1950's sizes compared to 2010 sizes.

Angel_Jenny

Hi Everyone,

While flicking through my 1950's style book (how I would dress if I were the weight I want to be / more confident / able to coordinate myself!) and it had a little chart of ideal weight and measurements by height from 1953. It is interesting to see an actual chart as I have been looking at old dress making patterns on eBay and the sizes seem so different to what they are now. One size 12 pattern had a 24 inch waist!

I have seen articles about how women are less hourglass shaped than in the past but I didn't realise how much clothes sizes had changed.

I am 5'2 and these are the "ideal" measurements for someone of that height aged between 15 and 35.

Weight - 7 stone 12
Neck - 12 1/8
Bust - 32 1/2
Waist - 23 7/8
Wrist - 5 1/2
Abdomen - 28 1/2
Hips - 32 1/2
Thigh - 19 1/8
Calf - 12 1/8
Ankle - 7 1/2
Arm - 9 5/8

Scared me back onto a diet. I am shocked by the measurements!

This is the article I mentioned - a bit derogatory towards women using words such as "barrel-like" but interesting all the same.

Angel Jenny :A

Pennylane

I had a 24" waist right through my teens and up until I go married. I could cry just thinking about it now!!:rotfl: I wanted to be a PE teacher and told our GP this when he asked what my career plans were and he laughed and said "my dear you are much too petite."

My Mum was even slimmer as a young bride (22" waist) and when she settled here her GP told her "we'll soon get some meat on you."

How times change!

It is interesting reading though and there was nowhere near like the obesity problem we have now. Most schools had just a couple of really fat kids the rest were pretty average or even scrawny.

There's a school bus stop near my house and honestly some of those teenagers are massive. The girls are wearing mini skirts with huge great flabby thighs and legs like tree-trunks and they're drinking Red Bull and eating crisps and pasties at 8.00 am!:(

Errata

I have a much lovedearly '80's M&S black wool straight skirt in my wardrobe which I hang onto for sentimental reasons. It's a size 10, but M&S 2010 version marked size 10 measures up as a generous size 12 against it.

cattkitt

Asda are selling 12 iced doughnuts with sprinkles for £2. I wonder what how much junk food cost back then, how much walking they did, what the car:population ratio was, and what they did for entertainment in lieu of the telly,computers and games consoles.

sofababe

I was thinking about this today. I was wearing a size 12/14 in 1987 when I was 16 and I weighed 8st (a BMI of 17:eek:)
Today I wear a 14 and am nearer 13st. My clothes back then fitted so have sizes got bigger in the last 23 years? They must have.

piratefairy

Szes have definitely got bigger!!
I have to try not to get too sad when I make dresses as I use a lot of vintage patterns and therefore have to make things up in much bigger sizes as they were then..
I remember my friend's mum telling me when there was all the fuss about "size 0", that she had looked at the measurements for a vintage size 10, from when she used to make clothes in the 70s and the size 10 of those days measurements matched the US size 0 which everyone was worrying about - which is rly a UK size 4.
So sizes have got bigger by about 3 UK sizes over the past 50yrs or so ;S

Hermia

Sizes definitely seem to have got bigger in shops. I have some clothes from the 1980s and the size 12s do seem to be smaller than the 12s in a shop now. And if you look at what each size is supposed to be in inches/cms I think that a lot of people don't actually really fit the size they think they are.

I have some vintage clothes and they are so small. I have some beautiful dresses from the 1950s that I inherited and they are so petite. I think we have this vision of 1950s women being big because the underwear and clothes styles gave them such an hourglass figure, but they were actually pretty small.

piratefairy

Totally true, Hermia - I love 50s clothing, but shopping for it always leaves me feeling like a hippo

bexta

Angel, can I be nosy and ask what the book is called? I love that look, but deffo not confident to pull it off.

Sizes have got larger, before bubs, I had a 27 inch waist and wore a 10, which my (plumper) SIL always used to say was and old fashioned 14.

glowgirl_2

When I was about 18 I weighed around 8.5 stone and wore a 12, it was a bit big but I liked that, over the years I put on about 2 stone gradually but still wore a size 12 so conned myself into thinking I was still slim then I lost about 2.5 stone and was back at about 8.5 stone and an 8 is hanging off me:Dhmmm, I think they call it vanity sizing;)

Errata

The WW2 knitting womens knitting patterns are an eye opener ! Start at 30" bust, go up to 38", and if you were bigger than that you took your pick from the very few patterns for stout ladies.