Vanity Sizing

From the youlookfab blog, I found this series of articles, written by a pattern maker, about what's going on with the change in women's clothing sizes over time - such that what used to be a size 12 is now a size 6 and so forth. Reading information from someone who actually works in the industry and has some facts about what the situation really is, rather than the rants of unhappy small women, was refreshingly educational. I recommend the entire set of posts. Whether the author is correct in saying that vanity sizing is only a myth (I don't believe she can be trusted to speak for every pattern maker or every clothier on the planet - Chico's sizing alone stands as some kind of counter-argument), she certainly makes clear that there is a lot of complexity (technologically, economically, etc.) to the issue that people are generally completely unaware of when trying to make sense of it, and she apportions out blame/responsibility for bad clothing fit to a wide variety of involved parties.

One thing I see over and over again in these kinds of discussions is smaller women blaming "vanity sizing" for the problems they have getting clothes that fit. "I used to be able to fit a size 4, but now the size 0 hangs on me - damn that vanity sizing!" they say. I just want to ask these women, Have you looked around lately? You are having trouble finding clothes because your skinniness makes you more of an outlier than ever. It's not that I don't sympathize with anyone, small, large, or just oddly-shaped, who has difficulty getting a good fit in clothes, and kvetching about it is surely within everybody's rights, but it seems absolutely insane to me that they blame vanity sizing rather than the obvious changes in body shape and size amongst the population. If vanity sizing were outlawed with 100% successful enforcement, it wouldn't make clothes fit them any better. Those stores would just not offer anything below a size 6 or whatever is the cut-off point for that company's profitability. It's the actual size of the clothing, not the number on the label, that's the issue.

People are getting bigger (esp. with the growth, ahem, of the Hispanic population in this country - of course, race/ethnicity is something people don't want to talk about in this context) so the clothes are getting bigger too. It's not particularly difficult to grasp this, I wouldn't think. It certainly sucks for the tinier women among us, but there isn't some kind of mystery or conspiracy behind it, and it frankly just comes across really shitty when fortunate small-boned, slender women make it sound like it's the fault of those big fatties who need to be pandered to that they cannot get clothes that fit. (And I really do mean that these women are fortunate; people like me, who have a large frame, start looking gaunt and actually pretty awful when we get below a size 6. It's not just a matter of diet and exercise; you have to have won the genetic lottery to be an attractive size 2.)

Note: I am at least as irritated by the self-righteous large women who like to quote that Marilyn Monroe was a size 12 (which is not the modern size 12), as though that justifies their own size and means that the world at large is somehow duty-bound to find their bodies attractive. We can call her a size 372 for all I care, but she was hot and these complainers are generally not; no amount of quibbling over the numbers is going to change that either.

Several commenters on the youlookfab blog appeared to be saying they disliked "vanity sizing" because if women knew they were "really" a size 14, they would think twice before eating another doughnut - as if overweight women aren't aware of their size all the time. To say nothing of the ludicrousness of clothiers making items available that will cause their would-be customers break down crying in the dressing room instead of buying something. Lane Bryant clearly needs to replace their current branding with big signs that say "You too fat to buy new clothes, pig-woman!" That'll teach 'em. Because we all know that low self-esteem is so effective at making women lose weight, even if we were to grant (which we are not!) that encouraging weight loss is something the clothing industry needs to promote more than it already does.

This comment sums up another argument I see a lot and that blows my mind every time: "the discrepancies in sizes between various brands and retailers makes it much more difficult to successfully shop online. it would be nice to have across-the-board standards dictated by a higher authority…kinda like the FDA but for fashion (although the FDA ain’t all that effective either…)" Leaving aside (1) that there is a reasonable argument that the major problem with the FDA is that they are so afraid of bad publicity that they would rather let hundreds of nameless people die from withheld treatment rather than have one person die such that the public could believe it was from some treatment the FDA approved and (2) the idiosyncratic emphasis on online shopping convenience as a primary driver in the desire to get something done about sizes, there is this assumption in these kinds of calls for government action that the standardized fit that the government would be enforcing would somehow magically match that of the individual calling for the standards. How do these people not see that by allowing different manufacturers to target different market segments, there is much more diversity in sizing and hence it's possible for most people to find clothes that at least fit okay? I would shudder to imagine, say, Jen and Tam being forced to buy clothing made according to one set of sizing standards, since they do not have the exact same body scaled up. And my mom and I have many times been hugely amused when trying on pants together at a second-hand store - she will put some on that are so huge in the butt/thighs that surely they must fit even me, but, heh, no way, even though we both end up buying the same size of different manufacturers/styles.

Knowing how to sew hems, take in side seams, and insert simple darts are useful skills that I'm very glad I have.