this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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I’ve found the opposite. I have older pairs of jeans that are a smaller waist size that still fit and newer jeans that don’t. Shirts, too. I’ve been “L” for decades, now it’s “XL” or the sleeves and shirt are too short.
IMO manufacturers used to pre-wash/pre-shrink their fabrics more regularly. Now they don’t. They can make more clothing by the yard with non-shrunk fabric. So as soon as that ”L” shirt hits dryer it shrinks. The XL shrinks to L. I verified this by placing two shirts, pre- and post-wash, and the size difference was obvious. Maybe some “vanity” sizing is going on, too, or just being cheap. I haven’t gotten taller, but the L size is too short now.
I've had this issue too. Always wore large, now they're too short. I've had friends take little jabs, cause I'm a little bit heavier than I was, but that hasn't elongated my torso or spine. My middle didn't get longer, and I don't think my shoulders are 3-4" more beefy than they were. Now, I get a Large and it fits like I expect for a wear or two, and then it's immediately a medium. It sucks, cause I don't buy clothes often, so I'll go to a sporting event and get a shirt, buy a L, and then it shrinks to unwearable size.
All true.
That's fair. Especially fast fashion places like H&M. I bought a shirt I really liked there and after the first wash it was exposing my midriff. I do miss the pre washed and pre shrunk era. There's a chance I may have just gotten skinnier as I aged, but I don't objectively have a 32" waist. It measures about 33.75". So I guess the main problem is lack of a standard. [Insert relevant XKCD meme for more standards]
Ironically I bought some Old Navy clothes literally 20+ years ago, size “L”. Old Navy is definitely fast fashion. Just basic T-shirts and a couple pairs of shorts. They see semi-regular wear, still fit and are in good shape, good material, sized correctly. That wouldn’t happen with anything I could buy there today.