To want clothes to be the size they say they are 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Sparrow80]

I don’t even care any more if they use vanity sizing and say a 34 inch waste is a size 10. But I want the clothes that say they are a 32 inch waist to have a 32 inch waist?! I’ve lost a significant amount of weight in the last year or so and have to order new clothes for a new job but it’s proving impossible.

I’m currently wearing a series of size 8 - 10 clothing. I’m very active but have a BMI of 26 and fit the measurements of a size 14 or 16. I must have tried on hundreds of dresses, tops and jeans recently based on their size charts and every single one is too big. I’ve measured the clothes myself in frustration and they are much bigger than what they say.

I end up re-ordering in a smaller size and again … and again til I’m wearing a size 8 when I’m nowhere near. I wear a 34 E bra and my legs are toned but nowhere near a size 8. What do people who are actually an 8 do?!

Mens clothing does not do this. If I order a medium based on measurements it fits. Meanwhile I just ordered some older clothes on eBay from Boden circa 2013 (haven’t liked anything since) in my actual size and they fit.

Has anyone found any shops that are actually making clothes in the size they say they are? I really don’t care what number it says on the label but am driving myself and the postman mad with all the returns and I can’t live in leggings forever. This is not cheaper clothing either - I’ve had the same from supermarket all the way up to the expensive ranges.

YANBU - sizing should reflect the size chart

YABU - the surprise of the actual size of what arrives is part of the fun

This drives me mad, Only places I've found where the sizing is accurate every single time is Next and M&S, especially for trousers

Congrats on your weight loss. Sizing is a pita, a standard meaure would make life a lot easier. So annoying to buy something you love then realise it doesn't fit when you try it on at home. I don't like changing rooms, and often buy online.

Agree with you. I wear a size 10 but am overweight

Let's start a petition to get shops to standardise their sizes, so they are all the same

Btw if your BMI is 26 you're probably not a 34 back bra.
Loads of shops for differently. Try on see what's good. Especially with bras

I'm overweight and I'm a 34 inch back bra size. I carry my weight in the bum and legs. It's amazing how you can tell the op is the incorrect size.

YANBU

I don't mind that different shops use different measurement charts. We're all built differently and shops will cater to slightly different audiences and adjust their tailoring accordingly. Some shops are a failsafe for me to buy trousers and others I'll not go near and that doesn't bother me.

But you're right that garments should match the shop's own measurements. If Shop A says the measurements of a size are 36-27-37 then that's what the garments should fit. There might be some need to go up or down for personal preference, but the garments should fit.

@NEmama I’m definitely a 34 inch back size. I’m very active (running and weight lifting) so have more muscle than average. My arse is definitely not a size 10 though 😂

I also promise I can spell waist, honestly 🫣

I just want to be able to order clothes online and then to vaguely be the measurements they say they are 🤷🏻‍♀️. I don’t understand the logic behind it. Vanity sizing is one thing and frustrating in itself but I’m sure measurements used to be more accurate.

I ordered the same pair of trousers from Next in its 2 available colours. Both should be the same, just a different colour denim.

Nope - black pair perfect length but tighter waist.

• blue pair perfect waist but about 4 inches too long.

I checked and double checked and the size labels on them are the same. Clearly a mis-labelling.

Yes me too. I've always worn a size 10. I am NOT a size 8. But I order the 10 in amything at the moment and its massive, causing me a load of admin in sending it back. Or I end up thinking "I'll make do" and it never looks as good as I'd hoped.

I feel your pain. I ordered a size 12 tshirt, because I wanted a relaxed fit.

What arrived, I could quite easily have worn at 9 months pregnant so I returned it and ordered the 10 instead. I've just finished taking that in. It's ridiculous.

This drives me mad.

Been the same weight all my adult life.. Circa 1986 I was a size 10...Now bizarrely a size 6-8.
Ridiculous.

M&S are the worst for vanity sizing. For Xmas I was asked my size and gifted a skirt from a friend. Size six was falling down to my knees! I had no receipt and had already taken off the tags.
Managed to take it to the nearest store (10 miles away) and they kindly refunded me..

Drives me insane. I have a size 6 top that I only just don't fit into now at the very end of my pregnancy. It says it's a relaxed fit but it was about 8 inches too big to wear pre-maternity.

Yes should have to provide lengths etc rather than M or 12 at least online. I doubt Councils would have time to enforce but customers and organisations like Which would get onto it.

@Bagzzz - what I'm finding is they do provide the widths / lengths etc and they're nowhere near what they say they are. I'm currently sat in clothing that claims it's got a 26 inch waist but in fact is fairly loose on my 32 inch waist. It's like vanity sizing got even crazier. Shops must spend so much time and money having stuff returned.

This is because a lot of jeans manufacturers do the measurements based off the fabric when it's cut, not the final sewed garment, and it's pre-dye and fabric treatment. Black denim shrinks a lot, which is why you're seeing a massive difference between the blue and black denim. It's a super stupid method of setting the sizes, but that's how they do it. And is why Levis is so irregular with sizes and why the same exact jeans can fit slightly differently even in the exact same wash and measurement (allegedly).

I don't know why manufacturers don't use accurate measurements based on the final garment. But I'm with you - I often just buy an 8 or 10 even though based on measurements I "should" be a 14 or 16. And I'm not squishy, I have an athletic frame, so it's not stretchy clothes squeezing on me!

I use What size am I and have found it to be pretty accurate. If you combine that with a knowledge of your overall shape, how you like clothes to fit and that different styles will vary on their sizing then it's fine.

A pair of size 14 skinny leather trousers (tight and inflexible) to fit the same as a pair of wide leg cotton relaxed fit trousers (probably bigger with a looser waist). A size 14 cropped vest top (tight style) will fit very different to a size 14 slub shirt (very oversized). They will have very different measurements but they are the same 'size'.

Yeah it would need to be regulated but it’s not really a priority.

I used to be size 10 for years.

Recently, over the past few years, I've started buying sizes 6 and 8, despite being exactly the same size as before!

This winds me up too OP. I hate online shopping. They provide a size chart but it’s always nonsense. I generally wear a size 14-16. If I measure my busy, waist and hips, most shops put me at least an 18, if not a 20 or even 22!! Yet if I order the size they tell me I am, I end up with something far too big (and my sister telling me ‘I told you so!’) and have to return it. WHY PRODUCE A SIZE CHART THEN??

literally received a bridesmaids dress yesterday which fits like a glove, despite me being 6 inches bigger than the measurements suggest I should be to fit that size.

If there was some kind of enforcement of absolute uniformity in sizing, only the fit models would get clothes. Shops profile their customers and some demographics are slimmer than others. That's why you're a different size depending on where you shop. Nor is it vanity sizing. They're not trying to kid you into thinking you're slim. It's size inflation. We're getting fatter and the market is adapting. Bed and chair makers do it too but we don't have the same emotions about those.

Size inconsistency is getting insane, though. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the absolute explosion in fast fashion coming out of dodgy factories. Everyone says they'd rather have a very small number of high quality pieces than a load of cheap rubbish, but the sales don't lie.

Bed makers? Standard bed sizes haven't changed for years. It is the one thing that annoys me about double beds, they just aren't big enough for 2 people to sleep comfortable ( and I am a skinny minnie). We are just generally bigger all over than say, people in 1900. You only have to visit a museum and see for example, old soldiers' uniforms from the first world war. They're tiny. Young people are really really tall these days! But no, we keep our standard UK single bed size and wonder why our lanky teens have their feet hanging out the end.

Re clothes and sizing variation. I'm more of the opinion that it's just poor, low quality clothes production. You have to spend a lot of money these days to buy, eg a dress that has a decent thickness to the material, and is lined, and hemmed properly with no loose bits of thread. I think they are literally thrown together and that includes in the design too.

The fact we are getting fatter doesn’t explain why I measure myself, look at their size chart and see that makes me a large (for example), then the large doesn’t actually fit, I actually need a small.

Beds are getting bigger, albeit at a slower rate than clothes. If you look at mattresses from the 1960s you see it. Chairs are bigger too.

We are certainly getting bigger, and so are our clothes to accommodate that. No denying it.

It's just that it's not a conspiracy to prevent fat people from finding out that they're fat. It is nothing to do with vanity. It's to do with adapting to a fast changing market. It would be ridiculous never to update, or we would still be using Victorian patterns.

Just talking about this today as I'd ordered a pair of men's walking trousers and they fit perfectly, I'd say I have five different brands of women's walking trousers in 14 all completely different widths.
I like it on eBay when people put stretched and unstretched width of trousers, it really helps, but yes men's trousers tend to be the width they say they are.
When even manufacturers of technical gear think we want to lie to ourselves then it's a poor do.