Are clothes getting smaller or is it me?

[Fortiesandfatter]

So I’ve been a size 14 on bottom/12 on top forever. Have recently been looking to buy new work trousers and jeans and finding I’m not fitting into like Asda’s size 18 jeggings and size 16 T-shirts. However, am still fitting my next size 14 jeggings and my usual size 12 tops. However, struggling with new next size 16 jeggings! I will admit I’ve put on a few pounds and blame menopause but I honestly don’t think I’ve gone up the 3 potential
sizes that some shops are having me believe! Not when I can still wear quite a lot of my old clothes. I’m fairly tall so probably don’t look like what my perception of a size 18 may have been or maybe I do, At the end of the day does a size 18 look different depending on height? I don’t know! How can it?!
But then I see articles in magazine re weight loss and photographs of women with their supposed size and I feel like it just a doesn’t add up. They appear a lot bigger but claim to be smaller than I ever was and I’m thinking they honestly don’t look like a size 12.
Has anyone noticed such a phenomenon or am I just deluded? AIBU to think clothes are getting smaller while I’m maybe just slightly bigger? Because honestly thinking it’s time for something drastic and I feel like this is one big ramble but just so stuck. Should also add, exercise is difficult due to a chronic condition and extreme fatigue. Would just like to know it’s maybe not just me that feels this way about clothes!

How on earth are people remembering their weight and measurements from nearly 50 years ago?

in relation to the labels they are given clothes are definitely getting bigger - it's vanity sizing.

I have an evening dress I bought before having DC so it's over 35 years old. It's labelled a size 12 and is still a good fit. Last week I bought a pair of jeans. I didn't look at the label, just tried them on when the sales assistant passed them to me. They were a perfect fit and I was delighted with them. I laughed out loud when I got them home and saw they were labelled a UK size 4. Even in the early §1980s when I was 2 stone lighter than I am now I was never smaller than an 8.

So over 3 decades I have stayed roughly the same size and weight but somehow dropped 4 dress sizes. It's all nonsense!

It’s awful isn’t it? I find my clothes shrink if I leave them in the wardrobe long enough.

You’re wrong @Fortiesandfatter, far from sizes getting smaller they’re actually getting bigger. Vanity sizing is rife now. Some of my very old clothes - I keep things I love a long time - are a 16, some very recent purchases are a 10 and they all fit.

How is it a brag? She's very petite. Dont be so rude.

Ridiculous petty and jealous comment!

My body shape is small top larger bottom. I. Guessing you are the opposite. No way Id get my bottom in a 6 or 8 😂Id definitely get a 6 to 8 top on though.
My mum is 6 foot and very slim. I have 2 dresses of hers from the 50s. She said they were size 12 when she bought them. I cant get into them or do the zip up.

This. Ive gone down at least 2 sizes in one brand of tops!

'That being said, cheap brands never fit well and you're better paying more for a better cut. It has always been this way.'

People often say this but I haven't found it to be true.

I bought some long sleeve t shirts with Lycra from Hobbs a few years ago. They were about £35 each. I then discovered that the Primark £3 t shirts were exactly the same. I'm sure they must come from the same factory. The posh ones and the cheap ones look good, wash well and have lasted years. Similarly jeans - I bought some a couple of weeks ago from a local boutique for £180. They are a great fit - as are the £22 pair I bought from M&S children's department the following week. And I have a couple of Primark skirts that are over 10 years old and I always get compliments when I wear them.

it's nice to buy high end things if you can afford them but it's not essential.

While some of it is vanity sizing, that's not the complete picture, and comparing current sizes to 40 years ago is a bit silly. Taking obesity out of the equation for a moment, people have changed. People in the 1940s were generally much smaller, just as people in the 1800s were smaller. While more people have got fatter, people on previous generations smoked like chimneys, so hardly the picture of health thenselves!

Sorry OP but I think clothes have got bigger. I gained so much weight (about 2 stone in 6 months) when I hit menopause I went to the doctor as I was worried something was wrong. I'd always been a size 10/12 & tall so weight had never crossed my mind. I had blood tests - nothing wrong - just hormone changes, metabolism crashed. Around that time I bought a coat - it was a size 8!

I think it is the opposite which drives me mad as I buy online and never know what size to order. I think it varies by brand.

And this post demonstrates why vanity sizing exists. Because wearing smaller sizes is seen as 'better' or aspirational and something to boast about. So people are more inclined to make a purchase if the number on the label is low.

Would @MyArtfulGreySloth have posted 'Nice brag' if someone had written about having to choose between a size 14 and 16? I don't think so.

I think clothes are bigger if anything apart from stupid randomness between the same size in the same shop.

I bought a pair of trousers in M&S this summer. My usual size 12 and they were tight. I then bought a pair of 14’s and when compared with the 12 - same colour same style - they were smaller. So it’s mad.

This. I bought a funnel neck denim jacket from H&M which fits better on my shoulders than any other garment in my (extensive) wardrobe.

I think clothes have got bigger in my own experience. I'm the size that I was 20 odd years ago, and I definitely wouldn't fit into them clothes

I am the same size as you and find myself to be a 16 in Next jeggings

Some brands are smaller than others, it’s been this way for many years (if not forever). I will always be one size in Zara clothes and another in H&M or asos, it’s always been this way.