I HATE shops who pander to vanity sizing.

[SmugColditz]

It makes me really really angry that people are being lied to about their size. I wouldn't weigh myself from one year to the next, would continue thinking, I'm a size X, I'm fine, step on the scales - TWO STONE HEAVIER! How does this happen without me realising?

Vanity sizing in shops. A size 16 now is an 18 of 5 years ago, I'm convinced of it!

And, and I think the sizes should be standardised and labeled "Pear", "Apple" and "Pillarbox" and it should be the FUCKING LAW.

Tops should be cut to size AND shape. Large, medium and small should only be on the label in relation to the size of the tits compared to the size of the top.

Yes, I am sick of everything I try on dangling from my pendulous norks, sick of having a baggy arse and squeezed waist, and sick of having to try EVERYTHING on because I am a 14 in some shops and would be a 22 in others if they went that big - and yes, Topshop and Dorothy Perkins, I'm looking at you. A size 10 in DP is about a 14 - 16 in Topshop! But they all swear they use a standard sizing chart. The liars.

yes, Dorothy Perkins have massive sizing

and New Look does too
v annoying!

smug, lol at pear apple and pillarbox labels

you have forgotten skittle cornet lollipop vase goblet and brick

has anyone ever managed to classify themselves according to primmy and hoosana's mind-boggling scheme?

oh god yes - I've got 3 or 4 pairs of Next size 16 trousers which fit perfectly. But in Gap a size 16 won't go over my kneecaps

Pear / Apple / Letterbox - damn fine idea!!

but I quite like vanity sizing, it's better than the other way round...

how about colour coding - 'anyone with pink blotchy skin step away from the lime green'

i saw this today, it was very wrong

I think Next cut big as well.

But the difficulty is, they will all swear they cut the same 30 inch to size 12 waist. So why don't they all fit the same? I have no Idea what my waist is, it apparently varies by up to 8 inches depending on which shop I am in. Men don't having this problem, if the buy jeans that don't fit, they take them back and say - "Look mate it says 30 inch waist, it's not, it's 27, I measured it. Money back please." But if a woman tries taking size 12 jeans back and saying "These are not a size 12" she is met with that look shop people reserve for the self delusional!

oh yes and a 'got stumpy legs? Don't even think about it' logo

Noooo - Next don't cut big, Gap cut small

They can cock off with their centimetres, My waist would probably be in the hundreds and that will Not Make Me HAppy

Saying that. this could be why French Women Don't Get Fat (they don't want a waist size in the hundreds!

I have a pair of size 14 Jeans, I bought when I was in 6th form (20 years ago). They still fit well (now worn for gardening). I now buy a size 8 in Next!!

I wear size 14s trousers from Next after I experienced the camel toe look with 12s . The 14 jacket would hang off me though.

The thing is, most of us were brought up thinking (rightly, really, in the eighties) that size 14 is not overweight. So if I'm a size 14, I'm fine. I zipped up and wear, comfortably, size 14 none stretch jeans from a teen fashion shop, Select. So I can't be overweight, right?

Bloody wrong.

I have a BMI of 30. On what planet is that not overweight? It's misleading and shops aimed at the lower budget end of the market are really very guilty of it.

No wonder girls are aiming for a size zero, it's an eighies size 8!

interesting point smug - i remember buying size 8 clothes in Miss Selfridge way back in the day when I was a slip of a teenager. They fitted.

in my 20s, still slim but surely not so much, 8s were sometimes too small...

(I'm a fair bit bigger now by the way)

size 6s and the rest didn't exist then, did they? so they must have changed the sizing.

I think even when I was about 15, I would have struggled to fit into a size 8. I was a 10 even at 14 and being a 7-stone skeletel weakling (my ribs were visible under my skin if I held my breath). It's taken me ages to admit in my 30s I've crept into a 14. Please don't tell me a 14 now is really a 16? Or even an 18? I borrowed size 18 skirts from my Mum in my last trimester (8 years ago) I was too skint to buy new maternity clothes for a few weeks.

I think size 6s and under began to appear about 10 years ago - I remember a girl I worked with confidently asking a shopgirl if a dress she had her eye on was an American size 6 and being told it was a UK six. We'd never heard of it until then. We beat a hasty retreat.

at 20 i bought a ball gown from laura ashley which was a 10

it is TINY truly tiny i reckon it would be a 6 or 4 now

i still fit a a 10 in next some jeans a 12

its just not so i am an ample 12 at least

i weigh a stone more than i did 10 years ago so why allegedly the same size ? it is silly

I'm an 8 now and I was an 8 years ago, but I do remember going into topshop when I was about 18 and trying a pair of size 6 trousers on and they were hanging off me so I don't think it's a new thing.

I hate trying clothes on before I buy so I usually just buy them and I've been ok so far luckily.

Actually I was about 7 and a half stone then and weigh half a stone more now so it must be different.

really old clothes (vintage stuff) are much smaller - especially the waists. So a 50s or 60s size 10 is teeny tiny.

maybe they are just downsizing the sizes cos we are getting so much bigger that we would be heading into triple figures if they didn't!

That's my point - they're trying to give us the impression we are not gaining weight, and we are, and it's not healthy. 10 years ago, I was a size 14 and just over 10 stone. Not ideal, but not a problem. now I'm a size 14 and 12 stone. That's a problem. But nobody acknowledges that 2 stone! that means everyone could be 2 stone heavier than they think they are - and we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic!

I am SHORT by the way, and look like a lil fat pudding.

do agree smug, am really sad when i see teenage (and younger) girls round here flaunting their wibbling midriffs.

i was at school in the 80s and I think I remember about 3 overweight kids in our year. Now the majority are.

oh dear, now I sound like an old person.

A size 10 in Next is generous on me and im 5ft 11" and i have a fair bit of chubb around the middle, so im not some little waif.
I don't think i've ever been a size 10 in my life (except once when I was 19 and took things I shouldn't have )
Im not a great big heffer, but if I was a true size 10 at my height i'd look like a walking skeleton.

Mind you I'm a size 8 and only 5ft 3 so..

LOL

Im about 3 stone heavier than you !