Are clothes sizes getting smaller????

[JonesTheSteam]

Right - I haven't put on any weight, (although I could do with losing some anyway.)

But all my current size 12 trousers / jeans fit me fine.

But if I try on any size 12 stuff in shops it's too bloody tight. And of course the size 14 stuff just falls down.

I thought that shops were making things bigger not smaller.

GRRRRR!!!!

Except socks and underwear I have to try everything else on before buying it. I find that the arms are too tight. I haven't got massive arms but the are no longer stick thin either. I'm just under 5ft and weigh 8 1/2 stone and wear a 12 in most chain shops.

I am now a size 000 in some US stores. Interesting to know that I am not a "real woman" according to a previous poster. More as I can still wear things I purchased 30 years from the same shop and the size number is 4.

I take size numbers as meaningless as they are simply a gestalt of fit nowadays. The most expensive labels (designer, not high street) have not changed their fit and a 34 French or 36 Italian remain the same fit as 25 years ago.

I think they're getting bigger. I'm an 8, 6 in dresses, used to wear 10 if only one available. They swamp me now.

I think they may be as I'm a size 10 and am pretty fat still .

What about white company ... Big or small ? I've just ripped my lovely new skirt on the Arse but the waist is gapping

Big I think

I find sizes are getting bigger if anything. Am an average 6, haven't lost / put on weight for years yet the likes of New Look, Topshop, Miss Selfridge etc are the only high street places I can find anything to fit and they cater mostly for teenagers. It must depend on where you shop.

I meant bigger .

Oh bugger lol

I think they're just getting more erratic, quality control and fit testing seems to have gone to pot. The number of times I order multiple items in the same size from the same shop and they range from so small I can't do up, to too big, is nuts. There will always be variance due to cut but I mean more than that.

Next trousers I think have got smaller though, I ordered a few recently and couldn't even get them up. I'm fat, I know that, but these were crazy.

Given that the thread is NINE years old, I suspect the issue has got worse still over the years...

I hate the way the zombie thread warning vanishes...

I'm sure Tesco's are bigger! Usually get their 12-14 pajamas and they've been fine for years. This year the pair I've just got are HUGE. And if anything I've put some weight on. Other places smaller. Ordered a jacket from Esprit and 12 way too tight. A few years ago Their 12's were fine and their jeans were very generous. It makes ordering online flipping hard.

I'm finding sizing to be inconsistent even within the same shop. I tried two styles of jeans in Next recently. I was an 8 (I'm not an 8) in one pair and 12 in the other. In gap even two of the same style in the same size will be different.

I've been testing a theory lately...That if there is a Euro size equivalent on the label, then that seems to be a more accurate indicator. I'm a 14, the labels say Eu 42, but when I've had to size up to a 16 in a small fitting garment I 've noticed the label still says 42. It also helps me chose between a large and a medium.
Now I know a zillion MNers are going to disprove this lol.

I've recently gone back down to the same weight as I was in my early 20s. I have always been a size 10 in topshop even when over a decade I put 2 stone on. I'm now apparently a size 8 so their sizes have changed I'm guessing.

Next drives me nuts, I have trousers in there in a 10 that fall off me then other ones the same size that I can barely get a leg in! But in their dresses and tops I'm a 6/8!