Why do dresses run so small!?!

crose29

I just ordered my dress on Saturday, I am a street size 8 - 10 and I had to order a size 16! That is no way to make a bride feel sexy on her wedding! Grrr

opalsky007

That's really odd. Usually brides need to go up 1-2 sizes because street sizes have changed a lot through the years, but that sounds extremely odd. Do you have one measurement that is much bigger than the others? 

crose29

I am a 36 A/B and that put me into a 14, but they fitted me by my waist size which put me into a 16. I am very worried that I am going to have crazy alterations! I was recently in a wedding and they said I should order my bridesmaid dress in a 14 but I ordered it in a 10 and it fit fine. I told this to the consultant and she said that this designer runs smaller so I went with her suggestion.

mgietler76

I agree with Opal, I'm a street size 12-14 and ordered a size 16 wedding dress. Usually they measure you and order according to your largest size (mine being the hips lol) but that seems like quite the leap.

kellya01

With some designers, I was one size... with another (Casablanca), I would be +4 bigger.  It's just an anomaly of each designer.  Don't obsess with the number... a dress that is too small will make you look worse.  Get the one that fits, and if it really bothers you, tuck the number away, or even cut it out (if you don't plan to reuse or resell the dress). 

crose29

I appreciate the comments! Its not totally the number that bothers me, im just scared that if I lose weight (which im planning on) before the wedding, its going to be way too big.

Cynthia1207

If you lose the weight yes you'll have to get it taken in.  However if we are realistic, not everyone actually loses the amount of weight they wanted to so it's better to get something a little bigger and have it taken in than smaller and it not fitting.

alainn15

Street sizes are done in what is called vanity sizes.I think specialty dresses are more true to size. The street sizes we have are slowly getting smaller number since the sixties to make people feel like they are smaller than they are. If I went to the store and tried two pairs of pants, one a size 14 and the other a size 10, I'm buying the 10, it makes me feel better and I'm more likely to buy. If I go to the store and a 14 fits, I'm not buying untill I lose weight. This is done to sell more clothing and vanity sizing really sucks.

This explains it all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_sizing

It's either vanity sizing or the dress shop wants to make you pay for alteration. If you order it to fit, they lose money.

sclams

I think it also varies by designer- when I tried on dresses, most of the store's samples were size 8 or 10, which is what I wear in street sizes. Some of them fit great, others were absolutely miniscule!

crose29

I have also heard that because some of the designers use eauropean sizes they run smaller.