Is 'vanity sizing' getting worse?

[LaburnumGrove]

Years ago I was a 10 and my wedding dress was a 10 (very fitted waist) and my waist was 24 inches.

We all know that has changed and some 10s now are 28 inch waist.

But what about tops too?

I've noticed that more and more tops (T shirts etc) are available in a size 6 which was very unusual before.

I'm usually an 8 now in many clothes but some tops I'm verging on needing a 6. I'm petite and 32D bust but size 6 hardly ever existed in most brands years ago.

Sorry to hear about your health issues, I do hope you can get them resolved soon and can start getting healthier again.

I'm not very tall and im quite narrow (as are all the women in my family) and I don't even fit a size 6 in the shops any more. I'm not trying to win some thin competition, I'm more frustrated because I'm being sized out of reasonably priced, easily available clothes. So not everyone is just complaining to brag. It sometimes feels like thinner people arent allowed to complain about clothes sizes because they get accused of bragging. It's frustrating at any size not being able to find clothes that fit you.

Now slightly awkward question - has the demographic of shops you buy clothes from changed from your old tiny size 6s?

Because even 30 years ago, a size 6 in top shop was considerably smaller than a size 6 in M&S.

Manufacturers, who are after profits above all else, know that people will buy clothing items that fit them if they are marked as smaller sizes. But that made more sense when people went into stores to try things on. Makes less sense in the online shopping era - it just gets annoying that you have to buy two sizes and send one back.

So, yes, I think vanity sizing is definitely a thing and its annoying but I also think that the old UK sizing is gradually merging into US sizes. Americanisation happens with everything else, so it makes sense it happens with clothing sizes too. But then the American sizes are also going "vanity" too, so what used to be a 6 is now a 2, and then we will be in real trouble.

Not it's not.

It's so they don't get bothered by people asking how did they do it (for those who want to lose weight).

Or people asking why they dieted down to "skinniness/thinness" and are they sure they don't have an eating disorder (by those who like to snark).

"Naturally skinny and petite" is them saying they didn't do anything to be that way, it's just how they are.

Yes. I'm 5'6, 9st 12lb with a 32HH chest and my mum bought me a size 10 t-shirt the other day as a gift.

I mean I was thrilled that it fitted (even slightly roomy) but I am absolutely NOT a size 10 🤷‍♀️

It really does matter what the label says as it shortens the time needed to find clothes that fit.

As it stands, almost all of the shops have different sizing now, so a 10 here is a 12 there.

I find it incredibly frustrating.

I go into the dressing room with two or three sizes of the same trousers.

Before, in more sane times, I could go in with three or four different styles.

It drives me mad.

I’ve been wearing a size 10 since I was in my teens so for nearly 30 years. My weight hasn’t changed in all that time, in fact if anything I’m more toned now than I was then. So maybe this is true for more than 30 years ago but I don’t relate to this at all. I don’t care if you would think I’m a size 10 or not - it’s just the size of clothes that fits me. Whether that’s really a 12 or 14 compared to 40+ years ago I couldn’t care less.

It’s getting ridiculous
In the 90s I was 7st 2 and a size 8-10 at 5ft 4
Im now a size 8 at 5ft4 and 8st 11. I bought a 10 the other day and they fell straight off me and I’ve never been an 8 on my bottom half

It’s an easy conclusion to reach. Calling it ‘vanity sizing’ seems pejorative in the first place. It puts women in their place and reminds them that those who wore that size in 1979 were smaller than them because that’s all that matters. It effectively sets women up against each other. Yes, it is likely that manufacturers want women to be psychologically tricked into feeling good about the arbitrary number on their clothing, but the fact that it is widely referred to as ‘vanity sizing’, especially in the media and on social media, to me suggests judgement. I was always a size 12 in the eighties and nineties. I would never dream of telling a woman who wore a modern size 12 that she was bigger than me when I wore it. That would be rude and nasty. Yet that’s the universal message we get every day. Lest we forget how fat we all are.

Younger people like a much looser fit.

No not really I still like similar clothes. I haven’t really got to the M&S phase of my life yet. I’m not as goth as I used to be though and some of my small stuff was from online brands/small businesses. Still buy from small businesses but the type of clothes I buy from them are a bit different - I can’t exactly go to pick up dressed how I dressed pre child I’ll say that 😭

In the 1970s, I was mostly wearing a size 14 - 5ft 9 inches tall and weighed around 9st 2lbs. (I recall slimming down to 8 st 10 when I was 17.) I sometimes wore a 12.

I recall being measured for a school skirt - size 14 - and he sales assistant throwing up her hands in horror because my waist was 26 inches.

I think that the equivalent might be a size 10 nowadays. I'm now a modern size 18, but I know that the sizing is very generous.

I agree with @LaburnumGrove that it's difficult to sort out sizing now. I own some Matalan sports tops which are sized as "L". Other gym gear that I've ordered online is marked "XL". That includes Sweaty Betty. (I realise that stretchiness adds another factor.)

I reckon that "XL" is closer to the mark and that Matalan is flattering its customers.

I bought myself a pair of size 18 trousers in the Asda George sale last year when I was in a hurry for a last minute trip. (I normally shop in Edinburgh because Fife stores tend to concentrate on petite sizing.)

The length was fine and the drawstring waist meant that I could adjust without sewing but they're very generously sized indeed - a much larger woman could get into them, in spite of the fact that my waist is oversized in relation to the rest of me, and the backside and legs are quite baggy.

Yes, that was the idea I was trying to get at in my earlier post - it's women putting other women in their place. As if dress size is a concept that requires gatekeeping. The tone is always that being a size 6 is something to be proud of (especially if you've always been that size for 20+ years and have never "let yourself go"). But smaller sizes are devalued if women who are bigger than they are can wear them too, women who aren't a "true size 6" or whatever. I suppose it's similar to how fashionistas didn't want to wear Burberry any more back in the day because it (or at least knock-off versions of it) became popular with soap stars and footballers.

I'll add that as a young woman, I shopped in Van Allen's, C&A, Chelsea Girl, What Every Woman Wants, BHS, Littlewood's and M&S plus the occasional boutique once I went to uni.

I agree with a PP on the oversize trend making this seem worse. Clothes are meant to be baggy as hell these days - great rolls of material, everything slouched. Everything is meant to look generous and roomy. It works for a population that is getting bigger but also for the manufacturers who don't have to worry too much about fit.

If I want something more fitted, which I usually do, I have to go down a size or two, but they actually intended the garment to be bigger. I'm a pretty standard size 10/S but now end up in a 8/XS most of the time even in New Look which you would not think was cutting for a middle aged woman like myself.

I find Mango and Zara less generous. Some trousers I bought in Mango this winter I got in a 12 and I have a Zara cardigan in a L which is far from loose. But it really does depend on the cut. So many jeans and trousers are now enormous too.

I agree not to worry about the size on the label BUT it does make online shopping a nightmare. And it's not like IRL shops are well stocked either. It's almost like they don't want you to buy their things.

I find online reviews very useful, especially if they make the reviewers say their age.

It is awful and makes being slim and finding good fitting clothes a nightmare

it helps no one as some people will be thinking a 12 is normal and medium like it used to be but I think a current size 12 on someone under 5ft6 would struggle to have a healthy bmi

I can only think of Joanna Lumley off the top of my head (no Twiggy doesnt count because she was very different as model, none of the others looked like her and she wa short), but she is very tall I think and so were the other models.

I presume they had very small waists, they all did

I’m almost 40 and a size 10 has always been a 28 inch waist, ever since I was a teenager shopping in Topshop. I mean, unless your going back to the 1950s or 60s…

Exactly. I’ve got clothes ranging in about 3 different sizes.

So where are petite people supposed to shop? I’m a size 6 on the top and size 8 on the bottom, the number of places I can’t shop at all is ridiculous! Don’t get me started of the brands that only stock size 10 and up.

I was a 26 inch waist and a size 14 in school skirts in 1972. Can't remember the brand - the uniforms were sold in the local Co-operative.

I think some brands are. I’m a 16/18 (M&S, Me & Em, Nobody’s Child, Oliver Bonas, White Stuff, Fat Face, Next etc - tight fitting 18, normal or lose fit 16 but wide leg trousers I got into a 14!) but that seems about right for height weight (5,6, 13 stone).

A lady in a weight loss group I’m a member of posted today that she is now in a 16 down from a 24/26 less than 12 weeks ago. Seriously no. She’s over 5 stone heavier than me - on no planet is she a smaller size than me. Just a very stretchy oversized pair of trousers surely. Someone over 18 stone is never in any universe a 16, I’m sorry but no

some brands are still about right. Mum is a 6 or 8 depending on the cut, we can’t assume her size. She varies between xs and s depending on cut and brand

sizes for sure aren’t consistent. I rarely shop online for this reason

Yes, that matches my experience of seventies sizing.

We're going back to the early 1980s and earlier.

There has been a gradual 'creep' upwards for waists.

At 40 you're too young to know this :) Or maybe you're confused as my DD is your age and had to wear a 6 to get a 24 inch waist in her teens in some brands.

Yes it's so bad nowadays 😔
I ordered a dress in a size 12 and it absolutely swamped me. ASOS are a nightmare with returns these days so DH and I have kept it to use as a 2 man tent on our next camping trip instead.