I think somewhere in the last ten years clothing sizes have gotten bigger. Why you ask? I recently bought two pairs of pants and a pair of jean shorts in a size 14. When I bought them they were a little loose, but I didn't want that tight feeling reminding me of how I use to feel in some of my clothes. Since then they have become looser yet. While digging through my closet of stuff I have saved over the years and vowed I would once again wear someday, I found a pair of size 13/14 jean shorts. I put them on and barely got them buttoned. Once they were on it was okay except for a little dunlap so I wore a longer shirt. What I am wondering is a size 14 today bigger than a size 14 of ten years ago? If so, this really bursts my bubble!

I read an article a few years ago that the sizes getting larger trend was started by the high-end fashions to make the rich feel thinner than they were.

i think it depends on the store. Some store yes they are bigger but if you go to chain stores that cader to small sizes then the size are smaller too. I have some it like i can were most a 10 but in some things i had to get a 12 becuse they make them smaller

You know what i think it is....I am definetely smaller size wise at this weight after doing low carb than on other diets or even when I was just thinner naturally.
I was wearing a 10 after weight watchers at a similar weight to what i am now. After low carbing i consitently wear a 8 and some 6's...

I think low carb helps you maintain lean muscle and lose more fat. that is why clothes fit better now than they did at the same weight previosly in our life.

It also depends on the manufacturer. There is no real standard in sizes. Some lables the size 10's are the same as size 12's in other lables.

Shirts are the same way-some lables I wear a small, others I wear a medium.

Clothing sizes here in the U.S. have definitely gotten "bigger". I remember weight 120 lbs at age 17 and wore a size 9 jeans. I now weigh 155 or so lbs and fit into a tighter 9. To be honest, I have so many sizes (wearable) in my closet right now I don't know what size I truly am!

I have jeans and/or shorts in the following sizes: 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13
Go figure.

i think that clothes are getting smaller... and it's ridiculous!
I'm not that big, and sometimes I have a really hard time fitting into a large shirt.
Sometimes, I will be with my husband and I will hold up a shirt or some pants and I will ask him to guess the size. Usually he will say "WHAT? A large? Maybe for a LARGE ten year old!!!".
Recently I bought a pair of jeans. They were size 16... and believe me, they don't even look to be a 12. I've been having the opposite problem. Clothes seem to be getting smaller (and so am I).

Actually, clothes ARE getting bigger for the size .. at least for pants. The reason is that current fashion and style is for baggier pants and and what's called "fitting ease". Especially blue jeans ... which have run the gamut from looking like they're painted on to loose flare legs and pleated fronts to the current low-rise loose leg look.

Since my figure is bottom-heavy with thick legs, I'm definitely happier now than in previous seasons when tight, narrow leg pants were all the rage


Doreen

I do not think this is a recent change. 10 years ago brand name determined what size I was buying - Guess? was always a 32, Gap was a 14...heck, I even have a dress that fits now that is a size 6!!! Go figure???
I have to agree though the sizes have changed - I just went into the Gap and treated myself to 2 brand new pair of jeans - 1 were regular 12's and are pretty darn tight (my current goal is to fit into them nicely w/o baggage hanging over the top), the other are size 12 Stretch Boot Cut and I could have went with the size 10!!!
Style, cut and maker all effect what size goes over my wide-load behind
I LOVE the fact I can claim I wear a size 12 though...

Since Gap now sells clothes for adult women in size 0 and 1, either people have gotten smaller, or they are calling a 0 what used to be called a 4...if so then what used to be called a 14 is now a 10.

But as others have said, manufacturers differ. And it depends whether the clothing style is pitched at teens, who are still wearing shirts extremely tight. My 17 year old daughter and her friends buy shirts in the little boys dept.

I know clothes have changed sizes since the 50's, probably in the last few years they have more. In her day Meralyn Monroe wore a size 12, these days she would be a size 4-6. It depends alot on brands and also it seems what end of the scale things are on. I mean as in the lower priced discount stores seem to size things smaller, while more expencive stores seem to have a size 8 marked as 12.

If you ever want to be severly depressed, go look at wedding dresses. They lady helping me stated flat out you have to look at dresses at least 3 sizes bigger then what you would normally wear because they size them so differently.

Yup, wedding dresses seem to have not changed. I wear a 16 in street clothes and had to get my dress in a 20. I would have needed a 22 if I didn't wear a corset underneath.

Isn't that the truth! When I bought my wedding gown last Thanksgiving, I was in between a 10 and a 12 in street clothes, but I just did squeeze into a size 14 wedding gown. (Mind you, I had to get it taken in 3 times before the wedding in May.) That just doesn't make sense to me -- it's the most expensive piece of clothing most of us will ever wear, and bride types are generally stressed enough already from fighting with our moms about the dress, and then the manufacturers have to go and make us feel FAT too?!?!

I wouldn't necessarily say that sizes have changed that much from 10 years ago, though. I had saved several nice dresses from my teenage years, when I wore a size 8 at 125 lbs and later a size 12 at 140. I dragged them all back out when I started losing weight, and the old sizes seemed to track pretty closely with the new sizes (e.g. new clothes in a size 8 fit about the same as the old ones). Of course, my size has changed a lot -- I'm in a farily loose size 6 now, although I weigh 133. Just goes to show what Atkins will do for your body fat, as opposed to your weight!

Also, my understanding about the size 0s and 1s in stores like the Gap and Abercrombie and Fitch is because their customer base has gotten younger, with tween girls increasingly shopping in the "grown-up" stores. So yes, their customers are smaller, but only because they're still little girls!

That's exactly how I feel about wedding dresses too, atlee! Considering how the entire wedding industry is geared toward getting brides to feel "special" (and therefore justify spending a fortune), you'd think they'd want to pad the bride's ego by calling her a smaller size! Who knows.

It's been true for as long as I've been buying my own clothes (17 years?) that women's sizes vary widely depending on the manufacturer. Maybe I have a weird body, but I've never been able to buy something without trying it on first. There's just no telling what will fit by looking at it on the rack. (Jeans are a special torture. Jeans are worse than swimsuits sometimes!)

I do think I heard a few years ago that American sizing standards had been adjusted up so that measurements which previously would have been a 12 were now a 10. I have no proof of this, however. It may have been a rumor.

In 1962 I was 18 years old -- a super-active, skinny (sort of scrawny, actually) kid -- weighed perhaps 120 (we didn't own a scale, you got weighed at the doctor's for physicals -- with shoes on and mid-day) -- and I wore a size 12! (I'm 5'7")

Remember those days? -- elastic was kind of iffy (I remember a pair of panties falling off me on the way to church one morning -- super embarrassing moment -- must have been around 13-14 years old) and stockings with garter belts (that would "pop" up when you sat down (again, at church -- you didn't afford stockings for other times)....

So yes (in spite of my rambling) sizes have changed over the years -- right now I typically wear a 10 (and I weigh 152) and I am nowhere near the physical condition that I was in back then.....