So, I go to Walmart this weekend. I bought a new pair of work pants in the Jr's dept. I fit into a size 11's!!! My ex-mother in law brought over a trunk of my old clothes from the late 90'2 early 2001. I pulled out pants and skirts in sizes 13/14 and even though I could fit in them I wouldn't wear them comfortably. They are the high waisted type jeans...not todays hip huggers. So anyways...it just goes to show how much the sizes have changed in the past ten years. They really are making the sizes to ease our ego's. And it is starting in the juniors dept. I think that is really wrong. That is letting girls who should be in like a size 7 feel "better" about themselves because now they can fit into a size 3!!!! That's just wrong!!!! But hey...I feel better because i can fit into a today's juniors 11!!!!

I don't care wahat the size says as long as it isn't XL

Lucky you! I can't fit into anything in the juniors dept. I too well endowed for most of the shirts and I can't squeeze my hips into any jrs size. In Misses sizes I can wear anywhere from a 6 to a 12, but it's just a number anyway. It is frustrating though, because you don't know what size to grab.

13 yrs. ago I went on Phen/Fen and weighed the same as I do now. At that time I wore a size 8 in women's or a size 13 in Jr.'s. I now wear a size 4 in women's or a 5-7 in Jr.'s. This is a huge difference. I definitely know that I'm not smaller than I was then. I had great muscle tone then and looked better then than I do now.

Well...

Hip huggers also fit differently than high waisted pants, obviously, which can also play a part in the way clothes fit.

As for sizes changing, they've definitely, err, evolved over the years. When my mother was my age, she said she wore a 10-12, and could "sometimes squeeze into an 8". She was 5'4" and 115 pounds. I thought, "There's NO WAY you could have been that big, Mom..." then realized a 10 in those days was like a 6 now, and it all made sense.

Or XXL!!!! hehehe

While I do agree that there is vanity sizing, I also think that many clothing fibers shrink over time.

Clothing fibers shrink over time? I don't buy it. If that were happening we;d see the same shrinking in upholstery and home furnishing fabrics.

The whole vanity sizing isn't working for me this go around. Since I had two babies within 15 months of each other, my shape is definitely different than it was before! When I was this weight before (1999-2002) I wore a size 14. I'm a size 14 in tops now, but not jeans - I've been wearing 18's though they are getting loose now. So, maybe a 16 now?