trousers not so much as I have long legs.

I find if I order size 10 from Joe Brown it fits. Joe Brown are good for your glass shapes. If a little quirky!

We are on average taller, bigger framed and less curvaceous than we were in the 50s.

We are fatter.

Not saying we aren't but we are also bigger. Women are much taller now. I'M 5ft 2 and most of my younger work colleagues are taller than me. Some of them tower over me.

Shape has changed. Women did not go to the gym in the 50s. The only exercise they got was housework.

And yet they were slimmer.

The fact is that we eat far far more now than in the 50s and that changes shape. More than going to the gym.

I bought a bunch of clothes from top shop and ASOS the other day. All size 8s, and I've put on a bit of weight recently so am closer to a 10.
Only one thing fit. They were all very large on the waist, back and the length of a midi skirt was dragging on the floor (I'm 5'4!).

But if I try a 4-6 then they fit everywhere ... except the boobs which are very very tight.

It's stupid. I can't find anything!

The only exercise they got was housework

Plus walking to the shops every day for groceries, which they carried home on foot.

We eat more, and drink more alcohol now than in the 50s, and move less, on average, than in the 1950s.

All that daily walking, carrying and housework probably burnt far more calories than an otherwise sedentary office worker who does a few gym sessions a week.

It is ridiculous. You are basically telling someone that they are 2 sizes smaller than they actually are.

They're really not. They're just handing you an item of clothing which, according to their sizing classification, will fit you. I really think the problem lies with women engaging with the bizarre notion that an arbitrary sizing system on a piece of fabric is 'telling' them how big their body is.

Joe Brown are good for your glass shapes. If a little quirky!

I already get half my clothes from Collectif and I'm sick of looking quirky. I just want to buy normal clothes like everyone else.

Sizing is not correct currently in the UK, and I do think that it affects women's thoughts about their bodies, which is why it matters.

I lost a lot of weight last year and went from a size 14 to a size 10. Which makes it sound as though I went from overweight to a healthy weight. I actually went from obese to the very top of a healthy weight range. I'm a bit shorter than average, but not tiny.

Once I'm done being pregnant, I'm going to get myself to the middle of a healthy weight for my height. I'll probably be a size 6-8, at the middle of a healthy weight!

Don't know if anyone else has said as I skipped to the end but Primarks sizings are changing to be the same as other UK stores, the hope is to end up with all stores using the same sizing system.

Conversely in cycling/triathlon kit, I often buy a size L

Bizarrely the only type of clothing I've ever had an issue with fitting my thighs into (larger than average compared to rest of me but not huge) was cycling clothing, which you'd think would be cut more generously on the legs.

And cycling clothing doesn't escape the inconsistent sizing problem.

I have short and 3/4 length Altura mountain biking shorts.

The short ones are size medium and fit me. The 3/4 ones are size large and are actually much smaller and are currently too small for me .