Have clothes sizes got smaller?

[letmeout]

Evening all,
I am sure that, back in the day, when I weighed 11 stone I was a size 14-16. ( yes- the day was a very,very long time ago!!) Now I'm seeing folks weighing more than that fitting into size 12's. While I've been off the fashion scene and only going to the big girls shop have fashion sizes changed? Was a size 12 in the 80's smaller than a size 12 in the norties?
(I'm 5 ft 10)
What do you think?

 

[Roosters]

Hmm, I'm not sure, but I was looking at a pair of my mum's size 14's from the 80's and they looked teeny tiny!

 

[Hedgehog]

I dont know about that, I still find sizes vary dramatically from shop to shop though

 

[BIG BIRDY]

I found an m&s suit from the attic that was a size 14. I weighed 101/2 st then, just after my hysterectomy, and it was quite roomy as I was post op. Tried it on last week and it fits like a second skin|!!! I'm 11st now!

 

[Miel]

OMG!!! So when I was wearing size 12 at age 18, which is, ahem! 15 years ago I was pretty slinky Damn! Now I feel even worse for putting on so much weight.

 

[k-nine]

Oh dear, it's painful to think about it too much but clothes are definitely sized smaller now - so a size 12 is bigger than it was even 10 years ago. I am just under 5ft 5ins and am currently 11st 3lbs - but I am sitting in a pair of size 12 per una jeans. I agree that sizes vary from shop to shop, but I think that I would have needed a size 14 or possibly a 16 at this weight 10 years ago. I know because I stuffed some clothes in an underbed drawer and found them just before Christmas. I was 10st 11ish then, and there were some size 16 jeans I still couldn't fit into! They want to flatter us because, lets be honest, if we think we are slimmer, we buy more clothes!! When I was young, in the 70s & 80s, a size 8 was hardly ever heard of, I mean it was really petite, and as for size zero....just don't get me onto this!!!!!!
k9
x

 

[Miel]

I know what you mean K9. I was always between 9 and 10 stone as a youngster and wore size 12 clothes. All the High Street shops which I shopped in, Dorothy Perkins, River Island TopShop etc stocked clothes in sizes 10-16 and that was it. Nobody was a size 10 (at least, not in my circle of friends) and nobody was a 16 either, because that would have been considered plus size almost; and there wasn't much choice at that size. If you got to size 16 then Evans and Anne Harvey were the shops to go to, and to be honest they were for 'older women' back then and teenage girls with a hope to be 'fashionable' just didn't go in there: they dieted instead.

Now, I have a step daughter who is 20, carrying quite a lot of extra weight and should be wearing size 20 but insists on buying 16's and occasionally 18's, she spills out of these clothes and they really don't do her any favours, but she thinks it's fine. If I had been her size when I was her age, I would have gone for the comfort and sensible coverings that she avoids, all in the name of 'fashion,' or probably dieted to stay at size 12.

My point here is that when I was young, you couldn't be overweight and catered for by the High Street, today the sizes go up to 22 in TopShop etc, I think, maybe even more than that now? Are we doing anyone any favours? Isn't it just so much easier now to pile on the pounds and not do something about it? I think it's a good thing that we don't have to resort to Kaftans anymore and look like Demis Rousos (sp?) but it does take a lot longer for us to think DIET! doesn't it? My Mum used to freak as soon as she went up to a size 14 in the 80's, because that to her meant that she had to shop in BHS

These days clothes are designed with much more elastic type materials as well, which means that sizes seem to be more generous than I remember, because they have more flex in them. There is no way that I would have been able to wear a size 10 when I was 9 stone, yet there seem to be lots of ladies on here that can, so something must have changed.

 

[letmeout]

Thanks all- thought I was going barmy but you all back up my theory! And Miel you are so right about stretchy clothes- I want fixed waistbands that scream at me if they are getting tight when I'm at goal. Not elastic waistbands that let me kid myself I'm 4 sizes smaller than I am! It's partly due to comfy stretchy leggings and baggy t-shirts of the early nineties that I got into this state in the first place!!

 

[annie_d]

My answer.DEFINATELY. Also a great variation from one shop to another.

 

[trapped.in.a.fat.persons.]

My point here is that when I was young, you couldn't be overweight and catered for by the High Street, today the sizes go up to 22 in TopShop etc, I think, maybe even more than that now? Are we doing anyone any favours? Isn't it just so much easier now to pile on the pounds and not do something about it?

I'm 21, and i bloody wish topshop went up 2 a size 22,or i wouldnt have lived out of evans for the last 3 years of my life, and felt like a grandma next to all my twiggy mates. Topshop still only go up to a size 16 Meil and river islands 18 is like a normal 14, so im sorry 2 burst ure bubble, but being the age of ure step daughter i'm afraid ure slightly incorrect.

Being a 21 year old and fat, is not easy, and i no ive only myself to blame. I think ure comments quite unfair because ive always felt like a frump next to all my friends, and the high street stores have never, ever 'helped' me to stay at the weight i am/was, infact quite the opposite, as they only cater up to the 'average size 16'. I think at the end of the day, its down to the individual.

Danni x x x

 

[Miel]

Sorry Danni, perhaps I'm getting my shops muddled up, but there is definitely more choice now than ever before, without including the internet only retailers M&S, H&M, Next, Matalan, Mango (although only up to an 18), Peacocks, Laura Ashley, Monsoon, New Look, Asda, Tesco, Gap, Maxmara, Jaeger and even Giogio Armani all now say that they cater for 'plus sizes', although in this crazy world where it is assumed that plus size models are size 12 I don't really know what sort of sizes they are talking about. Then there are all the catalogues, Kays, Freemans etc all have plus sizes, then there's specialist catalogues like Ulla Popken, Simply Be and others. Evans and Ann Harvey too.

I'm not knocking them for selling plus sizes, God I'd be walking about naked if they didn't, but I can't help but wonder if it is really helping. I am sure that they are responding to demand; we've got bigger and they've responded (at least some have) and not vice versa but would it help us to think about our weight earlier and maybe do something earlier if we all had to make our own clothes once we got to a certain size because there was nothing to buy?

I know that as a size 20/22 myself, I can only buy clothes in certain places and that choice is limited; but there is a choice. Even Littlewoods have started to sell children's school uniforms with a 42" waist, my heart bleeds for any child that needs them. As a parent I would sooner try to help my child lose weight than buy 42" inch waistbands, but our kids are all increasing in size too.

Anyway, I am digressing. Point is, if you think that being fashionable at a larger size is difficult now, you should have seen what choice there was 15 years ago (and beyond) it was maternity wear, make your own or expensive specialist shops and as yet, my step daughter hasn't needed to resort to any thankfully, and manages to get the sizes she wants from Matalan although I have to agree with the others when I say that I have noticed that her size 16's are a great deal bigger than my old size 16's but I don't know why.

Anyway, we're all here because we are losing weight, so soon enough we won't care too much about finding fashionable clothes in size 20, and that will be a very happy day for me.

 

[Lesly Cambridge]

Definitely changed! I'm 5' 10" too, and was 10 stone 4 lbs, BMI 20.7, 36B-26-36, size 14, in 1983....
:sigh::cry:

 

[moximc]

Agree with everyone. 20 years ago I was the same size I am now [5'6, 12 stone 6lbs] and was a medium 18. I'm a small 16 now. My goal is 11 stone and it does make me think: am I gonna be wearing at least some 12s at that point? And, if so, sizes have changed quickly because last time I was eleven stone, in 2005, I was 14-16. A slim friend also says that she has worn M&S size 10 for years and she's now suddenly an 8.

 

[Miel]

Agree with everyone. 20 years ago I was the same size I am now [5'6, 12 stone 6lbs] and was a medium 18. I'm a small 16 now. My goal is 11 stone and it does make me think: am I gonna be wearing at least some 12s at that point? And, if so, sizes have changed quickly because last time I was eleven stone, in 2005, I was 14-16. A slim friend also says that she has worn M&S size 10 for years and she's now suddenly an 8.

Mind you, until recently (I read somewhere) the clothes manufacturers were using womens measurements from the 50's to base their clothes sizes on, and we have definitely 'grown' since then. Perhaps that's what's behind the change?

 

[KerrieW]

Agree with everyone. 20 years ago I was the same size I am now [5'6, 12 stone 6lbs] and was a medium 18. I'm a small 16 now. My goal is 11 stone and it does make me think: am I gonna be wearing at least some 12s at that point? And, if so, sizes have changed quickly because last time I was eleven stone, in 2005, I was 14-16. A slim friend also says that she has worn M&S size 10 for years and she's now suddenly an 8.

M&S are one of a number of companies who have increased their sizes - i.e. a bigger person will now fit in the size which would make sense so many people have actually found their regular size too big and had to drop. This was in response to criticism that all clothes measurements were based on 50's shapes and that women today are on average bigger.