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Original poster

When did a size 14 become LARGE?

44 replies

clumsymum · 08/04/2008 12:22

I popped into Gap yesterday, for a few tee shirts etc for our hlidays next week.

Picked up a couple of nice Polo shirts, in medium.

They are just a tad on the tight side, so I needed to get LARGE. ME???

I'd have thought with the trends of people's weight as they are at present, sizing would have gone the other way.

OP posts:
Tutter · 08/04/2008 12:24

i just bought some new running gear

i had to order large as am a 14 atm

"large" a tad depressing, no?

Disenchanted · 08/04/2008 12:24

I always think this,

Im a 14, but always have to get L out of S/M/L

Which i don't think is fair!

AnAngelWithin · 08/04/2008 12:25

i noticed as well that some plus size clothing catalogues start at a 14 now

throckenholt · 08/04/2008 12:25

probably at the same time as anyone who is genuinely large in the media is a size 16 (even if they are actually much larger).

CountessDracula · 08/04/2008 12:26

I am a 14 and I am a large in a lot of makes too.

The last tshirts I got from Gap were medium tho

PerkinWarbeck · 08/04/2008 12:26

this is also weird, and probably says a lot about natioanl stereotypes.

I am 12-14 on top, and just bought a fab Esprit jacket.

the UK and German sizes both say medium

French and Italian are large

MrsMattie · 08/04/2008 12:27

14/16 is always 'large' in high street shops. It's most depressing for people who are bigger than that! When I was an 18 at one point I used to cry at having to buy all my clothes in crappy Evans. It's a crime that so many shops haven't cottoned on to the fact that 14 is average and that 16/18/20 are as common as 10/12 in this country.

OrmIrian · 08/04/2008 12:27

Is this the time to trot out the old chestnut about how sizes have got more generous

I'll get me coat.....

CountessDracula · 08/04/2008 12:28

I think 16 is the average is it not?

CountessDracula · 08/04/2008 12:29

I did go to next the other day
the sizes there are VAST (but sadly the clothes are minging)

3andnomore · 08/04/2008 12:37

What I find even more depressing is shops for larger clothes that start with size 12 never mind a size 14

JamesAndTheGiantBanana · 08/04/2008 12:38

It's ridiculous imho, 14 isn't large and you're absolutely right in your op clumsymum.

Leading on from a link someone posted to the daily mail website (I know, I know) the other day I clicked on an article about a size 16 entrant to a beauty contest, possibly Miss UK or something. She was stunning and completely in proportion but they were ripping her to shreds for being "so overweight and unhealthy" blah blah blah.

I took it with the appropriate large pinch of salt seeing as it was the daily bigot but it still irritated me. Do people really think size 14/16 is "huge and overweight" now? Personally I think of 14 as slightly padded and 16 as a little plump. Maybe my view is skewed as I'm a size 24 though (and consider myself very overweight, obv) I'd love to be a size 14/16 as I think it would suit my frame.

TillyScoutsmum · 08/04/2008 12:40

i remember asking in a shop once (think it might have been Mango ?) what size their "large" was and the sylph like 16 year old shop assistant looked down her nose and said "Oh, I don't think it would fit you... Its about a 12"... A size 12 ? Large ?? FFS

Anna8888 · 08/04/2008 12:40

I was in Gap Champs-Elysées last week and there was a notice saying that they had changed their sizing in order to correspond to international norms.

I think that what used to be a UK 12 in Gap is now a 14.

Alambil · 09/04/2008 10:51

Jamesandthegiantbanana - I am a 20/22 and yearn to be a 12/14 too; any smaller and I think I'll vanish lol.

I have the same view of you (that 16 isn't actually obese by any means... overweight perhaps but not obese)

SueW · 09/04/2008 10:57

I read thi articleabout Gok Wan. The model featured was the face of Inspire - New Look's 16-26 range - and is a "plus size" 14 model.

So what do they do - make the clothes smaller to have them modelled????

TsarChasm · 09/04/2008 11:09

It's very wrong. A 12/14 should not be sending out a subtle 'you're large' (ie overweight ) message to the wearer.

Unless someone is unusually tall or short surely this is an ideal size to be. ie not under or over weight.

I'm aiming to get back to this size. It'll be very disheartening to get there and still be picking out 'large' sizes. Any smaller and I look too thin.

donnie · 09/04/2008 11:13

but sizes have definitely got bigger in the last 10 years. I used to be a size 10 when I weighed at least a stone less than i do now - I was very slim. I now wear 10s or 12s and I am a stone heavier - clothes are without doubt bigger. A current 12 is an old 14 IMO.Plus there is a lot of variation between shops, I can fit a size 8 in some shops and only get into a 12 in others. It is crazy.

MrsJohnCusack · 09/04/2008 11:32

well I think the official sizing is 8=XS 10=S 12=M 14=L 16=XL, then 18=XXL or 2X and so on

crap but I got used to having to be an XL yonks ago

JamesAndTheGiantBanana · 09/04/2008 11:35

SueW, all catalogue clothes are pinned and altered to give the most visually appealing fit on models, no matter what the size. I bet if you could look behind the models they'd have quite a few bulldog clips making the clothes fit their curves perfectly. It's all lies and airbrushing and marketing bullshit these days.

Imho.

MissPaulaYates · 09/04/2008 11:37

you are lovely mrsjc and you make lovely children (and take fab pictures!)

ivet83 · 09/04/2008 21:38

I am 24 years old with a 2 year old daughter and I am a size 6. I am soooo skinny and I would love to put on some weight. I don't think 12 is big but also it depends on your age. If a 20 years old girl is a size 12 then it is probably big; but for a woman in her late 20s, 30s, or 40s a size 12 is completely normal. A bit of curves is always nice not like me skinny

MrsJohnCusack · 09/04/2008 22:58

thank you MissPaulaYates!

ninedragons · 10/04/2008 00:29

I went to a Very Famous wedding dress designer in Sydney.

He defined XL as size 10 and had nothing bigger than that in his ready-to-wear line, but said he would deign to make me (16) a couture dress because I was "big, but the right kind of big" (hourglass).

I told to fuck off, as he was a nasty little misogynist.

ninedragons · 10/04/2008 00:30

sorry, told him, obv.

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