If you're 5'7 with a 26" waist...

[waistchallenge]

Would you mind telling me how much you weigh, please? My waist is 27" but I'm thinking of trying to get it down to 26" because it opens up more possibilities with vintage clothes: 26" seems vastly more common than 27" when it comes to vintage, for some reason.

I'm just wondering how much I might have to lose to get down to 26". If it's too much I might not bother 😅😬

( I was going to post this on Weight Loss chat but then I realised there's probably more people who can answer the question on here).

I always wear an underslip with unlined skirts and dresses. Always have. I think it's really weird not to. It makes the skirt or dress hang better.

To answer your question my waist was 24 when I weighed around 98lbs/ 44kg. I'm around 5'4" or 5"

I'm not sure than answers from other posters can help you here as every body is different - ie you may find people your height and with that waist measurement but there will be a huge difference in body shapes - pear shapes, hour glass, straight-up-and-down, some muscular, others not - will all have an effect on how much they weigh .

I'm 5'6, eight and a half stone and have a 24 inch waist. Bust 34c and hips now 36 as I'm old and have had children!

Another one who grew up wearing an underslip (1970s). My mum used to wear something she called a roll-on. She was always slender too .

Well this exactly. It's a pointless question. An extra inch in height makes no difference. I tend to hold weight on my stomach for example and I'm light / small bones, so to have a proper 26 inch waist I'd have to weigh something like 47kg.

Some very enviable small waists on the thread! I thought my 27" was all right but I'm feeling a bit thick-waisted now 😟

Or "thick of waist" as Mumsnetters might phrase it! 😊

Well that's silly, don't compare yourself. 27 is a slim waist but there will always be people with smaller and bigger waists.

At 5'7 and 8st2 you're clinically underweight.

Why do you think M&S , John Lewis and the like sell waist slips and full slips if they disappeared in the 1990s?

Of course people still wear them for the reasons in BaronessBomburst's post.

I've never worn a girdle in the sense of what that meant when "girdles" could be bought as they'd gone by the time I was an adult.

What a girdle is , looked like and did has just been repurposed as "shape wear". Most shape wear is as ugly as any girdle ever was and probably just as uncomfortable.

Thanks, actually now I think about it those of you saying it might not reduce anyway have a point. When I think back to the first years of high school I never had the 22, 23, 24" waists that other girls had. I wasn't fat, either, by any means. But just not one of those very slim girls. I've never thought back to that time very much (why would you?).

Your waist measurement increases as you get older, in your 40s you’re meant to put a bit of fat down. Oestrogen is stored in fat and contributes to better health so the people suggesting you slim down to underweight bmi etc are not doing you a favour! Modern shapes have changed, bone structure larger and people did use to wear control underwear so you may find the vintage items not a great fit even at 26 waist. Can you buy larger and get it tailored?

At least one of the respondents to this thread who sounded very proud of their stats is clinically underweight, so I really wouldn't be envious...

In all seriousness, low BMI is correlated with health problems for women as they age. Osteoporosis, low bone density etc... being overweight isn't great, but neither is being underweight. Be realistic about what a healthy weight looks like for you, and don't worry about it if that means you can't wear certain vintage clothes.

You are taller than women were back then, and the reason for that is better nutrition.
Being taller means your weight and body proportions will be larger. That's something to feel good about, not a bad thing - your body is far better nourished than the average woman who would have worn those clothes.

I'm 5'9", and a healthy slim weight, but nowhere near some of the proportions on this thread btw. And that's OK - my body is healthy.

I didn't say they don't exist, I just don't know anyone who wears them any more.

Girdles were the thing .Nan always wore one right up to the 60s/70s very uncomfortable ! They went out of fashion with trousers and so on coming in

I thought I had a 27" waist, but I've just weight recently and I've just remeasured and my waist is now 26". I wish 53 kg, I lost the weight accidentally, because I stopped drinking at home. It took about six months, and I seem to have settled at this weight now.

It really does depend on your body shape though, I've always been lighter than I looked, iyswim, I have quite a small frame and don't carry it at all well if I weigh too much (I tried that at university, it wasn't great).

Gah, should have said, I'm 5'6/5'7 depending on who's measuring me!

I've got to admit I've already got a couple of 26" waist skirts that I just sort of shoehorn myself into! But I'm sure it's not good for them to be strained at the waist.

52kg

Have a look at the What Katie Did website - lots of vintage-style foundation wear that may give you the silhouette you want for vintage clothing.

Comparing yourself to other people isn't going to help really. People carry weight in different areas. You could easily find two people who are the sane height and same weight, but their waist measurements are completely different.

Yes I think the same and not always attainable.

I might have had a 26" waist when I got married 20 years ago but since having kids I'm not sure it's ever been that size. I've barely changed in weight but my boobs are smaller and waist bigger since having kids. I'm pretty straight up and down (small boobs, small hips, comparatively big waist), even if I lost weight - although I don't really need to - it would likely just make my boobs smaller!

I've never had a 26 inch waist but I've worked in the vintage fashion industry. As well as the myriad foundations garments, bras were a very different shape which really affects the way the clothes hang. If you want to go the whole way and look at vintage bras that would likely make a difference. They were more conical and separated. Women were smaller generally, especially post-war and buying off the rack was less common. My granny was born in 1935 and her mother, grandmother or a dressmaker made all their clothes. If something was bought it was altered to fit. So losing an inch off your waist won't necessarily make that much difference.

I was 16 in 1981, 5'4" and around 57 kg with a 25" waist... My Mum told me I should be now wearing a girdle 🤣 absolutely no need for me at all

And yes we did wear an underskirt, woe betide it showed beneath your skirt and not wearing tights was considered erm uncouth/common

I had no truck with that shit much to my Mum's annoyance. I assume it went out of fashion as people no longer wanted to confirm to be uncomfortable