Counting clothes sizes....

SO... I know that it's absolutely arbitrary and meaningless, but I'm still curious: in women's clothing, what counts as a size? I mean, most places only sell even numbered sizes. I've gone from a 16 to a 12. Have I dropped 2 sizes (in between I wore a 14), or have a dropped 4 sizes (16-12=4)? The whole concept of women's clothing sizes is so weird to begin with! How do you guys generally count this stuff? I'm just thinking about it because I bought my first pair of size 12 jeans today since High School (10 years ago!) and I'm just really excited. :)

That's a good question. I guess you would say you dropped 2 sizes, if there aren't any odd numbered sizes in between.

I know it feels good to go to a lower numbered size, but it doesn't matter in the long run, as long as whatever size you wear fits well, looks good, and is comfortable! I believe the clothing industry makes sizes very arbitrary anyway - what used to be a size 12 years ago is now a size 8....I think they bumped up the sizes to fit a larger population.

You know what tickled me when I bought new clothing? The fact that I no longer had to look for shirts that hid my paunchy waist, or pants that had elastic in them. I could actually fit into regular jeans and wear shirts that clung to me! Yay!

Congratulations on the size 12 jeans, by the way! Doesn't it feel great?! 

Yeah, it's not that I have a size goal or anything, but I just found it very strange that I didn't actually know how many sizes I'd gone down. TV ads always say "you'll drop X sizes in Y weeks!" and things like that, you know? The clingy shirt point is kind of huge to me too: I had to resist spending money on a top I didn't totally love today, just because I did love that I looked proportional in it. The best though is that I was shopping with a girlfriend of mine, and I asked her to help me pick a size/cut, since I wasn't sure what was going to fit. The second pair I put on she told me, "oh you should get those! They make your butt look great!" Nothing has made my butt look great in years! It's so awesome feeling something positive about my body!

I'm a little size orrianted.  I've got quite a few UK size 14 clothes that I want to fit into comfortablely again.  At the moment I'm wearing UK size 18.  I was a UK size 14 when I was 18 and it was when I was at my happiest and fittest.  Think I'd be too skinny at a 12.  I have hips and I'm proud of them.

I bought a pair of size 12 jeans on the weekend too. I paid more than I wanted to, but they kinda actually made my butt look good. It's been a long time. I like that I can buy jeans in regular stores instead of plus size stores.

Congrats!

So from what I understand about sizes: Even numbers are ladies's sizes and odd numbers are teen sizes.  With that said, if you drop from a 16 to a 12 you have lost two sizes (the 16 and the 14) because the odd numbers are not counted in your size chart.  If you go over to the adolescent section you will notice everything is a 7/9/11 etc.

Hope that helps!

I was going to mention what kfirth1 said but she got to it first.  I'm 20 and I shop in both sections.  Since I do that, I count that since I have from a 16 to an 8 (or 17 to a 9) I count that as 8 sizes lost.

Besides, it sounds better and makes me feel better about it. :3