Have clothes just got bigger?

[Oly5]

I'm 5ft 4 and currently weigh 11st 8lb. I'm trying to get down to pre-preg weight of 10st 12lb.
BUT, increasingly I am a size 10 in tops and find that I can fit size 12 trousers and skirts 80% of the time.
How can this be? I am overweight, I know it.
Have clothes just got bigger? I can't even imagine where all the skinny ladies are shopping! Tops must drown you?!

I'm 5'6 and at that weight I was pushing a size 16, so maybe you carry the weight well?
At 9st 9lbs I'm still in a 12.

Vanity sizing, OP. Makes us feel a wee bit better about ourselves. Or, that's the aim, I think.

Yes, I think there is another vanity sizing in progress. I can sport a 12 next, but also have a 16 from next in my wardrobe. I'm they heaviest I've ever been, except for 9 months pregnant

Yes clothes have got bigger. 15 years ago I weighed under 8 stone and would fit comfortably into a size 8/10, now (well before I got pregnant) I weight just over 9 stone and still fit comfortably into a size 8/10. my old size 8/10 clothes ( I still have a few sentimental items from 15 years ago) look more like a modern size 6. Even sewing dress patterns have made their sizes more generous over the years, vintage pattern sizes are tiny in comparison to the same size on modern patterns.
I have found the worst offenders to be gap, next and Dorothy Perkins. When. It pregnant I can fit into a size 6 in Dorothy Perkins and there is no way that I am genuinely a size 6.

Vanity sizing.

I think Topshop/Zara/H and M are pretty close to old sizes. I'm not thin but am petite, I've got old 10's from the eighties and they're similar but I was having to get a 6 in Next and have some Gap size zeros! (I may frame those )

Where are you shopping from? Clothes have got bigger, but at your height and weight I'm surprised you can wear a 10-12.

Definitely, 20yrs ago I was 9 st (5' 7") and was in a 12, I still have a skirt that there's no way I can fit into now - it wold probably be considered an 8 toda. I am about 10.5st now and, like you, can now fit into a 10 regularly. Post pg when I was 11st I was in a 12. 2st heavier and the same dress size, obviously not!

Please ignore the rogue apostrophe in 10s
< mortified >

Well, I just tried to buy some skinny jeggings in primark in a 14.
I'm a comfortable 12-14 at 5' 10"

Couldn't get the buggers past my thighs...

Definitely. I have been the same size pretty much my whole life. Used to be size 8, now only old size 8s fit, and I'm having to buy new stuff in a 6 or a 4! But I haven't changed size

Clothes have got enormously bigger.

Standardisation was dropped in the 1980s, and it's been 'easing' ever since. A size 12 then is probably a 6 (or even a 4) now.

I lost weight a few years ago to get to a healthy weight, now at 8st 8 (which is top end of healthy BMI for my height) I find size 6 a bit big. Age 10-11 fits well, but has no allowances for curviness (understandably).

Clothing has got bigger, but so have people.

And not just fatter. Teenagers are far taller, their shoulders are broader and their feet are massive.

A size 7 foot is condidered perfectly normal amongst female teens. A 4 was the norm for me and my friends.

I'm 5'4, 35-28-36, 120-ish lbs and losing baby weight so buying new clothes quite often & even knowing measurements, the shop sizing is always out.
I find in second hand 90s stuff I'm around a 12 but I'm a modern day 8!

It's now a complete pain to buy clothes, I have to try everything on. I'm 5'9" and weigh 11 stone I own clothes which vary in size from 12 to 8, I even own some from the 'petite' range

It's not vanity sizing it's complete pain in the arse sizing - wish they'd go back to standard for everything, it'd make clothes buying far quicker.

I think it must have. I know I've put on loads of weight and I'm still the same size...

Yes they have got bigger. 15 years ago I was a size 10, I'm now a few inches bigger, but I wear a size 6 or 8. Makes me wonder what the fuck thin people do now - a lot of internet shopping from China or other slimmer countries for sure.

Yes. I've got suits from 1999, size 6. Now I have to roll the tops over yet the '99 suits fit?! Same shop, same 'size'. There's about half an inch to an inch each side

If you want a reality check, pop into Topshop and try on your size. I find their sizes to be broadly accurate. I'm an 8, occasionally 10 in there at 5'5 and 8.5st. Most places I'm a 6.

sleepy indeed.

My (almost) 16 year old DD weighs just over seven stone (so small on any reckoning) but her bra size is a 36 B. That's a big rib cage - but completely in proportion to the rest of her - size 6 or 6.5 feet.

Top Shop etc fit her stature perfectly.

I'm 5ft6 and down from 12stone 8lbs to 9 stone 12lbs. At my heavier weight I was an 18, now I'm a 10-12. Some stores are ridiculous, next for example, 10s and 12s are huge!! There is no way I'm an 8 but I am in there!

I recently lost over two stone and am now a size ten. I'm the same weight now I was when I was 16 but then (35 years ago) I was a size 12.

I'm 8 stone and 5 FT 3 and an 8 is too big in some shops.
I was this size in the late 80s early 90s and was a 10.

I am shopping at all the usual places - I bought two tops in Hobbs yesterday, one a 10, the other a small. Trousers are from Banana Republic, Monsoon, Boden (admittedly with stretch in the Boden ones). In M&S, I am never more than a 10 in tops, same in Reiss, Boden and White Company.
I walk everywhere but I'm definitely not toned.
I just find it bizarre because I know I definitely have a good stone to lose.
The skinny people must be having a nightmare finding stuff to fit