If I could fit in a size 10 right now, I'd marry Ken.

As Americans continue to become more corpulent, sizing has vastly changed. I have been known to secretly gloat that my dress size has not changed much over my life until I started looking for retro patterns on the internet. What is a size twelve now used to be a sixteen. LOL.

I remember when small was 8-10, mediums 12-14 and large was 16-18. I also remember when very expensive clothes always sized with a smaller number. You could wear a size fourteen from a box store and slip into a size eight of a ritzy brand. Sort of an example of one could never be too rich, or too thin. If you were rich, you could at least pretend you were thin. Really tiny women had to search for specialty stores who carried super petite sizes. Not anymore.

I just asked my fourteen year old g'daughter the other day what size she wore, and guessed a four. She is reed slim and has infinite legs. She rolled her eyes, like she were a porker and groaned that noooooo she is up to a six, or even and eight!

I think I was born in a size eight. LOL. I remember when people gasped at the Twiggies back in the sixties. Thought it was a flash in the pan. It's forty some years later and still around. Guess it wasn't.

A size 10 dress would not fit the same person that would wear a size 10 brief...

right?

ditto gloves, hats, shoes, stockings...

"If I could fit in a size 10 right now, I'd marry Ken."

Snork!

Americans have grown larger, & so have clothes.

When I graduated from high school, I wore a size 6;
I weigh more now than I did then, & I ware a size 4!

For most of my adult life I've fitted into a "medium" size. Be it pants, shorts, T shirts, blouses, skirts, suits, I just went with the medium size , high end, low end clothes or stores, I was sure to find something.
Something changed,
I've changed size, the stores have changed their sizes, they go from size -0 to +14 etc. around here. Can't find a medium anywhere.
I'm not buying many clothes these days because I don't want to spend the time trying to guess what size I am.

This is an interesting topic. I went on a Google for what size the 'average' American woman wears and it is a fourteen. The 'average' American woman is five feet four and weighs in somewhere around 162 pounds. I'm five feet eight and my weight fluctuates between 145 and 155 and I have to buy X-large? In my search, up sprang a pin-up of Marilyn Monroe in a bathing suit. It was like a breath of sanity.

Do you suppose the uber fixation on skinny has to do with the increased obesity now?

I wear a 14 too. I'm 5'3" and 135lbs. I guess by the 'average American woman' standards, I'm skinny.

W-a-a-ayyy back yonder, I went from little girl clothes to Junior 11. I was 5'5 then and weighed about 95lbs. Very long waisted (one extra vertebra) and broad shoulders.

Them days be gone forever. Skirts and slacks were sized by the waist measurement. 20, 22, 24, etc.

It depends on whether I'm buying for the upper half, or the lower what size I wear. But if I pull a dress off the rack, I split the difference and get a fourteen too. I also went directly from children's clothing to a junior eleven. LOL. I have football shoulders too, and I still buy my jeans by the waist size because I buy men's Carhardts from the feed mill.

I buy men's jeans, they are more of a comfortable fit. Other than that, I know there are two sizes for me: "it fits" or "it doesn't fit".
My favorite boutique of pre-owned garments really proves the fact that the more expensive brands size garments different than the off the shelf clothing.
And then there is "one size fits all" stuff, which turns out to be "one size fits no one". Jeans, t-shirts, sweat-shirts and fleece pants are my everyday wear, very easy and comfortable. It's great to be living in the country.

Shopping is difficult. I can wear sizes from 10 to 14 depending on how it is cut and I am what calliope's google search considers average. 5'3 160lbs built like a brick #$%thouse as my grandpa would say. I used to wear medium sized tops, but my job gave me shoulders like a linebacker and now only large works for me. I buy mens jeans at the resale shop for work, the seams are stronger.

I have found the motherlode of women's heavy-duty work pants at Goodwill--I've never had such a great array of stuff to work in! $3.50 a pair!!!!!
I'll usually get men's light to med-weight denim workshirts and Henley's at WM for
$3 to $5 on sale---they are PERFECT!

When I shop at Martin's for groceries, I bump into all the professionals and Hoity-Toities from Wintergreen. I've practically given up smiling or nodding--they must think I'm homeless...and smiling back is off the radar for most of them. GUFFAW! (I never realized how much I had to yet learn when I was THEIR age! They'll have their turn at the Blackboard of Life, also.)

I have a a lovely Granddaughter by marriage. She is quite small and one day I simply asked her what size she wore, I suggested a size 2. She said "Oh, Grandma, usually I wear and size one or zero"! She is a special person and has given us two lovely Granddaughters! I was really worried about her being so tiny, if she got pregnan, how could she carrying a baby to full term ? She did with no problems. I think a size 0 fit me the day I was born !

Have been losing a bit so my jeans needed another hole in the belt to hold them up. Found some great overalls at the local Napa auto parts store with Levi metal buttons and railroad gray stripes, only $17.00, I am stylin.