When did vanity sizing start?

[GeorgeMichaelsEspadrille]

I distinctly remember wearing wearing particular dress to a party in 1990 - it was a size 10. Would it still be a size 10 or would it now be an 8?

I'm not sure when sizes started to change? Any ideas?

Depends where you shop. The skirt that I wore when I met my now DH 20 years ago was a size 12. When I got down to a size 12 a few years ago it fitted again. So no change there. M&S.

I'd say early/mid-90s

I'm not convinced about vanity sizing. Yes, sizing in the 1950s was totally different, fashions and body shapes were different etc.
I'm 50 and the Topshop size 12 dress that I wore for my 21st (so...1990) still fits, I'm currently a size 12/14. Ditto a few other bits that I have from that decade. There have always been brands that are roomy. I remember BHS and M&S were known for it when I was a teen. What has changed is the huge amount of sizing inconsistencies. I've tried stuff on in M&S, where different colours of the same item are sized differently. I also have jeans in sizes 10-16 (I'm usually a 14 in jeans).

Not sure if did, as a pp said, yes in the fifties it was different, but most clothes are still the same size as they were twenty or thirty years ago now, many of us still have stuff in our wardrobes.

It’s more the inconsistency, some shops sizing is very large, others not. That’s the issue.

If you look at this history of Michael/M&S clothing labels you can see a bit of creep on sizing as the decades go by. A lot of them list measurements e.g. size 12 = 36in hip in the 60s/70s
vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/st-michael/

I bought a 1950s original skirt for a party around 1980 when I was a size 12 to 14 and the size 14 on just did up and I was definitely an hourglass.Since I had my daughter I have been a size 18 but I weigh more than I did then so probably it really took off early 90s

I make a lot of my own clothes and interestingly sewing patterns have not changed but if you look at their measurements then I think there has definitely been a change in shop bought sizing but as to when I don't know. For example a size 12 in a standard sewing pattern is 34, 26.5, 36 and a 10 is 32.5, 25, 34.5. I'm pretty sure none of those measurements are standard shop sizes for the corresponding 12, 10 etc.

When the nation as an average started getting bigger - essentially when American style way of eating came to our shores - grab bags, suoer size, extra large everything with cream on top
Only certain shops do it though - in order to retain/attract loyal customers who worry about the number at the back of their neck. It's just a number and no one else even sees it.

I remember in the 80s as a teen going into adult sizes, my first size was size 10, and I was skinny and athletic, my waist was 22. During the 90s, my waist was 25 and I wore a size 8. Although clothes were often too big, but I,liked an oversized look back then. Now my waist is 25 and I sometimes wear a size 6. This is Whistles/AllSaints/. H and M I'm a size 8.
I don't shop at M &S/ Next etc, because of sizing issues.

More than 20 years ago. I remember commenting to a friend that I was the same dress size despite having gained 20lb in weight since my teenage years. Nowadays I suspect I'd be in a "smaller" size.

I have some size 8 jeans from French connection bought late 90s maybe 2000. The size 8 I wear now looks massive when comparing.

I've recently lost weight and now weigh the same as I did 24 years ago. Back then I mostly wore a size 14 with the odd 12. Now I can wear a size 10 in most places.

I’m finding where I used to be a straight 10, 8s fit much better these days. No major weight change. Then again a lot of the styles are really oversized at the moment.

Not sure about vanity sizing, but jeez the inconsistency.
I'm a true size 10, but have clothes from 8 to 14 in my wardrobe, all of which I wear regularly, and they all fit.
I'm baffled as to how people successfully clothes shop online when sizes change in the blink of an eye.

I have a pair of my mother’s YSL shorts she bought in the mid 80s. They’re an Italian 38. I am also an Italian 38, but can not get the shorts over my thighs.

I’ve been a size 6 for most of my adult life but weigh a good stone more than I did a decade ago. In places like H&M and COS, size 32 fits me the best. I am not teeny tiny, so wonder how really slim people manage.

Clothes sizing was deregulated in the 1989s, and the peak of (admitted) vanity sizing was in the early 90s.

There hasn't been true sizing since, butnss a rule of thumb, you can add at least 2 sizes to a 1980s size if you want to find a rough equivalent

I'm a size 10/12 and I can still wear a size 10 dress from about 1998. Maybe a one off but I don't think sizes have changed that much over the past 20 years.

However, I can remember being a size 8 teenager (in the 90s again) and fitting a size 12 shirt of my mother's from the early 70s.

you can add at least 2 sizes to a 1980s size if you want to find a rough equivalent

Do you mean subtract? Because in the 1980s when I left school I was a size 10 in places like Warehouse and Topshop. I am once again a size 10 (having been an 8 for most of the interim period, thanks lockdown) but weigh about a stone and a half more and am about four inches bigger in all directions apart from height, sadly. I think that size 10 that I was wearing in the late 80s is called a size 6 now judging by the old stuff I've given my teenage daughter who is a size 4-6 in modern sizing.

What's more annoying about modern sizing IMO is the move by more and more labels to Small/Medium/Large. It reduces the range of sizes, and costs to the retailers I guess.

@whiteroseredrose

Depends where you shop. The skirt that I wore when I met my now DH 20 years ago was a size 12. When I got down to a size 12 a few years ago it fitted again. So no change there. M&S.

Sorry but that’s made me laugh this morning

I remember 25 years ago wearing my favourite bootcut jeans as a student- size 12 and today I bought some high wasted jeans - the 8 fit but I decided to get the 10 because I like to have a bit more comfort. So isn’t that the opposite of vanity sizing . My body seems the same size .

No @metalkprettyoneday that is vanity sizing exactly
They label larger clothes with smaller size to 'appeal to our vanity'

I wear second hand clothes from the 60's sometimes. I'm a size 16 but size 16's in 60's dresses and skirts don't fit. Nowhere near. In the 70's I weighed 7st 8 and I was 5ft 6. I was a size 10. Now that would be a 6. Vanity sizing started in the 80's.

I'm the same weight as I was in the eighties, then I wore a 10, now I wear an 8/Italian 40 mostly. Some of the stuff I've kept still fits. So, I think it's around 1 size difference, I always size up for vintage clothes.

@Castoreum

Yes I did!

I was at my university weight, where I wore a size 10 or 12, and found these days I'm in a 6 or 8, occasionally a 4 or XXXS!

(This is not a current, lockdown comparison, you understand!)

Vanity sizing was rife, and openly admitted in the 90s (nothing to do with the periodic revaluation which used to go on in the days before it was deregulated). And it's never recovered.

People think 12 is medium - but forget that a 12 now is more like a 16 then, and that wasn't really seen as medium (even though most women were a 14 or 16)