General Chat

I think many men fool themselves about their size, especially with low waisted trousers :-D
How many men do you see walking around with relatively 'small' low-waisted trousers, with a humungous belly overhanging the waistband? :-D :-D :-D

I was a 32" waist but have "shot up" to 33 or 34 since retiring and my weight has been 11 stone or 70 kilos for years, giving a BMI of around 23.5.

Used to stay in hotels half the time during the winter months when working and found that hotel food put on nearly half a stone but I lost it again in the summer.

Can't stand trousers as described by Maggie, if they sit lower than my hip bones they feel uncomfortable and I resort to a belt to keep them riding higher.

Rollo, As to your comment about the car. Cars are wider now as they are more stable and therefore safer than the narrow cars from years ago. Which is why Mr Owl and I drive an RX8.

I have real problems getting clothes to fit as at 5’ 2.5” I am at the upper end of the petite range so can find them too short particularly in tops. However the stand range usually ends up being an 1”-2” too long.

The four dresses came - I'd ordered long ones. They were lovely but too long.

Bear in mind I'd ordered them from the same firm. They looked tight so I opened the two size 14 first.- one was trailing along the floor like the train on a bridal dress by a good 15 inches and it was far too tight. The other was too tight but only had about two or three inches lying on the floor. I did not bother opening the 12s.

Now the dress I was wearing today was a M & S 14 and, to me, fitted perfectly with room to swish it about around the body - my daughter and bestie would have got the 12 but I hate tight clothes. So sizing has definitely gone to pot methinks.

Most UK towns have at least one tailor who will do repairs and alterations without it costing an arm and a leg.

There are also plenty of tailors who will take a stock suit / trousers / dress partly made and then fit it to the customer who then gets the benefits of custom made at a significant discount to the whole thing being tailored from the get go. The prices are affordable unless , say, New Look, ASOS or Matalan are your bench mark. M&S for men? Be serious.

If you live in the East Midlands the return of the rag trade has also brought back made to measure everything at a reasonable price. Even shoes.

As to Jermyn Street and Savile Row I have never bought anything there.yet my clothes fit.

Oh so now you buy the clothes elsewhere and THEN go to the tailor and get them to fit....and yet we're all saying if the shops just stuck to a size 12 is a size 12 no matter where you shop theme which usually wouldn't mean they'd need altering.....

My problem is not so much the sizing, but the proportions. Why do manufacturers assume that we all have waists 12" smaller than the bust and hips 2" bigger?

I can buy tops that fit and trousers that fit, but fitted dresses are a non-starter and even pyjamas are a problem.

One of the reasons for different measurements, I think, is that some clothes actually measure what they say, and others are made to "fit" a certain size - how well they fit is a matter of luck!!

Andysmum .............


the waist 12" smaller than the waist was the "rule" back in the 60s, and fitted me perfectly. My bust was also fine for the sizing

Then I came over here, where the "rule" was hips 10" bigger than the waist :-(

Now I've put on weight .......... having a child does make a difference to the bust!! ........ and, like you, I can no longer buy a fitted dress.

that didn't matter so much back in the day when I made my own clothes!

Marilyn Monroe was a size 16 ;-)

Celui qui a des culottes dorées est l’ennemi de tous les sans-culottes. Il n’existe que deux partis, celui des hommes corrompus et celui des hommes vertueux.

Yes, well, means very little in French and even less in translation:

"He who has golden panties is the enemy of all the sans-culottes. There are only two parties, that of corrupt men and that of virtuous men"

I expect a few others on here can speak another language, RTR, but most have the manners not to do so.
But, I suppose if you feel you must try and 'outdo' others, prepare to be suitably ignored.
I mean, is the phrase 'sans-culottes' referring to the font or the article of clothing, ie, someone not wearing culottes?
There's an art to being understandably enigmatic - and you don't appear to have it!

In my heart I will always be a size 10 sniggers :-D :-D

Joy :-D :-D :-D

Mind I can still get into the same size

earrings I wore in my youth lol :-D :-D

:-D :-D

My daughter went through chemo and had steroid injections every two weeks to keep her bloods at the right level so she could have her next chemo

Result she started to put on weight which she hated on top of everything else

The extra weight though meant she was able to have the chemo at a better level as each dose was calculated by her weight

So she got despondent on not being able to fit in her clothes and then trying to shop she had no idea on what sizes she needed
In one shop she was a 16 in another it went nowhere near her and even a 20 was tight . She got quite uptight about it

I said to her don't worry what the label says in size if it fits you and looks good then buy it . Then if the size bothers you cut the label out so you won't know what size each garment is

She found it easier to do this and did try to shop in just one store where she knew she could find things she liked that fitted

Well said Shirley I wish your Daughter well xx :-D

Bought a lovely Précis Petite dress today and, like the others I have it fits like a glove - with room for me to tuck in to anything put in front of me. :-D

(And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I buy clothes that are slightly loose on me - I like my food.)

It's too expensive to buy that brand for everyday wear and shopping along the street though - different when I was working and had to be smart.

OH and I are scruffs when we're at home - I am worse than him - but we can turn out decent-looking when the need arises. :-D

scrub up nicely good to know :-D

Do you think the variation in sizes, plus the fact that we change body size ourselves, is the reason shoes are so popular?
I've changed dress sizes over the past 40+ years, but the Doc Marten's I had when I was 20, still fit me :-D