Vanity sizing needs to be stopped

[SemperIdem]

I appreciate this isn’t shiny new subject matter but it’s been really niggling at me the last few days.

I’ve relatively recently had a baby, back in my pre-maternity clothes if not quite at pre-maternity shape (granted I felt I was out of shape at the point of falling pregnant).

I bought a pair of jeans from Pull and Bear, size 10. They are absolutely enormous. There is not a chance I’m a size 8 at the weight I am. I then reflected how as a 5’6, barely 8 stone teenager, I was a size 10 in Topshop jeans. How am I, at a significantly heavier weight, still a size 10 anywhere let alone smaller than a size 10?

Am I being unreasonable to think that there must be a way to get shops to end vanity sizing, the variance between shop sizes is also ridiculous.

my teen dd is a size 4-6. She is very slender but hardly has any waist so she really struggles with sizing. Some brands are better than others - a lot of brands assume you will have a fashionably tiny waist and big hips. My dd being very “straight” often has to size down, but she’s 5’8” so then she struggles with length of sleeves and legs (fashionable shorts can appear indecently short and leggings look like pyjamas.

When it comes to sizing it’s not easy whether you are fat, thin, short or tall!

@BobbieTables Thank God we can have a diversion from all the crap going on! You don’t have to respond if you want to only discuss wars and atrocities. I’d jog on…

The best bet on sizing is to narrow down the stores you order from. I know exactly what size to order from Cos, &OtherStories, Arket, Hobbs, M&S and a few others. Rarely get it wrong.

@SpidersAreShitheads My thinking is more “manufacturers need to work from the same sizing charts”, than “women can’t accept they’re bigger”.

To me, vanity sizing is manufacturers treating women as though they’re stupid and aren’t aware of their own bodies, whilst simultaneously making clothes shopping more of a faff than it really needs to be.

It isn’t life or death, I know. It’s just a bit annoying.

Ignore the size on the label and go by the actual measurements in the product description. That's what I do.

It's fairly easy to take your measurements with a tape measure. Or if you want to be super accurate, get a sewist to do it for you.

I was thinking the other day how hard sizing must be for very slender women. I’m just under 5,4 and size 8s are now getting too big! Absolutely crazy.I haven’t lost weight and in fact I’ve still got a size 12 skirt from H&M that by todays sizing would be an 8 and it still fits.

@MightyGoldBear yeah I agree with you, clothes shopping has become way too much of a hassle now that the sizes are so all over the place, and that everything has pivoted to be primarily online so you can’t go and try things on as easily as before. Especially if you are plus size like me or approaching it. Like you I basically try to avoid clothes shopping as much as I can these days which is sad as I used to be hugely into fashion (I also find it annoying to be paying increasing amounts of money for increasingly poor quality and fabrics but that’s a whole other story).

In reality when I go to try on clothes in the shop it’s very rare they have anything above a 14, let alone 18/20/22 which is where I am depending on the shop. Even if the shop is “kind” enough to make clothes in those sizes at all in the first place, they don’t have a lot of those sort of sizes on the shelves and just say oh we could order it in for you. When I may as well just stay home and order things myself if the shop doesn’t let me try stuff on to see what fits well. But I am TERRIBLE at returning stuff (most likely have undiagnosed ADHD) so just can’t trust myself to order more than one size at a time (and often stop myself from doing even that for fear it won’t be right, even with the size guide and measurements it can still be way off). Especially as you say when your size can vary over about 4 sizes these days rather than 2!!

I would LOVE if there was some general consistency over sizing in U.K. clothes. I appreciate that some shops have slightly different fits and wouldn’t like everything to be totally uniform, for example as someone with big boobs and hips I used to swear by Coast until a few years ago when they changed their fit, but Next has never worked for me. So it’s good to have options. But at least uniformity within the same shop would be good and some shops are much better at this than others. And it would be great if there was an agreed range of measurements universally for each size in the U.K.

I'd rather we just stopped with made up sizing, and gave chest/waist/hip/leg measurements.

But if all manufacturers worked from the same sizing charts then most women wouldn’t be able to find clothes that actually fit them. Say a size 10 was standardised as 30 inch bust, 26 waist, 32 hip and each size varied by 2 inches from that standard. What about those women who are a 31 bust, 25 waist and 30 hip?

I do wish there would be more consistency between sizes in the same store (and particularly if I’m buying 2 pairs of the same trousers in different colours I’d like them to be the same size…) but everyone using a single sizing chart just doesn’t work,

It's not about what you're wearing as much as what you have try on/order. I live somewhere with few shops and so we have to order online or buy when visiting bigger cities - this means we have to order more than we need and sometimes pay to return, or spend far too long in shops trying on different sizes. I don't care what size I am, I just wish I had an idea of what size I am!

It’s ridiculous I completely agree with you op. My friend gave me a couple of pairs of shorts that don’t fit her anymore two different brands one a size 12 and one a size 8. The size 8 ones are bigger than the size 12 ones. Ridiculous.

There are a lot of very unhappy people on here.

I think clothing sizes need an overhaul, use the actual measurements. Waist, bust, shoulder to waist, inside leg etc. It would make choosing the right size so, so much easier. Very few people are a perfect average size but by looking at the actual measurements it is a lot easier to find the best fit.

It matters if you have to buy most of your clothes online and if you live somewhere where it isn't easy to send them back because the sizing is off or inconsistent.

I live in Dorset - we haven't even got an M & S store anymore in my nearest town.

As others have noted: in my late teens I was a UK size 10 and as thin as a rake. I am no longer thin, but for many stores, a 10 is now as large as a 14/16 was 50 years ago. I measure 38 inches around the bust but fit M & S Tee shirts in size 8 and 10. A 12 in trousers/jeans is now more like a 32 inch waist. A 12 would have been more like a 26 inch waist 50 years ago.

I thought Pull and Bear really liked that baggy, "gap in the waistband look". I think this is a style issue really.

Not all retailers state the actual measurements in the product description.

YANBU that sizes vary so much it’s annoying. There’s a couple of things at play IMHO.

i watched a tv programme once about fast fashion. In the really cheap sweatshops factories, the dressmakers/machinists are given a roll of fabric and told they need to get x amount of items from it so they tend to size down so a 12 will be more like an 8/10 etc.

Then there’s the arguably more up market brands who practise vanity sizing and I must admit, it does influence me to my utter embarrassment- I love it when I can buy a 12 rather than a 16 even though I know it’s vanity sizing. 😳

Then there’s the style - I got a pair of wide leg elasticated waist trousers from Tesco in an 8 whereas my jeans are 14s!

And then there’s Zara ……..I need an X large fir dome of their tops and jackets!

This needs to come under trading standards and measures tbh, a 12 needs to be a 12, etc etc

they need to conform to the measurements for these sizes or they don’t get allowed to be sold in stores.

Measurements in size guides are often just plain wrong. Several times I’ve carefully measured myself, consulted the guide and ended up with a garment that’s too big.

You mean standard sizing....

I've mixed opinions... on one hand if standard sizing was held to, it might help realise some people realise how they big they are but who's going to decide what that size is going to be though - go back to the "old" sizing or agree a new, more generous set of measurements?

It's nuts. I have to buy a size 4 now. I was a 6 as a skinny teenager. I'm definitely not smaller now.

Ah right, from your original description it sounded like you were using the phrase “vanity sizing” for manufacturers who makes sizes bigger (to suit the vanity of saying you’re a smaller size than you are).

But I’m totally with you re the need to have a bit of uniformity in sizing. I don’t care what the label says, just make it consistent!

Actually, that’s a lie. I do care because I’m carrying extra weight right now (although it’s dropping slowly - yay!). Shops that only stock sizes up to 14 - that’s fine when 14 is a decent size 14. Not so ok when it’s a tiny, skimpy 14 that I can only squeeze half a tit into 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

Also, I get irritated by far more trivial things every day. And there are implications for this - carbon footprint of ordering wrong sizes online, people (like me) who never get round to returning things, increasing wastage.

Anyway, you don’t need to justify having an opinion on something that isn’t life or death. Ignore posters scolding you for daring to have an opinion on some of the more mundane things in life. I have irrational peri rage every single day 😂😂 See the “I do not care” thread - there’s many of us 😂

Well yes, inconsistent and inaccurate sizing is annoying, I agree and its down to cheap mass production.

The actual sizing framework has changed to accommodate the change in people's sizes, same as in they have done at other times previously.

In shops now, a 36 inch hip is frequently an 8, where that definitely wasn't the case before!

the OP doesn't seem particularly concerned about variations in standard sizing but rather that fat people should be allowed to wear anything under a 12.

These discussions about vanity sizing are always thinly veiled fat bashing threads.

Exactly! Lots of shops don't have changing rooms anymore. I dont want to have to buy 3 sizes of everything and then lug 2 of them back, making sure i do so within 28 days and don't lose the receipt in the meantime. Same with online, i don't want to have to order multiples to find out i don't like any of them, particularly when more places are starting to charge to return.

The most annoying thing is sizes changing within the same shop! H&m is particularly bad for this.

It's shoes for me too. I am a size 8 but some shoes, I am a 9. Have lost count in the number of shoes I have tried on the 8s are too tight - 8 is that company's largest size. So lose out.

I find shoe buying a pain as it is due to flat feet, wide toes and weak ankles. I need support - not sliders, flip flops and flimsy sandals.

I am wearing a size 8 top and size 16 shirts today. Both from Tu at Sainsbury's. I have put on weight over the last couple of years due to medical issues. I have no idea what size I am anymore.

I have a size 16 dress that was my Mums and she wore about 30 years ago Doesn't go anywhere near me. Was OK when I was 3 stone lighter!

I never buy online as I have no idea what size to get. Currently limited to M&S as only local shop to have changing rooms.