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.

Surely all you need to do is go to the size charts and check your measurements?

They vary between brands. Men don’t have to check their measurements for standard day to day clothes. I really don’t care what size I wear, just that I won’t have to faff around with returns.

Comprehension issues? I didn’t say it should be your whole personality, but spending days being annoyed about clothes sizes and being so focused on your size having just recently given birth, isn’t healthy.

What p’s me off is that there isn’t proper sizing for women. Men get have specific waist and leg lengths, and tops in slim fits, and regular fits etc. Why can’t we have that? I’m seeing some trousers for women in S/M/L lately. Ridiculous. We get to be grateful if a dress or skirt has pockets.

On the ‘vanity’ sizing, I’m an 8/10 these days, 12 as a teen with curves (slimmer than I am now).

I think you inferring I was failing to enjoy my baby was spectacularly rude, condescending and passive aggressive, actually.

In the manner of the majority of threads on AIBU, the subject matter isn’t occupying all my waking thoughts.

@SquishedMallow I don’t believe most of them. My daughter is a size 6, lots of her friends are size 4 and 6 and they have no problems getting clothes. They all have too many clothes if anything. I have a friend who is a size 6 and again no issues.

I think the poster had a point. It’s not healthy to be thinking about clothing sizes so much that it is annoying you for days, more so when you have recently had a baby as it can take time for you body to get back to what it was in a healthy way. You can’t tell manufacturers how to make their clothes, they’ll do what sells and makes them most profit. Measure your waist and buy accordingly.

I’ve just measured the waist on 2 pairs of my Pull and Bear jeans and one measures 27 and one measures 27.5. I’m a 10, sometimes an 8 so it seems pretty accurate.

Men can have just as many issues buying clothing. My son has just bought new clothes for holiday. He needed a size below or above his actual waist measurement in some shorts and his t shirts range from small to large with most being medium.

Not healthy in what way? Nothing makes you aware of your own body more than pregnancy and being postpartum regarding how clothes fit. I don’t care what the label says, but consistency across the board would be great.

Posting this thread was just an extension of an idle thought, whilst the baby slept this morning. I’ve not been burning up with rage about clothes sizes for days.

That’s bad news, if men’s clothes sizes are now being messed around with.

I donthink clothing should be based on actual measurements. I know that only goes so far because of proportions - we've probably all had trousers which fit perfectly on the hips and gape at the waist, or you can't actually do them up. And I've taken up the hem on many pairs of trousers because of short legs. I know cut and fabric make a difference too, as does style.

I don't care about the size on the label once I've got something home, but as many others here say, I don't want to take 4 different sizes of the same thing into the changing room, or to arrive in the post for me to try on. Sizing should be sufficiently standard that you do have a fair shot at finding the right fit at first attempt.

Ridiculous. My friend weighs 7 stone 10 and shops in next with no problems.

It nothing new. My partner has always been anything from a 30 to a 34 waist depending on where he shops for the past 25 years, despite his waist measuring 32. Lengths in men’s jeans have never been consistent either. He’s even had it where 2 pairs of the same jeans in a 32R are different lengths. I think it’s more to do with mass production than vanity sizing. When I’ve bought more expensive clothing, it’s more consistent.

We should just have sizes in inches (or centimeters) much easier.

😂

I think a lot of people who make these threads are struggling or have in the past struggled with food issues, eating disorders, body issues etc.

God there are some mean-minded people here!

Yes. I agree. The number itself is so important to them that they feel the need to ‘stop’ anything that might interfere with number recognition.

Not for adults they aren't!

Children's sizes are by height but adult women and men's sizes are numbers not measurements everywhere in the EU including Germany and have been for decades. Jeans by waist and leg measurement are an exception as in the UK.

EU 38 is a UK10/12 for example. To be confusing Italy and France use the same numbers but slightly differently (EU 38 is roughly Italian and French 40).

It contributes to climate change.

These threads are a thinly-disguised opportunity to show off about what a small size you are.

Nobody is shoving a “cellulite-ridden arse” into a size 6. If you wear a size 6, you are small.

As if it fucking matters 🙄

I've always been a size 10 and am sick of buying size 8's online and then having to return them because they're so bloody massive!

I AM a size 10 in old money, and don't need to kid myself that I'm a size 6, which I wasn't even as a young teenager with no hips!

This is a sample size of 1 - you also don’t say how tall your friend is. I’m this weight and 5’6 and next clothes are the worst culprit their 6 is not small enough for me so I don’t shop there

Also love how any thread about weight descends into insisting that anyone who is a 6-8 must have an eating disorder. I don’t, I’m just petite.

They might be. My daughter is a size 6 and she has quite a bit of cellulite. I was the same at her age.

Maybe slimmer women notice it more because they know they're not that small and having to buy even smaller clothes feels ridiculous.

Or, as I said, knowing I'm 2 stone heavier, but still wearing the same size clothes I did as I did at 20.

And whilst, no, it doesnt matter in a 'worth of the person' sense, it clearly does matter to quite a lot to some women or slimmer women would be able to talk about things that bother them without other women making snidey comments.

Quite.

My daughter would be obese at 10 and a half stone.