Why is (US) size 10 Medium??

I am weirdo when it comes to size, i am clearly chubby..and I think just Heavy, BUT I can wear a 12 comfortably to the point of pretty loose, but 10s aren't comfy enough for me yet..and drum roll please i weight 184 lbs and i'm 5'5". and as a point of reference, i wear my pants loose enough by the end of the day I can usually pull them down without unbuttoning them, so this isn't like I squeezed into them. but it also matters where you shop. most of my pants are from GAP and old navy. I have a pair of Levis that are a 20 that just got too big..

I'm 5'4, 168 lbs and I wear a size 10 but can still fit into size 8 in some brands. When I was 130lbs, I was a solid 8. It all depends on how you're built.

frankiesgirlie wrote: »

Size on a tag means absolutely nothing.
Women, especially American woman, need to put far less emphasis on size tags.

The armhole seams on my shoulder bones only fit a 12 minimum, and that's before we get to my big ribs and some inches of boobage

I wear smaller on the bottom, but it's still an 8-10 (except for vanity sizing nowadays).

What is really freaky is that when my BMI was 13.9 (illness, not anorexia), I still wore mostly a 90's 6. That's with so little butt and so much muscle wasting that I'd never want my body to be there again!

On a different body, a 6 is lovely, of course I just have a wide hourglass frame, like a mini Amazon

PeachyCarol wrote: »

flaminica wrote: »

PeachyCarol wrote: »

You're only an inch shorter than me. I've shrunk. I'm only 5'1". I wear a small or a medium with better brands being a medium. That's interesting about clothes for Canada.

An interesting insight into TRULY vintage sizing: Back in the '80's, my Nan gave me a size 12 dress from the '50's. I was a size 12 at the time. That sucker was TIGHT up top.

It's so true about body composition. I cannot underscore enough to people how much difference height makes. Have you tried browsing the kid's sections yet? There's some great deals there for petite basics.

I think I'm too curvy for shopping there. I have a classic hourglass shape and will likely never get something to fit me in the hips if it fits in the waist. I have proportionately large shoulders too.

I'm not very small-framed for being so short.

That's how I feel, but I fit into much smaller sizes than even i'd expect. Certain brands fit the smaller yet curvy better than others - express editor pant and the target denizen, for example.

daniwilford wrote: »

joinn68 wrote: »

I was looking at some clothes size and it occured to me that (US) size 8/10 are medium... If I remember correctly I was always overweight at size 8 and 10.
Was any of you at a "normal" BMI when you fit in those sizes? If not what was the first size you were when you reached normal BMI?

It didn't used to be. In my younger years 10's were much smaller than they are now. If you wear a size 10 today, 40 years ago you would have been a 14. There is a ton of vanity sizing that goes on in US women's clothing marketing. So much so, that you really can't know what size you wear from brand to brand. When it comes to small, medium, large, etc. it varies even more.

It is true that most American sizes are running much larger than they used to. Back in college in the late 1980s I was 5'2" and 110 pounds and wore size 5/6 jeans from Gap. Twenty years later, at the same height and weight I wore a 0. I don't even remember size 0 existing back when I was in high school.

dubird wrote: »

Last time I fit an 8-10 was early high school. I had to go to an 11-12 in about 11th grade, not because of weight, but because I have really wide hip bones. >< Right now I just hit under the top end of normal BMI for me and I'm wearing a 12 because I can't find an 11 women's in pants anymore.

US sizing is weird and not really standardized, so what's a 10 in one brand might be an 8 in another.

Even sizes are normally adult, odd tends to be teen/tween sizing. There's a size 14(junior, miss, girls) which is more like a size 8 women's. Clothing industry is crazy.

I'm 5'7 and 161 or so... a smidge above normal BMI and I'm in a size 6 (or S)...It is SO hard to find clothes!

I cannot starve myself below a size 12. It just cannot be done, due to my bone structure (tall, Viking heritage, what can I say?). I know because when I was 19 I tried to do just that... I got to the point that you could count my ribs & vertebrae, and my stomach caved in between my hipbones, and my thighs were concave. At that time I could barely squeeze into a size 12 on bottom, and there was apparently no getting rid of my breasts, which were a 36 F.

daniwilford wrote: »

joinn68 wrote: »

I was looking at some clothes size and it occured to me that (US) size 8/10 are medium... If I remember correctly I was always overweight at size 8 and 10.
Was any of you at a "normal" BMI when you fit in those sizes? If not what was the first size you were when you reached normal BMI?

It didn't used to be. In my younger years 10's were much smaller than they are now. If you wear a size 10 today, 40 years ago you would have been a 14. There is a ton of vanity sizing that goes on in US women's clothing marketing. So much so, that you really can't know what size you wear from brand to brand. When it comes to small, medium, large, etc. it varies even more.

It's not an entirely apples to apples comparison. The body shapes of women have changed in that 40 years as well. We're taller now, less curvy (and by curvy, I mean the old ideal of an hourglass with a tiny waist), our waists are broader, hips may be a little broader. Basically, more women 40 years ago were the standard hourglass with tiny waists and bigger hips. Now, women are much more athletically built with less distinction between the waist and the hips. So yes, there is vanity sizing, and yes, people are more overweight now, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

What I can say is that the clothes I wore in highschool that I still have, are sized pretty comparably to the clothes now - when you consider that they're junior sizes. I have a dress that's a junior 13 from 1992...fits very similar to how a junior 13 would fit me now too.