I agree. I think they make the numbers smaller to try to make us feel better about the sizes we are. I haven't lost any weight and fit into a smaller size then I did a few years ago. It makes it really difficult to shop.

Sizes have changed even since the late 90s. I had clothes that ranged from 10-14 (pants) depending on my weight. I am a 14 now (a current 14) and those late 90s 14s are too small. I couldn't even get into the one pair of late 90s 16s...but I can wear a current 14 and almost 12. My mother was tiny, tiny back in the 50s (less than 100 pounds) and wore a 6 or 8, she would be a 0-2 now.

I call it "ego sizing". 000 will be next.

You aren't kidding! I lost 20# last year. Size 26 pant/shorts were falling off, so I went to buy new. Size 24 wouldn't even button, let alone zip, in the same brand as I was falling out of. Same with shirts. The 3X I had were too big, but a size 2X (or like I had bought for souviniers, a 1X) wouldn't begin to fit. I think they just keep making the clothes smaller and leaving the sizing the same. That stinks. We work to loose weight to be healthy, and they just undermine it all, by making the clothes smaller, so you have to buy BIGGER sizes! GggRRRR$RR!

Tami

I agree, kfca. I'm bigger, but the size I take is smaller. They're making clothes much larger now (or making them the same size but calling them a smaller size).

I have noticed the changes too. I have one of my Mom's skirt/top sets from the 60's that is supposedly a size 12. Well, no way in heck could I fit into it and I am a size 10. I collect vintage dresses because I love them and the only ones I can fit into are large or x-large which is size 10-12 today. Either we are way bigger now than they were than or they were really small. And I'm not talking about the extremes of obesity we see today, I'm talking about "regular sized" people.

Maybe the dress was from Chicos. At Chicos, I can fit into a size 0 or 1. They have their own sizing system. I call it my feel good store. :-)

(in the real world, I'm an 8 or 10)

Jodi-

this spring I was attending a tea party and we were asked to wear a "retro" dress. When I went to a nostalgia store to try on, I naturally grabbed a 10....not a chance! I would say it was more like a 4 today. I would have guessed the dress to be from the 60's.

(I like Chico's sizes...I am 1 there!)

" 000 will be next"

They are already sizing dresses in the "aughts". I think it is Banana Republic that has size 0 and size 00. Maybe in the future all dress sizes will just be a bunch of zeros. We can idicaate out size by how many zeros the dress size is such as "I'm a six (000000)".

"There used to be a small California dress chain called only "5-7-9"."

I remember them at the malls. They were in Wisconsin too. When they went out of business they had a huge closing sale. I went in and bought some things and one of the workers just handed me some of the other items I looked at and said "Take them. It's the last day and the last half hour of the GOOB sale and the stuff is just going to the trash." Kewl.

The more you spend, the smaller size you are. LOL

I wear a 10 - 12. Mom took me to some fancy schmancy shop in Palm Beach and I was a size 2!!

I told her if she'd buy me just one outfit, I'd wear it inside out (size tag showing) for the rest of my life.

As a teenager, I sewed almost all of my clothes. I was a size 10-12 then. Today I'm a size 6 even though I'm about 10 lbs heavier!

Another thing that brought this home to me rather strongly:

Several years ago, I was watching an old black & white film on TCM from, I guess, the mid-40ties, the name of which I don't recall, starring Ann Sheridan, one of the premier movie glamour girls of that era.

In the movie, Ann was trying to evade a man who was following her, so she ducked into a woman's dress shop & headed for a fitting room, saying over her shoulder to the shoplady "Give me a size 14".

What self-respecting Hollywood glamour girl of today would agree to say such a thing in her movie I ask you?

Even way back when I was a teen, we knew that the pricey clothes came marked with smaller sizes.

Now I don't know what size I wear in anything. That is because they don't make any thing I like any more! :(

Sue

Must have been a really expensive wedding dress. 115 and 5'3'' sounds like a 6 in today's sizes to me.
But is is so darn difficult to buy clothes without trying them on. I recently ordered two pair of the same style and brand slacks in the same size (different colors). One pair fit and one was too small. I was so peeved I just returned them both.

My mother made my wedding dress by a size 10 pattern.It was princess style and had to be take up.I was 5'7" and weighed 105.That was 1960.My DGD wears a size 2 and can't even zip my wedding dress.So I guess I was a -1 back then??? Sounds good anyway!!! LOL

I was quite tiny in the sixties. I used to shop at the 5-7-9 shop and be in tears because pants would still be too baggy on me. I wore 3's in pants because they were the smallest size available. I would take some of them in or buy them at Frederick's of Hollywood where they ran small. My wedding dress was a 3 that had to be taken in.

Today I look at clothes on the racks and marvel at how many teeny tiny things are available. I have noticed that teens that are small today still seem to have bellies. I was tiny but had a firm athletic build. I still had curves but an utterly flat belly. Never had a small waist but had good hips that made it look like I did.

My granddaughter wears a size 00. In the 60's and 70's I weighed 105 and wore a 7 junior. Now I weigh 111 and wear a 4.

All that I know about ladies dresses ... one could stick in one's eye.

But I'm wondering ...

... would someone using the letters "kfc..." in one's username ...

... be a frequenter of KFC?

Didn't hear any reference to current dress size ... did anyone else?

Perhaps I missed something ... in a lady's dress?

Sometimes the way that they are filled can be something of a delight to one's eye (even if it is old - and doesn't see as well as it used to).

ole joyful

Wedding dresses notoriously run 1-2 sizes smaller then what you would normally wear. There was some explanation about the numbers being based on old European sizes??? That's a ego boost to work hard to lose weight and still have to order a dress that "sounds" larger b/c of the number.

When I try on clothes, I normally get 2 sizes because it's a crap shoot of what fits and what doesn't. That's why I don't clothes shop online. I find the same thing with my DD (5yrs old) She has some tops that are 4T and some that are 7/8?? Weird!

You think clothes are bad! I went bra shopping a few weeks ago - first time in about 4 years - since I buy quantity when I buy them. I've shrunk in that garment as well...not my body, just the size. I told the saleslady that in 4 more years, they'll find me in the children's department when I next buy bras!

For the past 30 yrs., I've weighed 120-125 lbs. I have 2 pair of jeans and several pairs of shorts from about 20 yrs. ago. Then I was a size 8. Now I'm a size 4. (And 4's are hard to find!)