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?!

Yes they have, and as a size 8, it's bloody annoying that many of these shops haven't stocked "size 6" (their old size 8) across the range, so there's several shops I've stopped bothering with.

Not many shops do a 6 which riles many if them out for me.

Rules them out .
It riles mm email though

But aged 13 clothes is pretty much a petite hight size 8, age 14 more like 8/10, so not that crazy to wear children's clothes! It's the lengths of arms and sleeves that mean they don't fit most woman, but those of us "short of leg" have long hit gap kids! (Their children's winter coats are a fabulous find, any short thin woman should check them out! Boden children's range is another decent one)

Ffs
Excuse my typos.
I meant lack of size 6 riles me.

Georgina - your anger has obviously hit your typing skills! Am with you, it's annoying, slim/small people haven't just disappeared! I have lots of size 8 things from White stuff (I have to walk past one regularly so is a 'just pop in' shop) from 3 years ago (before having DC2). These still fit me, or if anything are a little snug, yet when I went in their last week, most of their size 8s are far too big, and they don't make size 6s across the range and those they do make, they don't stock many, sending you online - which sells out of size 6s early apparently because they don't make many! I am definately not thinner than when I got pregnant with DC2.

It's unfortunate, because I don't think I'll bother going in there now even if I am walking past anyway, because it's unlikely I'll find anything I can wear - but often as well as a tshirt, I'd pick up a scarf or a necklace or something else 'one size' - it's bad business practice really. I don't think I stand out as tiny in our town.

This drives me nuts. I don't really care what size I am, I just want to be broadly the same in every shop so at least I stand a chance of choosing something that fits me. I seem to be different to a lot of others in that I find Fat Face and Next - who many say come up huge - tight on me in my "usual" size. In M&S I can range from a 12 (not a hope in hell of me ever being a 12 ) to an 18.

My very old size 12 jeans from Next are equivalent to a current 8 in Next.

I can fit a sizes 12 in most trousers, but my waist measurement is is the highly at risk from diabetes camp. It is vanity sizing, and I think it contributes to our thinking that having a size 37 inch waist is acceptable.

dinosaur

I'm 5.10 12 stone and 49 , wear a 12 -14
When I was 16 in the 80s most clothes started at a 10 , an 8 was unheard of ! I was 8.5 stone then and wore a 10 !!! Thinner than my daughter is now who wears a 6-8 !!

I'm 5ft 2 and I'm a 16 in tops and 14 in trousers at a similar weight to you.

I am 52.

At 23 I was 8 stone 5 with a 25 inch waist and 34 inch bust and hips and was a size 12. I am considerably larger now and by old reckoning I should be about 5 sizes bigger than I was at 23, so 22

I don't understand why they do it. If you had crept up into a size 20 or 22 you'd take action but comfortably being a 14 it doesn't seem so urgent.

Oddly, children's sizing has got smaller. My 8 yo has school dresses aged 9 - 10 but is also wearing her sisters old school dresses age 7-8 (her sister is 21 years older). The old 7-8 are longer and a lot wider than today's 9-10, yet children are getting fatter.

X post with itsalldramarama.

FatherHenderson, exactly. It's so wrong.

Children's sizes getting smaller is just so teens have to start buying more expensive adult clothes earlier

Vanity sizing is a real pain - I'm a 12/14 bottom in TopShop but a size 6 according to Next. I'm also a size 6 top in TopShop (pear shaped) and can't get tops anywhere other than there, Zara and H&M which isn't particularly great when trying to find suitable tops for work.

For once I'd like to take my really rather normal frame to a high quality shop, try on office appropriate clothes and not look like I'm wearing a potato sack in their smallest size. I honestly don't know how my truly petite friends manage - I think it's a combination of Japanese imports and tailoring, neither of which are cheap...

People are getting taller and broader too, so probably a whole new set of standard sizes should be developed and standardised across shops. I'm bigger than usual now (and working on it) but my usual weight is around 9 1/2 stone at 5 5. At this size I can fit into anything from an 8-14 depending on where I shop! It's partly dependent on my shape (somewhere between an hourglass and a pear, widest across my hips/thighs with a small waist and 32F bust- so for example slim leg trousers will always be loose on the waist to accommodate my giant backside, and shirts tend to be difficult as tight across bust to fit waist etc. I think I need a seamstress to alter all my clothes to fit!

Back in the day when I was a teenager, I barely weighed 7 stone and was a size 10 or even 12. I'm now at least a stone heavier and an 8. Go figure.

I am very close to your height and weight and still wear a 16 top an 14-16 bottom. I can't imagine trying to squeeze into a 10 or even a 12 at this weight. Just goes to show how we all carry weight differently.

I have clothes labelled anything from a 12 to a 22 in my wardrobe.
1 am an 18 and go down to a 16 depending how regularly I am exercising, so not much fluctuation in my actual size. and at how much trying on I need to do when shopping. Monsoon and M&S are the worst offenders with the vanity sizing IME. Also glad the likes of Boden do free returns because I often order the same item in 2 sizes to see which fits best.

We are indeed carrying it very differently! Op I am the same height as you and the same as your pre pregnant weight - yet still needing a 14 in some tops. Definitely 12 in dresses and trousers tho. A 10 wouldn't get up my legs I don't think

Vanity sizing takes the piss. Usually I'm a modern size 6, but in places with bigger sizing need a 4, places with smaller sizing I can get away with an 8 although it's loose. Kids clothes aren't an option as adult clothes are rarely long enough for me. The tall ranges have been reduced so shops can carry big ranges of plus size. I think kids clothes have got wider, especially uniform. Dd needs an old style size 4, which is almost impossible to get. She's 11 but very tall, and it's not just being prepuberty that stops age 15 fitting. Age 11 is too wide too. Age 15 I've found isn't far off a modern size 10 now.
In my teens (90s) somewhere like top shop always ran out of size 8/10, size 6 ran out quick, and sale racks were full of size 12s upwards. Despite the sizes now being bigger, these days teens are so much larger that the sale rack has plenty of size 6,8,10s, and rarely anything bigger.

Yes I think they have. I'm 5'4 and weight about 8 stones. I recently went shopping in Topshop (I never go there usually) and found a lot of the size 8 stuff was too big! That doesn't seem right at all.

Carry a tape measure - that's what I do.

Size labels mean nothing nowadays. I'm not even sure that it's just vanity sizing as that doesn't explain why I am different sizes within the same store (I'm looking at you NEXT).

I think it's a sign of clothes being made on the cheap.

For once I'd like to take my really rather normal frame to a high quality shop, try on office appropriate clothes and not look like I'm wearing a potato sack in their smallest size.

I totally agree!