Women's clothes sizes

ripplyuk wrote: »

Also, we keep hearing about how people are getting fatter, but people are also just larger. As in, their bone structure is larger. They are taller, their shoulders are broader, their ribcages and hips are bigger. None of this is to do with fat. I can see why shops have adjusted their sizing in line with this as there is no point in making the '1950's size 8' etc.

They didn't need to adjust their sizes though. They could have stayed the same. All they needed to do was produce more clothes in the larger sizes and fewer in the smaller size 6 and 8s.

Sizes have definitely got larger.

I lost about 10kg earlier this year and got back into some size 16 suits that I bought in about 2001. I also own a size 16 suit by the same brand (Precis) in 2015 - it is now enormous on me. (This isn't the only example.)

I had wondered how in putting in quite a bit of weight I had only gone up one dress size, well, turns out I hadn't - add another one or two to that. I am now buying 12-14s and even got one top in a 10 this summer. I think this is why vanity sizing is a very bad thing - I was in denial about how quite fat I had got as a result. I have had to recalibrate what I am aiming for in size terms. I would have said what I am now would have been good enough but I still have a way to go, far too wobbly round the middle. Probably need to be a 10-12 or maybe even smaller to be a healthy size for my 5'4" frame (aside of my "child bearing" hips, the rest of my frame is quite small)

There is also variation within shops - can take multiple items the same size into the changing room in the same shop, and find some too large and some too small. I find that especially stupid and it must be a big contributor to the fact so many clothes bought on line get returned - I know lots of people order multiple sizes in the same item to see if any fit. You would think shops would want to solve it. I recall even having worked out what size I should be in a shop based on their measurement chart, ordering stuff online and it's been too big so it's had to go back. It's like there's a conspiracy - the food industry wants to keep selling us more food we don't need and the clothing industry is lying to us about how fat it's made us!

On the bras, I had a bad first experience in Bravisimo. The girl who did my fitting only tried one size and told me that it was meant to be that tight and insisted the fact she needed to rearrange me in the bra didn't mean the cups were too large. Well, 2 days of attempted wearing and deep red marks round my body and slight difficulty breathing properly and I was back. Next girl wasn't much better, instead of 32G she put me in a 34F which solved the tightness issue but still left me with underfilled cups. I suggested trying a 34E and she had to admit that looked much better - cups not baggy. I returned the bras I had bought from them and when asked whether they were too big or too small I had to say both! Only thing I will say for them as it was their mistake they refunded me on the one I had worn as well as the unworn ones.

To the OP, yes, it is frustrating not being able to get that much choice in clothes although it is better than it used to be - shops I had stopped shopping in that I now have gone back to are stocking larger sizes than I knew - e.g. Oasis go up to 18. However, I can say having shifted some weight this year, I do feel and look a lot better for it. No amount of nice clothing in a larger size could cover us how chubby my face and jaw line had got or the massive rolls of fat that showed when I sat down (standing in front of a mirror gives a rather more flattering view of how you look... some photos were rather a shock!)

I wouldn't focus on hitting the gym though - weight loss is mainly down to diet. Exercise can help, but too many people either consciously reward themselves with food post exercise or get hungry and eat more, so it rarely makes the hoped for difference on its own.

Who said men don't have these problems?

Men's sizes are all over the place from brand to brand.

A medium Animal top is a large in firetrap or super dry.

I'm 32/32 at the moment in diesel jeans but this can go up or down depending on brand, my weight is constant as well.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Mind you, I also remember being derided at school for being fat because once puberty hit, I needed to wear size 10 trousers.

Funny you said that, you reminded me that I was a size 10 when I was 13, I was put on a diet of nothing but Ryvita and grapes by my mother who was absolutely horrified I was a size 10, because she'd been a size 8 at that age. She was born in the 50s, I was born in the 80s.

Incidentally, she's been a size 14-18 since having me :think:, and she's since complained I am too small when I'm below a 10!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I think one of the differences is that more of us rely upon hormonal contraception, for which weight gain is a very common side effect. In the 70s, it wasn't used as frequently, but now, teenagers are put on the Pill to deal with heavy or painful periods, 16 year olds are encouraged to have implants (as this has contributed to a fall in the teenage pregnancy rates, that's fine by me, but it has even more likelihood of weight gain) and many adult women have either the implant or depo injections for anything up to 30 odd years of their life, at a time when the majority of foods are processed/packaged, rather than cooked from scratch at home.

From what I remember, most middleaged and older women were large then, but mums, who were usually much younger than now, tended to be slimmer - perhaps due to hefting those giant prams around and not having access to the family car during the day if they had one - and a normal diet consisted of three meals a day, two of which were properly cooked, rather than nothing more than an energy drink, followed by some snacks, followed by takeaway and probably some more snacks. Kids also had to walk or catch the bus/ride a bike, which was much safer then, if they wanted to go anywhere.

My mother also told me that if you were worried about your weight or were quite tired until the late 70s, the GP also would happily prescribe you slimming pills and then tranquilisers to be able to sleep. If that was widespread, it would make sense that the average size was quite a lot smaller, especially when even doing the shopping now involves a drive to a large supermarket after work or an online delivery, rather than a walk to the local shops during the day.


Mind you, I also remember being derided at school for being fat because once puberty hit, I needed to wear size 10 trousers.



I wish I were only that fat now.

I think portion sizes also have a lot to do with it. We seem to be following America with regard to portion sizes. When you actually look at what a portion of meat/cheese/rice/whatever should look like it is quite shocking. I always remember that a cooked portion of meat for one person should be the size of a deck of cards. If I served that to a lot of people I know they would be outraged! I have so many friends who will cook 2 or 3 portions of rice/pasta per person. No wonder they are big! The problem is once you are used to eating large portions it is hard to get used to more normal amounts. I had to learn this myself. I am five feet tall and used to wonder why I kept putting on weight. I then educated myself on what a petite woman should be eating each day and I was basically eating the amount a strapping six foot guy should be eating! I now eat the right amount of calories/nutrients for my height/frame, but I constantly have people expressing concern about the 'tiny' amounts of food on my plate (they are not tiny and I could lose weight and still be at a healthy weight for my height).