This makes me curious about the 14's I wore back in 1995, when I weighed 220 pounds. I wish I still had them and wonder what size I'll be in once I get back to that weight.

Last weekend I was curious about sizes too. I've lost 52 lbs and am still about 38-40 lbs more than I was in H.S. An exercise physiologist at the gym measured my body fat a month ago and supposedly my lean mass is about the weight I was in H.S.:?: Anyhow...I have my prom dresses from my Junior and Senior years in H.S. and tried them on last weekend..thinking about the size I was then and that I wear a 14 now and a 12 in some clothes. Not even close. The senior dress (a 12 back then) could barely get over my hips and then was nearly impossible to get off. Zipper wasn't even close to zipping. The Junior dress was a 10. Umm...couldn't get it above my thighs.

Tim Gunn talked on the Revolution show a week or two ago that sizes went up around 1986, mid 1990's and early 2000's. This made me feel better to be honest. I'm 5'11 and when I read about actresses around my height wearing size 6, I'm honest when I say..."what? how? there is no way..." It honestly makes me feel better knowing that the sizes have changed over the years and what they are wearing is the size 10 that I wore in H.S. Maybe this goes back to the fact that I always felt like I was so big compared to my HS friends because they wore much smaller sizes than me. When I look at pictures from back then they are much shorter but not that much smaller than me in those pictures. :?:

I am so frustrated with the variations in sizing :(

I've been expanding my shopping horizons, and looking at online plus size stores, mostly in the US. The difference in sizing between here and there is insane! I found some perfect dresses on a site a few months ago, and was over the moon when I saw that they went to 4X! So now, a few months down the road, and into a 2X top (bottom's still pretty close to 4X) I go to order a dress for my SIL's staggette. I looked at the size chart, and there is no way in **** my boobs or my gut are going into a 4X. So I pulled up the size chart for the store I shop at here, and there is a TEN INCH difference in a 4X here vs there! Needless to say, I will not be into one of those dresses by May :(

This isn't the first time I've had this problem. I ordered a tank top from Hips and Curves that I wanted baggy, for a sleep shirt, so I ordered it in a 5X. It fits like a glove, just like the 2X one I bought up here :(

Boo. I really wish I would have looked months ago at the size chart. I didn't think there would be nearly A FOOT difference in size.

Sigh.....even when I'm little, I'm going to be wearing X's.

Years ago I weighed 92-95 lbs and was a true size 0,1,3 Petite!:D

Now I am sitting here in a Junior size small top
And Levi Jeans non stretch Size 2
I guess they figure if we lie to them they will buy...and they are right!
Now if they start making wide shoes and label them Narrow I can lose my Duck feet ( born with club feet) and I will buy more shoes since it is hard for me to find shoes that fit properly:dizzy:
Just like ice Cream was kept at a certain Price Point so consumers would continue to purchase it ,clothing manufacturers have jumped on board to make us feel better about ourselves and.....Spend money and we can live in the land of denial!
Roo2:carrot::carrot::carrot:

When I was about 220 (maybe the two teens) I went to a fitness shop to buy some fitness clothes as I had nothing for working out. I was just starting to go to the gym too.

Well, I was going through the racks and I was so, so happy to see that there were 16 and XL. I though they would just be these tiny sizes. Then I overheard a very petite and very fit woman talking with her husband, "I don't know why they make so many large sizes. Like large people are going to be wearing fitness clothes?"

I wanted to smack her, but I also wasn't feeling confident in the fitness department yet as I was just really starting with more than just walking.

Reality is, there are a LOT of us bigger people AND they work out too!

Now... move on to last spring - a year later. I am now 165 pounds and very fit. I can run, I can jump. I can do most anything a typical fairly fit 42 year old woman can do. I still needed to buy a size large in EVERYTHING and I never, ever will be small enough to wear less than a Large as I am built large and I have big boobs. Would this same lady say that about the larger sizes if she saw me then as I was obviously fairly fit?

You are nearly 6 inches taller than me and if you have a large frame, you will never be able to fit into dinky sizes either. That's just a reality, but it doesn't mean you will LOOK big - you won't!

Also, now I can feel really good that I am wearing 10s and got down to 8s, but what does it mean? Just last week I was wearing my wool pleated skirt from 1994 in a size 16 and it's slightly snug. It fit perfect when I was 10 pounds lighter. That same store I'm now a 12 in today's sizing.

It's a head games. I'm not 'smaller' now - the 10 and 16 fit the same me. Everyone else is just bigger so they made the sizes reflect the median, again (and again, and again). In dressmaker's sizes I'm a 20 or 22... I forget.

AND it gets extremely frustrating when trying to order clothes as even their stated sizes to inches isn't helpful. I wear a lot of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. According to their size charts I should be wearing a 12 in RL and an 8 in CK. At my thinnest I was wearing an 8 CK, but according to their chart I should have been a 4. Um, I don't think so - I have HIPS! I wear a 10 comfortably now. According to RL I should currently be wearing a 14, but I'm wearing a 10 comfortably. It all depends on shape - amount of fat versus muscle, etc.

So, try not to get too downhearted about sizing. Even if you ALWAYS stay in an X size, there is a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE difference between a 5X and a 1X. And on a tall body? You'll look even slimmer. And also realize that those numbers mean SQUAT!!!!

This will be a bit of a tangent here, but here it goes . . .

Re: attempting to order online by size guides. I can't do it! You look up a size by waist, say 28 (me), and the corresponding hip size is 36-38, but my hips are 34. If I go by hip size it puts me in 2 sizes smaller, which wouldnt fit. But this is probably why pants never fit me right.

Sizes are DUMB. I have so many different sizes, and since I thrift store shop now the sizes mean even less! I have a baggy pair of khakis from Abercrombie (thrift store) size 4, but a tight pair of size 6s from some brand I've never hear of (also thrift), a pair of jeans from the Walmart Jr section in size 9, fit decent. A pair of jean capris from Anchor Blue (thrift) that say 7/8. I have a couple Medium sized skirts and Medium size dress, but found a Small skirt from The Gap that is almost too big (elastic waist, thrift store, possibly stretched). BUT I also had a pair of 12s from Old Navy my friend gave me from when she was in high school (12 years ago) and they BARELY fit.

Dear Sizes, you suck! You make no sense!

I love reading your posts, Melissa. You always bring me back to reality when I get myself all worked up after reading some threads.

And you are correct, the size numbers mean squat. And I should know that already, but I get hung up on them and think they define me (just like I do with the scale). This especially happens in stores that you get the hairy eyeball from a sales clerk who thinks you are shopping for someone else than yourself. Sorry, I didn't know your size 16 clothes are really size 12s! And I leave the store with my tail between my legs red faced.

I have a pair of size 20 khakis I bought at an LLBean outlet for like $3 around Christmas-time. I am almost totally out of 20s (yay!) but these pants I can't even get 1/2 way up my thighs. I bought a pair of 18 shorts that same day for $2.50 and I might not be wearing those for another 50lbs! I figured LLBean would cater to more "rugged" women than little petite non-fat ladies but I guess not!

Thanks Elvislover!

Ironically, it's a size 16 LL bean skirt that I have. My husband ordered it for me in 1994 (I think that's the year - could be 1995). I was wearing a size 16 in every other brand, and the largest size they carried was a 16. It was too tight. I could SQUEEEEEZE myself into it, but it was fugly. So, it went to my closet - never, ever to be worn until 2012. When I was wearing between an 8/10 in everything else, this size 16 skirt finally fit perfectly.

When I went to their store to try something on, just for sh$ts and giggles, I could SQUEEEEZE myself into a 10. I tried on a 12 and the waist fit, but now I had a hanging crotch. Made me realize why my MIL likes LLBean. She has a super tiny waist and bigger hips. it's like the only brand that can fit both waist and hip for her.

But even they have vanity sized things if the 16 from eons ago and 10/12 are about the same size.

LockitUp - I thrift shop quite a bit too and I have to eyeball the sizes all the time. It can be quite time consuming to sift through the racks as they already aren't separated by sizes except Plus size taken out, but then besides the sizes, you have to guess the age of the item and what that size means. Back in the changing room I might have a 6 to a 20 in my hands that all appear to be the same sizes! And yes, I've tried a vintage size 20 that was too small for me when I weighed 170ish pounds! Reminded me why I never liked shopping at vintage shops. Women used to be TINY and the ones who weren't, wore moo-moos.

I also agree sizes are crazy - both the changes in the numbers over time, and also how size charts with measurements have no real correlation to how something actually fits on the human body.

I'm just back into my Old Navy rockstar skinny jeans in size 18. When I got down to 198, I had a pair in size 14 that was starting to get a bit loose. But I have old (pre-spandex) size 16 jeans from Victoria's Secret that didn't even pull up at that point, and I would probably be in an 8 in the Old Navy jeans before they did, a 10 at most.

On the other hand, with broad shoulders, a wide ribcage and big boobs, I'm not sure I'll ever get into non-plus sized tops. I'd love to, don't get me wrong! But at 198, I wasn't even close to misses/junior XXL tops, as they are cut much smaller than a womans 1X.

I am losing weight a bit differently this time though - last time, I started at 263 and it took about 35 lbs before I could wear 1X. This time, I started at 257 and it only took 15 more lbs before I could break out some of my 1X stuff I had bought the last time. So maybe I am finally losing more quickly on top and I may actually get to an XL or even an XXL when I get back to 198?

I try to not pay too much attention to sizes but more than anything, I want to be completely out of plus sizes, and anything beyond that is just a bonus.