Are high-street clothes sizes getting BIGGER?

[morningpaper]

I am 5 foot and 9 stone.

10 years ago when I was 5 foot and 8 stone, I was a size 10.

Now I seem to be a size 8. EIGHT? I am quite FAT AROUND THE ARSE. In fact if I wear any sort of GATHERED skirt I look like a duck.

Is it just me or what?

mmm - I'm 5ft 1in and closer to 8 stone, and I'm a 10. I know that I am a good 3/4 stone heavier than 20yrs ago when I was an 8-10. But it depends on where your weight is. I have a baggy stomach but no hips (waist and hips perilously close in size), so low-waisted stuff I can go quite small (a size 2US in GAP trews!) whereas waisted stuff I have to go up a size (size 12 in Boden skirts if I felt like buying one). "Yoof" ranges also tend to be less generously size aka Hennes, Miss Selfridge and Topshop. I'd say at 28in your waist is quite trim!

do you know, when I used to sew my own stuff (when I was a teenager) I had a 25in waist!

Does anyone else suffer with the jeans that grow as they warm up thing? Freshly washed jeans, a little snug but feel ok, two hours later the crotch is round your knees, your arse cleft exposed and they constantly need tugging up. Oh and the flies keep coming down.

Oh tell me about it - size 8 jeans are too big for me these days. I have no farking idea where to get clothes now - I shop in the kids departments though and pay no VAT which is good. But the tops are too short.

I have a 42, 26, 36 figure. Nothing bloody fits me.

Megalegs, I have the jeans that turn into hipsters throughout the day too. But because of the way they are cut you can't wear a belt which would have to go across your hips. We are all doomed to look like saggy arsed birds (which I'm not anymore thank you!)

Oh yes megalegs - Gap long and lean are like that. I had 3 of them to start with but now only one pair anything like stay put after I've work them for an hour or so. So I'm after another extra long pair of jeans.

Deffo - went to London last week and went into French Connection and size 6 tops were too big!!! Now I am normally size 10-12 top half and size 12 on the bottom. Monsoon seem to be the worse offenders size 12 trousers hang off me.

whomovedmychoc I have seen your pics, your breasts are FABULOUS!

MP ermmm thanks?! Blame DD the milkiest kid in Oxfordshire!

Thank you Iota.

Just to compare, this is Next's sizing guide

order size 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

bust 31½ 33 34 35½ 37 39 41

waist 24½ 25½ 27 28 30 32 34½

hips 33 34½ 36 37½ 39½ 41½ 43½

Sorry, that didn't work very well

No they haven't I'm just smaller...

Sizing is one of my bugbears. Having made my own clothes yonks ago and used patterns sizing used to be -

10
32-24-36

12
34-26-38

You can't trust any label these days.