To think this is bad. H and m sizing

[Footloose80]

Out shopping looking for a gift. Saw a top. Their sizing ranged for xs to xl. Person is size 10. Asked assistant what size is a 10 and told medium. So,a size 12 is clearly a large and 14 xl.
I know vanity sizing and all that but this person is at the bottom end of normal weight. How can that be medium?

The words "naturally slim" don't mean anything

it means exactly what it says on the tin: someone who is slim without resorting to anorexia or plastic surgery! Basically someone who is not obsessed with food and over-eating, usually reasonably active, someone normal!

So... everyone who is fat is abnormal?

human beings are naturally active and not overweight, so yes, being fat and over-eating is not "normal" - being common doesn't make you normal.

Google thinks that "Naturally slim" is a specific weight-loss programme.

Ah MN, where a size 10-12 is obese

I also think that sizing is correct. I am slim and hate the fact that in many brands XS is now a size 10 as the clothes are just too big for me (e.g. Hush).

Size ten always used to be the ideal and a slender shape in the 90s/early 00s.

Back then I never, ever came across a shop which did smaller than a size 8. I remember when TopShop introduced a size six, I think in the early 00s. There was a lot of discussion about it encouraging anorexia etc but I think it just for many very slim teenagers who were part of their market they hadn’t catered to before. I think initially they were just in petites though as they thought only shorter women would be that small.

I've been a size 10 at BMI of 28/29
I only tip into a 12 at BMI of 30+
I don't think a 10 is small, I'd say a 10-12 is a medium
6-8 small/ extra small
14-16 large
18-20 extra large
Etc.

Height and shape are really important factors. Under 5.3 at a modern size 12 could be overweight, though if pear shaped maybe not.
Does it really matter. We are more than what we weigh or what we wear, My Dsis is much healthier than me, she works out has a vegan diet but she has hashimoto and is a size 14 but small in height. It makes me sad so much of her thoughts in an otherwise great life are burdened because of her weight, if she stopped her healthy eating and gym she could be massive it is a constant battle for her.

I don’t think a 10-12 is obese. But if I was a 12, I’d be overweight. Because that’s how I’m built. I’ve got a BMI of 21 and according to the next sizing online I’m a size 8 (albeit with a much bigger chest). I’m thin but not especially so. I’m not lying or pretending (why bother?). If I were, I’d make much more interesting claims than weighing 58kg.

At 21 I was much lighter, and slimmer. I had a BMI of about 19 and could wear size 8 clothes, which fit me. Clothes sizes have definitely increased since then.

When i was in my 20s I weighed between 8 and a half and 9 stone and was a size 10

At 11 and a half which is the top end of my bmi i am in a size 12

So the sizing nowadays is completely out of whack

And im 13 stone now!!!

I tend to try everything in a 14 and 16 now, but some clothes would need to be an 18 and ive also recently bought a size 12 wrap top

Its ludicrous...i dont care if the label says lardy fat bum, as long as there is some sort of continuity!!! In the same shop!!

Incidentally next claim that those are the measurements of their clothes but they totally lie. I should be a 14-16 based on chest size in their chart, but a top will often be humongouson me in size 8. So I don’t believe for a second that chart in any way reflects the clothing they sell. 😆

That is the real problem: Not the size of women’s bodies, but the utterly unprincipled sizing found in uk shops. You just have no bloody idea what size will fit you in most shops. That is almost certainly true whatever your bodily proportions.

Back in the early 80s friend and I (both size 8-10) went in a new shop that had just opened. They were selling jeans for under a tenner.

We took a few pairs into the changing rooms and couldn't get them over our knees.

First time ever we couldn't fit into clothes.

The assistant told us we needed a size 18.

No way were we wearing anything that said we were size 18.

twice she is about 5ft2 so maybe she is more like an eight. Glad I didn't buy her clothing. They would be too big.

Sorry if saying bottom end normal caused offense. I just meant that she wasn't at the top end of normal. Ie I think at her height weight goes from 7 to 9ish stone and she is closer to 7 than 9.

Reading this in bewilderment! When I was in my late teens in the 1970s I weighed 8 to 8 and a half stone. At 5'6" this made me a size 10, the smallest size available for women.

My measurements were 32-22-34. That surely is NOT a 'medium?!'

What size would that be nowadays?

I dunno, but I'm a woman's medium at 38-28-37.
32-22-34 sounds like a modern small or even XS (XXS in future H&M sizing).

Wow, thanks Marilyn I'm a 16 now so don't have to worry about not being able to get clothes small enough

We must have been skinnier in those days as my friends and I often swapped outfits - we were all about the same size.

And thank you llijkk too.

I wear a size 12 in virtually everything (occasionally a 14 for extra length) and I’m very definitely overweight on the BMI scale. So yes agree that a size 12 can be large. I’m above average height at 5’6” as well. Have heard lots of people wearing a size 12 at loads lighter than me though so different bodies are different shapes I suppose. When I was a 14/16 I was kidding myself slightly that I wasn’t that big though when definitely obese according to charts.

Surely there is definitely a thing around differing bone sizes? Not everyone will have the same width shoulder blades, rib cages, or pelvis, even if the same heights otherwise - meaning an automatic weight difference?

They are pretty random in h+m. However, they are designed for European women who are generally slimmer than the U.K. average. Sizes in m and s in comparison are gigantic. We are prone to vanity sizing. Pick up a vintage size 14 and it’s about a 10 now.